Well, the has been released.

And it is the 1.1a OGL from 2000!

They have a second arrangement in place for folks wanting to publish in established and official D&D settings - .

If the DM Guild is used then WotC takes a piece, as does One Bookshelf/RPGNow/DriveThru - leaving the publisher with 50%.

No word on Eberron yet, only the Forgotten (Forgettable?) Realms.

The Auld Grump - I would be more interested in Eberron, but you may have picked up on that already....

That's... really awesome, and definitely a step beyond anything I was expecting. Let's hope we see some fun and creative stuff put out by the 3pp for it.

Interesting and great news!!!

Two things pop out at me for now (before I read through the SRD and the programs). Again, I need to read through everything and perhaps the below will be answered, but these are just my initial curiosities:

1) "I want to publish my original campaign world using fifth edition rules"

Marked under OGL and not DM's Guild (DMG), so this says to me all original material can ONLY be under the OGL and never under the DMG. Is there room in the DMG for generic content or does it need to be related to an official setting?

2) "I want to print and sell my fifth edition D&D product on my own"

I am looking at this VERY literally, but does this include selling digitally?

Mind you, WotC loses a few points with me for holding off until several publishers started producing 5e material, license or no license.

One of the lessons that WotC learned during 4e - a license does not do what they thought that it did, not having a license meant not having control, not that people would not produce compatible material.

The OGL gives certain priveleges (the ability to use passages from the primary source in 3rd party derivative material) at certain costs (once you create OGL material, other people can use it as well).

Ditto for the D20 STL, which gave a form of trade dress that could be used to denote compatibility, in return for following certain strictures.

The GSL was a one sided license, having the signees give up rights, while gaining nothing in return - so, when Jolly Blackburn challenged it as non binding... WotC let the matter go. (The last time that they tangled with Jolly was not a happy thing for them. Blackburn's day job is IP lawyer.)

The Auld Grump

One important point to make. OGL lets you use the base system but not much of the IP. There seems to be enough in the SRD to use the classes and core parts of the system without giving away everything in the books. So I can create new options but not republish all their content.

You have to use DM Guild if you want to publish things using their IP that is not in the SRD. That includes the art they are licensing for use.

So you want to publish a bunch of new backgrounds for your home brew or your own module set in Homebrew land.. That's OGL.


You want to publish an alternate background for Dale Dwellers in the Forgotten Realms or create an story/adventure titled "Die Elminster, Die" and use their art? That's DM Guild stuff through One Bookshelf.

As for the FR only restriction, I believe the statement was made that this will expand as they release new products in other worlds. Honestly seems like a reasonable restriction. They after all own the sandbox. They should get first rights to play in it before turning it over to others to destroy it.

And, really, I think the DM Guild is really the big coup of the new agreement. Yes, it's more heavily monetized towards WoTC - but they actually have a structure set up to play in and release material for their worlds. That's pretty unprecedented in the realm of D&D, and I'm not sure many other companies have anything similar to it. It will be nice to see it expand in the future, and I'm overall looking forward to seeing what other companies can do with the system.

I pretty much agree, I am just grumpy because Eberron was immediately opened up.

The Auld Grump