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Is it OK to distribute others' OGC for free?
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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 1822671" data-attributes="member: 14159"><p>Personally, I see it as completely ethical to redistribute OGC for free.</p><p></p><p>When the d20 System first came out, it seemed to me, from reading the commentaries of the time and looking at the licenses that the whole point of the OGL/STL was to make the rules ubiquitous and universal, the basic rules of the game, the vast majority of monsters, spells and the basic "nuts and bolts" of D&D were being opened up into a format that anybody, fan or professional, could tinker with, rewrite, redistribute and enjoy all for free. No more "dark days" of 90's TSR threatening to sue fans for posting some homebrewed spells and NWP's or their old characters on their web page, as well as letting companies who had an idea for a game setting have access to a good, well written and popular system to use for that suppliment instead of having to invent a pretty bad system and people just have to convert things around themselves to a working system.</p><p></p><p>The reason for companies to keep making books in this market was threefold (or so it seemed at the time):</p><p></p><p>Name Recognition/Market Power: WotC had the D&D brand name, and with it's big marketing muscle it could get it's books into all sorts of distribution channels that the little guys couldn't touch. WotC & other companies also could do licensed RPG's and those would sell to gamers and crossover audiences just based on the name (and if the game is good, then it sells even better).</p><p></p><p>Product Identity: Just the core of the game was open, the worlds we had come to love were still "closed". I was and still am a big Planescape fan, and love the Realms. I just can't go and download all my favorite setting material for free (not legally or ethically at least). If I want info on the settings I like, I've still got to go to WotC for it. Illithid, Beholders, Displacer Beasts and other very distinctly D&D monsters remain Product Identity and only WotC can legally write about them. To use the popular terminology of now, the "Crunch" is open to all, but the "Fluff" is what you <em>really</em> pay for.</p><p></p><p>Convenience: Using an electronic format for gaming materials gets cumbersome at the gaming table, and most people I know generally prefer a hardcopy of things to read, and frankly as expensive as gaming books get nowadays, I know that to print out a 120+ page book on my color printer will cost me a lot more than $25 or so, just from the ink costs! It really is worth it (in my experience) to buy a physical hardcopy of a book you intend to use a lot.</p><p></p><p>Nothing is OGC that a company (or private individual) didn't give specific permission to do so. Everybody got into the OGL game knowing exactly what they were doing, and if you were releasing OGL you should be betting on either having brand recognition enough to sell your books on the shelf, or making your Product Identity good enough to make people want to come and buy it.</p><p></p><p>Even if companies started seriously cutting down on new OGL entering circulation, it's not the end of the OGL, or the "System-we-all-play-with-a-20-sided-die-with-the-trademarked-name" <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> Because quite honestly, we've got enough OGC in circulation already to keep us all playing for many decades. Really, if we just had the Modern and "Original" SRD's, UA, and some of the better OGC rich 3rd party works to go with we could still play games for countless years. In it's own way, the OGL has ensured the immortality of D&D (albeit not with that name), by permanently putting out the heart & soul of it in the open to be copied, distributed and modified freely. Should the unthinkable happen and WotC/Hasbro stop producing d20/D&D, or switch to a highly unpopular new system/edition, we can happily keep on playing our same old game, even reprinting the rules perfectly legally (and 3rd party companies can even come along and make new rulebooks for us).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 1822671, member: 14159"] Personally, I see it as completely ethical to redistribute OGC for free. When the d20 System first came out, it seemed to me, from reading the commentaries of the time and looking at the licenses that the whole point of the OGL/STL was to make the rules ubiquitous and universal, the basic rules of the game, the vast majority of monsters, spells and the basic "nuts and bolts" of D&D were being opened up into a format that anybody, fan or professional, could tinker with, rewrite, redistribute and enjoy all for free. No more "dark days" of 90's TSR threatening to sue fans for posting some homebrewed spells and NWP's or their old characters on their web page, as well as letting companies who had an idea for a game setting have access to a good, well written and popular system to use for that suppliment instead of having to invent a pretty bad system and people just have to convert things around themselves to a working system. The reason for companies to keep making books in this market was threefold (or so it seemed at the time): Name Recognition/Market Power: WotC had the D&D brand name, and with it's big marketing muscle it could get it's books into all sorts of distribution channels that the little guys couldn't touch. WotC & other companies also could do licensed RPG's and those would sell to gamers and crossover audiences just based on the name (and if the game is good, then it sells even better). Product Identity: Just the core of the game was open, the worlds we had come to love were still "closed". I was and still am a big Planescape fan, and love the Realms. I just can't go and download all my favorite setting material for free (not legally or ethically at least). If I want info on the settings I like, I've still got to go to WotC for it. Illithid, Beholders, Displacer Beasts and other very distinctly D&D monsters remain Product Identity and only WotC can legally write about them. To use the popular terminology of now, the "Crunch" is open to all, but the "Fluff" is what you [i]really[/i] pay for. Convenience: Using an electronic format for gaming materials gets cumbersome at the gaming table, and most people I know generally prefer a hardcopy of things to read, and frankly as expensive as gaming books get nowadays, I know that to print out a 120+ page book on my color printer will cost me a lot more than $25 or so, just from the ink costs! It really is worth it (in my experience) to buy a physical hardcopy of a book you intend to use a lot. Nothing is OGC that a company (or private individual) didn't give specific permission to do so. Everybody got into the OGL game knowing exactly what they were doing, and if you were releasing OGL you should be betting on either having brand recognition enough to sell your books on the shelf, or making your Product Identity good enough to make people want to come and buy it. Even if companies started seriously cutting down on new OGL entering circulation, it's not the end of the OGL, or the "System-we-all-play-with-a-20-sided-die-with-the-trademarked-name" :) Because quite honestly, we've got enough OGC in circulation already to keep us all playing for many decades. Really, if we just had the Modern and "Original" SRD's, UA, and some of the better OGC rich 3rd party works to go with we could still play games for countless years. In it's own way, the OGL has ensured the immortality of D&D (albeit not with that name), by permanently putting out the heart & soul of it in the open to be copied, distributed and modified freely. Should the unthinkable happen and WotC/Hasbro stop producing d20/D&D, or switch to a highly unpopular new system/edition, we can happily keep on playing our same old game, even reprinting the rules perfectly legally (and 3rd party companies can even come along and make new rulebooks for us). [/QUOTE]
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