In 1982-83 a group of German TTRPG fans wanted to bring “Dungeon & Dragons” to Germany. They formed the company: “Fantasy Productions.” Furthermore, they joined up with the German book publisher Droemer Knaur. Later the board game company Schmidt Spiele came on board as well. Together, the three companies entered into negotiations with TSR. TSR owned “Dungeon & Dragons” at the time. However, TSR demanded unsustainable high license fees. As result the negotiations failed, and the German consortium decided to make their own TTRPG: “The Dark Eye.” The Dark Eye became directly the biggest TTRPG in Germany.
However, this negative experience with TSR had some effects. Fantasy Productions saw a considerable risk that TSR would sue them (TSR got later known as “they sue regularly”, because of their aggressive “lawfare”). Therefore, great emphasis was put in to making “The Dark Eye” unique. Thus, “The Dark Eye” never needed a license and is not using the OGL (Open Game License).
Unfortunately, history repeats itself. The current owner of “Dungeon & Dragons” is Hasbro. Hasbro wants to revoke its “irrevocable” license agreement (the OGL) with their third-party creators. A step that is damaging the whole TTRPG community. Even TTRPGs that do not use the OGL like “The Dark Eye” are getting effected. For example, “The Dark Eye” relies on Roll20 and Foundry VTT for online game play. However, these platforms are manly used by “Dungeon & Dragons” players. Without the “Dungeon & Dragons” players these platforms can get financially unviable.
As a result of this unilateral attack on the OGL, the whole TTRPG community is joining forces. Paizo is leading the charge. They promised to pay lawyers to create a new Open Game License called ORC (Open RPG Creative License). It will be made in a way that is truly irrevocable.
“The Dark Eye” is owned by Ulisses Spiele (good friends of Paizo). Markus Plötz of Ulisses Spiele has now announced that Ulisses Spiele will join ORC with all their game lines. However, there are some caveats. Here is the video with correct time stamp for the announcement (1h29m12s):
Ulisses Spiele also made a written announcement (in German):
We will walk you here through the announcement:
1. TDE joins ORC
Ulisses Spiele promises to put all his game lines under the ORC agreement. This includes: “The Dark Eye,” “The Black Cat,” “Hexxen 1733,” “Torg Eternity,” “Fading Suns.” However, Ulisses Spiele explains there are some caveats. These caveats described in the following.
2. Germany copyright law
German copyright law protects the creator (meaning the author) stronger than the US law. Certain rights will always belong to the author in Germany and cannot be sold (unlike in the US). Like Paizo is paying US lawyers, Ulisses Spiele is now hiring German lawyers. These lawyers will make sure that ORC license also follows German and EU law. Ulisses Spiele is talking with Paizo to make sure what the German layers demand (for the German/EU laws) is included in the ORC. Alternatively, Ulisses Spiele will create a German version of the ORC.
3. ORC allows only the use of the rules in the SRD
The OGL allows only the use of the rules and texts that are in something called the System Reference Document (SRD). The ORC will work the same. Ulisses Spiele promises to create SRDs for all its game lines.
4. Only rules, no worlds
The OGL and now the ORC will only apply to rules. The game worlds cannot be used. However, Ulisses Spiele is aware that all their games have a strong connection between rules and game world. The connection is much stronger than for “Dungeon & Dragons.” This makes it difficult to write and use the rules without the game world. Therefore, Ulisses Spiele is examining how to solve this issue. Maybe little parts of the game world will be under ORC as well. However, that will also depend on Paizo and what is legally possible. Ulisses Spiele stated they want third-parties to successfully produce contend with Ulisses Spiele games systems under ORC. And they want third-parties to make money with that, without paying money to Ulisses Spiele. For the full game world, you have to use the already existing options (Scriptorium Aventuris for “The Dark Eye,” Infiniverse Exchange for “Torg Eternity,” etc.)
5. All Ulisses Spiele games?
Ulisses Spiele promises to put all his game lines under the ORC agreement. However, they don’t own all the games they publish. The games they own are the current editions of: “The Dark Eye,” “The Black Cat,” “Hexxen 1733,” “Torg Eternity,” “Fading Suns.”
6. The SRD takes time
If everything goes well the ORC will be created (and is applicable in Germany/EU). However, then the SRDs will have to be created. That takes time. Ulisses Spiele is willing to put in that time (=money). However, it will still take time. We here assume that Ulisses Spiele will start creating the SRDs with its most successful game line first: the German version of the “The Dark Eye.” Ulisses Spiele said they will examine if instead of an SRD, it is possible to just announce which part of a book can be used under ORC. That would save time.
7. Retro-clones
There is a trend that third-party companies are republishing old editions of “Dungeon & Dragons.” These are called “retro-clones.” Ulisses Spiele also promises to put the older editions of their game lines under the ORC. However, there are two extra caveats:
a. Ulisses Spiele has not published the first editions of all their games. This includes the “The Dark Eye.” Thus, it is not sure Ulisses Spiele has the rights to put these under ORC. However, Ulisses Spiele is looking into it. They want people to be able to produce retro-clones of “The Dark Eye” editions 1-4, original “Torg Eternity,” etc.
b. It will take time to create the SRDs. If the ORC gets created, Ulisses Spiele will first start creating SRDs for the current game lines/editions. When that is done, they will work one SRDs for older editions.
8. Will this slow down production?
This will cost time and money, but Ulisses Spiele is confident that it will not impact their production schedule. (But Markus Plötz did not explain how Ulisses Spiele will do that).
For everybody new to “The Dark Eye”: Here are the Quick-start rules + a mini adventure + player characters for free: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/154720/The-Dark-Eye--Quickstart-rules?term=The+Dark+Eye+Quickstart+rules
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