So you like Lego, do ya? How about this one?
3 Likes
If anyone needs me, I’ll be up to my elbows in Frozen Lego*
*courtesy of Santa for my daughter, of course 
10 Likes
2 Likes
9 Likes
Massive brouhaha happening in Dungeons and Dragons right now, the details of which i will not bore you with. It’s rivalling the Saga on the D&D messageboards right now.
1 Like
somebody has finally figured out how it’s played?
6 Likes
kicks the dirt
I wanna be bored with the details…
2 Likes
Be careful what you wish for…
1 Like
What do I need to roll?
Cues up tavern ambient sound on spotify.
I imagine;
Wimmera takes the roll.
Will Wimmera equip the roll?
D&D basic pen and paper as a thread on blitz would be fun. Nerdy as hell but fun.
Roll Charisma (Persuasion) vs DC 15. If you bribe me with beer, you can roll with advantage.
I use dexterity to attach an ‘I love bats’ badge to Soulnet’s jacket.
Again, or something.
I was intrigued to find out. Is it the open game licensing thing? Sounds like a ■■■■ move.
Yeah, that’s the one.
Anyway, the story is this. There’s no way to make this short, sorry, this is going to be all sorts of TL;DR.
In the late 90s, D&D was owned by the company where it was originally created, who were pretty good at making games but unbelievably, ridiculously, laughably ■■■■ at running a business. They ended up using the D&D intellectual property as loan collateral to a bunch of different banks while they tried to keep their heads above water. They failed, and went broke. This could have killed the game permanently as the rights were split over a bunch of different creditors, but fortunately another game company, loaded with cash after the success of Magic the Gathering, swooped in and bought the lot.
The new owners were a bit idealistic. They released a new 3rd edition of the game, which was incompatible with previous versions but which was very successful. Then, they released something called the Open Gaming Licence (OGL). This was modelled on the various open software licences floating around at the time, which gave royalty-free rights to make and sell D&D material anyone who wanted to do so, so long as certain trademarks (like the name ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ itself) weren’t infringed, and so long as the licenced work itself was licenced under the OGL. The idea was partly that this would future-proof the game, in the case of a future owner stuffing up as dramatically as the old one, the game would not die, but it was also betting that all the new D&D material made by third parties would spread awareness of the game and help cement its dominance over rivals in the market.
And this is exactly what happened. The plan was wildly successful. D&Ds market dominance reached an all-time high, there were shelves and shelves of 3rd-party D&D sourcebooks on every game store shelf, other game companies started also licencing their games out under the OGL and/or converting over to the D&D system to avoid getting just stampeded out of business. However, about 10 years later, the 3rd edition ruleset was looking a bit tired and the cracks were starting to show, and a new updated edition was required. This turned out to be totally, wildly, different to any D&D rules that had come before, had teething problems ranging from bad game maths to the worlds worst marketing campaign to a more oppressive licence to literal murder-suicides in the development team, and was controversial to say the least. Loads of people decided they’d prefer to stay on the old 3rd edition ruleset, and then one of the bigger third-party publishers saw their chance and decided to basically just scrub the ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ name off the old ruleset and republish the whole lot under the open licence. Which is exactly what they did, and so overnight between the OGL and the divisive 4th edition, Dungeons and Dragons had succeeded in creating its own biggest competitor - its previous self. Oopsie.
4th edition sputtered along for a few more years, but eventually it was decided it was too much of a liability and a much more familiar, conservative, easy-to-learn 5th edition ruleset was released (it too was made available under the OGL). It was successful beyond everyone’s wildest dreams, for a variety of reasons ranging from the availability of software tools to streamline the game or to allow online play, to the game’s placement in shows like Stranger Things, to the rise of people livestreaming game on twitch/youtube to massive audiences, to the crowdfunding economy and electronic publishing making it easier for first-timers to publish, to everyone looking for indoor hobbies during covid lockdowns. The hobby in general has never been remotely as popular as it is now, and D&Ds share of it has never been bigger. For some perspective, D&D is now ultimately owned by Hasbro, and the bit of Hasbro that makes D&D is now the most successful branch they have, outstripping the branches that own household names like Transformers and Monopoly. There’s a big-budget Hollywood movie coming out in March with some legit big name actors, there’s several TV shows, etc etc.
