Reading the new OGL, they're doing what I've suggested OGL system creators do — explicitly license the literal text of core rules as CC BY and reserve rights to everything else, like setting, PI, character creation, artwork, and whatever else as they please.
tl;dr: The headline's grossly misleading. It's a step back from the brink, but it's not the massive grant that it sounds like it is, it's not enough to make efforts like Paizo's ORC license unnecessary for companies that still want to ship using OGL 1.0a-like provisions, and it's still hilariously bad about VTTs for no good reason but to be anti-competitive.
(Ideally, there'd be a SRD licensed CC BY, but here it's a confusing mish-mash of page numbers of the existing 1.0a-licensed SRD plus exceptions, which still introduces more uncertainty than necessary.)
They're bringing back d20-system style branded badges for OGL 1.2-compliant products, but not requiring them.
And they're still trying to deauthorize the OGL 1.0a, but not on existing works using it.
What they're supposedly CC BY licensing:
- Character advancement and backgrounds
- Alignment (Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil, etc.)
- Languages, which seems to include some PI, but I'm sure the mushy terms will wake up and bite you if you try to use it
- Equipment and services
- The one feat that's already open content (grappler)
- Ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, etc.)
- Movement, time, the concept of 6-second rounds
- Environment rules, including rest
- Downtime rules
- Combat order, including initiative
- Tactical movement and combat actions
- Damage, healing, knockout, and death rules, including hit points and saves
- Spellcasting mechanics, with the very notable exceptions of anything class-specific
- Monster rules, another section laden with PI traps because the SRD itself isn't pure
- Conditions (blinded, charmed, etc.)
It DOESN'T include:
- Any of the races/heritages (elf, dwarf, etc.)
- Any of the classes (fighter, wizard, etc.)
- Any spells(!) or class spell lists
- Any monster or creature stat blocks
- Any rules on deities, including the use of Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, and Norse pantheons, which somehow still seem to be claimed as OGL-covered. Good luck enforcing that one!
- All example NPCs, including customization suggestions
- The Planes of Existence, planar travel
- Traps, poisons, diseases, madness
- Mundane object properties
- Magic items, including how they're used or created
Continued useless and unnecessary sticking points:
- "Where is the line between a VTT and a video game?" Nobody asks this. A VTT is used to play tabletop roleplaying games, using their rules. A video game obviously is not used to do this.
- "When does a VTT become more than just a replacement for the traditional tabletop?" As soon as it exists, and that's the clear and obvious point of VTTs. That's also obviously not a valuable question for this "conversation" Wizards is purporting to want to have (but clearly doesn't) about what VTTs can do under the new OGL that they can't under the old one.
- The text of the SRD is OGL licensed, but depicting what's described by the text in a VTT is forbidden. That's hilarious, stupid, transparently and clumsily framed alongside "integrating our content into an NFT", and clearly designed to protect One D&D. And the more One D&D references not letting anyone use NFTs, the more I wonder if Hasbro is going to build One D&D on top of NFTs, which would be even more hilarious.
- Ship a text whose contents are explicitly CC BY licensed or don't bother. This bullshit of creating a rat's nest of exceptions out of the already trademark-laden official SRD is a headache that'll bite someone eventually. This proposal stacks a fourth license to navigate on the SRD, on top of the new OGL 1.2, the OGL 1.0a which SRD 5.1 is still and now permanently licensed under, and the reserved product identity bits they exempt from the OGL.