The original Star Frontiers is not and never was based on Dungeon & Dragons in any way. It didn’t use the same system; it didn’t use the same character development or characteristics; it wasn’t even provided with a conversion table like Boot Hill or Gamma World was. The Star Frontiers: New Genesis game was not published under the Wizards of the Coast OGL 1.0 or 1.0a and the WotC challenge of it was based upon trademark infringement of using the TSR logo and theft of intellectual property of that that game completely independent of Dungeons & Dragons or any licensed products of WotC.
I laughed when I read WotC was motivated, in part at least, to change the OGL in order to protect people and foster an inclusive environment. I wouldn’t doubt if someone produced something offensive under the OGL, but has this been a problem? There was the Book of Erotic Fantasy from 2006, but that seemed more embarrassing than anything else. It’s such a transparent attempt to pander to their audience I’m embarrassed for them.
My friends in the industry, who have been highly critical of WOTC during this whole debacle, seem surprised by today’s announcement. Their reading of it is that WOTC is actually making some meaningful movement in the right direction, saying things like “Way better than I was expecting” and “releasing the math skeleton as Creative Commons is a huge step” and “not what I’d hoped, but not as absolutely shitty.” I’m mostly following along, and taking what they say under advisement.
I think there are some competing factions over at WOTC/Hasbro. There are the corporate types who have never picked up a four-sider and who only want monetization, sure; but there are also the gamer types who thought they’d landed their dream job and genuinely care about the game. The hot mess of the first release seemed 90% the first group and 10% the second. It seems to me that the first group was caught flatfooted by the fan response to what they thought was insider baseball, and it’s giving the second group a little more room to be heard.
And I absolutely believe that the second group wants to keep racist assholes from using the OGL, whether or not that’s a legitimate fear.
I don’t get why anyone would believe the claim they were trying to stop bigots from using the OGL. If that were the goal, then that’s what they would have focused on. Heck, it wouldn’t be hard to just create a code of conduct for the new OGL–there are other mostly open licenses that have a “Don’t be evil” clause, after all.
I am glad you find blatant racism hilarious. Whether or not that game use whatever system is besides the point. It is a RPG, it is based upon an old TSR product, and it is blatantly racist. Without the new OLG, they could write a FRPG of the “heroic KKK vs the carpetbaggers and the Negroes” based upon the OGL and there is nothing WotC could do about it.
Has anybody done anything like that since the OGL was introduced 23 years ago?
Nothing. But that doesn’t mean the purpose of the OGL change was to fight racism. It’s pretty clear WotC was attempting to do their best to shut down competition and make sure you had to go through them for all your D&D needs. It’s part of their plan, or was part of their plan, to monetize D&D.
I don’t “find blatant racism hilarious” but I do find a company trying to use a supposed claim of fighting bigotry to justify a specious attempt to shut down all of the ‘competition’ which has buoyed their success to date by engendering popular enthusiasm—including many creators who have pushed for actual diversity and inclusion as their genuine motivation rather than just corporate babble—to be amusingly hypocritical and obtuse enough to think that the vast majority of potential customers wouldn’t see right through it as a transparent sham.
Thus far, I’m not aware that anyone has written a setting of “‘heroic KKK vs the carpetbaggers and the Negroes’ based upon the OGL”, and even if someone did there is practically little Wizards of the Coast could do about it beyond filing an injunction against claiming that the offending publications are compatible with the respective D&D editions covered by OGLs. The only real purpose of the OGL at all is to promote the D&D ‘brand’ by assuring content creators that they will not be in legal jeopardy, and WotC tried to throw that philosophy out the window because some circle jerk of MBAs thought they could lock the RPG community into their propriety platform to better ‘monetize’ the customers which had fuck all to do with preventing racism or bigotry. And again, Star Frontiers is not a D&D-derived game, is not in any way covered by any version of the WotC Open Gaming License, and its exclusive association with D&D is that it was also produced by TSR which sold the trademarks and intellectual property rights to WotC which can pursue injunction and claims of financial or reputational damage on that basis alone.
That’s better than I would’ve expected, honestly. I’d be interested in further updates from your friends as this progresses.
It’s funny. In the back of my head, I’ve always thought of WotC as “those MtG bastards who bought out TSR.” Not so much anymore. I’m deeply disappointed in the way this has played out, but they’ve has earned a lot of cred with me in the last few years for their push towards explicit inclusiveness even at the cost of alienating a portion of their long-time players.
I know a lot of people instinctively cheer when large corporations stab themselves in the eye like Hasbro is doing, but I really want WotC to recover from this. It’s salad days for TTRPGs right now, but it’s the well-funded corporations that are able to keep developing and printing content when interest levels are low. Without WotC and the OGL supporting indie game development in the decades before our current renaissance, who knows what the gaming landscape would look like today?
