From examiner.com on May 29th, 2014,
Mike Mearls announces release date for next gen Open Game License
We won’t known until next year. Mearls explained that any OGL will be announced only after the Dungeon Master’s Guide is published:
While the details are still in flux, we can say that we plan to announce the details of our plans sometime this fall. After that announcement, we plan on launching our program in early 2015
Gencon 2015 is going on and the fans have heard no more on this. Some of us are chomping at the bit to share our adventures with others in the community. Can we please have an update or a flat at announcement that an OGL or reasonable substitute will be denied to the fans?
Scott Davenport
D&D Convention Player/Dungeon Master/Writer for over 30 years.
I kind of would be interested in seeing fan published settings... but then, those get churned out for free on the forums here and at Enworld and so forth and no one really cares, so.... how much is it even worth it?
Hebitsuikaza wrote:
I remembered seeing something to that effect but couldn't find out where. Thanks for posting the reminder.
They certainly missed their "deadline". Details were not announced in the fall of 2014 nor was the program launched in early 2015. They couldn't even get the details out for early and mid-2015 and we're rapidly approaching the fall of 2015, almost a full year late.
And Mearls has moved from saying it's coming and in the works to "no comment"
At this point it's likely the OGL is dead. They couldn't get it to work or strike a balance between the desires of management/Hasbro and the desires of the D&D team/ needs of 3rd party publishers.
Yeah, it could be held up by the jury duty like the conversion guide, but that seems unlikely as it's not game design but a legal document. Not a lot of overlap in needed skills.
I'm curious to know..... if we got to officially publish something for 5E via OGL license, would that material then be considered canon? For example, I create a fictional city between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep.... and build a scenario around it. It gets published via OGL license. So now my city becomes official source material for the FR?
moonbeast wrote:
Wait, I thought Athas.org though published under the OGL and GSL, and they're the canon publishers for 3rd edition Dark Sun and for the 4th Edition Adventure Path for Dark Sun (Ashes of Athas). So sometimes 3rd party can be canon. I presume though under 5th edition, when they want to bring in 3rd party developers/writers, they will (like they brought in Sasquatch games and the like for these early ones).
Some excellent response, but not as much help in my situation. I want to distribute for others to judge adventures set in Greyhawk to be run at conventions I cannot attend in person. Copyright is not broken when I am the one DMing the adventure, but as soon as I hand it to a person who has done little to no authoring I can be ordered to C&D. While the risk can be judged to be small, it is still too high since not only me, but the conventions could get in trouble and I will not risk that.
Due to the long tradition of writing for Greyhawk for conventions (Living Greyhawk and Greyhawk Reborn), I am not willing to strip to a neutral setting. Too much history to toss.
So, I am waiting for news that a licence that will allow fan authors to share their adventures to fan DMs in some limited way,so we can continue stories in older campaign settings (Greyhawk, Kadamar, Spelljammers, etc).
A non-lawyer attempt at such a liscence.
"This product contains setting/campaign references to copyrighted material that are owned by WotC/Hasbro. These references are drawn from game publications only unless the material has been specifically approved by WotC/Hasbr for use under this license. Wotc/Hasbro does not authorize the use of non-game sources such as novels, movies and short stories. Distribution of the materials is limited to non-profit, fan base and cannot be published by for profit businesses in any way without the expressed permission of WotC/Hasbro."
Poor attempt at what I am looking for and a long shot, but no harm in trying.
If all you want is to share stuff that you created for free, do you actually need a license?
Marandahir wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
The_Jester wrote:
scottdprt wrote:
The ability for fan published adventures, or even third parties, would take alot of pressure off WOTCs shoulders. I hope all this time they have spent considering it has gone into standards, licenses, etc. on how it should be done. They can still take the conservative route by controlling the content through contests or something similar.
I want to take a number of 3e Forgotten Realms supplements, mix in Rage of Demons, and get a new AP.
I want a new OGL to enable a way that I can get 
and WotC can get whenever somebody buys my book.
I also want documentation that can be read and understood by amateurs at home.
scottdprt wrote:
arnwolf666 wrote:
scottdprt wrote:
arnwolf666 wrote:
scottdprt wrote:
Yeah. Sounds like what you're looking for is to negotiate with WotC for specific World of Greyhawk privelages, like Athas.org got for Dark Sun (thanks for the clarification, Jester!).
I would suggest to unite with all the other Greyhawk folks still running stuff out there. I know there are communities, and as you're deeply steeped in this yourself, I gather you'd have the contacts for them. I would suggest you go as a group to petition to WotC for those privelages.
Marandahir wrote:
Is there a way to contact Mike Mearls?
Slit518 wrote:
Zalbarthemad wrote:
scottdprt wrote:
arnwolf666 wrote:
This falls into the same territory as the headstock lawsuits that guitars faced a few years ago, and last time something like the came up in court, that was the basis for the decision, IIRC. Basically, WotC has no rights to the mechanics. Settings, characters, and formatting, yes. Mechanics, no. So if you made something MECHANICALLY compatible, but did not infringe on any of their rights (IE, you can use anything covered in the OGL, since it doesn't specify that the rights are tied exclusively to 3.x's mechanics) then you are 100% in the clear. In theory, you don't even need to follow the OGL is all you do is release something mechanically compatible.
Farmer42 wrote:
It would be great to have something like Savage Worlds licensing https://www.peginc.com/licensing/
- You can more or less publish your own adventures as you don't charge money or reproduce information from the books.
- If you want to change money then you need an approval, and that requires your adventure to have "production value".
I think that it is fine to require small scale publishers to apply for an official approval of their adventures.
moonbeast wrote:
scottdprt wrote:
moonbeast wrote:
...finally got a reply. Unsure how I should feel about it other than....he's being an ass?
Maybe Hasbro (or, more to the point, their legal staff) is being more hands-on with 5e's license. If WotC has to pass it by the Hasbro legal staff, that could be partly responsible for the hold-up.
MechaPilot wrote:
moonbeast wrote: