Following an industry-shaking series of leaks about its intentions to create a new OGL which would have seriously limited independent creators' ability to generate and monetize content using D&D's rules, Wizards of the Coast did a pretty literal about-face, scrapping these plans and promising that the old OGL 1.0a is here to stay. Yet, for some this move may be a case of too little too late, including the creators of Pathfinder at Paizo.
The company took to Twitter yesterday night to announce that, while they welcome WOTC's decision, they still believe their Open RPG Creative License is needed, so they're continuing to work on it and will release a draft soon.
"We welcome today’s news from Wizards of the Coast regarding their intention not to de-authorize OGL 1.0a. We still believe there is a powerful need for an irrevocable, perpetual independent system-neutral open license hat will serve the tabletop community via nonprofit stewardship. Work on the ORC license will continue, with an expected first draft to release for comment to participating publishers in February."
While many have welcomed WOTC's decision as a victory of the "#OpenDnD" movement, others have taken a more prudent wait-and-see stance. Many have also expressed doubts due to the lack of an explicit irrevocability clause, or simply defined the decision as "too little too late," arguing that the creators of D&D have irremediably lost their trust. Due to that, there certainly still appears to be steam behind the demand for a completely independent license framework that would not depend on the whims of this or that company.
This whole situation certainly placed WOTC in a difficult position, while its competitors received a boost. Paizo itself managed to sell eight months of supplies of its Pathfinder Second Edition Core Rulebook in less than two weeks. Of course, you can expect to read all about the ORC License here on TechRaptor as soon as Paizo publishes the draft.
