The Dungeons and Dragons OGL, or Open Gaming License, is what fans everywhere use to publish third-party DnD content, ensuring they don’t get a slap on the wrist from Wizards of the Coast for doing so. As such, the DnD OGL is extremely important, both for DnD fans and for the success of the game itself. But, if you’re not someone who publishes RPG content, you might not know much about the Open Gaming License and its mysterious companion, the SRD (Systems Reference Document). Here, we’ll cover exactly what the DnD OGL is, and how it works.
What is the DnD OGL?
To put it simply, the DnD OGL is a public copyright license created by Wizards of the Coast, which allows fans to publish and sell royalty-free content compatible with D&D 5e. It allows you to use the contents of the Systems Reference Document (SRD), which contains a version of the fifth edition rules, including all the DnD classes, DnD races, many DnD monsters, and even a description of the key DnD gods and D&D planes.
It certainly doesn’t grant you carte blanche – there are plenty of restrictions on what you can and can’t publish. But at its core, the OGL is valued so highly by tabletop RPG fans because it allows them to create content for the most-widely understood and played TTRPG ruleset in the world, without having to go through Wizards at all.
Provided you keep to all the guidelines, like including a copy of the OGL in your work, you can create your own independent content based on D&D 5e – your own setting book, adventure modules and more – without having to rely on DMs Guild, or give your work away for free, following Wizards’ fan content policy.
What isn’t covered in the DnD OGL?
The OGL is amazing for D&D fans, but it doesn’t give you freedom to make and sell anything you like using Wizard of the Coast’s stuff. You can’t use D&D’s trademarks, which means terms like Dungeon Master, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, or ‘the worlds greatest roleplaying game’ can’t be on your content, even to indicate compatibility.
Beyond that, you can’t use the things Wizards of the Coast considers its ‘product identity’. That means proper nouns are usually out, so you can’t make works featuring D&D settings or characters.
Any DnD magic items, monsters, 5e spells and so on not included in the SRD can’t be used in your work if you want it to be OGL-compliant. That includes the more unique of D&D’s beasties, stuff like the mindflayer 5e or beholder 5e.
What will happen to the DnD OGL in One D&D?
The Open Gaming Licence has had a pretty tumultuous history. The first version of it was created in 2000 for D&D third edition, but for 4e Wizards switched to a ‘Game System License’, which was far more restrictive in what was permitted.
The company reverted to its original Open Gaming approach for 5e, a move that was widely celebrated – but there’s no guarantee that it’ll release a similar OGL and SRD for One D&D, the next iteration of Dungeons and Dragons that is currently in the works. We do know it’s coming up with an OGL 1.1 for the new edition, however.
In fact, there’ve been many rumours and leaks around the OGL 1.1 recently which have D&D fans reliant on the license feeling extremely nervous and/or angry. Wizards insists the OGL is “not going away”, but in early 2023, Gizmodo reported on a “a leaked draft of the document, dated mid-December” from an unnamed source .
It says the new OGL 1.1 nullifies the existing OGL agreement, is much longer, requires you to register work with Wizards, and lets them change or scrap the agreement if and when they choose to.
Wizards of the Coast has not yet commented on the report or the alleged leak. Wargamer has reached out to Wizards for comment, but we’ve not yet received a response. We’ll have to wait until Wizards of the Coast releases something more concrete and official to know for sure what the OGL 1.1 is going to look like.
Source: Wargamer
