Green Ronin not signing GSL (Forked Thread: Doing the GSL. Who?)

HalWhitewyrm · Jul 15, 2008

BryonD said:
Green Ronin has announced that they will not be going GSL.

http://greenronin.com/2008/07/green_ronin_and_4e.php

I applaud and support their decision. I thought Chris' post was extremely good in outlining their reasons for the decision, echoing the sentiment of a large part of the 3rd party community:

Green Ronin will not be signing the Game System License (GSL) at this time. [...] we'll be giving our full attention to our own game lines: Mutants & Masterminds, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, True20 Adventure Roleplaying, and Freeport: The City of Adventure.

We had hoped to include 4E support in our plans, but the terms of the GSL are too one-sided as they stand. [...] We do not [...] feel that this license treats third party publishers as valued partners.

Let me be clear in stating that I don't think that the people in charge of WotC currently are just waiting to attack companies with frivolous lawsuits. Once you sign the GSL though, you open yourself up to that at any point in the future. Who knows when new people will take over the D&D brand and who can say what their vision will be? Who knows when the political winds at WotC will change again and things will get even more restrictive? We do not want to operate under such a cloud moving ahead so that's why we won't be signing the GSL.

Do read the entire post.

DM_Jeff · Jul 15, 2008

Good for them. Can't wait to see what they have in store for Freeport!

-DM Jeff

hewligan · Jul 15, 2008

Without going into an anti-WoTC rant, it does appear that Chris has made a perfectly reasonable business decision. He looked at it, found several elements worrying, wasn't happy to cede that level of control of his business, and thus has decided to ignore the GSL (for the time being).

Chris, however, has worked hard to create several product threads (M&M, True20, Freeport, ..) that are really unrelated to what happens in the DnD space. I am sure he would have loved to create some 4e products, but at least his business has some strong brands whose performance is not tied in to the conversion to 4e.

Okay, now for an unconnected aside: By goodness, the systemless Freeport book they produced was FANTASTIC!

tchristensen81 · Jul 15, 2008

And 4th Edition is poor-er for it, without Green Ronin's excellent content (GR was one of the only 3PP publishers I really respected and trusted). Luckily I still like True20. I just wish we'd been able to see some real 4th Edition products from Green Ronin (with or without GSL *wink*).

Eric Tolle · Jul 15, 2008

I'm happy enough about this decision; this means that Green Ronin will be concentrating more on Mutants and Masterminds and True20. Getting as much product for those systemsout on the shelves as possible is a good thing.

It's a pitty that Green Ronin isn't like hero games, which pretty much can spit out another Champions supplement every month or so, but I'm pleased with the quality of the materials I've seen from them, and am lookng forward to more.

FallenTabris · Jul 15, 2008

I wonder if they can create systemless adventures with the same detail and style as Freeport. Or without the rules bits inside does that make it too difficult for the average DM? I know I tend to follow a storyline of a published module but rip out the crunchy bits and replace them with things from my homebrew world.

Charwoman Gene · Jul 15, 2008

So a publisher that had abandoned D&D line supplements YEARS ago isn't doing the GSL? WHose next? Palladium?

Calico_Jack73 · Jul 15, 2008

Charwoman Gene said:
So a publisher that had abandoned D&D line supplements YEARS ago isn't doing the GSL? WHose next? Palladium?

I know I'm just talking crazy but I'd love to see someone like Green Ronin team up with Palladium to revitalize the Palladium FRPG. If Palladium is going to focus on Rifts then by all means they should engage someone else to support their fantasy line.

CaptainChaos · Jul 15, 2008

Charwoman Gene said:
So a publisher that had abandoned D&D line supplements YEARS ago isn't doing the GSL? WHose next? Palladium?

I think you just haven't been paying attention. GR did the Bleeding Edge line of adventures over the past couple of years. They also just released the d20 Freeport Companion like three months ago and that's a great book of d20 crunch. I'd agree that d20 hasn't been their focus, but to say they abandoned it is not accurate.

Scribble · Jul 15, 2008

CaptainChaos said:
I think you just haven't been paying attention. GR did the Bleeding Edge line of adventures over the past couple of years. They also just released the d20 Freeport Companion like three months ago and that's a great book of d20 crunch. I'd agree that d20 hasn't been their focus, but to say they abandoned it is not accurate.

"Abandoned" may be a bit harsh, but the general idea that it's not really a suprise is accurate I'd say.