WoTC's 25% Royalty Will Kill Homebrew - D&D OGL 1.1
165The idea that Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro want 25% royalty payments on any successful homebrew projects under the new OGL 1.1 terms is beyond ridiculous. The only thing this will do is drive homebrew D&D creators to other platforms or to create their own unique rulesets, and will kill homebrew within the Dungeons and Dragons community.
Now, granted, maybe that's what they want. Maybe they want to kill homebrew entirely so that everyone will only play officially licensed D&D products. But it also seems like they want to enact punitive measures against anyone who has ever used the OGL in the past, and make it so draconic to work with them in the future that no one would do it unless they are already wealthy enough to be willing to pay 25% as a sort of licensing fee.
The 25% amount was confirmed by Jon Ritter, Director of Kickstarter Games, on his Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonritter/status/1611077486254645252
If I run a million dollar campaign, I'm expected to give 250k to Wizards of the Coast just because (assuming it's based off the gross; if based off the net it would be less)? Why would I do that? The OGL/SRD only provide you with a handful of spells and classes and races (sorry, "peoples" nowadays). You could use that 250k to contract out and pay salaries to a team of talented folks who could create your classes, races, and spell lists from scratch, and never need the OGL in the first place.
Or do what many have been doing for years...do it anyway, in their spare time, for free, as a hobby. Homebrew campaigns that used the previous OGL were always 85% to 90% original Product Identity anyway, only using the OGL as a basic set of guidelines to govern gameplay and spell lists...so there is no way 25% is a fair percentage.
More in the video, obviously!
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