As D&D has grown, so has the third party market that grew around the OGL. There are probably thousands of third party publishers right now, ranging from people putting out pdfs in their spare time for 99 cents each, to multimillion dollar businesses employing dozens of people.
Anyway, it’s been common knowledge for a while that some revisions to the ruleset were being planned. Just minor tweaks mostly, nothing to cause incompatibilities with existing material. Public playtesting was underway, and release dates have been known for a while. However, a few weeks ago whispers started spreading that as part of the game revision, the OGL would be given a new version too. Apparently a few of the bigger third party publishers were asked to give feedback about this under NDA.
Well, a draft of the new licence leaked about a week ago, and the terms were just hilariously evil to the point of being parody, and it hit the whole industry like a bomb.
Some of the highlights:
- licencees must pay Hasbro 25% of any revenue (not profit - gross pre-tax revenue!) above $750k, and must open their books to Hasbro for auditing to make sure this is being complied with.
- Hasbro can use anything published under the licence, without royalties or acknowledgement, forever
- the licence now only applies to books, so the vast ecosystem of software aids, streams, and a zillion other ancillary products is dead at a stroke
- Hasbro can de-licence anyone, at any time, for any reason, with no appeal, but can keep using their material regardless
- Hasbro can unilaterally change the terms of the licence at any time, in any way they like
- using some controversial legal logic, they have stated that the previous licence is no longer valid (despite repeated assurances in the past that it was permanent and that they couldn’t wind it back if they wanted to), so they’re arguing it’s the new licence or nothing.
As you might guess, the Darth Vader memes ‘I have altered the deal, pray i do not alter it any further’ have been flying.
Basically, if the new licence becomes reality it kills every third party publisher there is. It’d basically be equivalent to installing a bomb in your business and handing Hasbro the detonator, and no responsible company could accept that risk. The community … went absolutely chimpshit. We’ve got respected, decade-old companies saying ‘we have no idea how much longer we can sell our work or what our business model is,’ we’ve got fire sales happening on all sorts of stuff because nobody knows hold much longer material will be legal to sell, we’ve got freelance writers and artists literally having to start GoFundMe campaigns to pay rent because they had a years worth of D&D work lined up and now it’s all evaporated in a week, we’ve got respected companies basically saying they’re going to just keep selling D&D stuff regardless of legality and daring Hasbro to sue them. On the main D&D messageboard, 50 of the top 50 threads are currently about the whole business. And ten days later, communications from Hasbro have been one ‘we’re looking at the issue, thank you for your patience’ tweet, and a puff-piece about how they won a ‘most ethical company’ award. Which went down … as well as you’d expect. It’s all now starting to go mainstream, with media outlets picking it up and various youtube influencer types churning out clickbait that’s getting millions of views.
It’s been the biggest PR fuckup since Coco Chanel released their short-lived ‘dog with diarrhea on a hot day’ perfume line, and it all landed when publicity for the upcoming movie is just starting to ramp up. The studio must be thrilled. Far as i can tell it’s all happening because Hasbro appointed a new executive team who all come from Microsoft and Amazon with no industry knowledge, and all they know how to do is monopolistic practices and exploitative monetisation of everything. But it’s all still ongoing, it’s turned a billion dollar industry upside down in a week (an industry that was almost entirely devoted to giving D&D free advertising, mind you!), it’s turned the public image of D&D among its customer base from an amiable and slightly goofy uncle into a rapacious corporate predator, and nobody knows how it’s going to end.
The goblin snarls at you and draws a jagged black dagger. Roll initiative.
11 Likes
I built that during covid, took ages!! And it’s a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. Over the past 6 months I have built the simpsons house and the kwik e mart.
One thing I love about the themed lego sets which are based on tv shows is the amount of detail and throwbacks to certain episodes in them
3 Likes