So Wizards of the Coast have posted an update on their OGL plans.
While putting core mechanics in the Creative Commons may seem like a gift to the community, the reality is it’s probably stuff that they couldn’t restrict others from using anyway.
More significant is their continued plan to deauthorize 1.0a, so that all future publications will have to use OGL 1.2. Is that so bad? See for yourself.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1432-starting-the-ogl-playtest
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that the current owners of the Dungeons & Dragons RPG, Wizards of the Coast, are busy tickling the dragon’s tail. It’s even hit mainstream media.
Firstly they indicated to shareholders that the brand is “under-monetized” whilst being one of the largest, if not the largest, source of revenue for their corporate overlords Hasbro.
Then came an announcement heralding a bespoke virtual table top for playing D&D in a “walled garden” which would facilitate the kinds of micro-transactions that have made certain videogames extremely lucrative.
A subsequent leak of a proposed draconian revision of the Open Gaming Licence – a licence which has allowed 3rd party publishers to produce D&D compatible work that includes open gaming content for over 20 years – claimed that:
“You agree to give Us a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to use that content for any purpose.”
OGL 1.1 leak on Pastebin or in PDF on battlezoo.com
This, amongst many other restrictive and punitive additions to the Open Gaming Licence has made many in the RPG community anxious and annoyed. The question is, can Wizards of the Coast revoke OGL 1.0a, that has widely been perceived as irrevocable since its inception, and force creators to accept a worse deal? Ryan Dancey, one of the architect of the OGL, certainly seems to think not.
I’m no lawyer but here’s my thoughts on the OGL issue:
“Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License.”
OGL 1.0a at opengamingfoundation.org
OGL 1.0a was authorized (that is, not a draft). So even if the OGL is updated you can use previous versions of the OGL, including OGL 1.0a. Ok fine.
“VIII. TERMINATION. This agreement may be modified or terminated.
OGL 1.1 leak on Pastebin or in PDF on battlezoo.com
A. Modification: This agreement is, along with the OGL: Commercial, an update to the previously available OGL 1.0(a), which is no longer an authorized license agreement. We can modify or terminate this agreement for any reason whatsoever, provided We give thirty days’ notice.”
“Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected.”
An Update on the Open Game License (OGL) on the D&D Beyond website
A license is either authorized or not. If content can exist under OGL 1.0a, then the sub-text is that OGL 1.0a is in fact authorized, despite their claims to the contrary. And given the amount of corporate doublespeak on display in the full D&D Beyond statement, you shouldn’t trust them to be 100% honest about this. They’re in it for the money. Oh and to eliminate the competition.
According to Wizard’s statement on the D&D Beyond website one of their core principles is:
“to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose”
An Update on the Open Game License (OGL) on the D&D Beyond website
All except one major corporation of course.
They are trying to strong-arm people to change licenses, from an open, irrevocable one to a restrictive, revocable and onerous one. Why would anyone agree to have less rights? I wouldn’t.
I was reading OSR Grimoire’s recent illuminating post, Cook/Marsh Expert: The Adventure, when I was reminded that there was a post about castles in OD&D languishing in my drafts folder. So without further ado . . .
In order to keep my brain ticking over, I thought I’d have a go at automating the castle occupant generation rules found in the original version of Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D). I’ve been finding it relatively easy to get the type of results that I’m after using Hex Describe, so I used it again for this project.
Castles are a bit of a big deal in OD&D and rightly so. They dominate the surrounding lands for 20 miles (4 hexs) in all directions and levy taxes on the villages within their barony. Adventuring parties that pass nearby will be intercepted by representatives of the castle in the following situations:
If so, they could be challenged, taxed or even magically compelled to complete a quest or die! If the party tries to avoid the interception, they may be pursued (if hostile: 3 in 6 chance; if neutral: 1 in 6). It’s likely that adventuring parties will eventually feel the influence of castle occupants in one way or another. The owners fall in to six categories and they can be quite interesting characters. Here’s an example of each:
NB For those of you who might not be familiar with some of OD&D’s nomenclature, Patriarchs are level 8 Clerics, and the following are levels of Fighting-Men: Hero (4), Swashbuckler (5), Myrmidon (6), Champion (7), Superhero (8), Lord (9).
