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unravellingsilencehq · 1 year

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“Oh, Merlin, tell me, does THE ALCHEMIST get what he deserves?” He is in THE DEATH EATERS & OPEN to finding out.

— he walks through the world as ;

name → severus snape pronouns → he/him identification → cis male year of birth → september 1959 - september 1960 face claim → viveik kalra blood status → half-blood sexual orientation → up to applicant occupation → potioneer at mr mulpepper’s apothecary in knockturn alley future information → traitor to the death eaters, eventual member of the order of the phoenix

— he is best described as ;

DARK and GLOOMY like that of a closed off lab. The SOLITUDE one finds when alone in their room, a LONER who prefers to get lost in HISTORY than the present day. He’s a SHARP TONGUE poised in defense, ready to FIGHT the threats that come his way. An OUTSIDER who shaped himself to fit in with the crowd. With a COLD HEART, he TURNS his BACK on those who once offered him a hand.

— his story starts with ;

Severus Snape always believed himself to be the smartest person in the room. He was the only born child to a Muggle, Tobias Snape, and a witch, Eileen Prince, who lived in Spinner’s End. From a young age Severus had been a curious boy, preferring the company of books and journals to the children that lived near him. Unusual for someone so young, Severus enjoyed the peace and quiet that came from being alone. No siblings to follow him around, no friends to continuously pull him away from his books, his room became a sanctuary of silence and Severus thrived in it. Despite his mother’s worries that he should start making friends, he stayed put with his abnormally large nose buried deep in his books. Finally realizing her words were falling on deaf ears, Eileen left him to his room, especially as time went by and Tobias grew colder. A man that never saw fatherhood in his future, Tobias spent most of his time in Spinner’s End wasting away with a glass of whiskey in hand. The only acknowledgement he’d give to his family was a scolding for the littlest of things. Severus grew to hate his father and his Muggle side, though he was never brave enough to admit that to Tobias, and instead let the feelings fester year after year.

With his father being the result of his disdain for all things Muggle, Severus leaned heavily into his wizarding side of the family. His thoughts were if Muggles could be this cold and cruel to their own blood, what were they like towards strangers? He enjoyed his sheltered life, not even realizing what else the world had to offer to him. Locked in the four walls of his room, Severus tried to drink in as much information as he could. To Severus, knowledge was power and if yielded correctly, he could do anything. His lonely world changed though the day he met LILY EVANS [former friend/object of affection]. Passing her by chance on the street one day, he extended a rare hand of friendship. A Muggle-born witch, Lily had no knowledge of abilities she possessed, let alone anything of the Wizarding world and Severus was more than happy to fill her in. Normally one to stick to his own devices, the wizard enjoyed the complete awe on Lily’s face as he spoke of magical creatures, wizarding shops, and most importantly Hogwarts. They became inseparable, spending many afternoons sitting by the lake near Lily’s home exchanging stories. Soon enough when September 1st rolled around, they were both boarding the scarlet train to school.

Quickly being sorted into Slytherin, he had to watch from his table as Lily anxiously made her way to Gryffindor, her new house and his rival. The jealousy that flowed through him as he watched her make new friends, unbeknownst to either of them those new friends would become his biggest enemies. The idea of spending their Hogwarts years together came crashing down but Severus distracted himself by befriending his roommates, JASPER AVERY [close friend] and LARKIN MULCIBER [close friend]. They formed a close knit trio, targeting those they deemed less worthy of magic with pranks. Having a rather silent childhood, Severus enjoyed his roommates' company in small doses, often finding his nose back in a book when they weren’t around. His loner attitude is what drew a target on his back to JAMES POTTER [adversary], SIRIUS BLACK [adversary], REMUS LUPIN [adversary], and PETER PETTIGREW [adversary]. Known as the Marauders, they were famous amongst all the students. And Severus could only sit back and watch as even Lily wasn’t completely immune to their charms. Severus could feel his position in her life fading away the closer she got to the Gryffindor boys.

What had started as a curious eye following the boys whenever they approached Lily at the Gryffindor table, it quickly grew to an obsession. James, the Marauders ringleader, was the first one to show signs of dislike towards Severus and his little gang of brothers quickly followed. Words would be exchanged and more often than not spells would follow. Severus truly despised James; he was arrogant and egocentric and Severus had no idea how someone like that could capture Lily’s affections so quickly. Years had put a heavy strain on his friendship with Lily, although they both tried to keep it alive but the differences in friend groups grew too strong. In his spare time, the Slytherin found himself trailing the boys, determined to prove they were hiding something. Never in his wildest of dreams did Severus ever think he’d owe a life debt to Potter. A horrible prank orchestrated by Black to invite Severus along turned into the Slytherin coming face to face with Lupin during his werewolf transformation, a stag being the creature to rescue him from his classmate during the full moon. It wasn’t until meeting with PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE [former headmaster] that he discovered the stag had been Potter in his animagus form.

