D&D 5E 5E and the OGL

[Oni]

Does 5E need the OGL? I often wonder how much it impacted the success of 3E, and now I wonder if it would make the difference with 5E. It seems that it was a move that generated an immense amount of good will during 3E, and, thanks to the genie being out of the bottle, an immense amount of ill-will when 4E didn't follow suit. And with Pathfinder there as a constant reminder that a company have their game system open and still not only thrive, but stand toe to toe with the 800lb gorilla in the room, is it something they can ignore?

Personally I like knowing that an OGL game can be supported forever, as long as people care to, with actual products. Knowing that there is an immense wealth of content being made out there for all taste. Being able to pop on my smartphone and look up a rule without having to jump through hoops or pay some kind of fee (thank you PFSRD). And I just feels like it puts a friendly more open face on a company, I'm much more inclined to support a company that is open with their intellectual property, as it is something I believe in.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Frankly, I think that any attempy to mass-market a "closed" rpg is doomed to failure at this point. If a consumer can have the ability to publish and access rules online for free, manipulate them in any way, and have access to a vast 3rd party market of niche supplements, why would the consumer choose to give that up?

Certainly, if Pathfinder were not open, it would not be able to approach the level of business success it's had. The converse question is harder; we don't know what an OGL 4e would have looked like, but it's fair to say that it couldn't have fared much worse, financially.

From a strict money-making perspective, giving away stuff for free is really scary, but I don't know how you could look at the rpg market in the current milennium and think that the OGL was anything but good for business.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Does it need and OGL? No. There's plenty of customers who don't even know what the OGL or actively dislike 3PP.

Would it help? I think so. Especially if they want to capture a sizable chunk of the Pathfinder audience (and with the talk of "reunification" I assume that they do.

Will they? My best (uneducated) guess is that we'll see something between the OGL and GSL. Not complete open forever, but more open the the GSL was (and hopefully better managed).

 

[DEFCON 1]

They need it insomuch as they will not regain a small chunk of the audience who will refuse to play the game without it. Regardless of the quality of the game... a portion of the fanbase has retained enough ill-will to the company that they won't play the game out of principal for issues of old.

If they include the OGL or a fairly extensive equivelant, then some former players will be more willing to give the game a shot.

Are those players and whatever gets released worth whatever problems may result from a more open game? That we cannot answer.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

D&D can only remain the one game to rule them all with the OGL.

 

[Morrus]

I'll be amazed if it used the OGL.

I do think there will probably be some sort of licensing structure, but I don't imagine it'll be the OGL.

 

[Blackwarder]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, WotC need to open an app-store like store for 3pp.

As long as it enable people to seamlessly slot their products into 5e digital tools there will be an incentive to use it, from the casual user to professional publishers.

That way, the only options the user will have in their digital tools would be the ones they purchased.

Warder

 

[Croesus]

Does 5E need the OGL?

Nope. We have RPG's being published all the time without an OGL, Hero Games (Champions) and Savage Worlds being two prominent examples. No one suggests that they need an OGL to be successful.

As for a new OGL somehow bringing disgruntled buyers back, how many of the millions of 3.x PHB's sold were purchased by folks who even know what an OGL is? One percent? Less?

It's normal for human beings to project our own perceptions onto others. In this case, we too often assume that our frustration over a missing OGL is felt by a significant portion of D&D players. I see absolutely no evidence of that, only the echo chamber that is the internet.

D&D will be successful if it's a good game - whether or not it has an OGL, GSL, or neither.

 

[Oni]

Nope. We have RPG's being published all the time without an OGL, Hero Games (Champions) and Savage Worlds being two prominent examples. No one suggests that they need an OGL to be successful.

It's perhaps unfair, but D&D is likely to be held to a different standard. The difference being WotC let the genie out of the bottle and set a bar and an expectation for themselves, those other companies did not.

As for a new OGL somehow bringing disgruntled buyers back, how many of the millions of 3.x PHB's sold were purchased by folks who even know what an OGL is? One percent? Less?

It's normal for human beings to project our own perceptions onto others. In this case, we too often assume that our frustration over a missing OGL is felt by a significant portion of D&D players. I see absolutely no evidence of that, only the echo chamber that is the internet.

D&D will be successful if it's a good game - whether or not it has an OGL, GSL, or neither.

Yes, many people may never have even heard of the OGL, but I think that its presence in 3e and subsequent absence in 4e was felt by consumers even if they didn't know what it was. You could walk into a gaming store and find shelves full of stuff from all sorts of companies that would work with your game, or you could understand the basics of playing just because you owned D&D. Besides it's important to please your more devoted fans, they're the ones that create an aura of positivity, or when you take away their toys, a sense of negativity, the sort of thing that subtly pushes people to or away from products. If two games are more or less equal in my eyes, and one is open and one is not, you can more or less bet your buttons I'll push people toward the open one, not only because I strongly believed that is a business model that deserves support, but because its one that is likely to end up in a game that is better supported.

 

[Croesus]

If two games are more or less equal in my eyes, and one is open and one is not, you can more or less bet your buttons I'll push people toward the open one, not only because I strongly believed that is a business model that deserves support, but because its one that is likely to end up in a game that is better supported.

These are the types of anecdotes that always come up when the subject of an OGL is raised. But how many buyers are like you? A few dozen? A few hundred? A few thousand? Compared to selling a few million PHB's (WOTC's numbers), I suspect we're just a rounding error.

[BTW, since WOTC does not release detailed data on sales, we're left with anecdotes. But the plural of anecdote is not data.]

I will agree that the more devoted fans are more likley to buy the add-on products - splat books and the like. But again, I think we overestimate our importance to WOTC's bottom line.