MGL and ORC drafts released: The OGL successors we have been waiting for

April 8, 2023

This was a good week for open gaming and TTRPGs.

First Matt Finch released the MGL, then Azora Law finally made ORC public as well.

Notice: comments in this post do not construe legal advice.

Mythmere Games Open License

Mythmere Games has released Mythmere Games Open License.

Quick commentary:

Very similar to OGL.
Clearer than OGL.
Easier to distinguish Open Content.
Explicit that one doesn't need to contribute any Open Content even if using other's Open Content. That was already possible under OGL, and in fact was relatively common during d20 days when mostly statblocks were designated as Open Content. I think that is good since it allows more freedom.
We finally don't need to do bullshit like “First Edition Compatible” but can flat out say “Compatible with Dungeons & Dragons®” and similar.
Cleared instruction regarding notices.

Matt did a point-by-point livestream. Watch the recording here. You can provide feedback to Mythmere via their contact page or email.

Azora Law, the entity created to steward the Open RPG Creative (ORC) license, released the first public license draft and FAQ:

Quick commentary:

Much denser than OGL. Plenty of legalese.
Quite comprehensive in its definitions, although still some ambiguity that has to be resolved.
Seems to assume all content is Open Content unless stated otherwise.
Does not require full license replication in the publication.
Attributions are structured similar to the Creative Commons attributions, which I find double edged sword. On one hand it is easy, on the other we are likely to see upstream contributors simply not attributed. For example, let's say we have ten people releasing a monster on their blog and designate it as ORC Content. I gather them into a Bestiary and attribute all of them. Then someone write an adventure and decides to use some of those monsters in their work. They attribute my Bestiary but not necessarily the people who created the monsters (unless I specifically wrote in my attribution how each specific monster should be attributed).
I expect a number of people to misattribute works until a good practice forms.

You can provide feedback on ORC License at their Discord.

Both are better than OGL.

Both seem promising.

At the moment I like MGL slightly more than ORCL.

Subscribe to get the latest post in your inbox. No spam.