The result of the disastrous prank had the wizard keeping his distance from all the Gryffindors, pushing himself into his classwork, excelling in DADA and Potions specifically. Though spell invention was something that came as a surprise to him. The Levicorpus spell had quickly become popular, and not knowing Severus was the creator of the charm, James used it to humiliate him in front of Lily and his friends. That was the day the last thread of their friendship fell apart, not taking into consideration the crowd that had gathered the Slytherin had uttered the horrid word ‘mudblood’ as Lily attempted to defend and help him. Things happened too quickly and the only thing he could remember was watching Lily turn her back on him forever. After that Severus fell further into the crowd of Slytherins, welcoming the invitation from Larkin’s older brother to meet with a wizard known by the name, THE DARK LORD [leader] after graduation. Fueled by how things ended in his last years of Hogwarts with the Marauders and Lily, the Half-Blood wizard signed himself up for the cause.

Having secured a job at Mr. Mulpepper’s Apothecary in Knockturn Alley, Severus had found himself unsure of the cause until he was thrust into the spotlight. His first significant mission had him teaming up with his fellow Death Eaters LUCIUS MALFOY [acquaintance] and REGULUS BLACK [acquaintance] at the Yule Ball of 1983 that had ended in a disaster after they failed to kill the proper target. He was then sent to retrieve a prophecy that had previously failed to get in the Dark Lord’s grasp, from the Fountain of Fair Fortune with Regulus and ALEXANDRA ROSIER [acquaintance]. Thankfully that mission had turned around in their favor and he had been branded with the Dark Mark as a reward. Having been instructed by the Dark Lord to lay low after the Summer Solstice ball, Severus has been busying himself with his work. The potion making is tedious but it has kept his mind occupied to think on the decisions that have led him to 1986. He felt he had been making the right decision in joining these dark crusades at the time but now things have mellowed, Severus was giving more time to think about things and what having this tattoo etched into his arm will mean for his future.

— he is a LEVEL 7 WIZARD & readied for war ;

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leidensygdom · 1 year

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So, what is the OGL and why are DnD creators thoroughly screwed?

Tumblr has not been doing a great job at talking about this, but:

With OneDnD, Wizards of the Coast has decided to update the Open Game License (OGL). Said license is what allowed people to create homebrew DnD content and sell it, and even larger companies to use certain sorts of content. Pathfinder, for example, is built on said OGL. This also allows streamers and artists to exist and benefit from said content.

With OneDnD (sometimes called “dnd 6e”), WOTC wants to create a much more restrictive OGL, which will, amongst other things:

Make WOTC take a cut for any DnD-related work (according to Kickstarter, a whole 25% of the benefits)

Let WOTC cancel any project related to DnD up to their discretion

Let WOTC take ANY content made based on their system, and re-sell it without crediting you, or giving you a single cent

And most importantly, revoke the old OGL, which will harm any company or game system that used it as a base, such as Pathfinder. And it means they GET ownership over any homebrew content you may have done for 5e in the past!

It’s important to note that OGLs are supposedly irrevocable. They were planning to use it for OneDnD initially, but they want to apply it retroactively to 5e, somehow. Which is illegal, but lawyers have mentioned there’s a chance they may get away with it given the wording.

This means that anything you make based on DnD (A homebrew item? A character drawing? Even music, according to them?), can get taken and used as they deem appropiate.

These news come from a leak of the OGL, which have been confirmed by multiple reputable sources (including Kickstarter, which has confirmed that WOTC already talked with them about this), and was planned to be released next week.

So, what can we do?

Speak against it. Share the word. Reblog this post. Let people know. Tumblr hasn’t been talking much about this matter, but it’s VERY important to let people know about what is WOTC bringing.

Boycott them. Do not buy their products. Do not buy games with their IP. Do not watch their movie. CANCEL your DnD Beyond subscription. (Btw, they ARE planning to release more subscription services too!). They do not care about the community, but they care about the money. Make sure to speak through it.

And maybe consider other TTRPG systems for the time being, Pathfinder’s Paizo has been much nicer to the community, their workers are unionized and are far more healthy overall

#dnd #wotc #wizards of the coast #open gaming license #ogl #dnd5e #dnd 5e #homebrew #ttrpg #pathfinder #dungeons and dragons #d&d

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kizzer55555 · 27 days

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DP x DC: The Most Dangerous Card Game

Ok so Danny has essentially claimed earth as his. And he is fully aware that there are constant threats to the planet. Now he can’t stop a threat that originates on earth (that’s something he’ll leave to the Justice league) but he can do something about outside threats. Doing some research on ancient spells, rituals, and artifacts, he cast a world wide barrier on the planet to protect it from hostile threats so they cannot enter. This will prevent another Pariah Dark incident. However, barriers like this come at a price. You see, there are two ways to make a barrier. Either make one powered up by your own energy and power (which would be constantly draining) or set up a barrier with rules. The way magic works is that nothing can be absolutely indestructible. It must have a weakness. The most powerful barriers weren’t the ones reinforced with layer after layer of protective charms and buffed up with power. Those could eventually be destroyed either by being overpowered, wearing them down, or by cutting off the original power source. No, the most powerful barriers were the ones with a deliberate weakness. A barrier indestructible except for one spot. A cage that can only be opened from the outside. Or that can only be passed with a key or by solving a riddle. So Danny chooses this type of barrier and does the necessary ritual and pours in enough power to make it. And he adds his condition for anyone to enter.

Now the Justice league? Find out about the barrier when Trigon attempts to attack, they were preparing after he threatened what he would do once he got to earth. How he would destroy them. The Justice league tried to take the fight to him first but were utterly destroyed, so they retreated home to tend to their injuries, and fortify earth for one. Last. Stand. Only when Trigon makes his big entrance…he’s stopped.

