The OGL is Dying

"You can't copyright game mechanics."

I see this in the increasing number of Kickstarter game projects, which are abandoning the OGL for better licenses and cloning the content they want from the old SRD. Nobody wants to be exposed to the OGL, and publishers feel it is toxic waste as they migrate away from it.

None of this is legal advice; it is just an opinion of what I see.

It's funny how a good thing, once loved and supported by the community, is now seen as a dark stain on gaming. One of the original reasons for trying to pull the licenses was, "Social media companies will come along and clone our game!" MMOs such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest have already done "generic swords and sorcery" decades ago, monetized the concept better, and continue to this day.

The content published under the SRD is being removed, and the SRD is becoming meaningless. This is another reason for Wizards to hurry up and publish earlier-edition Creative Commons works, since they still have some chance to gather all these ideas and put their names on them. Given how most of these monsters and ideas were in the public domain, to the public domain they shall return.

I added a Kickstarter link to the sidebar for a book converting old Pathfinder SRD monsters to Shadowdark, which looks like a great project to support. The monsters only share the names, and the numbers and abilities are different enough from the source material, so this is more of an "inspired by" work, practical for Pathfinder adventure conversions.

This is the same creator of the Westlands game (now defunct, but I loved this one) and the Sword of Cepheus 2 game (which is the current 2d6 fantasy game, and according to a comment by him in the Kickstarter, this same creator worked with the original publishers at Stellegama Publishing to update and unify the fantasy rules). It is nice seeing his projects and supporting them, and seeing him as a creator for Shadowdark is a good thing. I would love to see more Pathfinder 1e content converted over, like classes, races, and magic items.

Shadowdark is becoming what Pathfinder 1e was: the fantasy game everyone plays by default.

You can mod Shadowdark to play more pulp and heroic, so you can get that "Pathfinder 1e" heroism feeling, and the casting rules are better than the Vancian system found in 3.5E. Want to be OP? Give the character a new talent roll every level. It is your game.

Shadowdark is the better "figures on a map" game than any current standard-bearers for the hobby. The gameplay is tight, the dungeons are small, and the "get in and get out" challenge is highly compelling and depends on teamwork around the table.

D&D 5.5E and Pathfinder 2 have become too rules-intensive and are not "games for everyone."

And Shadowdark's license is far more permissive and open, allowing the community to step in and write books like this. Where the OGL is dying, Shadowdark is a lush garden that supports the creators creating for the game. We are seeing a shift in the market, and the creators are leading the way.