dmccoy1693
Adventurer
I posted a new blog post on my blog at Wizards. Today, we are talking about the Licensing, OGL and Getting D&D Compatible Publishers Involved. Read more at the link or here below.
While everyone is focused on the last D&D Playtest Packet, I would like to talk to offer Wizards some unsolicited advice on the D&D 5e Compatible License, because someone there has to be thinking about how to get other companies involved. As a publisher that puts out products compatible with other systems, I would like to share all my thoughts and the reasons behind them and why they are good for Wizards of the Coast and D&D in the long run.
1) Use the Open Game License and use it liberally. Why should you use the OGL: the gaming industry as a whole knows and trusts the OGL. It doesn't matter if you make a license as good as the OGL but change the name. Think of the OGL as brand recognition to us publishers. You rely on the D&D name for brand recognition to gamers; well, the OGL is a brand to publishers that we can make products that we want to make. Even if the license that lets us put D&D on our books restricts us some (we'll get to that in point 3), the OGL is a marketing gimmick that works. Use it.
Now here's the real trick that really makes this work: put the OGL in the Player's Handbook. That's right, make it easy on yourselves, save the work of coming up with a seperate document of what can be used and just put the OGL right in the PHB. This saves time and money on your part and every company out there that is interested in working with you knows how to work with this. Its not like 2000 when the OGL was brand new and no one had a clue what to do. Just say the whole PHB is open content except the artwork and you're good.
And yes I said the whole PHB. But you should also include deities for clerics. So what should you do there? How about using real world mythology deities. Why not put Thor and Ra and Mars in there instead of Greyhawk/FR deities. Heck, you guys have several version of Deities and Demigods that you can pull from and they are already written up. It keeps your IP from being open content and is easy legally.
Here's another little thing that you really need to do: use the OGL beyond the PHB. There is little reason why you can't put the OGL in every non-setting specific book and declare everything or almost everything open content. Do that. But this is the real trick that only you, Wizards of the Coast, can do: leave OGL out of the setting specific books like the Forgotten Realms setting book. You own the system. You won the license. You are literally the only ones that can choose to do exactly that. Use it to your full advantage.
So put the OGL in the PHB, PHB2, PHB 3 and beyond as well as the fighter supplement, the wizard supplement, the psionics expansion and so on, but leave it out of Dragonlance books and so on. Use the OGL to its maximum potential and you can enable us publishers to provide more support your material that you didn't have to come up with and will drive sales of your other books. If you include a new background that works great for fighters in the fighter supplement book, I can use that in an adventure I come up with, driving the sale of that book so people can use that background. So its a win-win.
2) Give us a logo that says "Dungeons and Dragons Compatible Product" and let us put it right on the front cover of our books. Having an easy way to show people that the product is D&D compatible is key to our sales. More sales for us => we keep producing material for your game => more and varied people will play your game => the better D&D sells.
2a) Don't be afraid of "crap" having the D&D logo on it. This one is a subset of the previous point but it really goes right to the heart of the compatible market and what it is good for. A compatible publisher puts out stuff you're not going to both with. Stuff that is far too niche for you to deal with. Not all of it is going to be balanced. You know that. I know that. But some people like unbalanced. Some people like to play underpowered or overpowered classes/races/etc because it works for their game. Some like that material for story reasons. Some like to play overpowered characters. Some like to play underpowered. Some are going to take the game in a direction you don't want. Like guns. I don't like guns in my fantasy. Others do. So I don't buy that supplement while those that want it buy it. That is their game. Let them play their way.
Sure it is easy to see that that unbalanced thing as crap. I understand you don't what that with your logo on its cover. But you know what happens with time: improvement. I will freely admit this: not all of the products I put out have been exceptional. Some, particularly my early products, were crap. But I improved with time. My writing is now good enought that I write for Paizo. Think of "crap" as a growing phase and if that crap isn't there, you'll never get mature authors working on your system.
I understand that as a company you want to retain control over what people do with the D&D name. But the best thing you can do is let people people put out whatever they want. The more ways that the game has support, the more people will play it. And lets be frank, you can't provide support for every style of play. Sure you might put out rules for mass combat, but are you going to put out adventures using those mass combat rules? Or supplements devoted to mass combat? Probably not as many as just your basic dungeon crawl devoted adventures/supplements. Not all of the material produced for that style of play will be good. But it will improve with time. And you will eventually have top notch publishers working on your game and you don't have to pay them a dime.
3) Embrace your Compatible Publishers. Make them feel valuable. If we have a question, have someone for us to email so it can be answered. I know your time is valuable and helping out the "competition" is not a good thing. But we are not your competition. Someone that signs the license to work on D&D is a Licensee. Treat us like such. We are your unpaid, unfocused marketing arm. That is essentially what we do. Paizo literally has over 100 other companies providing marketing for their books that cost them nothing except a little time on rare occassions. How much free marketing do you want?
Sure, we would like a few simple things. Access to the PHB early for those willing to sign the license early would be really nice. Limit it to companies that put out a print product available through distribution as a test of a serious publisher. Something that I think all potential compatible publishers want is a relatively free compatible license. Lets take the GSL for example. The GSL (atleast the early version did, I don't know about the current version) prevented publishers from changing the flavor of anything established in the game. Frankly, that sucks. If I don't want to say that all barbarians are savage brutes but are instead sacred warriors that fly into a holy anger whenever their deity decides it should happen, why can't I? Why do I have to come up with an entirely different class just because you have a different vision then me? What if I don't like undead being held together with necrotic energy? What if I want some made of radiant energy? Why do I have to come up with a whole different class of monster just to make helpful and friendly spirits? Community standards, absolutely. No porn or violence against kids, sure. No hate speech towards any real world groups, you got it. But frankly, that should be it as far as restrictions on what we can do.