The Justice league watch in awe as this thin see-through barrier with beautiful green swirls and speckled white lights like stars apears blocking Trigon and his army’s advance. The barrier looks so thin and fragile yet no matter how hard the warlord hits, none of his attacks can get through and neither can he damage said barrier. That’s when Constantine and Zatanna recognizes what this barrier is. Something only a powerful entity could create. For a moment, the league is filled with hope that Trigon can’t get through yet Constantine also explains that it’s not impenetrable. And clearly Trigon knows this too for he calls out a challenge.

And that’s when, in a flash of light, a tiny glowing teenager appears. He looked absolutly minuscule compared to Trigon and yet practically glowed with power (this isn’t a King Danny AU though).

And that is when the conditions for passing the barrier are revealed. And the Justice realize that the only thing stopping Trigon and his army from decimating earth. The only way he can get through….is by beating this glowing teenager in a card game.

Not just any card game though. The most convoluted game Sam, Danny, and Tucker invented themselves. It’s like the infinite realms version of magic the gathering, combined with Pokémon, and chess. And Danny is the master. So sit down Trigon and let’s play.

(The most intense card game of the Justice league’s life).

After Danny wins, this happens a few more times with outer word beings and possibly even demons attempting to invade earth, yet none have been able to beat the mysterious teenager in a card game. Constantine might even take a crack at it and try to figure out how to play. He’s really bad though. Every time this happens, the Justice league worry that this might be the time the teenager looses. Yet every time, he wins (even if only barely).

Meanwhile, Danny, Sam, and Tucker have gotten addicted to the game and play it almost daily. Some teachers might seem them playing the game are are like ‘awww how cute’ not realizing this game is literally saving the world. Jazz is just happy they aren’t spending as much time on their screens playing Doomed.

#DPxDC #dcxdp #Danny makes a card game to save the world.#Technically he worded the ritual so that they had to ‘beat’ him as those are the most powerful barriers and most reliable.#keys can just get lost or stolen (like the one to Pariah’s Coffin)#A riddle would be useless once someone figured out the answer. Like how no one takes the sphynx seriously anymore.#(Sorry Tuck. But it’s true).#And there is NO WAY Danny is just leaving a hole open for anyone to pass through. No thank you!#So…beating him. But it’s not like Danny wanted to fight so…he edited the ritual a TINY bit. Card games are good. Much less painful too.#Danny Tucker and Sam made the most complicated card game they could imagine.#It’s based on their strategies for fighting ghosts. Capturing them in thermoses. And MUCH based on a on field battle strategy.#It often requires spontaneous thinking on the spot. So Danny? In his ELEMNT. It doubles as practice for his actual ghost battles too.#They had SO much fun making this.#Sam added an entire series of plant cards that act as traps and healing ointments and duds that just take up the field.#Tucker added legitimate hyroglyphics combined with Latin as well as English and ghost speak.#Yes. You actually have to speak that language to play. With proper pronunciation. (Amity Parker’s think the three are talking gibberish.)#I headcanon Sam and Tucker are fluent in Ghost.#Constantine WILL figure this game out SO HELP HIM!#Some of the cards also have combinations related to constellations either in name or placement on the board.#By the way the board is based on a Hexagonal summoning circle with Rhunes along the edges #And the placement of the cards on the board and on what rhune MATTERS.#Also the cards move disintegrate and have certain abilities. Think of Harry Potter Wizard Chess.#But they are normal when Danny plays at school. This is just for ✨effect✨ Against invaders.#Danny faces multiple opponents. He also halts alien invasions.#While Danny COULD stop crime on earth he’s not sure how to fight a normal human and hold back so he sticks to ghosts.#The Justice league are going crazy trying to figure out who this entity is and after deep research are convinced this is some sort of #Ancient being who has protected earth for millenia. They have paintings on ruins and everything.#Danny is not aware they think this.#Raven starts praying to Danny as if he is a god and wrangles the other Teen Titans into doing so as well. Danny is still unaware of this.#Danny is not a King or an ancient. Just a very VERY strong ghost.

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vexwerewolf · 1 year

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The thing is, D&D is not a game.

I know that sounds insane, but hear me out: D&D is not a game, it is a games console. You don't actually "play D&D." You play "Dragon Heist" or "Tomb of Annihilation" or "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" or "your GM's homebrew campaign" or "the plot of Critical Role Season 1 reconstructed from memory" on D&D.

For quite a long while now - possibly literal decades - D&D hasn't even been the best games console, but it's been "the one everyone knows about" and "the one my friends have" and in fact it's "the one whose name is almost synonymous with the entire medium of TTRPGs," like how "Nintendo" or "Playstation" could just mean "games console" to people who didn't understand games consoles. They might not have heard of a "tabletop roleplaying game," but most people have heard of "Dungeons & Dragons."

For this extended metaphor, D&D is Nintendo back in the 90s, or Playstation in the 2000s. Sometimes you say "oh let's go to my house and play Nintendo" or "c'mon dude I wanna play Playstation" but you're not actually playing Nintendo or Playstation, you're playing Resident Evil or Super Mario Bros or Jurassic Park or Metal Gear Solid or whatever on a Nintendo or a Playstation.

