Game makers stage mass exodus from Dungeons & Dragons’ “open” license

Amid controversy over WotC's planned OGL changes, publishers are starting to abandon the rules that have underpinned the tabletop community.

On Friday, following days of uproar in the tabletop gaming community, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC) attempted to walk back the most controversial changes in a leaked draft update of its decades-old Open Gaming License (OGL). That effort might end up being too little too late, though.

Many prominent third-party RPG publishers now say they're abandoning the OGL, regardless of what changes WotC officially releases in a coming new version. What's more, many in the community have now lost faith in WotC's stewardship of the licensed rules system that has underpinned so much of the industry's last two decades.

Introducing the ORC

Pathfinder publisher Paizo Inc. is behind perhaps the biggest effort to move the industry away from WotC's OGL. The company announced last Thursday that it is creating a new Open RPG Creative License (ORC) designed to be "open, perpetual, and irrevocable."

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