Co-Creator of D&D’s Original OGL Ryan Dancey Talks About Its Creation
Ryan Dancey, one of the co-creators of the Open Gaming License, talks about its creation during the earliest days at Wizards of the Coast.
Ryan Dancey is one of the people behind the creation of the Open Gaming License, which has stirred up such controversy in the recent week. Twenty-three years ago, he was the vice president of tabletop RPGs and the D&D Brand Manager at Wizards of the Coast.
Which meant he led the people who developed and released 3rd Edition. And famously, was one of the chief architects of the OGL and its sister license, the d20 System License. He is one of the co-creators of the license, along with WotC’s counsel at the time, Brian Lewis, who wrote the words of the article itself. Many describe Dancey as the architect of the license, and Lewis as its author.
Yesterday afternoon, he sat down on-stream with the folks at Roll for Combat to talk about the OGL. And potation.
Ryan Dancey on the Creation of the OGL
In the interview, Dancey dives into the deep history of both Wizards of the Coast and the creation of the Open Gaming License. It’s a lot of history, including the fact that Wizards of the Coast gets its name from a faction in the home-game of the founder of the company. Indeed, WotC was originally founded to publish and sell content from their homebrewed game.
At least until Richard Garfield came along. But at the heart of the OGL was the idea that RPG systems could be used without having to be dragged into a number of legal battles. As Dancey asserts about 45 or so minutes in, there’s nothing stopping anyone from making a clone of the d20 system and saying it’s compatible with D&D without running afoul of trademark infringement. But rather the OGL was a way to get everyone to be assured that they wouldn’t be sued.
It was a ‘safe bet’ so to speak. Which led to the prospering of many companies. If you want to learn more about how that grew, Dancey goes into that in the interview. Or you can read our history of the golden era of RPGs right here.
As Dancey puts it, they are “playing with Atomic Fire” with respect to control of their brand. Especially since the OGL was meant to make sure WotC couldn’t change/revoke the license, as we’ve seen trotted out in the old FAQ.
But that’s history. The future seems like it may well have to be settled in court.
A fascinating look into the history of what’s happening right now!
