DRAGON #360 Art Gallery: Dryad

Clavis

First Post
grimslade said:
Ok. You have no argument. All your examples are freely available to develop and use with or without the OGL/SRD. If you want to create d20 product using 3E mechanics and fluff, use the OGL. If you want to create an random RPG product with hobbitty halflings and fox- riding pointy hatted gnomes go ahead, WotC only cares about their mechanics and fluff, let others defend their own IP, i.e Tolkein's estate and Wil Huygen. There is no conflict here. The only conflict is if you try to create a 3.5e slender gnome bard named Gimble and claim it as your own IP. It would be wrong with or without the OGL.

Let's break it down:
Art of Barky 4E dryad= Copyrighted material contact the artist to use it

Millenia old myths, name dryad, concept of feminine wilderness nymph tied to a tree= 100% Public domain. Do what you will.

Mechanics for running a dryad in D&D, fluff about feywild, the name: Black Woods dryad= WotC IP, mechanics will make it into SRD, like all the other examples you listed above did for 3E. The names and fluff wil be stripped off; they are WotC IP. Add the mythic fluff and name back to them if you want.

Even if the 4E Dryad perfectly matched the dryad of myth and legend, WotC would still own the mechanics of how the dryad works in D&D and how the mythic creature fits into its fluffy world. Why? Because they created the mechanics and world fluff; therefore they own it.

I think we're arguing different points. I don't disagree with anything you just outlined above. I simply made an observation that perhaps many design decisions relevant to 4th edition (and even 3rd edition) make more sense if you view them as legal strategies. I certainly wasn't questioning WOTC's legal right to make those decisions, or to profit from their IP.

I fear we may have reached a point where the lawyers are designing our games. Welcome to America, 2007.

And that new Dryad looks really, really stupid.
 
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Phasics

First Post
If thats the Dryad whats the Nymph gonna look like.

Ah just figured it out Nymphs are now cursed with permanent invisibility which true seeing cannot penetrate.
 

Clavis said:
I fear we may have reached a point where the lawyers are designing our games. Welcome to America, 2007.
Who among the designers are lawyers? Mearls? Heinsoo?

That's a rather melodramatic overstatement, if you ask me. Considering how much stuff was released as open content in the previous edition, I find it hard to believe that they are now designing monsters based on the ability to protect them as IP.

Perhaps they just think the blackwoods version of the dryad is cool? They like that word 'cool', right?
 


Bagpuss

Legend
Personally I like it it looks a lot like the dyrads of Ultima Online. I'd prefer more of the fey like creatures to be more dangerous looking, they are only a small step away from the dryad in the 3.5 MM.

Be great if they aren't CG in the 4th edition as well.
 


D.Shaffer

First Post
It's been mentioned in a Wizards article, and said article has been referenced, that this is a Dryad's combat form. It's also been stated it can look like the old (read Sexy tree creature) dryad if it wants to, so I'm failing to see the entire problem here.

Clavis said:
Notice the ditching of public-domain figures like Gnomes in favor of WOTC intellectual property like Tieflings and Eladrins? At this point I wouldn't be surprised if characters could no longer wield plain old public-domain swords, but instead only used some new weapon with a lot of weird pointy bits on the blade.
These are the same gnomes that are showing up in the MM, right? And what about Elves, and Dwarves? How does this fit into this 'Removal from the public domain' theory of yours?
 

Aeolius

Adventurer
D.Shaffer said:
...this is a Dryad's combat form. It's also been stated it can look like the old (read Sexy tree creature) dryad if it wants to...

And thus how the oldest satyr in the woods gained the nickname "Splinters". ;)
 

grimslade

Krampus ate my d20s
Dryads become a whole lot creepier if the 4E look is their 'natural' form and the hawt elf chick is just an illusion. Kind of like sailors seeing manatees and thinking they were mermaids.
 

Clavis

First Post
Fifth Element said:
Who among the designers are lawyers? Mearls? Heinsoo?

That's a rather melodramatic overstatement, if you ask me. Considering how much stuff was released as open content in the previous edition, I find it hard to believe that they are now designing monsters based on the ability to protect them as IP.

Perhaps they just think the blackwoods version of the dryad is cool? They like that word 'cool', right?

OK, I admit I can be a little melodramatic sometimes. Hence my attraction to a hobby that involves pretending to be an evil wizard who can shoot lightning bolts.

But the new Dryad remains stupid.
 

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