The proposed OGL 1.1 is not an open license. Fight for your hobby.

 Today Wizards of the Coast on DnD Beyond released an article called OGLs, SRDs, & One D&D. It talks about Wizards plans for a new version of the OGL. 

The recap the OGL stands for the Open Game License. According to Creative Commons, an open license means the content is free to use how you want it. In practice, this has meant that content was shared to let people use the content in any way, including commercially, the main requirements being that there is proper attribution of the original content used, and that any modifications are released under the same license. With the author listed as the creator of the modification.

The current two versions of the OGL v1.0 (3.X) and v1.0a meet the above criteria except for specific elements. 

• You are allowed to designate part of the work as product identity which basically saying I am not releasing this part of my book as open content. This is often used for licensed IP like Lord of the Rings or Star Trek. It is sometimes used when the author doesn't want to share their setting but wants to use and modify a popular system.

• You also explicitly agree to give up your right to cite compatibility to a trademarked product. This is something that you normally have the right to do when releasing a work when it is your content. I could have done this with Blackmarsh as I mostly used common monster names rather than anything specific out of the DnD editions.

The Changes

So what are the proposed changes?

First, we’re making sure that OGL 1.1 is clear about what it covers and what it doesn’t. 

What OGL 1.1 will cover are electronic files like PDF, and printed books this right off mean that OGL 1.1 is no longer an open license as it restricts how you can use the open content. As the definition of open content means you can use it in the manner you see fit.

The next change

Second, we’re updating the OGL to offer different terms to creators who choose to make free, share-alike content and creators who want to sell their products.  

They list a number of requirements that amount to you having to report any sales of any products licensed under the OGL 1.1 as well as a description of what it is you are selling.  And if you make over a threshold ($750,000) then you will be expected to pay royalties by 2024. 

Wrapping it up

This will further bifurcate the third party publisher market. OGL 1.0 and OGL 1.0a content can't be used with OGL 1.1 content as a result of Section 12 of the current OGL.

12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Material so affected.

Right now the world of 3PP is divided into those who use open content like Pathfinder, Cepheus, OSRIC, Old School Essentials, and those who publish in community content programs like the DM's Guild.  In fact, I predict there will be three major 3PP communities for Dungeons and Dragons, the ones that continue to use the OGL 1.0a license, those who use the OGL 1.1 license, and those who use community content programs.

I realize there is a lot of speculation and criticism out there that are made because OneDnD is the news of the days. I limited myself to what the article said. At various times in the history of open source and creative commons, unscrupulous companies and individuals tried to put out their own licenses including ones with terms very much like the above. Each and every time this has not ended well for the bad actors and their licenses. Either they reverted back to a traditional commercial license and ceased their use of the open content. Or they came into compliance. 

If you value your freedom to produce and more commonly share the content you create for Dungeons and Dragons then let Wizards know that you find these proposed terms unacceptable. Let them know that the community has the tools right now to fix the issue on their own and will do so as shown by what happen with DnD 4e, the GSL, and Pathfinder.

This is your hobby and your game now. Don't let Hasbro try to take that away from you.

Fight On!

Update

I added some comments on Section 9 of the OGL which appears to be a point of attack by the Wizards' legal team to shut down the OGL.

Section 9 of the OGL

Concerning Bat in the Attic Games, Steady as She Goes and further thoughts on the OGL

For those who are new.

I have long been an advocate of open content released under the open license. Blackmarsh is free for any of use in any manner you see if. Likely the entire content of the Basic Rules for the Majestic Fantasy RPG is open content. 

Some past posts.

You are free now so go enjoy it.

An OGL Primer

A tale of two OGLs

Zweihander, Open Content, and a reply to Daniel Fox.

Ryan Dancy on the Open Game License

Finally some practical effects of making Blackmarsh open content. I would not have had the time or skills to do any of these projects but now folks who read Spanish, French, Italian and Hungarian can enjoy Blackmarsh in their languages as well as fans of Heroes and Other Worlds. 

And because these were solely the work of their respective author who put the work into making a version of Blackmarsh, they get to reap 100% of the financial rewards. Something I am fine with when I shared Blackmarsh as open content.

Blackmarsh in Spanish!

