It’s Tinfoil Hat time again. (*I always mean in a good way.)
I’ve got three things I want to point out briefly. It might resonate, or not, depending on where you stand with the TTRPG community. As always, I can be reached via my various social media links and email. I’m going to try to be gentle this time around as I have some of my own works coming and I don’t want to get everyone too riled up.
I’m going to drop a lot of names in this article. If you feel you have been misrepresented, please feel free to contact me and I will make corrections accordingly. I am going strictly off what I can observe on social media and YouTube. Generally, I’m not attempting to disrespect anyone and if I offend, I’m very willing to apologize and make corrections if I’m wrong.
First, there’s the whole Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License controversy from last year and why I think Wizards of the Coast might be making another attempt at pulling something similar. Then there’s this bizarre, unsettling trend on TTRPG YouTube that I’m seeing. Last, back to D&D 2024 and what might be happening with it.
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
Many of the key players in the Great OGL Debacle of 2023 have been subdued.
Follow me down a rabbit hole for a moment. Lin Codega- laid off from IO9. As far as I can tell, they are now freelancing and as such not in a good place to break a major story such as an OGL scandal. Taron “Indestructoboy” Pounds has relegated himself to non-controversy, light news and strict gaming content after accidentally accusing a Wizards of the Coast artist of using AI. Pounds was blasted all over YouTube and by WotC. Obviously he’s in no place to point out a potential scandal. Then most recently Stephen Glicker of Roll for Combat sent the community scrambling after a rumor that D&D was possibly being sold to Chinese media conglomerate Tencent. He was left with egg on this face when further investigation revealed the story had been constructed off of Glicker’s own very vocal predictions were reposted by an automated news crawler.
Then there’s the rest of the OGL Debacle mainliners. Bob Worldbuilder is back on good terms with WotC following the Content Creators Summit last year. Ted from Nerd Immersion went back to primarily shilling for WotC not long after SRD 5.1 went into Creative Commons. Will of DnD Shorts said he wanted nothing to do with any further scandals following the OGL and deferred to Lin Codega. Ginny Di is back to making her regular content as if nothing happened. Luke from DM’s Lair is waffling back and forth between 5E and Pathfinder 2E. Last, Professor Dungeonmaster most recently came out in favor of the new VTT, having played it at PAX Unplugged. (Define irony…)
So, what would happen if the OGL Debacle were recreated a year later? It may have already been floated to creators behind the scenes. Foundry VTT may have already agreed to whatever new D&D license revision is being offered. I think we’re all jumping the gun if we expect it to be an open license. I think WotC is going to cherry pick creators who they trust to make digital content (Dungeon Dudes, Ghostfire Gaming, etc.) More on that topic later.
What is going on with TTRPG YouTube?
I’ve noticed a few specific cliques forming around certain YouTubers. The most obvious is Stephen Glicker and what I can only call his cult of personality. I can name probably a dozen people in this group and they’re pretty obvious if you watch their channels on a regular basis. I’m a bit leery of naming them all specifically because I’m not trying to infuriate anyone by appearing to call them out. I might have learned my lesson on that when I had that little dust-up on X (Twitter) last year with Ginny Di. (*She’s still not speaking to me so I can apologize properly. Sigh.)
I find it interesting that a good number of the Glicker followers are people I really look up to in the industry. A cluster of the members of this group are appearing at a small convention called Green Dragon Fest in Tennessee later this year. Baron de Ropp, Kelsey Dionne from the Arcane Library, Bob Worldbuilder, Hankerin Ferinale of Runehammer, and Ted from Nerd Immersion are all going to be at this thing in a fantasy themed village with limited tickets available. Good for them. That’s cool.
What concerns me about this seeming Roll for Glicker clique is threefold. First, with all of these YouTube personalities following one voice, it provides a massive echo chamber for one person’s ideas. Now, the person in question already has a humongous ego. If you have one, he had it first and his is bigger. If you’ve visited somewhere, he lived there once and met the president etc… All it will take for Wizards of the Coast to call in a favor with Glicker and suddenly a dozen YouTubers are all singing their tune.
