Dungeons & Dragons is reportedly clamping down on unofficial RPGs with a new Open Gaming License, one that several creators and fans have said is "an attempt to dismantle the entire RPG industry". While D&D and Wizards of the Coast have yet to officially comment, it has reportedly cancelled an upcoming announcement about OGL as it's trying to articulate a response.
To boot, an alleged WotC employee has been sending emails out to "community leaders", stating that the rollout of OGL has been delayed and that "They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through."
This same email revealed that employees allegedly found out about the new OGL at the same time as the community, with managment blaming "the community for over-reacting". It also claimed that D&D leadership is primarily looking at subscription cancellations to gauge how bad the backlash is, with many using the #OpenDND hashtag used in the open letter (which was signed by over 26,000 people) to announce just that - cancellations.
As reported by Gizmodo, the new OGL 2.0 was reportedly intended to go live on Thursday afternoon, but several high-profile players and creators called on the community to cancel their D&D Beyond subscriptions to send a message to WotC. Shortly after, people took to Twitter with screenshots saying that the Subscription Management page was down due to an "Internal Server Error".
Pathfinder, a D&D rival which will be forced to pay a 25 percent tax under the new OGL, has also stood against it. Instead of signing on, creator Paizo has announced its own Open Game License, the Open RPG Creative License. Multiple publishers have already signed on, while Paizo confirmed that it still plans to support Pathfinder and Starfinder, even as it moves away from the OGL.