D&D’s OGL controversy has turbocharged the sales of every other RPG

Dungeons & Dragons has long been synonymous with role-playing games. Brand awareness has traditionally helped it to the lion’s share of sales, leaving smaller publishers and independent creators to fight over crumbs. That all changed when Wizards of the Coast (a division of Hasbro) attempted to change its Open Gaming License (also called the OGL). This failed spectacularly and the OGL’s competitors now enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Kobold Press is at least one tabletop game publisher who told Polygon its sales tripled in January. Goodman Games however, stated that January was its strongest month since 2003. Nearly every other publisher that responded to our request for data reported at least double the expected sales, with some selling through nearly an entire years’ worth of stock in less than three weeks.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the joke several times over,” Magpie Games co-founder and CEO Mark Diaz Truman wrote Polygon in an email. “Us indie designers have spent the last 20 years trying to get D&D fans to try something different, and Wizards of the Coast gets it done in a month!”

Over two decades, the OGL exists. It provides a legal framework by which people have been able to build their own tabletop RPGs alongside D&D. Proposed changes to OGL created a hostile relationship between Wizards’ community and the company. Fans reacted strongly to proposed OGL changes, prompting international media coverage. A boycott was organized to force the giant of toys and games to backtrack.

Customers spent astonishing amounts of money in competition during the time Hasbro was publicly flailing. Paizo is the editor of Popular PathfinderAnd Starfinder games, reported on Jan. 26 that it had sold through “an 8-month supply” of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. Chaosium is the publisher of Cthulhu CallAccording to, the company has also reported that months worth of inventory has been sold and multiple new orders are on their way from manufacturing partners.

Digital formats, which D&D has long been reluctant to offer, have also surged in popularity.

“We’ve seen a big digital spike in all of our propertiesAnd are receiving a wild amount of interest in every single one of our game systems,” wrote Hunters Entertainment creative director Noxweiler Berf, with the award-winning Alice Is Missing and RagnarokLeading the charge.

Green RoninBlue Rose, The Expanse Roleplaying GameFree League Publishing (Mörk Borg, One Ring, Blade Runner: The Roleplaying GameBoth told Polygon they had doubled their sales in January. Evil Hat ProductionsBlades in Dark, FATE) likewise said that sales “nearly doubled our best prior month.”

“Drilling down into January itself,” co-founder Fred Hicks said in an email, “you can see exactly the day [Wizards]Faceplanted (thanks guys!) and how it elevated every day since.”

Some independent developers are also using the sudden swing in momentum to launch creator-friendly licensing agreements and promotions, attempting to court not just new customers but new game designers suddenly disenfranchised by Hasbro’s attempted rug-pull.

“We did indeed have a big surge [in sales] across the board,” said Chris Birch, the co-founder of Modiphius (Fallout and Dune TTRPGs). “At the same time we launched our own World Builders community content programme supporting creators ‘to become our future competitors’ through a curated, supported, programme offering free marketing, seminars, free art packs and more via [DriveThruRPG]. This had a huge uptake with lots of creators who were previously working on 5e indie projects switching to us.”

Zine Quest, and Zine Month are two events that focus on creators. They help bring small, pocket-sized TTRPG adventures to life. They run throughout the month of Februar.