D&D 5E Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition OGL?

[Crazy Jerome]

I think an OGL for 5E would be very benificial.

I know opponents of the OGL during and after 3E, felt that WotC was hurt by essentially giving away their IP. Maybe...Maybe Not... I'm not going to debate it though. Whether it was bad then or not, I think it would be beneficial this time around because there's one significant difference...

The existence of DDI.

Good point. If they ever get to the point where they are pratically giving away copies of printed books at cost--in order to get people to subscribe to DDI--then there would be no real reason not to go with an OGL, and a lot of little ones (in $1.00 increments) to do so.

Then the next logical step would be to develop a secondary market for that OGL material on DDI, but take a cut of the profits.

 

[GSHamster]

I'm one of those who, when looking at this situation from WotC's point of view, sees the success of PF as a strong reason not to release IP under the OGL in the future. So I voted "little benefit" in the poll.

There's an interesting question of whether Pathfinder would exist at all if 4e had an OGL. Perhaps with a 4E OGL, most of the 3PP, especially the big names, would have started producing 4e materials instead of 3e. Then the anti-4e movement would not have something to rally around, and would have generally dispersed.

Instead, when 4E didn't have an license that the 3PP could work with, their choice was continue with 3E materials or die.

Pazio only has so much manpower and resources. A 4E OGL might have seen all that manpower producing 4E books. A world where Pathfinder was never released because the company chose to work on different stuff.

Of course, you know, this line of thought might not be true. It's entirely possible that Pazio might have gone with Pathfinder anyways. But it's also possible that they would have reacted to the deficiencies of 4E by releasing 4E materials specifically targeted at those flaws.

What I remember of the 3PP posts here on ENWorld around the time of the 4E launch is they mostly wanted to make 4E material, wanted to switch, but couldn't stomach the new licence.

 

[Crothian]

I'm against 5e being OGL. I got tired of looking for the diamond in the rough. People always remember the good, but they seem to forget the ton of bad for each one good book we had. It over saturated the market though luckily it seems many of those companies have died.

 

[fuzzlewump]

4E's crash.

Citation needed, please.

 

[Stormonu]

An OGL would be very beneficial for the gamer community. It would not be for WotC because they would see it as money being bled out of their pocket, and thus not embrace it.

I certainly don't think we'll ever see an OGL for "true" D&D again, and I have high doubts at this point we'll even see a 5E.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

5e aside - I'd like to see what would happen if they made 4e OGL, and buried the GSL forty fathoms down.

The Auld Grump

 

[Relique du Madde]

Now that's a broad question! We have no idea what any kind of speculated 5E would entail, and what would a "new OGL" entail.

Though I do believe the GSL was the main reason for 4E's crash.

Personally, I think it was the rules, its incompatibility with previous editions, a bad economy, the 'your game sucks 4e rules' nature of the 4e build up, and poorly implemented avenues of support avenues which were advertised as being features of 4e but never fully realized on a timely basis. GSL was just the cherry on the cowpie that WoTC served.

Citation needed, please.

I think he is alluding to the DnD schism and how a bunch of 3.x DnDers either stayed 3.x or went to Pathfinder rather then turning to 4e.

 

[howandwhy99]

It depends upon the OGL in question.
And how receptive 3rd party publishers are to rejoining that arena.
And... a bunch of other stuff I don't know.

I think the gaming community at large, especially the players, would prefer something. Being able to publish for profit what amount to as support for D&D is a good thing for RPGs. How well this can be cultivated without hurting Wizards is another question. Also, management of FLGSs picking up product may also come into it. These stores still have relevance over Wizards profitability. Though I think we'll still see online tools, which has helped mitigate these losses for them due to the declining numbers of FLGSs.

 

[Stormonu]

5e aside - I'd like to see what would happen if they made 4e OGL, and buried the GSL forty fathoms down.

The Auld Grump

Yeah, I can't see a 5E being OGL unless the GSL was opened up in 4E.

 

[drothgery]

There's an interesting question of whether Pathfinder would exist at all if 4e had an OGL. Perhaps with a 4E OGL, most of the 3PP, especially the big names, would have started producing 4e materials instead of 3e. Then the anti-4e movement would not have something to rally around, and would have generally dispersed.

Perhaps. But it's nearly certain Pathfinder (or another 3.x knockoff accepted as legit) would not exist if there had never been an OGL for 3e in the first place.