5e Forever, But
Wizards Never
13 January 2023
5e Forever, But
There is no denying that this week has been a hard one for the D&D community. For many of us in this industry, it had always been a question of when, and not if, Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro would betray our trust in pursuit of profits.
Our story is a little different than most.
From our very first D&D compatible notebook back in 2017, we have always been careful to design all of our products so that they would not fall under the Open Gaming License (OGL). That’s why we are able to say that our products are compatible with Dungeons & Dragons or that we offer page packs for Dungeon Masters. Among other small details, the OGL expressly forbids you to use those “protected” terms anywhere in your product and marketing — that’s the reason that amazing creators like Kobold Press can only say their supplements are “5e compatible”
From the very beginning, we worked in concert with an IP lawyer, and we have been *very* strict with our internal design standards in order to deliberately keep our product lines completely unaffiliated from Wizards / Hasbro and the OGL.
But ultimately, our notebooks have always been designed with the gamer in mind, not the game system.
And it’s because of our focus on the person, and not the property, that we will continue to make and sell our Dungeons & Dragons compatible products. While we don’t have any desire to further support Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro, we also recognize that for millions of gamers out there, they’ve already bought their books and don’t want to invest the time, effort, and money switching to an entirely new system.
Unlike WotC, we don’t see our customers as barriers standing between us and their money. We see the happiness and satisfaction of a gamer having a good time as the goal.
So, if you still want to play Dungeons & Dragons, but don’t want to keep giving Wizards of the Coast your money, we will continue to provide you with a superlative alternative to D&D Beyond, where we can assure you that 100% of the proceeds of your purchase go to benefit small businesses and independent artists and creators.
You see, our products do not actually make use of any of Wizards of the Coast’s intellectual property.*
We originally pioneered, and have continued to design and sell, notebooks and accessories that are generally useful for tabletop gaming.
Even the elements that are specifically designed to be compatible with a particular system (e.g. our D&D 5e compatible Character Sheets) were designed first and foremost with our notebook format in mind.
For example, we put things that change frequently (like Hit Points, or Initiative) on the edges of the page where they are easiest to write for both left- and right-handed players, while we put things that don’t change as often (like Armor Proficiency, and Saving Throw modifiers) closer to the binding.
* The only exception is our use of the phrases “Dungeons & Dragons” and “Dungeon Master”, which are both trademarks owned by WotC. However, our use of these marks for the sole purpose of denoting our products’ compatibility is the textbook definition of the nominative fair use of a trademark.
Restock Coming Soon
While we still have a handful of products available for purchase right away, we will be restocking many items within the next week or two.