Dark Mistress
First Post
I meant the you are with us or against us in a none hostile way. Just saying they are requiring you either support 4e and nothing else or you can't support 4e.
But the difference here is that WotC isn't helping them cannibalize its business. Unlike the OGL (and especially the SRD), the GSL is apparently designed to force players to purchase a copy of the PHB at the very least.brianm said:Which is why this doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
The big problems everyone grinched about with the OGL were that it created direct competition for D&D's core books and flooded the market with poor product.
By basically forcing Paizo, Green Ronin, Sinister Adventures, Adamant, etc. to focus on their OGL product, WotC appears to have created more, not less, competition for 4e.
In addition, outside of Necromancer Games and anyone else willing to jettison their OGL products, the publishers of third-party support materials for 4e are going to be neophytes, unused to the rigors of the printing process. Without the experience to juggle editing, layout, art direction, and dealing with print runs, it's guaranteed that, once again, the majority of third-party support will be sub-par.
That's certainly better than no GSL at all, but I really have to wonder at this apparent disconnect between strategy and goals.
- Brian
Its not... For one thing, its a d12-based engine, and for another, its 80% skill driven. I went with a d12 system because of all the polyhedrons in my dice bag, its the one that is sorely under-utilized.Goobermunch said:I don't have the new GSL yet, but I don't think you need to worry about your own system. As long as the system you've designed is not based on the OGL, the "poison pill" provision of the GSL won't trigger. From what we've read, the kill switch is publication under the OGL.
--G
Orcus said:Bryon, please dont bash on Scott. He has done way too much for us. I dont know for sure, but my guess is that the GSL was a battle. Just look at the time it took. And he got it done. He and Linae got us the ability to support 4E. Is it exactly like we want it. No. But for goodness sake we need to respect the man that accomplished what a few weeks ago I thought was impossible--4E can be supported by third parties. That is a huge accomplishment.
Maybe because it's a) the middle of the night and b) week-end where they live...Tim Gray said:I find it interesting that several pages have gone by without anyone from WotC explicitly confirming the whole-company idea. Perhaps they would like to do so?
Goobermunch said:But the difference here is that WotC isn't helping them cannibalize its business. Unlike the OGL (and especially the SRD), the GSL is apparently designed to force players to purchase a copy of the PHB at the very least.
Another random thought. Maybe I should start a studio to hire freelance designers. We won't publish anything. We'll just provide the skilled workers (operating under independent contractor agreements with the publishers) the 3pps need to create great product for whatever edition they're working on.
olshanski said:If that forum starts having contests with the 4.0 ruleset, it sounds like they might not be able to offer PDFs of the 4.0 winning entries? Does that sound correct?