Now, this metaphor is going to get even more tortured, but remember how when the PS2 and the original X-Box came out, they used a standardised DVD format, but the Nintendo console in that generation, the Gamecube, used discs but they were this proprietary tiny little disc format that they had control over? That essentially meant that it was really difficult to make third party titles for the Gamecube that did literally anything that Nintendo didn't want them to do, and also essentially gave Nintendo an even greater ability to skim money off the top of any sales?

So that must've seemed like a smart business decision in their heads. But the PS2 and the X-Box used DVDs. This was a standardized format which gave Microsoft and Sony way less control over who made games for their consoles, but that actually turned out to be a good thing for gaming, because it meant that the breadth of games that you could play on their consoles was massively increased even if some of them were games Microsoft and Sony didn't really approve of. (Also it's worth nothing that the PS2 and the X-Box could just play DVDs, which meant if your household was on a budget, you didn't need a separate DVD player - your games console could do it for you! This was actually a huge selling point!)

What Wizards are currently trying to do now is kinda-sorta the equivalent of Sony suddenly announcing that the PS5 will only accept a proprietary cartridge format they hold the patent on, will control the content of and charge money for the construction of. This possibly seems like it could be a moneymaker in your head because you hold market dominance (apparently the PS5 has 30 million units shipped compared to X-Box Series X 20 million units) and so many people make games for your console, but what it actually means is game devs and publishers will abandon your product. If it takes so much more work, the scope of what they're allowed to do is so much more limited and they're going to make less money off of it, they just won't bother. They'll go make games for the X-Box or PC instead.

To use another computer metaphor, D&D is Windows - it might not be the best system but it's the system most people are familiar with and so it gets the most stuff made for it, but there's is an upper limit on the bullshit people will take before they decide fuck it and get an Apple or learn how Linux works.

TTRPG systems are a weird product because you're not selling people a game, you're selling people a method to play a game. All the actual games are created by the community - even prewritten campaigns needs to be executed via a game master. Trying to skim money off the community will mean they'll eventually give up on you.

#open gaming license #dungeons and dragons #ogl #ogl 1.1 #opendnd #wizards of the coast #one dnd #d&d #dnd #tabletop gaming #tabletop roleplaying games #ttrpgs

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Good riddance to the Open Gaming License

Last week, Gizmodo’s Linda Codega caught a fantastic scoop — a leaked report of Hasbro’s plan to revoke the decades-old Open Gaming License, which subsidiary Wizards Of the Coast promulgated as an allegedly open sandbox for people seeking to extend, remix or improve Dungeons and Dragons:

https://gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-ogl-1-1-open-gaming-license-1849950634

The report set off a shitstorm among D&D fans and the broader TTRPG community — not just because it was evidence of yet more enshittification of D&D by a faceless corporate monopolist, but because Hasbro was seemingly poised to take back the commons that RPG players and designers had built over decades, having taken WOTC and the OGL at their word.

Gamers were right to be worried. Giant companies love to rugpull their fans, tempting them into a commons with lofty promises of a system that we will all have a stake in, using the fans for unpaid creative labor, then enclosing the fans’ work and selling it back to them. It’s a tale as old as CDDB and Disgracenote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB#History

(Disclosure: I am a long-serving volunteer board-member for MetaBrainz, which maintains MusicBrainz, a free, open, community-managed and transparent alternative to Gracenote, explicitly designed to resist the kind of commons-stealing enclosure that led to the CDDB debacle.)

https://musicbrainz.org/

Free/open licenses were invented specifically to prevent this kind of fuckery. First there was the GPL and its successor software licenses, then Creative Commons and its own successors. One important factor in these licenses: they contain the word “irrevocable.” That means that if you build on licensed content, you don’t have to worry about having the license yanked out from under you later. It’s rugproof.

Now, the OGL does not contain the word “irrevocable.” Rather, the OGL is “perpetual.” To a layperson, these two terms may seem interchangeable, but this is one of those fine lawerly distinctions that trip up normies all the time. In lawyerspeak, a “perpetual” license is one whose revocation doesn’t come automatically after a certain time (unlike, say, a one-year car-lease, which automatically terminates at the end of the year). Unless a license is “irrevocable,” the licensor can terminate it whenever they want to.

This is exactly the kind of thing that trips up people who roll their own licenses, and people who trust those licenses. The OGL predates the Creative Commons licenses, but it neatly illustrates the problem with letting corporate lawyers — rather than public-interest nonprofits — unleash “open” licenses on an unsuspecting, legally unsophisticated audience.

The perpetual/irrevocable switcheroo is the least of the problems with the OGL. As Rob Bodine— an actual lawyer, as well as a dice lawyer — wrote back in 2019, the OGL is a grossly defective instrument that is significantly worse than useless.

https://gsllcblog.com/2019/08/26/part3ogl/

The issue lies with what the OGL actually licenses. Decades of copyright maximalism has convinced millions of people that anything you can imagine is “intellectual property,” and that this is indistinguishable from real property, which means that no one can use it without your permission.

