Most types of media come with what's called a "license." It basically outlines what you are, and aren't allowed to do with it i.e. "You're allowed to watch this DVD, but you are not allowed to copy it." Things get a little trickier when the thing that has the license allows you to make things with it. Software like Photoshop has a license saying "You can use this software, you can't copy it, but anything you make with it is yours."

Some videogames don't allow you to make anything using the game, so things like machinima and Let's Plays are technically against the rules. Nintendo used to have super tight restrictions on what content could be made using their games, but I think they might have loosened up in recent years.

This is where D&D's license comes in. When it was released, it was released with a "Do whatever the fuck you want," license, which was great for players and content creators both since there were basically no restrictions on the stories you could tell, or how you wanted to release those stories. Recently though, the company that makes D&D tried to change that license to basically restrict what people could do with the game and try to put the company in control (especially financial control) over what content people made with it. They backpedaled soon after though, so it's hopefully water under the bridge at this point.

There’s some good YouTube videos of it but essentially they said it’s under monetized and put out an intentionally vague and very self serving change to the TOS that effectively lets them take and market any ideas as well as a share of profits from any related content (above an amount?).

The games long and large success seems widely attributed to the fact that the business model was so open and accepting to fan content and this current iteration appears to be the exact opposite.

That’s a non D&D players understanding of where things are at now, correct as needed

Ill do my best, haven't been into this stuff in years, but now that my boys are old enough to play magic, im following this.

So, the creators of D&D came up with the OGL (Open game license) at some.point to deal.with licensing type stuff (very broad definition cuz im foggy on the ins and outs of it, but I know some of it relates to fan made stuff too, somehow). The OGL allegedly is an unbreakable and unchangeable contract, written in a very binding way, etc. D&D has operated and released under OGL 1.0 with everyone happy for who knows how long...

Then wizards of the coast (makers of magic the gathering) buys TSR or whatever company owned D&D at the time, Hasbro acquires WotC, and corporate fuckery begins. Margins, profitability, whatever. And cue to the recent drama...

WotC sent out an email/letter telling of a new business shift (including a major push to an online subscription type model) and either news of a new license or a copy of a new license that they would publish and release material under going forward. The new license would seemingly rescind OGL or at least open the door to modification of the unbreakable contract, or call in to question its validity... and since none of the creators are owners anymore they probably figured it'd be easy... But you know nerds.

After the immediate backlash and most people seeming pretty ok with trying a new system and boycotting the fucking joke that D&D is to the people who own it, wizards walked back their email or whatever and tried to say it was just being put out there as a draft, and was sent out to whoever they sent it to for thoughts and ideas. Not sure anyone buys this.

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Discourse Miniatures' YouTube channel followed this real-time. Her Dungeons and Discourse channel in particular looks at this.

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Okay, nothing so far really explains what the OGL is properly. It’s not about what you can do in your personal games with friends; WotC never could and never will be able to control that.

The Open Gaming License is a license that Wizards of the Coast, publishers of D&D, released twenty years ago. It basically made most of the core rules of the game free to use, especially for third party publishers, under certain relatively permissive conditions. This means that other publishers could sell rule books compatible with D&D, using the D&D rules, and WotC promised they wouldn’t sue or demand royalties or anything.

This was not a purely altruistic move by any means. By releasing the rules for free and allowing other publishers to release their own supplements, D&D became THE tabletop RPG, the game that everyone was playing and wanted to play, and WotC enjoyed enormous success from this ecosystem.

It’s also worth noting that game rules are probably not copyrightable to begin with; the exact language used in the books is copyrightable, but systems and equations are not. The OGL lets you use the exact language of the original rules, and was a sign of good faith for WotC that they wouldn’t sue, but people already had the right to make supplements compatible with the D&D rules.

About a month ago, with a new edition of the game on the horizon, WotC tried to release a new version of the OGL with some notable changes. They wanted royalties for publishers making more than a certain amount, they wanted to be able to deny you the right to use the game rules for anything they deemed inappropriate, they wanted to nullify the previous OGL which was supposed to be irrevocable, and… the community reacted. Hard. This OGL update threatened to shut down or heavily hurt tons of smaller publishers putting out RPG content.

They just walked back their stance massively today, after weeks of digging themselves deeper, but it’s been a huge blow to trust that won’t likely recover soon.