Périlleuses contrées: Fangenoire (Blackmarsh in French)

Italian version of Blackmarsh

Blackmarsh in Hungarian!

Blackmarsh for Heroes & Other Worlds

An OGL Primer

There was a bit of a discussion over on Tenkar's Tavern about copyrights, licenses, and trademarks. While it is always good to get a lawyer's advice, the Open Game License, (along with Creative Commons and other open license) are designed so that it is easy for people to see what is permissible to reuse WITHOUT shelling out $$$ for legal advice.

In general you are not allowed to use another person's work verbatim without permission due to copyright. In many cases you are not allowed to create derivative works either like say the New Adventures of Harry Potter.

The OGL is a type of blanket permission by the author to copy a work or portions of a work under certain conditions. The various Creative Common licenses have a similar goal.

Those conditions are:

1. You must update Section 15 with the copyright notice of any open content you copy. Luckily this mostly involves copying pasting the section 15 from the license text of the work.
2. You explicitly agree not to copy the work's product identify without a specific set of permission from the original author.
3. You must clearly designate or mark which portions of your work is open content.
4. You can't cite compatibility or use the original work for marketing without specific permission from the original author.

And that is pretty much it.

#4 is the only right that you are explicitly giving up by agree to use another author's open content. #4 is why Wizards had the d20 trademark license. Note: Wizards has since revoked the license and no longer gives permission to use the d20 mark or logo.

The OGL has a feature where you can designate some portions of a work as open with people free to copy that portion under the OGL, and other portions as product identity which can't be copy. This is why many opt to use the OGL over other types of license such as Creative Commons. Creative Common is designed to give permission to ENTIRE works. The OGL is deliberately designed to allow certain SECTIONS to have different permissions.

Now where it gets difficult is that people being people don't clearly mark what open content. Luckily there are documents that are marked as 100% open content that cover what most people want to do with their projects.

D20 SRD
Pathfinder SRD
The Fate SRD
Swords & Wizardry SRD
The Blackmarsh Setting (which I wrote)

If you want to publish your own product. Take your rulebooks put them far away from where you do your writing.

Download one of the above (or one of the otherSRDs out there). And use that as your main reference.

Then when you lay out your book, CLEARLY mark which portions are open content. The rest is product identity in which you retain full rights.

What is open content? Any thing that is copied or based on the SRD.

For example this entry about the Boglings from my Majestic Wilderlands.

This has to be open content because it depends on information found in the Swords & Wizardry SRD and the d20 SRD.

BOGLINGSArmor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: 2+1
Attacks: 2 claws (1d3)
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Underwater, Jumping, Extensible Tongue
Move: 6/12 (when swimming)
Challenge Level/XP: 2/35
• May breathe underwater indefinitely
• Can Jump over 60 feet and up to 20 feet in height.
• Has an extensible tongue can immobilize a target if it fails it’s saving throw.

This part can be product identity because it is my own original writing.

These are amphibious humanoids with bulbous eyes. Boglings are noted for their ability to jump long distances and for their extensible tongues. They are found in tribes in tropical swamps and rainforests as well as on several of the outer planes most notably the Swamps of Acheron home to the god Set.

Personally I made the whole thing open content just because I wanted too.

When you are done, copy the text of the open game license and alter Section 15 to be

Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

plus whatever the section 15 the SRD has and then YOUR copyright notice. Like this from Blackmarsh

15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Reference Document Copyright 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Blackmarsh, Copyright 2011, Robert Conley

A comment about Trademarks.

Note that if any of the following is an issue for something you are doing this the point where you need to start getting legal advice. The above is about making thing clear and easy for people to reuse other people's work without having to get lawyers involved. The below is where a lawyer comes in handy.

Trademarks are graphics and text that identify a product or business. Like copyrights they can be registered or unregistered. The White Star Logo and trademark license that the debate over on Tenkar was centered are unregistered.

Understand the law frowns on businesses pretending to be other business or trying to confuse consumers whether product is really brand X. So registered or unregistered the law protect a business right to have a distinctive mark and name for themselves and their products. What does registering a trademark get you? Namely the right to use for damages when your trademark. The best you can do with a unregistered trademark is sue to get somebody to STOP from infringing your mark.

