Ex-D&D Designer says the OGL controversy has possibly rendered the game permanently “uncool”

Guildmaster Rhys and others look on mockingly as a recruit falls flat on their face — (Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

If you think TTRPG, you probably think D&D. Yet despite its long-standing reputation as one of the best tabletop RPGs, there's no doubt that many players are searching for alternatives to Dungeons & Dragons. 5E's Lead Designer, Mike Mearls reckons he knows why.

Mearls has a lengthy professional history with Wizards of the Coast, during which he contributed to the development of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and even Baldur's Gate 3. However, his relationship with the company came to a close after he became one of the thousands laid off by Hasbro in 2023. Now an Executive Producer at Chaosium (the folks behind Call of Cthulhu), Mearls is using his new-found distance from WOTC to share his thoughts on what he sees as the beginning of "a post-D&D era."

In an interview with D&D historian Ben Riggs, Mearls hones in on the cooling sentiment that the playerbase is starting to hold towards the TTRPG giant. The most obvious explanation for a turn like this would be a decline in quality, but this is actually far from the reality. "Maybe this is the best Player’s Handbook ever written" Mearls explains, "but the vibes, the audience, the people playing these games … they don’t seem excited about it. We’re not seeing a groundswell of support and excitement."

A dwarf wielding handaxes is hit by projectiles, while a dragonborn readies magical energy around their hands and a wizard fires energy — (Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

The real culprit behind Dungeons & Dragons' descent into "uncool", Mearls argues, is the 2023 D&D OGL controversy and the reputational damage that followed: "D&D was something that was interesting and fun and creative and different. And I think what the OGL did was take that concept – that Wizards and this idea of creativity that is inherent in the D&D brand because it's a roleplaying game – and I think those two things were sundered. And I don’t know if you can ever put them back together."

While backlash towards the OGL draft led to proposed limitations on third-party D&D content being rolled back, there's still a sour taste left in the mouths of some players and developers alike. Most of all though, the incentive to create within Dungeons & Dragons' world and rule systems is fading due to some players' feeling that the game's time in the sun is slowly but surely coming to an end. As Mearls puts it: "I thought, "Well, maybe I could start doing 5E-compatible stuff." And now what I’m finding is I just don’t want to. Like, it just seems boring. It’s like trying to start a hair metal band in 1992." What exactly the TTRPG equivalent of Nirvana will be remains to be seen.