PC Gen and the OGL?

[Drawmack]

Ok, I finally found the information on the net. I must say...this is another reason for me to dislike WoTC.

I really think you should be able to reproduce, print or manipulate someone elses Intellectual Property, as long as you give them full credit and are not charging for the service or product derived from the use of their Intellectual Property.

Does that sound so unreasonable?

Cedric

Are you insane?

So I put out a book, sell 1 copy. You, the single individual that purchased that book, give it away for free on the web and I have no legal recourse?

 

[Drawmack]

Heh, it's not bad for them...it's bad for me, cause now I have to make my characters with like...pen and paper!

or you could enter that stuff yourself into the program and then still use the program. PCGen is an engine that uses datafiles. You can create your own datafiles.

 

[Ysgarran]

It is pretty easy now to create your own data files. PCGen now has its own built in 'lst' file editors that help the job immensely.

I've been enterying select monsters from various sources for my own campaign. I don't go through a book and add everything but I do add things as I need them.

later,
Ysgarran.

or you could enter that stuff yourself into the program and then still use the program. PCGen is an engine that uses datafiles. You can create your own datafiles.

 

[maddman75]

The state of electronic aids sickens me. I'll pay for a program if its good enough. E-Tools isn't good enough, it only lets me use the core. PCGen used to be good, but WotC had a T$R twitch and pulled out the non core stuff. I'm not going to use a generator that doesn't cover the rule I use. Call me silly.

Sure you can buy the datafiles to put back in, but I simply won't do that. It feels too much like trying to pull every last cent out of you. In any case, the amount of info included in the character generator never, in any way, threatened the sales of the books. It threatened E-Tools, but it was more threatened by WotC's mismanagement and false promises, not to mention failing to listen to their customers.

So what do I do? I do them by hand. Its much easier than getting mixed up in all this politics.

 

[Twin Rose]

The fact of the matter is, PCGen does follow the Open Gaming License. What this means is that to allow -them- to have free use of products -not- declared Open Gaming Content means that the entire OGL would have to be scrapped. That means that you don't have to declare OGC - everything you write is OGC. That would, of course, be rediculous. Eventually, the books you ask for will be a part of the SRD - that is the WOTC declaration of Open Content. Other publishers declare it with gray text, or boxes, or declaring whole chapters. Any publisher would be upset to find text OUTSIDE of their declared Open Content in products they didn't produce.

 

[Ranger REG]

The state of electronic aids sickens me. I'll pay for a program if its good enough. E-Tools isn't good enough, it only lets me use the core. PCGen used to be good, but WotC had a T$R twitch and pulled out the non core stuff. I'm not going to use a generator that doesn't cover the rule I use. Call me silly.

Silly.

Sure you can buy the datafiles to put back in, but I simply won't do that. It feels too much like trying to pull every last cent out of you. In any case, the amount of info included in the character generator never, in any way, threatened the sales of the books. It threatened E-Tools, but it was more threatened by WotC's mismanagement and false promises, not to mention failing to listen to their customers.

You could always input the data yourself, if you do not like to reward those who spent most of their time programming those datafile for PCGen while you're doing your 9-to-5 job to earn your own income.

So what do I do? I do them by hand. Its much easier than getting mixed up in all this politics.

So what you're complaining about?

Maybe you should do an experiment on your own intellectual property (if you have any) and see how your brand pan out in the market?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

That's just for trademarks, not for copyright works. Even in the USA, they're different.

And quite a bit of the non-OGL content is trademarked. (Creature names, eg. Beholder, titles are both copyright and trademark, etc..)

Personally I find it hard to get all that angry with WotC, they are letting folks play in their sandbox after all. And E-Tools folks will have to buy the splat books etc as well, while they are getting a free patch the expansions are for profit. (And I suspect a lot harder to enter into E-Tools than they are for PCGen... Among other things I gather that the +1 of spellcasting class feature so common in prestige classes just don't work in E-Tools code as the program is written.)

Finally, I have had little trouble adding most things to PCGen by hand.

The Auld Grump, who still likes PCGen...

 

[Therigwin]

Mynex just posted over at the monkey boards that the +1 to spell casting was fixed in the patch that they are working on to be turned over to WotC this month.

So that issue is moot. After the patch is out, you should be able to enter almost all PRCs into eTools using ET helper.