I added that I think they almost have to do it and could just update the SRD. With the CC though it’s almost a moot point.
If the point was to kill the OGL, it succeeded, and the community around the OGL evaporated or went elsewhere.
Shannon Appelcline responded much the same and made me realize that maybe the inkling of Ben’s speculation is why WotC went with species instead of the more common term lineage.
I am pessimistic about the inclusion of an OGL for OneD&D.
I would like to add here that I am completely speculating, and have no insider knowledge of this, but if Wizards is releasing OneD&D in the spring, and they wanted any 3rd party publishers to be able to have a product ready to coincide with the launch, an SRD and OGL should be available by now.
So why is there no SRD and OGL?
There are two possible reasons IMHO.
1) The rules aren’t ready yet. Again, with a spring publication deadline, that is not an encouraging thought. I will mention that on 4th edition, my sources tell me the dev team was given plenty of time to work on rules and research, and then told from on high that they were publishing in a mere six months. This imposition of an artificial deadline led to problems in the rules. Is that repeating here?
2) There will be no OGL for OneD&D. Perhaps, as with 5th edition, the OGL will simply follow later on, but I am very pessimistic about that too. Clearly, there is a faction at Wizards that wants to kill the OGL. Revoking the original OGL is much different than not providing one for a new edition of the game. It is easy to imagine that a possible compromise worked out at Wizards was that 5th edition could enter the creative commons while the juicy new edition was kept for the exclusive use of Wizards/Hasbro.
If you find me interesting, my history of the fall of TSR is now available in paperback. Link below!
Obligatory
link to Ben’s book. I think it’s awesome.
The secret and untold story of how TSR, the company that created Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, then ...
read.macmillan.com
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