In both cases you have to actively enforce your trademarks. The law grants powerful protection to a business' trademark but only if the business actively goes after violators. Let it slide and the law will assume you don't care and hence the violation.

This is unlike copyright where inaction can only effect your ability to recover PAST damages. Once you decide enough is enough, from that point on the clock is ticking for damages by the violator. This is of course you have registered your copyright as the best you can do with an unregistered copyright it to get them to stop distributing your stuff.

Finally do you need to deal with the OGL? No there are ways under copyright law and precedent for third parties to create compatible works. But guess what! You should go to a lawyer for advice if that the route you take. And understand if that the route you take, you will need legal advice at every step to ensure your work doesn't stray across the line and cause you legal headache. In my opinion it sounds like a huge in the pass for what is in essence a hobby pastime.

Of course some people are just dicks and rely on the fact they have little or no money or assets. Or the fact that criminal copyright has a high minimum threshold before the US Attorney will consider a prosecution. Authors dealing with such assholes have my sympathy the only thing I can offer in the way of advice is for you or your lawyer to look at the DMCA as it has provisions that help smaller publisher deal with these jerks.

Scribus for RPG Publishers and other tools.

Just a heads up that Scribus 1.4.4 now support exporting PDFs in PDF/x-1a format.  You can download it from here.

Why is this important? Many Print on Demand companies works best with PDFs in the PDF/x-1a format. This is a special variant of PDFs that guarantees that the layout especially color will print out as expected on the printers that support the standard.

The word processors, publishing programs, and similar software that are available to the typical home users do not feature this as it requires support of color spaces and similar high end features. For those of us who just trying to use the PoD features of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG or Amazon's Createspace, we just want the PDF in the right format.

The trick is to setup your Scribus document to use color management. Most folks don't need to fret about the choices just go with the defaults.

Also it would help to have a affordable desktop publishing program to help do the layout. Luckily Scribus is free and open source. It not the easiest desktop publishing program to learn but with 1.4.4 it has acquired the necessary features to make it of use for a small RPG publisher.

Also don't forget the following

AbiWord for writing
Gimp for image editing
Inkscape for vector images like maps.

Larry Elmore Clipart

Back during the d20 Boom, Larry Elmore released a book and CD-ROM of images for gamers to use. Some of them were licensed for reuse in a publishing project.

Teazia has been collecting public domain art for reuse (19th century/early 20th century fantasy images) and got Larry Elmore permission to post the images from the collection. You can browse and download the images from here. The last two images of the collection is a copy of the license and has more information on what you can and can't do with the images.

A sales suggestion for OSR Publishers

So I went to one of my favorite game stores to sell copies of Bat in the Attic products. Sadly he wouldn't buy any as nothing is selling for tabletop roleplaying games except Paizo Pathfinder products. He was quite apologetic as he bought from me numerous times in the past. What was selling was causal boardgames like Munchkin and Settlers of Catan.

So Bummer and while we was talking about the recent Worldwide Tabletop Day, he mentioned Free RPG. That got me think and I just gave him the three copies I had to throw in the Free RPG Day pile. Then when driving home I realized that Hey!  I could do this for all the other game stores I am in contact with.

The downside of Free RPG is it requires a sizable print run at a considerable cost, for us OSR publishers, to get a product in there. The advantage is that is goes to every store on that list. But it doesn't have to be an all or nothing affair. The cost of say 15 copies of a print on demand book for the author is often very affordable allowing him to go to the gamestores that knows him and ask to see if they would include it in their Free RPG pile of stuff. Just be polite and prepared for a no. And remember to put in a flyer or card with how interested customers can find your Internet store.  For example this OSR Primer I made.

When you are in Phoenix Arizona stop by the Imperial Outpost and see if we can boost the sales of Tabletop RPGS. The owner is a nice guy and very knowledgable about gaming.

Demon Wolf Progress Report

Finished the layout of the main text of Scourge of the Demon Wolf last night.  Almost didn't happen as Microsoft Publisher choked on creating the PDF. Fixed it by switching the default printer to the the Microsoft XPS Driver. What left in layout is the front inside cover with the credits, the table of contents, and the OGL License. Plus I am waiting for a handful of art pieces for the supplement half of the book.