The copyrightpilling of the world sets people up for all kinds of scams, because copyright just doesn’t work like that. This wholly erroneous view of copyright grooms normies to be suckers for every sharp grifter who comes along promising that everything imaginable is property-in-waiting (remember SpiceDAO?):

https://onezero.medium.com/crypto-copyright-bdf24f48bf99

Copyright is a lot more complex than “anything you can imagine is your property and that means no one else can use it.” For starters, copyright draws a fundamental distinction between ideas and expression. Copyright does not apply to ideas — the idea, say, of elves and dwarves and such running around a dungeon, killing monsters. That is emphatically not copyrightable.

Copyright also doesn’t cover abstract systems or methods — like, say, a game whose dice-tables follow well-established mathematical formulae to create a “balanced” system for combat and adventuring. Anyone can make one of these, including by copying, improving or modifying an existing one that someone else made. That’s what “uncopyrightable” means.

Finally, there are the exceptions and limitations to copyright — things that you are allowed to do with copyrighted work, without first seeking permission from the creator or copyright’s proprietor. The best-known exception is US law is fair use, a complex doctrine that is often incorrectly characterized as turning on “four factors” that determine whether a use is fair or not.

In reality, the four factors are a starting point that courts are allowed and encouraged to consider when determining the fairness of a use, but some of the most consequential fair use cases in Supreme Court history flunk one, several, or even all of the four factors (for example, the Betamax decision that legalized VCRs in 1984, which fails all four).

Beyond fair use, there are other exceptions and limitations, like the di minimis exemption that allows for incidental uses of tiny fragments of copyrighted work without permission, even if those uses are not fair use. Copyright, in other words, is “fact-intensive,” and there are many ways you can legally use a copyrighted work without a license.

Which brings me back to the OGL, and what, specifically, it licenses. The OGL is a license that only grants you permission to use the things that WOTC can’t copyright — “the game mechanic [including] the methods, procedures, processes and routines.” In other words, the OGL gives you permission to use things you don’t need permission to use.

But maybe the OGL grants you permission to use more things, beyond those things you’re allowed to use anyway? Nope. The OGL specifically exempts:

Product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark…

Now, there are places where the uncopyrightable parts of D&D mingle with the copyrightable parts, and there’s a legal term for this: merger. Merger came up for gamers in 2018, when the provocateur Robert Hovden got the US Copyright Office to certify copyright in a Magic: The Gathering deck:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/14/angels-and-demons/#owning-culture

If you want to learn more about merger, you need to study up on Kregos and Eckes, which are beautifully explained in the “Open Intellectual Property Casebook,” a free resource created by Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/#q01

Jenkins and Boyle explicitly created their open casebook as an answer to another act of enclosure: a greedy textbook publisher cornered the market on IP textbook and charged every law student — and everyone curious about the law — $200 to learn about merger and other doctrines.

As EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kit Walsh writes in her must-read analysis of the OGL, this means “the only benefit that OGL offers, legally, is that you can copy verbatim some descriptions of some elements that otherwise might arguably rise to the level of copyrightability.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/beware-gifts-dragons-how-dds-open-gaming-license-may-have-become-trap-creators

But like I said, it’s not just that the OGL fails to give you rights — it actually takes away rights you already have to D&D. That’s because — as Walsh points out — fair use and the other copyright limitations and exceptions give you rights to use D&D content, but the OGL is a contract whereby you surrender those rights, promising only to use D&D stuff according to WOTC’s explicit wishes.

“For example, absent this agreement, you have a legal right to create a work using noncopyrightable elements of D&D or making fair use of copyrightable elements and to say that that work is compatible with Dungeons and Dragons. In many contexts you also have the right to use the logo to name the game (something called “nominative fair use” in trademark law). You can certainly use some of the language, concepts, themes, descriptions, and so forth. Accepting this license almost certainly means signing away rights to use these elements. Like Sauron’s rings of power, the gift of the OGL came with strings attached.”

And here’s where it starts to get interesting. Since the OGL launched in 2000, a huge proportion of game designers have agreed to its terms, tricked into signing away their rights. If Hasbro does go through with canceling the OGL, it will release those game designers from the shitty, deceptive OGL.

According to the leaks, the new OGL is even worse than the original versions — but you don’t have to take those terms! Notwithstanding the fact that the OGL says that “using…Open Game Content” means that you accede to the license terms, that is just not how contracts work.

Walsh: “Contracts require an offer, acceptance, and some kind of value in exchange, called ‘consideration.’ If you sell a game, you are inviting the reader to play it, full stop. Any additional obligations require more than a rote assertion.”

“For someone who wants to make a game that is similar mechanically to Dungeons and Dragons, and even announce that the game is compatible with Dungeons and Dragons, it has always been more advantageous as a matter of law to ignore the OGL.”

Walsh finishes her analysis by pointing to some good licenses, like the GPL and Creative Commons, “written to serve the interests of creative communities, rather than a corporation.” Many open communities — like the programmers who created GNU/Linux, or the music fans who created Musicbrainz, were formed after outrageous acts of enclosure by greedy corporations.

If you’re a game designer who was pissed off because the OGL was getting ganked — and if you’re even more pissed off now that you’ve discovered that the OGL was a piece of shit all along — there’s a lesson there. The OGL tricked a generation of designers into thinking they were building on a commons. They weren’t — but they could.

