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7/7/2025, 5:14:12 PM
>>96031717
Largely that the 5e OGL had no power whatsoever outside of platforms WotC themselves controlled. You could publish 5e compatible material entirely without any regard whatsoever for WotC's licenses, and many publisher's cheekily did so by saying their material was "5e compatible". Key thing to note is that it's not "D&D 5e Compatible," just "5e compatible."
WotC challenged this, and while they could slam the hammer down on anyone that dared to use the D&D name, they couldn't do anything about people just using a number and a letter. You can be assured that's the reason why 6e in its development hell has gone through several names, with none of them being "6e".
The WotC's DM's guild (and other WotC platforms) is really the only place where they could perform that proposed $750k+ revenue scraping, because everywhere else WotC couldn't touch a penny anyway. WotC inherited Gygax's and TSR's legacy of really shitty lawsuits, which is partly what made them issue the original OGL to begin with. The courts had ruled against them so often, that rather than admitting defeat, they chose to pretend that they were being benign.
By the time of 5e, publishers had already used the 3.0 OGL to widen what they could publish so much that even highly successful near-clones like Pathfinder were on the table. Even 5e has near clones, and WotC just has no case against them, so no way to exert any kind of control.
Largely that the 5e OGL had no power whatsoever outside of platforms WotC themselves controlled. You could publish 5e compatible material entirely without any regard whatsoever for WotC's licenses, and many publisher's cheekily did so by saying their material was "5e compatible". Key thing to note is that it's not "D&D 5e Compatible," just "5e compatible."
WotC challenged this, and while they could slam the hammer down on anyone that dared to use the D&D name, they couldn't do anything about people just using a number and a letter. You can be assured that's the reason why 6e in its development hell has gone through several names, with none of them being "6e".
The WotC's DM's guild (and other WotC platforms) is really the only place where they could perform that proposed $750k+ revenue scraping, because everywhere else WotC couldn't touch a penny anyway. WotC inherited Gygax's and TSR's legacy of really shitty lawsuits, which is partly what made them issue the original OGL to begin with. The courts had ruled against them so often, that rather than admitting defeat, they chose to pretend that they were being benign.
By the time of 5e, publishers had already used the 3.0 OGL to widen what they could publish so much that even highly successful near-clones like Pathfinder were on the table. Even 5e has near clones, and WotC just has no case against them, so no way to exert any kind of control.
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