WotC Rumor: OGL will not be supported starting with One D&D

[DEFCON 1]

Cause the rumor is stupid. Morrus went over it all to show why it's stupid. And the more WotC responds to stupid posts, the more people keep expecting them to respond to every stupid thing some stupid blogger or YouTuber says.

You know "Don't feed the trolls"? Well, that goes doubly when it's "Don't feed the stupid trolls".

 

[JEB]

No, I'm saying the discussions to hash out whatever needs to be hashed out may still be ongoing internally, and they may not be prepared for a public statement on the matter yet.

The only reason there'd be internal discussions is if they do plan to change their stance on the OGL and third-party support from the way it's been for most of 5E's run. Or are at least seriously considering the possibility.

If they aren't doing that, a Tweet or two would be all that's needed to dispel the rumors (except among folks who think Wizards is lying, but you can't help them). I mean, they found the time to make a detailed post on D&D canon - something with zero effect on third-party business models - and this would be comparatively simple.

Even if they have zero plans to place restrictions (effective or otherwise) on third party content, they may still need time to explore their options regarding how/if to integrate that into Beyond and their VTT project.

They could keep their existing OGL/SRD stance and still have flexibility on D&D Beyond and VTTs; it's not a factor in those policies at this time. (Closest policy they may have is their special support for a few Critical Role rules options on DDB.)

 

[J.Quondam]

None of that answers the question I asked. What's the downside of them putting out a Tweet or whatever telling folks they have nothing to worry about? How is saying something worse than letting potential misinformation run around?

It might just be beneath their threshold to worry about. I mean, is this thing even really spreading? I just did a few google searches, and aside from a handful of reddit threads, the gamerant article, and this thread, there's not really a whole lot on this. I suspect that, to people like us who obsessively track all things D&D, a couple dozen irate tweets, short videos, and blogposts probably makes it sound like a much bigger thing than it actually is.

If this is on WotC's radar at all, they may feel it will resolve all by itself. Recall the initial "leak" is pretty dodgy: the video cites an unnamed source, then undermine the author's own credibility by mangling the terminology involved and making a bunch of erroneous statements. WotC might just expect this to fix itself as knowledgeable people like Morrus and other publishers correct the record.

 

[J.Quondam]

And just for the record, since I don't think it's been mentioned yet....

WotC's 5e SRD FAQ still indicates the intent to keep the SRD in sync with the latest rules:

Will more content be added to the SRD? The full 5th edition game and its expansions are available for use via the DMs Guild. New material will be added to the SRD if it is necessary to keep this document and its contents updated to the latest D&D rules.​

Interpret that as you will.

 

[Hussar]

So are you saying that they don't want to promise there's no truth to the rumors, because they don't want to lock out the possibility that there might be?

And this, right here is why they won’t engage.

 

[Hussar]

And this, right here is why they won’t engage.

As @JEB mentions, you have people who automatically assume WotC is lying. And then there’s the folks who will automatically presume bad faith and the worst no matter what WotC says.

So there is absolutely no upside to WotC engaging.

 

[J.Quondam]

So there is absolutely no upside to WotC engaging.

Yep. And tbh, it feels like the total number people so far aware of this thing is probably at least a couple orders of magnitude smaller than the number of people who'd be alerted to it if WotC tweeted. Their own comment on it would likely inflame it waaaaaay more than a few random youtubers, forum-goers, and tweeters ever could.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So there is absolutely no upside to WotC engaging.

yup. If they say they are not, and then something changes... boom they lied. If they say they are not and still don't "well they lied but changed it" boom they lied

 

[dave2008]

Yep. And tbh, it feels like the total number people so far aware of this thing is probably at least a couple orders of magnitude smaller than the number of people who'd be alerted to it if WotC tweeted. Their own comment on it would likely inflame it waaaaaay more than a few random youtubers, forum-goers, and tweeters ever could.

That is a really good point. If WotC does react, no matter what they say, the rumor is likely to gain more traction than it has now.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And this, right here is why they won’t engage.

I'm just asking for clarification.