This is a great moment to start — or contribute to — real open gaming content, licensed under standard, universal licenses like Creative Commons. Rolling your own license has always been a bad idea, comparable to rolling your own encryption in the annals of ways-to-fuck-up-your-own-life-and-the-lives-of-many-others. There is an opportunity here — Hasbro unintentionally proved that gamers want to collaborate on shared gaming systems.

That’s the true lesson here: if you want a commons, you’re not alone. You’ve got company, like Kit Walsh herself, who happens to be a brilliant game-designer who won a Nebula Award for her game “Thirsty Sword Lesbians”:

https://evilhat.com/product/thirsty-sword-lesbians/

[Image ID: A remixed version of David Trampier's 'Eye of Moloch,' the cover of the first edition of the AD&D Player's Handbook. It has been altered so the title reads 'Advanced Copyright Fuckery. Unclear on the Concept. That's Just Not How Licenses Work. No, Seriously.' The eyes of the idol have been replaced by D20s displaying a critical fail '1.' Its chest bears another D20 whose showing face is a copyright symbol.]

#pluralistic #copyfraud #wizards of the coast #wotc #dungeons and dragons #d&d #ogl #open gaming license #eff #fair use #kit walsh #consideration #licenses

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hellothereimaloser · 4 months

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New year new fandom babesss, anyway anyone wants to talk about this show???? I need moots :')) Also I loove Jim's and Barbara's relationship was shown in the show (an actually present parent that supports their child? slay)

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airenfolio · 7 months

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Mr waterdeep you are so beautiful

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale #gale bg3 #baldurs gate #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #art #illustration #fanart #commissions open #commissions #down bad horrendously for the wizard #please rb

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hejkal · 2 months

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this pride parade fucking sucks

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the-original-gays · 4 months

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Dumbledore: Apparently, someone has been leaking classified information to the death eaters. The entire order is under investigation.

Marlene: That's crazy. No one here's a spy.

Dumbledore: How can you be so sure?

Marlene: Because I know these guys. I know everything about them.

Dumbledore: You're naive if you think people can't surprise you.

Marlene: Not these people. Here, watch this, I know what everyone's going to do tonight. It's Thursday, so Lily's going to leave early for healer training. Sirius will be working on his stupid bike. Remus will be warning Sirius about how dangerous his stupid bike is. And Peter will be visiting his mum.

Pete: She gets worried if I don't check in regularly.

Marlene: And, if I run and jump at James, he will most certainly catch me in his arms.

Marlene, sprinting to James: COMING IN!

James: NO! I'M HOLDING HOT TEA!

James: *Drops tea to catch Marlene*

#one of the best brooklen 99 openings!#harry potter series #the marauders era #marauders #marauders era #the marauders #first wizarding war #albus dumbledore #marlene mckinnon #lily evans #lily potter #remus lupin #sirius black #peter pettigrew #james potter #wolfstar #remus x sirius #sirius x remus

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undead-knick-knack · 2 months

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Ludinus for like the last 500years

Meanwhile, on Exandria

There was an open portal the entire goddamn time 😂

#fucking wizards man #critical role #cr3 #cr c3 #critrole #critrole memes #ludinus da'leth #ruidus #exandria #open portal #cr spoilers #cr memes #cr shitpost #courtesy of me #cr campaign three #crit role #critrole meme

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unravellingsilencehq · 1 year

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“Oh, Merlin, tell me, does THE ADDICTED LOVER get what he deserves?” He is NEUTRAL & OPEN to finding out.“

— he walks through the world as ;

name → ajax davis pronouns → he/him identification → cis-male year of birth → september 1957 - september 1958 face claim → alex fitzalan blood status → pure-blood sexual orientation → up to applicant occupation → little scholars coordinator for the british and irish quidditch league in the department of magical sports and games at the ministry of magic future information → husband of aurelia rookwood, father of tracey davis

— he is best described as ;

The scent of FRESH GRASS packaged in a FITTED SUIT, he is what every former JOCK longs to become in the CORPORATE WORLD. He is BOYISH CHARM & the DIMPLES when he SMILES and sheer INNOCENCE masked with a FIRM HANDSHAKE. He belives in TRUE LOVE’S KISS & HAPPILY EVER AFTERS rather than opening his eyes to DANGER & DARKNESS.

— his story starts with ;

Ajax Davis has always been a strong character, though as he’s grown older, his once admirable trait has become a cause of concern for his family. The middle child of his family Ajax has always felt shielded by his older sister CORDELIA DAVIS [sibling] who has felt the majority of their parents expectations. The Davis family own Moribund’s, an exclusive club in Knockturn Alley, their grandparents had founded when they moved over from Ireland. Moribund’s was their trump card, placing them a head and shoulders above other pure-blood families that weren’t in the Sacred Twenty-Eight and ensuring those who were, respected them. For as long as Ajax could remember, his sister was groomed to take over the club. For Ajax, their plans were simple. Find himself a fine partner, preferably from the Twenty Eight to strengthen the Davis bloodline and produce an heir. Whilst Cordelia was expected to work to keep their family in credit, Ajax was to live off the money and strengthen them socially, which of course sounded fun to most young boys. His path in life was somewhat enviable, though Cordelia never spoke out of turn and did everything their family asked.