Yes, everyone in Glicker’s clique are intelligent adults and very capable of doing their own thing. But never underestimate the power of groupthink, especially on social media. We’ve seen examples of this type of behavior with another group recently, albeit many years ago, and it was ugly. It wouldn’t take much for any amount of blacklisting and gatekeeping behaviors to creep in. Lucky for us most of the people involved are incredibly warm, understanding, kind people whom I’d trust with my cats… err children. (Whichever is deemed more valuable.)
Many of the YouTubers in question are also TTRPG content creators of physical and digital media. We’re very likely headed into a year where writers, especially former D&D creators, are going to be looking for work. One of my concerns is this clique is going to perpetually turn in on its own members for talent instead of maybe giving someone else a chance. Also, what happens if WotC floats their new game license to this very tightknit group. Might they all sign it?
We see the collaboration clique with a different group all the time now.
Mike Shea aka Sly Flourish, Teos Abadia, Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Gabe Hicks, Makenzie De Armas, and Hannah Rose to name a few all seem to be doing projects together. All/most of them used to work for Wizards of the Coast at one time or may even still be there. There is little doubt in my mind that group will hire or collaborate inward before they would remotely consider looking for new talent.
Why do I mention all this? Again, there may already be a contract for a closed type game license going around to creators just like the OGL 1.1 did. Only this time WotC might have gotten smart about it and kept it under tighter control by having it pass through fewer hands and more “trustworthy” sources. Tinfoil Hat Society question of the day: What if WotC only let their cherrypicked creators make third party content for the new/not-new edition of D&D going forward in 2025?
Speaking of Wizards of the Coast.
If old 5E is in Creative Commons, but new trumps old, can we safely assume that all new material will only be on D&D Beyond or their licensed VTTs? We can technically make all of the old CC-BY-4.0 content we’d like, but it wouldn’t be the shiny, new, walled garden version. I have a feeling exclusivity and what I’d call gatekeeping by contract might become a major issue in 2024-2025.
We could potentially be headed into a situation where if you’re not one of WotC’s handpicked Third Party Publishers making only approved digital only content, you’re going to have to pivot (your entire company’s focus) to a new system/game. It’s a silent version of the OGL Debacle all over again. This time, none of the key whistleblowers, reporters, or influencers are in a position to say anything about it. Venger, Cobra Commander and Starscream couldn’t hatch a plot so sinister working together. (If you’re reading this and I get it right, please tell people you saw it here first. If I’m wrong, it’s probably because I’m drawing too many lines on the corkboard again.)
I see where Joe Manganiello ripped into WotC pretty good today and may be lending some credence to what I’m saying as far as contractors go. Mike Merls and a lot of the physical print team along with significant creative talents were laid off back in December. Combine this with the fact that Hasbro/WotC continues to drop projects all over the place in 2024. Is there going to be anyone left working for D&D who isn’t just making digital content for the video games/VTT?
I’m guessing since Manganiello was spurned on his Dragonlance live action TV show, his work on the 50th Anniversary documentary is either getting tossed out or he’s just not going to be putting in 100% effort on the project. Yes, he’s professional, but I’m not sure any of us would give 100% to a company after it literally took a warm, steamy, dump in our pet project. Pretty sure Manganiello could walk away altogether and not care at this point or make something so mediocre as to be forgotten a week later.
It might be August 2024 at Gen Con before we really know what’s going on with the new core D&D rulebooks. I suspect they’re all going to drop at roughly the same or only slightly staggered times in relation to each other, probably just in time for Christmas. (You know that time where Hasbro likes to lay people off and they need a big influx of money.) There’s apparently no D&D Beyond Showcase this year that I’ve heard of. Either they’re not releasing anything, or they don’t want the heat they got last year for their sad sauce bad acting and phony plastic delivery.
On the upside, we’ve made it most of a week without a major controversy.
The Dragonlance project being cancelled came out on Thursday. For a while it was looking like a quiet week in WotC news. I still firmly believe there is way more going on behind the scenes than we know. Maybe WotC’s Head Chief of Emergency Communications Management Director (or whatever) they hired is doing his job for once. Actually, getting ahead of a problem is far better than putting out fires afterward. I tried to tell them that last year.
Okay. Tinfoil Hat Society meeting is adjourned. Don’t forget to turn in your homework. Thank you for being here. I love my #ttrpgfamily, #dndcommunity, #ttrpgcommunity with all my heart. Even if we disagree and fight, I still appreciate you.
Jeff's Game Box 