Afterwards I will  get it uploaded and order some proof copies from Lulu and RPGNow. I am shooting for a release in the 2nd or 3rd week of September and hopefully will have a preview PDF up before then.

Why failure is sometimes as important as success.

Joesph Browning makes some very good points about using Kickstarter for the OSR calender despite it failing. A lot of people have been focusing on the successes of Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects. How it allowed them to fund projects that would have otherwise not happened or taken very long to complete.

However Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites are a game changer not just for their ability to collect funding but also as a measure of market interest. Recently SJ Games Ogre Kickstarter went through the roof and I am sure that was something they were not expecting despite their careful approach to marketing and researching games.

The OSR Calender was an interesting idea but because of the failure of the kickstarter Joesph is now free to invest his time and money in other projects of more interest to others rather staring ruefully at boxes of unsold calenders.

Print on Demand with CreateSpace

I just got a email from CreateSpace notifying me that they did away with the Pro Plan. Looking over their site it looks like they decided to operate more like Lulu then the weird byzantine setup they had before. They have a cheaper base price and more format sizes than lulu but offer a different set of royalty rates that you will have to review. For $25 per book you can get expanded distribution which has the best royalty option of anything I seen for PoD although I think it requires the use of an ISBN for the book.

Also unlike Lulu it appears their method of selling online is to have the author create a estore and customize it's appearance. Doesn't look much more difficult than setting up with Cafe Press. That setup offers the best royalty option outside of paying for Extended Distribution.

It good to have more options when it comes to Print on Demand.

2,748 and still counting.

Over on Grognardia there have been some interesting discussion on professional versus hobbyists. Along with I talked with a OSR gamer on Google chat about his ideas for publishing. My advice to him was that If you think that you can sell a 100 copies then the hobby time you spend on making your idea publishable will be well spent.

A perfect storm combining the Internet, Print on Demand, and Desktop Publishing has driven the cost of publishing to all time low. The cost of doing a project is pretty much down to the time you are willing to spend.

The 2,748 in the title of this post is the total I earned from my self-published works. All but $200 of that from Majestic Wilderlands. This is over two years since December of 2009.

For Blackmarsh, I only earned around $200, but I have had over 1,724 downloads. Which is pretty much what I intended when I decided to release the whole thing under the OGL. With Delving Deeper coming out soon even more people will have Blackmarsh in their hands.

The only reason I didn't earn more was I haven't completed the projects I been working on. Partly due to my procrastination and partly due a busier schedule due to my family's activities.  I make progress, just not very fast.

The only caveat in all this is that it is still takes work and patience. You need to advertise yourself either by blogging or maintaining a steady output. While straightforward publishing is not easy, but it is not particularly hard. The nice thing is that if you get a good reputation then it easily becomes a hobby that pays for itself.  You may not get to go to Tahati as Zak mentioned but you will some extra bucks to
spend.

Getting started with Publishing tools

The Adobe tools are very expensive for hobbyist publishers and in some cases overkill. Luckily there are several free open source tools out there that can be used by the hobbyist to publish their materials. Among them are Gimp, Inkscape, and Scribus.

Learning them can be pretty daunting but fortunately a beginner's guide for Scribus, a desktop publisher has been released that you can purchase. In addition to covering Scribus, it has teaches how to integrate programs like Inkscape and Gimp into producing your document.

The issue of Royalty RPGNow vs Lulu

Pat over at Henchman Abuse has a rebuttal to my post on RPGNow vs Lulu. It is well written except for one problem.

The non-exclusive royalty rate is 65% at RPGNow/DriveThruRPG.

From OneBookshelf FAQ

You earn a royalty of 70% if you are exclusive to our marketplaces or 65% if you choose to be non-exclusive and sell through other online stores. Our share of revenue covers our server upkeep, bandwidth, payment processing, marketing and customer service.

*In reply to Pat's Comment*
This is not available on a public link but the royalty rate is the same for print.

Q: How do royalty payments work on printed copies?