His younger sister ROSALINE DAVIS [sibling] had full ownership of being the difficult family member. Like Ajax, Rosaline was expected to marry well and become a socialite, but it was quite clear she wasn’t going to tow the line. His sister had great plans of being an artist and under blanket forts and in quiet moments between lessons she’d urge him to think bigger. She’d ask him where he wanted to go and what he wanted to see, but the truth of the matter was Ajax didn’t know. Like most young boys he loved Quidditch, a career in sports seemed dreamlike to him, but with his parents standing he knew they’d never go for him having a job at all let alone one in Quidditch. A departure from family tradition, Ajax was sorted into Ravenclaw, a blessing in disguise as he was away from the watchful eye of his older sister. Ajax quickly found his footing in Ravenclaw, befriending fellow Quidditch enthusiasts, TARAN POWELL [best friend], ZAFIR JAMEEL [best friend] and DANAE ALTON [best friend/potential love interest]. The group were known for being attractive and jock-like, with a light air of snobbery that only seemed dimmed due to a rival Ravenclaw group in their year who believed they ruled the roost.

KERVENS BORGIN [rival] was also part of the Ravenclaw team, though he spent all of his time with CAIUS BURKE [rival], RABASTAN LESTRANGE [rival] and XERXES ZABINI [rival], which irritated him. Although being friends with other houses was acceptable, as the future captain of the team, Ajax wanted some level of solidarity between the team and was conscious that Kerevens was the kind of person with loose lips that might leak their strategies. Danae in particular believed he was paranoid and that his suspicions were rooted in jealousy, due to a long standing candle he held for Kerevens close friend. AURELIA ROOKWOOD [partner] had been the object of Ajax’s affection for as long as he could remember. Aurelia was the most beautiful girl he had ever met and Ajax had accepted long ago she probably wouldn’t want anything to do with him. Although he thought incredibly highly of himself, Aurelia carried herself in such a way people had suspected she might have Veela blood. She made him nervous, uncomfortable and excited, the only person to ever throw him off his game and make him suspect that perhaps relationships and marriage did not have to be advantageous after all.

Despite being a half-blood, he was confident there was no better woman on earth than her and not even the most reasonable person could make him reconsider. His best friends of course hated her. Aurelia, like Kerevens, spent the majority of her time with the popular Slytherin group and regularly partook in putting other people down and the occasional wicked prank. Danae in particular despised her, which was incredibly hurtful for him. Entering into the world as a gentleman, Ajax was forced to hang up his broom and captain’s badge to join society, rubbing shoulders with all the people he didn’t care much for at school. His mother would regularly try and set him up with the likes of ANDROMEDA BLACK [acquaintance] and ROSALIE FLINT [acquaintance] but none of them quite seemed to stick. To get his mother off his back, he enjoyed a long courtship with ADRASTEIA GREENGRASS [former partner], whom he had known from school and did in fact find her to be quite pleasant. Adrasteia had big ideas of leaving society and starting her own bar, secretly mixing drinks for Moribund’s rival Eternelle's Elixir of Refreshment behind her family’s back. Over dinner they’d sit and discuss what their life could be like together.

Now his older sister Cordelia had run off, they’d be running Moribund’s together and Ajax could even maybe try out for a Quidditch team while he was still young and talented. He could have been happy with Adrasteia had he really truly tried, but Ajax found the siren’s call all too loud and sadly for them both he was powerless to ignore it. For Ajax falling in love with Aurelia was like diving into the ocean, tentative at first but then all in. They began dating under Adreasteia’s nose, sneaking around with one another in a scandalous sordid affair. Adrasteia soon became suspicious and called off their engagement. Her leaving was something of a relief to him, with his family already in tatters as it was. His sister had run off to follow her dreams and his father had run off to be with a twenty-five year old. Everyone in his family was finally trying to live their lives according to themselves and it was about time he did also. She convinced him to follow his passions, past the age of being able to play Quidditch he was best off working for The British and Irish League at the Ministry.

Ajax applied and secured his current position, managing all the paper work of the award and scholarship programs that are held in the association. Though it didn’t seem all that impressive, he was fairly senior for his first job and enjoyed working with hopeful players. His mother wasn’t happy he’d gotten a job and she was even less happy when his engagement to a beautiful girl from the sacred Twenty-Eight went up in smoke. Single with his own money Ajax decided to take the leap and go public with Aurelia. He was happy, his mother was outraged and his sister Rosaline was even less happy now that the family name was squarely on her shoulders. Ignoring his family wishes was liberating and despite alienating himself from his mother and most of his friends who thought he was an idiot, he was happy with Aurelia. But old habits die hard and Ajax isn’t positive she’s quit her old ways. A former flirtatious girl with a man’s heart always firm in her grip, Aurelia isn’t a stranger to coming home late and often she doesn’t smell of her own perfume. Ajax is suspicious that the love of his life might be straying from him, but little does he know - an affair is the least of his worries.

— he is a LEVEL 5 WIZARD & readied for war ;

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leidensygdom · 1 year

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(Check the link for the post itself! Here’s a screenshot of the same content available in the page, though)

Wizards of the Coast has finally made an official statement about the new OGL, and as expected, it’s an attempt to douse the fire with sweet corpo speak. So, here’s some key points about it, so we don’t forget what actually happened.