I hope you’d agree that such owners would have quite a bearing on the surrounding lands and therefore on any characters that journeyed within their realms.
It’s interesting to note that the castle occupancy rules in D&D B/X Expert Rules are a pale imitation of those in OD&D and only make a passing reference to the flavour that the earlier ruleset effused.
Note that the men listed [a patrol of 12 at most] are only part of the castle owner’s forces. The rest of the force should include men and might even include special creatures such as trolls, or combinations such as superheroes mounted on griffons.
D&D B/X Expert Rules (X59)
Believe it or not, the Rules Cyclopedia is actually slightly blander in this regard.
Note that the men listed [once more a patrol of 12 at most] are only part of the castle owner’s forces and are simply the unit sent out after annoying travelers; the rest of the castle’s forces should include other men and might even include special monsters.
D&D Rules Cyclopedia (p95)
However to its credit, the Rules Cyclopedia does at least feature demihumans as possible castle owners on the Castle Encounter table (p98). But it’s still found incredibly wanting on the topic of castle occupants.
In conclusion, I would recommend reading OD&D, even if you don’t intend to play it. You might be surprised what you find!
I would be remiss for not mentioning Wayne Rossi’s excellent The Original D&D Setting for drawing my attention towards OD&D‘s implicit procedural setting. Go read that too!
FYI Full Metal Plate Mail by Leonaru is a well-presented retroclone of OD&D. If you’re interested in retroclones of this era of D&D its definitely worth a look.
Centaurs are pretty wild.
On the subject of centaurs, the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons says “Centaurs will be found in hidden glens. It is there that both their females and young are and where their treasure is hidden.”
OD&D also states “At worst these creatures are semi-intelligent“. B/X is pretty much in agreement and says they are “somewhat intelligent“. In both cases they seem closer to animal than man.
I realise that in a FRPG not everything has to follow the rules of nature or indeed make sense. But personally I just can’t get my head round the fact that they might reproduce, or indeed how. I’m more likely to have them be magical or divine creatures. Created as arboreal protectors by the Lord of the Forest or possibly chaotic liminal beings formed at the meeting of our world and the mystical.
Anyway… Centaurs. How do you do yours?
Picked up these tasty TSR treats from DriveThruRPG for much cheapness recently. They were so cheap in fact, that I didn’t have to think twice. INSTA-BUY! And they only took a week to arrive from ordering… and that’s with 2nd class mail! That’s quite a service, considering they’re print-on-demand.
I’ve always had a fascination with Hommlet as it was the first module that I played back-in-the-day. Even after all these years, I can still remember the wondrous feeling I had exploring this ‘other world’. So it’s cool to finally get a hard copy without handing over out a small fortune. Hopefully there’s still some magic in there somewhere.
I’d never seen a Fiend Folio in the wild until last year, and I was surprised at how fantastic the interior art was. It’s got to be the best looking old-school monster manual. I knew I’d have to get my hands on my very own before too long. I’m going to enjoy perusing this tome of terror!
I’d heard talk that the Palace of the Silver Princess wasn’t the best of modules… but this article suggests that its reworked published version may have been built on the foundations of an old-school gem, albiet with some flaws. But a gem nonetheless.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/43430/roleplaying-games/the-day-the-old-school-died
As well as getting my wargames table up and running, I’d like to play a lot more RPGs in 2016. 12 RPGs in 12 months. Or at least 12 different settings.
Here’s a selection of RPGs from my library that I’d like to give an airing. It’s been a wee while since I rolled dem bones!
Taskboy Games have released a guide on How to Hexcrawl compiled from the original sources. Ideal for trying out a mode of old school play!
I knew there were a lot of D&D Retroclones but when I clicked this link, I couldn’t believe my eyes!
An article in a Scottish newspaper about D&Ders…
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/440228/not-devil-worshippers/