Open Gaming License 1.0a

The World of Penumbra use created and published under the Open Gaming License (OGL 1.0a).

With all the conflicts over the Open Gaming License (OGL) under Wizards of the Coast [WotC] and Hasbro, we will attempt to summarize our position in brief.  We fully agree with those who authored, conceived of, and developed OGL 1.0a while working for, and at the direction of, WotC (Lisa Stevens, Brian Lewis, & Ryan Dancy) and are supportive of the ideas presented in the Paizo’s Blog Post – January 12, 2023).

We believe OGL 1.0 and 1.0a are not subject to revocation and cannot be ‘deauthorized.’ In terms of ”deauthorization,’ the authors and architects of the OGL have stated the term ‘authorized’ was included to separate the final ‘authorized’ versions of these OGLs from the various working drafts shared during the development of the final version of these OGLs not as a mechanism by which these OGLs could be deauthorized. If the architects and authors had wished to provide a means for deauthorization, these architects and artists indicated the OGLs would have so stated and the means for deauthorization would have been included within the final versions of these OGLs.  With regard to the revocation of these licenses, the architects and authors stated the term perpetuity meant these license was endless and could not be revoked and, had their intention been to allow the license to subject to revocation, (1) absence of the word ‘irrevocable’ does not imply the license could be revoked, (2) these licenses would have so stated and included said process within the terms of the licenses, and (3) WotC OGL 1.0a FAQ (webpage) was clear about intention and meaning of ‘perpetuity’ and the irrevocable nature of the license: 

  • Q: Can’t Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn’t like?
  • A: Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using the earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option.  In other words, there’s no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.
Unfortunately, we can no longer trust the intentions and motives of the executives and representatives of Hasbro or WotC to maintain the “Open” element in their OGLs beyond OGL 1.0/1.0a.  As a result, we stand with Paizo, Kobold Press, Chaosium, Legendary Games, Roll for Combat, and a growing list of third party publishers and their efforts to create a ‘new open, perpetual, and irrevocable’ open gaming license – Open RPG Creative License (ORC) and are hopeful ORC will rise to the occasion and usher in the ‘next great chapter of open gaming.’  We are, especially, supportive of their stated plans to have Azora Law serve as the custodian of ORC until a nonprofit foundation with a history of open source values can take ownership of the license.

We maintain our right to continue to publish under the final authorized and perpetual version of OGL 1.0a (SRD 5.1) though we will transfer to ORC provided the end product meets our needs.

Michael D Cardaci, Owner
The Campaign World of Penumbr