The Foundry

Breathing heavily, the Foreman surveys the damage with a scowl, fists clenched and shaking with fury, knuckles bleeding. The room is in shambles. Splintered wood and twisted metal liter the floor of his workshop, countless blueprints shredded and scattered.

With a heavy exhale, the Foreman slumps into his chair, his normally large frame rendered small by exhaustion. For the first time in ages, the Foundry lies quiet, the silence broken only by the Foreman’s weary voice. “Why did it have to end this way?”

Hello friends. I’m sure you’re all aware by now of the ongoing situation with WotC and the Open Game License. I won’t be going into any details as I have nothing useful to add there are people who can offer better explanations than I ever could. Lunch Break Heroes did a wonderful video breaking down the situation, why it’s awful for the community, and why you should care.

I want to preface what I am about to say by this. I love D&D. I love the team behind the game and how much they appreciate us as a community and what we have to say. I’ve been incredibly excited for One D&D and whatever the future holds for the game. Sure, WotC aren’t perfect. Even through their many stumbles and missteps, especially recently, I still supported them. But not anymore. What WotC has done to us is unforgivable and no amount of backpedaling or apologies will absolve them of their crimes against this wonderful community.

But let me be perfectly clear. My anger is directed at the ones in charge, the executives, NOT the designers. This was a business decision made by business people out of greed and I encourage all of you to remember that. I am 100% certain that the designers would be protesting alongside us if they could without fear of repercussions. Their workplace is already a hellscape because of their boss’s decisions, we shouldn’t make it worse.

With all this in mind, I have had to make an incredibly difficult decision, one I never thought I would have to make. Effective immediately, the Foundry will no longer produce content for 5th edition or for One D&D in the future. Existing content will remain available for as long as it legally can, afterward I will be removing all access to it, so get it while you can. I will of course give notice before this happens.

As for the future of the foundry, I honestly don’t know. I don’t want to shut everything down permanently and I’ll always want to continue making things. The obvious thing is to switch to another system, but I don’t know where I’d go. I would love to jump to Pathfinder, and that’s likely what I’ll play from now on, but I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to make content for it. I do know, however, that I want to play and make content for Ironsworn, a wonderful solo RPG by Shawn Tompkin. We shall see, it’s too early to start making plans and I’m honestly exhausted by all of this. I need more time to think before I start making plans.

What about you all, those who have supported me for so long? I know none of this is easy to swallow, I get that. I would hope that you might stick around and see where I go from here, what I do next, but I know you came here for my D&D content. With that source gone, I wouldn’t blame you if you stopped supporting me. I understand fully and I support your decision either way.

It’s funny, I always wanted to branch out into other RPGs, but I never thought it would be like this. Thank you for listening and for all of your support over the years. Stay safe, don’t forget to love each other, and I’ll see you later.