Over the past week, you may have heard that Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro stirred up a bit of controversy regarding D&D's OGL (Open Game License). Plans to implement unpopular changes that would clamp down on unofficial RPGs were quickly walked back in an attempt to mitigate some of the backlash, but now Wizards of the Coast has issued a formal apology and explained how updating the OGL will work in the future.
The apology comes from Dungeons & Dragons exectuive producer Kyle Brink via a blog post on the official D&D Beyond website. In the post, Brink talks about wanting to create "a path forward" and says that the company "got it wrong" in reference to the OGL changes.
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Related: Dungeons & Dragons: What Is The Open Game License
"We are sorry," says Brink. "We got it wrong. Our language and requirements in the draft OGL were disruptive to creators and not in support of our core goals of protecting and cultivating an inclusive play environment and limiting the OGL to TTRPGs. Then we compounded things by being silent for too long. We hurt fans and creators, when more frequent and clear communications could have prevented so much of this."
Brink also explains that future changes to the OGL will be made more "open and transparent" as Wizards of the Coast will now ask for player feedback. Before January 20, a new OGl draft will be written up and players will be allowed to review changes and leave feedback. Wizards will then use this feedback to make iterations on their previous draft, thus taking into account the opinions of players and making the process more transparent.
Brink also outlines the content that will never be affected by any future OGL changes, such as video content, accessories for your owned content, non-published works, and a whole lot more. Hopefully, this will go some way to helping Wizards repair the damage its inflicted on player trust, although it will probably need to work a lot harder to get everyone back on board.