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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6000854" data-attributes="member: 27780"><p><strong><u>Dragon annual 2001 </u></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>part 3/7</p><p></p><p></p><p>What the heck is a d20 system?: Ryan Dancey has been busy, hasn't he. Fresh from creating the OGL, he's already moved on from WotC, off to make his own company. Actually, it seems like moving on to the next company is something he does a lot, for various reasons. I have to wonder how long he'll stick with the pathfinder MMO's development before moving onto the next big idea. But even though his track record is pretty mixed, this is one big idea that turned out positively for a lot of people. We went from at most a dozen official D&D products a month, and usually considerably less, to hundreds of compatible bits and pieces, resulting in 3e overtaking 2e in no time flat. It's not surprising 4e's product list has felt a little … empty compared to it's predecessors. Actually, looking back on this highlights pretty well where WotC went wrong. Part of the original plan was to take advantage of all this external design experimentation, so they could take the best bits and incorporate them into official supplements later, which they conspicuously failed to do. Then by trying to back out of the OGL, they eliminated all the goodwill they'd generated by making it in the first place, and then some on top of that, since people react worse to being given things and then having them taken away than never getting them at all. And since the original OGL had been carefully designed so they couldn't revoke it, they wound up eliminating the benefits for themselves, while other people could still take advantage of those original benefits, which is basically a cutting off your own nose situation. Shoulda stuck with the original plan. </p><p></p><p></p><p>All's fair in lovecraft and warcraft: One of the best parts of the vast quantity of d20 games that'll come out in the next few years is doing enormous genre-bending crossovers. If you want to mix Babylon 5 with Everquest, Warcraft, Call of Cthulhu and Star Wars, you can do so with minimal effort, although there may be a few balance issues. As long as there's 6 stats, level based advancement, and one d20 to roll them all and in the darkness bind them, everyone's on the same playing field, although some teams might be in different leagues. So this is advice on how to play any genre in the d20 system, by switching things around, choosing the power level and advancement rate appropriately, and figuring out what to change to better fit the roleplaying party format. It doesn't actually reference any specific d20 products, which means it's only partly connected to this issue's theme, and isn't as inclusive as it could be, but it does have a fair amount of joie de vivre to propel it onwards and cover up the technical deficiencies. If you run into rules problems, you should probably gloss over them with similar speed and ad hoc rulings.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 6000854, member: 27780"] [B][U]Dragon annual 2001 [/U][/B] part 3/7 What the heck is a d20 system?: Ryan Dancey has been busy, hasn't he. Fresh from creating the OGL, he's already moved on from WotC, off to make his own company. Actually, it seems like moving on to the next company is something he does a lot, for various reasons. I have to wonder how long he'll stick with the pathfinder MMO's development before moving onto the next big idea. But even though his track record is pretty mixed, this is one big idea that turned out positively for a lot of people. We went from at most a dozen official D&D products a month, and usually considerably less, to hundreds of compatible bits and pieces, resulting in 3e overtaking 2e in no time flat. It's not surprising 4e's product list has felt a little … empty compared to it's predecessors. Actually, looking back on this highlights pretty well where WotC went wrong. Part of the original plan was to take advantage of all this external design experimentation, so they could take the best bits and incorporate them into official supplements later, which they conspicuously failed to do. Then by trying to back out of the OGL, they eliminated all the goodwill they'd generated by making it in the first place, and then some on top of that, since people react worse to being given things and then having them taken away than never getting them at all. And since the original OGL had been carefully designed so they couldn't revoke it, they wound up eliminating the benefits for themselves, while other people could still take advantage of those original benefits, which is basically a cutting off your own nose situation. Shoulda stuck with the original plan. All's fair in lovecraft and warcraft: One of the best parts of the vast quantity of d20 games that'll come out in the next few years is doing enormous genre-bending crossovers. If you want to mix Babylon 5 with Everquest, Warcraft, Call of Cthulhu and Star Wars, you can do so with minimal effort, although there may be a few balance issues. As long as there's 6 stats, level based advancement, and one d20 to roll them all and in the darkness bind them, everyone's on the same playing field, although some teams might be in different leagues. So this is advice on how to play any genre in the d20 system, by switching things around, choosing the power level and advancement rate appropriately, and figuring out what to change to better fit the roleplaying party format. It doesn't actually reference any specific d20 products, which means it's only partly connected to this issue's theme, and isn't as inclusive as it could be, but it does have a fair amount of joie de vivre to propel it onwards and cover up the technical deficiencies. If you run into rules problems, you should probably gloss over them with similar speed and ad hoc rulings. [/QUOTE]
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