When you set-up a print option on one of your products, you will be shown the current cost to print each copy of the product. You will then be asked to set the margin you want on that title. For example, the print cost on a title might be $4.41 and then you choose to set your margin at $5.58, thereby setting the consumer price for that printed title at $4.41 + $5.58 = $9.99.

When that printed copy sells, the print cost is removed from the purchase price and we split the margin that is left with you per our usual royalty agreement with you (i.e. the same royalty percent you get on download sales). This is credited to your publisher royalty account in real time just like when a customer purchases one of you download products

*reply to Pat's further comments*

OK at first glance I was scratching my head at the linked agreement and then I remembered what the clause is for.

(b) OBS shall pay to Publisher a fifty-five percent (55%) royalty on the sales of Licensed Products for which Publisher submitted the Product to OBS as a hardcopy printed book suitable for OBS to scan and produce a digital file version

If you have a book with no digital file, you can send the book to OBS and they will scan it in for you and post the digital files for you to sell. But... they take a bigger cut in this case so you only get 55%. This is NOT the royalty rate for print. The royalty rate for print is the SAME as the royalty rate for PDFs as stated in the FAQ. The one exception is where you decide to offer the scanned digital file as a print copy. Which somebody with a popular out of print title from the 80s may decide to do.

Reading over my original post I wasn't clear on this point. For project larger than 84 pages and willing to use b/w publisher's quality then it is a wash. Lulu has a better royalty rate, RPGNow has a better shipping rate to foreign customers. RPGNow has a slightly better royalty rate on the PDF version and you have the ability to package multiple files and update notification while Lulu all you can offer is a single PDF.

But if you have a lower page count than 84, or if you are using color, the RPGNow is the better deal.

On Lulu, 16 pages can only be printed with standard paper for a cost of 5.90. ($7 - $5.90) * 80% = $0.88
On RPGNow, 16 pages can be printed full color for a cost of $2.50 + .30 fee ($7-$2.80) * 65% = $2.73

For b/w publisher quality printing Lulu gets a lot better the larger your margin. As Pat points out the 15% or 10% difference start adding up.

Majestic Wilderlands at digest 140 pages I make .36 more on Lulu 5.92 than RPGNow 5.56. Of course the difference grows the more is charged for the book. But I make 4.41 on Lulu for a PDF sale and 4.55 on RPGNow. I only get that by using Publisher Grade and as a consequence any oversea buyers faces the infamous large lulu shipping charges.

But what does this mean for the OSR Publisher?

*DISCLAIMER* please don't take this what if of an analysis of what it really cost James Raggi to produce Loftp RPG. He uses his own printer so this is purely a what-if.

Well let's look at one of the more expensive products out there Lamentation of the Flame Princess RPG. James Raggi has his own printing done but let's present it was going to be done Print on Demand. At 32.50 Euro it works out to $47 or so. Let round it up to $50. It is 360 total pages if combined. It is the European equivalent of digest size. I may be wrong about this but let's go with the smaller size.

On Lulu we find that 360 pages at digest size for b/w publisher quality is $7.90. So James Raggi would earn ($50 - $7.90)*80% = $33.68.

A RPGNow the cost would be $6.60 per book and he would earn ($50 - 6.60) * 65% = 28.21. A $5.47 hit per book. If he was exclusive then he would get $30.28 per book at hit of $3.40 per copy.

If he sold a 100 copies over a year, which is not unreasonable for a high quality project, $547 (or even $340) is a big hit for recouping costs.

However the price he would pay is that anybody outside out of the United States would get hit by exorbitant shipping rates. So he and any other publisher will have to weigh the lost overseas sales vs better royalty. I don't have much hard data but my impression is at least a quarter of the market for the OSR is overseas. There was a lot of the print MW that didn't get sold overses until I put it up on RPGNow.

But to be honest projects like the Lamentation of the Flame Princess are an outlier. Most OSR projects hover far below the $50 selling price $30 margin. In fact range roughly from $5 to $15. There the difference are much less dramatic and as in the case of my Majestic Wilderlands less than a dollar.

I appreciate Pat bringing up the royalty issues and his well thought out post but I still stand by my original recommendation that OSR publisher should consider RPGNow over Lulu for their publishing needs. This may change because of the evolving of the PoD technology so check and compare periodically.