It's been a rough couple of weeks for tabletop RPGs - if you haven't caught up yet, you can read a summary of events here, but in short, Wizards of the Coast's move to change the conditions surrounding companies creating Dungeons & Dragons compatible products in a less The move to change the terms surrounding companies creating Dungeons & Dragons compatible products in a less-than-favorable direction has discouraged nearly the entire community.

In the wake of this controversy, several publishers either left D&D or drew the line, challenging its legitimacy. In particular, Paizo, the creator of Pathfinder, did both, announcing its own version of an open license and enlisting other major players such as Chaosium and Kobold press. [Free League, a highly successful publisher of games such as "Mörk Borg," "Into the Odd," and "Mutant: Year Zero" as well as official RPGs such as "Blade Runner," "The Walking Dead," and "Alien," has announced two new licenses of its own The company has announced the following. According to Free League, work on these licenses had begun before the latest news about D&D's open gaming licenses broke, but has "intensified" in response.

The first is the restructuring of the Year Zero Engine OGL, which gives other publishers and independent designers irrevocable and royalty-free rights to use the rule sets that underpin the majority of Free League's biggest games.

The second is an entirely new license for Dragonsbane, a recent revival of a 40-year-old Scandinavian RPG very similar to D&D. This license does not release the entire ruleset, but only permits the creation of third-party supplements and materials. Both licenses are expected to be available "within the next few weeks."

While it is not prescient to make such an announcement, it is important to keep in mind the broader context of these licenses. The licenses are not a new idea, although they represent a statement of intent by major companies in the field; outside of the D&D arena, OGL and other royalty-free content sharing has been around for a long time, and many of them have been very successful in their own right. Games using the highly permissive "Powered by the Apocalypse" policy (opens in new tab), which permits copying and adaptation of the Apocalypse World rules, have been very successful and influential, and have been featured on popular live podcasts, "Monster of the Week."

Inspired by these games, "Blades in the Dark" became a huge hit and now has its own family of "Forged in the Dark" games. Many games forgo specific licenses and policies altogether and are released under a general Creative Commons license, especially among smaller publishers and independent creators, where free and open sharing, rather than being unusual or controversial, is the default assumption.

Another important context is the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons itself. While Wizards of the Coast's dominance over the market has undoubtedly been undermined by the turmoil of the past two weeks, they still hold a very strong position. Licenses like the Free League, while a statement of intent and vision for the hobby, are unlikely to be a serious competitor to the D&D OGL in whatever form it ultimately takes. Even Paizo, perhaps WOTC's most compelling competitor, will have its work cut out for it if it hopes to achieve similar success in bringing third-party publishers under its banner.

If WOTC's latest developments have cracked the foundations of the RPG empire, it is unlikely that new forces will emerge. That's not a bad thing; more diversity and sharing can only be good for the hobby. Just don't expect this or any of the other licensing announcements that will follow in the coming months to be a real shot in the arm for D&D's throne, not yet something that will truly shake D&D's throne.