On January 27, 2023, Wizards of the Coast dropped its proposed revision of the Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License (OGL). The company said OGL 1.0a would stay in place unchanged, and it would release the entire System Reference Document 5.1 (SRD 5.1) under a Creative Commons license. Creators could then choose which license to work under. The reversal came after a leaked draft drew sustained criticism from publishers, creators, and players.
What Wizards decided
Wizards said it would leave OGL 1.0a “in place, as is. Untouched.” It also committed to making the full SRD 5.1 available under a Creative Commons license, which it described as irrevocable. Creators who build on D&D rules would be able to pick either route. The announcement was published on D&D Beyond on January 27, 2023, and was reported the same day by Axios.
The decision matters because it reversed a plan the company had publicly defended for several weeks. It did not settle every question about D&D licensing, and it did not make the proposed OGL 1.1 or 1.2 terms binding on anyone.
How the dispute unfolded
The OGL is the framework that lets third-party publishers produce material based on D&D rules. The sequence below shows how Wizards moved from a proposed update to a full reversal.
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- December 21, 2022. D&D Beyond published Wizards’ explanation that it planned an updated OGL in early 2023. The company said the update would clarify what content was covered and separate free, share-alike creators from commercial ones.
- January 5, 2023. GeekWire reported on a leaked draft called OGL 1.1. The coverage described product reporting requirements, a revenue-sharing structure above a threshold, a preference for Kickstarter campaigns, and a broad license-back clause.
- January 13, 2023. Wizards issued a statement defending the draft’s goals. It said the draft was meant to address hateful or discriminatory content, to confirm that the OGL covered tabletop roleplaying material rather than web3, blockchain, or NFT uses, and to limit use by large corporations. It acknowledged that the response had not been the one it wanted and that it could not fully pursue all three goals while staying true to its principles.
- January 18, 2023. D&D executive producer Kyle Brink apologized: “We are sorry. We got it wrong.” He said the draft language and requirements had disrupted creators and that the company’s silence had made things worse.
- January 19, 2023. Wizards released OGL 1.2 as a playtest draft and invited feedback. That draft still proposed changing the status of OGL 1.0a, so it was a proposal, not a resolution.
- January 27, 2023. Wizards reversed course, keeping OGL 1.0a unchanged and publishing the SRD 5.1 under Creative Commons.
What the leaked draft and the December proposals contained
Readers often see these terms repeated as settled policy. They were not. Each item below comes from a proposal or a leaked draft reported at the time.
- Reporting threshold (December 2022 proposal): creators selling covered material would have needed to report OGL-related revenue above $50,000 per year.
- Royalty (December 2022 proposal): a royalty would have applied starting in 2024, and only to creators earning more than $750,000 annually.
- Creator badge and license acceptance (December 2022 proposal): creators selling covered material would have needed to accept license terms and use a creator badge.
- Leaked draft provisions (January 2023, as reported by GeekWire): product reporting, revenue sharing above a threshold, a preference for Kickstarter campaigns, and a broad license-back clause. The reporting did not establish the final wording of these terms.
Small creators were the group most exposed to these terms. A reporting duty and a revenue-based royalty are manageable for a large publisher with a finance team, but they can be costly for a one-person studio or a hobbyist who sells a single adventure. That concern, more than the headline royalty figure, is what drove many of the objections.
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Why the backlash was so strong
The objections were not limited to money. Creators worried that the license’s reach was unclear, that the company might later decide what counted as covered content, and that the same terms could be applied in ways they had not expected. GeekWire described calls to boycott D&D and to cancel D&D Beyond subscriptions. It also reported that Paizo would create a system-agnostic Open RPG Creative License (ORC), with Kobold Press, Green Ronin, and Legendary Games among the named collaborators.
Wizards said it had listened to community feedback. The sources establish that the reversal came after intense criticism. They do not establish how many subscription cancellations, if any, influenced the decision.
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What the company’s survey reported
Wizards published results from a live survey that had received more than 15,000 responses by January 27, 2023. These figures are company-reported. The survey was open to whoever chose to respond. It was not a representative poll of all D&D players or creators, so the numbers describe the respondents, not the wider community.
| Survey item (as reported by Wizards) | Result |
|---|---|
| Respondents who did not want to publish TTRPG content under OGL 1.2 | 88% |
| Respondents who said they would have to change some aspect of their business to accommodate OGL 1.2 | 90% |
| Respondents dissatisfied with deauthorizing OGL 1.0a | 89% |
| Respondents dissatisfied with the draft VTT policy | 86% |
| Respondents satisfied with including SRD content under Creative Commons | 62% |
Axios independently reported the 88% and 90% figures and the response count. Cite them as Wizards’ survey results from January 2023.
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Choosing between the two routes
The January 27 announcement gave creators two paths. The table compares them on the points that matter for a publishing decision. Where the company did not state a term in its announcement, the table says so.
| Question | OGL 1.0a (unchanged) | SRD 5.1 under Creative Commons |
|---|---|---|
| Status after January 27, 2023 announcement | Left in place, as is | Full SRD 5.1 released; described as irrevocable |
| Best fit | Creators who want to build on the existing OGL 1.0a framework | Creators who want SRD 5.1 content under a Creative Commons license |
| Irrevocability | Not stated in the announcement | Described by Wizards as irrevocable |
| Scope beyond the published SRD | Not stated in the announcement | Limited to the SRD 5.1 content as published |
The announcement is a summary. Anyone planning a product should read the actual license text on the publisher’s site, check which content is covered, and consult a qualified lawyer before relying on any reading of the terms.
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What is and is not established
- The January 27, 2023 decision is established by the company’s own announcement and by Axios’ same-day reporting.
- The December 2022 reporting and revenue figures were proposals that Wizards later withdrew along with the draft.
- The leaked OGL 1.1 terms are known only from press reporting of a draft, not from a final text.
- This article reflects the statements and reporting available in late 2022 and January 2023. It does not track later changes to D&D licensing, and readers should check current terms before making any decision.
Why this matters for creators and personal finance
For a creator, the practical lesson is about risk. Any license that asks a business to report revenue, pay a percentage of income, or accept terms that may change should be read with a finance-minded eye. Ask what the threshold is, who decides whether content is covered, whether the terms can be changed later, and what records you would need to keep. The 2023 episode shows that even a published plan can be withdrawn, so the terms that matter are the ones in the final license text, not the ones in press coverage of a draft.
The reversal also shows that a licensing dispute can lead to alternatives. Paizo’s ORC project was announced as a system-agnostic option, which gives creators another framework to compare against D&D’s own licenses.
Sources for this article: D&D Beyond / Wizards of the Coast announcements dated December 21, 2022; January 13, 2023; January 18, 2023; January 19, 2023; and January 27, 2023 (“OGL 1.0a & Creative Commons”). GeekWire, January 2023, on the leaked draft and the ORC announcement. Axios, January 27, 2023, on the decision and survey figures.
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