They repeated thorough the letter that this was to avoid bigoted content. About three times. Don’t let them lie to you: This was NEVER about preventing bigoted content. (In fact, please remember that WOTC released the hadozee on 2022, and has a lot of unresolved sexual harassment case allegations)

They also mentioned the NFT thing. Again: This is another buzzword, given how nowadays most people dislike NFTs openly. It was NEVER about preventing NFTs

Most importantly: They are blatantly lying about the leaked OGL being “up to revision” and them having planned “to accept community feedback”. The leaked OGL was sent as it is to implied third parties, alongside with contracts. THEY FULLY PLANNED TO HAVE PEOPLE SIGN IT AS IT WAS.

They have been saying they’ll backpedal on some of the choices. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM until we see an actual readable OGL of whatever changes they are promising. They are trying to, desperately, calm down the storm.

KEEP pushing, in fact. Keep unsuscribing from DnD Beyond. Do not buy their products, don’t watch the movie, etc. If this PR stunt makes people suddenly calm down, they’ll try to get away with the OGL as it is.

Also, here’s some segments I want to highlight, just to show how thoroughly filled with horseshit they are:

And third, we wanted to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose.

This one is probably a jab at Paizo, but they certainly didn’t care about all the third parties affected by this. The “aspiring designer”, the “homebrewer”, the “content creator” are all people who probably have a foot in the industry and are working with smaller TTRPG companies, or third parties. Most third parties have a very limited number of employees (or quite literally consist of just one person), and hire freelancers as needed. These were quite literally the most hurt by this new OGL. Let’s not forget they were content trying to put an end to that.

It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds. Under any new OGL, you will own the content you create. We won’t. Any language we put down will be crystal clear and unequivocal on that point. The license back language was intended to protect us and our partners from creators who incorrectly allege that we steal their work simply because of coincidental similarities.

They made a section in the OGL that allowed them to steal content. Of course, they are claiming that is not true now, as it would give them a bad image. And yet, they have the nerve to claim they are just defending themselves when they release copied content.

Finally, we’d appreciate the chance to make this right. We love D&D’s devoted players and the creators who take them on so many incredible adventures. We won’t let you down.

This is obviously that sweet corpo speak that ties everything together. They never wanted to make this right: Again, the leaked full OGL was never a draft. They were ready to fuck the entire community over (and still are, most probably) over a greedy cash grab. Do noT forget, and do not relent now: The fight is not over.

We don’t need a “compromise” over the new OGL. I wouldn’t care if they applied this new OGL exclusively to OneDnD, but there is still a lot of people who have built a living operating under 5e’s OGL, and they should NOT be taking that from people.

(As always, reblog for awareness!)

#onednd #dndbeyond #dnd #dungeons and dragons #ogl #open game license #wotc #wizards of the coast #opendnd #open dnd #ttrpg #5e #long post

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keplercryptids · 1 year

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if you've never considered playing anything other than D&D 5e, now might be the time to start.

as you may have heard, Wizards of the Coast wrote up a new Open Game License that was leaked and it's really, really bad. (i linked to the article about it yesterday but here's a twitter thread of the author of that article summarizing it.)

i'll attempt my own breakdown of what this means here:

the new OGL revokes the previous OGL. this is bad for so many reasons, and will affect all kinds of TTRPGs like Pathfinder, and third-party publishers like Kobold's Press.

it also means that character sheets wouldn't be able to be used in unauthorized virtual table tops anymore, including Roll20, Foundry, etc.

the new OGL grants WotC a perpetual, irrevocable license to all third-party content produced and published under the old OGL, as well as future content. for example, if WotC hypothetically liked Dimension 20's Unsleeping City setting enough, it could sell products related to that setting, without needing D20's permission.

the new OGL can be updated, changed or revoked with only 30 days' notice. truly wild.

anybody who makes more than $750k revenue (not profit, but revenue) has to pay 20-25% over that amount in royalties to WotC. this will affect so many kickstarters raising funds for indie TTRPG systems that used to fall under the original OGL. $750k sounds like a lot but keep in mind publishing books is expensive.

this is really, really bad. WotC will probably go back on some of this based on public response, and a lawsuit may make them go back on even more. (some of what they're trying to do here is illegal? i think?) but they'll likely still push forward with some of it.

it seems WotC's goal is to 1) appease shareholders (which in late-stage capitalism means "exponential growth forever") and 2) create a closed ecosystem for d&d that's completely under WotC's financial control. think: D&D Beyond being the only place you can access any D&D content, character sheets, etc. and i mean, in general, they've shown a pattern of greed and weighing corporate interests more heavily than their customers or employees.

now would be a great time to move away from d&d if you've ever considered doing so, or to consider it if you haven't.

if you want something similar to d&d 5e mechanically but a bit crunchier, try pathfinder 2e. if you want narrative-focused storytelling games, try Powered by the Apocalypse or FATE systems. if you want a mechanics-forward episodic style of play, try Forged in the Dark systems. if you want a cross-genre game with freeform character creation, try Savage Worlds. and this is an extreme short list of the great TTRPGs out there! a lot of systems that, IMO, people would have more fun playing than d&d, just based on preferred style of play. try them out and please don't give WotC anymore money lol.

#dungeons and dragons #d&d 5e #wizards of the coast #should i have a wotc tag #ttrpg talk #open dnd #opendnd

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