Another factor you have to consider is that protesters against the original OGL got #BoycottDNDMovie trending online. I’m sure that Paramount Pictures noticed, and were very much not happy about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t some terse calls from the studio to WoTC instructing them to do whatever it takes to end the bad buzz about their $100 million potential franchise starter, or else.
That’s a really interesting factor I hadn’t considered. Basically, I think even the bean counters have a more complicated role in this than just naked cash-grabbing, and I don’t think they’re a unified faction.
Nor are the third-party folks. This morning I saw other industry friends post about it, and they were much more cynical than the folks I saw posting about it yesterday.
The first release, earlier this month, shattered much of WOTC’s goodwill, and I’m curious if they’ll manage to regain any.
The ‘cred’ you offer Wizards of the Coast for their supposed “push towards explicit inclusiveness” should really be due to third party creators which demonstrated that there was a market beyond why guys stabbing kobolds in the basement. WotC as a company ‘cared’ about inclusion when they saw there was actual market in it. Which…is fine until they start using their might to squash other creators working in that space after previously having offered a ‘perpetual license’ to foster this development at no cost to WotC. And it wasn’t the “well-funded corporation…developing and printing content when interest levels are low” that has fostered expansion or wider interest in TTRPG as a hobby that is available to more than just misogynistic nerds.
This is all definitionally a ‘First World problem’ in the context of the problems of the world but insofar as inclusiveness and diversity in TTRPGs has provided people with an outlet for creative expression, socialization, and exploration of beliefs and mores, Wizards of the Coast has been a follower rather than a leader, and this recent attempt to ‘monetize’ their customer base by forcing them to use a proprietary, pay-me-for-everything platform that essentially excludes or takes ownership of content by third party creators has essentially undermined any stance as a benevolent dictator overseeing the TTRPG industry. The recent backpedal—no doubt driven not only by fan backlash but impacts upon their other licensed media properties which don’t want to be impacted by an ill-advised scheme to monopolize users and force them to pay endless subscription services for products of questionable essentiality—is transparent damage control rather than a genuine response to concerns by independent content creators of how this change is undermining their livelihoods. And the pandering, “We’re just doing this to beat down the trolls!” rationale is absurd on its face, both because they can’t actually prevent people from producing adverse content that is D&D-like without requiring any gaming license, and they could best respond to such a challenge by just emphasizing that the content they produce and support doesn’t contain such bigotry.
I don’t need to read it, I just need to pay attention to the reporting around the story, which have been super clear that this lawsuit was over IP ownership, and had nothing to do with the OGL.
The point is, it doesn’t matter whether or not the Star Frontiers: New Genesis game comes under the OGL or not. It is a blatantly racist RPG. Thus, under the old OGL, the same dudes who put out the Star Frontiers: New Genesis game could put out a racist game using the old OGL. Thus the new OGL prevents that- and exactly what is wrong with preventing racism in gaming?
Even taking this argument at face value, it’s not exactly preventing racism in gaming, though, is it? It’s just preventing racists from using the OGL, and preventing the possibility that people might accuse WotC of supporting racism.
Here’s an analogy. Hasbro will, for a price, grant you a license to use Monopoly for your own themed Monopoly game. If a group of investors approached Hasbro with a dump truck of money wanting the license to make “KKK-opoly” Hasbro would surely refuse for fear of damaging their brand. This is not the same thing as Hasbro preventing racism in board games, since there’s nothing stopping those investors from making a different KKK-themed game without Monopoly’s trademarks.
Despite what seems like a common misconception, Dungeons and Dragons and the OGL aren’t the only way to play a tabletop RPG. For instance, a popular indie TTRPG system called Blades in the Dark is released under a Creative Commons license, just like parts of the core mechanics licensed under OGL 1.2 but without the rules against hateful content. This means there is nothing stopping a bunch of racists from making an offensive game using the Blades in the Dark rules. Does that mean One Seven Design, the creators of Blades in the Dark, are refusing to fight racism in gaming? No, it means they freely released a tool, and like all tools it can be used for good or bad purposes.
To be fair, there isn’t anything particularly offensive about the new OGL, which I’m sure is by intention. They really stepped in fire with the earlier leaked draft and they’re opting to make this as player and creator friendly as possible. I’m not enough of a contract lawyer to see if there is still some path from OGL 1.2 to a license more like the leaked draft that leans toward building the “recurrent spending environment” that WotC execs want. My guess is this door is closed to them and they’ll focus their efforts on fixing D&D’s “Under-monetization” elsewhere.