What do you think? Is there anything else you would like in the D&D 5e license? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Sign up for my newsletter where we talk about Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, our hopes for the new edition and where we discuss ideas for potential releases while we are waiting on licensing details. And be sure to follow us at JonBrazer.com.
While everyone is focused on the last D&D Playtest Packet, I would like to talk to offer Wizards some unsolicited advice on the D&D 5e Compatible License, because someone there has to be thinking about how to get other companies involved. As a publisher that puts out products compatible with other systems, I would like to share all my thoughts and the reasons behind them and why they are good for Wizards of the Coast and D&D in the long run.
1) Use the Open Game License and use it liberally. Why should you use the OGL: the gaming industry as a whole knows and trusts the OGL. It doesn't matter if you make a license as good as the OGL but change the name. Think of the OGL as brand recognition to us publishers. You rely on the D&D name for brand recognition to gamers; well, the OGL is a brand to publishers that we can make products that we want to make. Even if the license that lets us put D&D on our books restricts us some (we'll get to that in point 3), the OGL is a marketing gimmick that works. Use it.
Now here's the real trick that really makes this work: put the OGL in the Player's Handbook. That's right, make it easy on yourselves, save the work of coming up with a seperate document of what can be used and just put the OGL right in the PHB. This saves time and money on your part and every company out there that is interested in working with you knows how to work with this. Its not like 2000 when the OGL was brand new and no one had a clue what to do. Just say the whole PHB is open content except the artwork and you're good.
And yes I said the whole PHB. But you should also include deities for clerics. So what should you do there? How about using real world mythology deities. Why not put Thor and Ra and Mars in there instead of Greyhawk/FR deities. Heck, you guys have several version of Deities and Demigods that you can pull from and they are already written up. It keeps your IP from being open content and is easy legally.
Here's another little thing that you really need to do: use the OGL beyond the PHB. There is little reason why you can't put the OGL in every non-setting specific book and declare everything or almost everything open content. Do that. But this is the real trick that only you, Wizards of the Coast, can do: leave OGL out of the setting specific books like the Forgotten Realms setting book. You own the system. You won the license. You are literally the only ones that can choose to do exactly that. Use it to your full advantage.
So put the OGL in the PHB, PHB2, PHB 3 and beyond as well as the fighter supplement, the wizard supplement, the psionics expansion and so on, but leave it out of Dragonlance books and so on. Use the OGL to its maximum potential and you can enable us publishers to provide more support your material that you didn't have to come up with and will drive sales of your other books. If you include a new background that works great for fighters in the fighter supplement book, I can use that in an adventure I come up with, driving the sale of that book so people can use that background. So its a win-win.
2) Give us a logo that says "Dungeons and Dragons Compatible Product" and let us put it right on the front cover of our books. Having an easy way to show people that the product is D&D compatible is key to our sales. More sales for us => we keep producing material for your game => more and varied people will play your game => the better D&D sells.
2a) Don't be afraid of "crap" having the D&D logo on it. This one is a subset of the previous point but it really goes right to the heart of the compatible market and what it is good for. A compatible publisher puts out stuff you're not going to both with. Stuff that is far too niche for you to deal with. Not all of it is going to be balanced. You know that. I know that. But some people like unbalanced. Some people like to play underpowered or overpowered classes/races/etc because it works for their game. Some like that material for story reasons. Some like to play overpowered characters. Some like to play underpowered. Some are going to take the game in a direction you don't want. Like guns. I don't like guns in my fantasy. Others do. So I don't buy that supplement while those that want it buy it. That is their game. Let them play their way.
Sure it is easy to see that that unbalanced thing as crap. I understand you don't what that with your logo on its cover. But you know what happens with time: improvement. I will freely admit this: not all of the products I put out have been exceptional. Some, particularly my early products, were crap. But I improved with time. My writing is now good enought that I write for Paizo. Think of "crap" as a growing phase and if that crap isn't there, you'll never get mature authors working on your system.
I understand that as a company you want to retain control over what people do with the D&D name. But the best thing you can do is let people people put out whatever they want. The more ways that the game has support, the more people will play it. And lets be frank, you can't provide support for every style of play. Sure you might put out rules for mass combat, but are you going to put out adventures using those mass combat rules? Or supplements devoted to mass combat? Probably not as many as just your basic dungeon crawl devoted adventures/supplements. Not all of the material produced for that style of play will be good. But it will improve with time. And you will eventually have top notch publishers working on your game and you don't have to pay them a dime.
3) Embrace your Compatible Publishers. Make them feel valuable. If we have a question, have someone for us to email so it can be answered. I know your time is valuable and helping out the "competition" is not a good thing. But we are not your competition. Someone that signs the license to work on D&D is a Licensee. Treat us like such. We are your unpaid, unfocused marketing arm. That is essentially what we do. Paizo literally has over 100 other companies providing marketing for their books that cost them nothing except a little time on rare occassions. How much free marketing do you want?
Sure, we would like a few simple things. Access to the PHB early for those willing to sign the license early would be really nice. Limit it to companies that put out a print product available through distribution as a test of a serious publisher. Something that I think all potential compatible publishers want is a relatively free compatible license. Lets take the GSL for example. The GSL (atleast the early version did, I don't know about the current version) prevented publishers from changing the flavor of anything established in the game. Frankly, that sucks. If I don't want to say that all barbarians are savage brutes but are instead sacred warriors that fly into a holy anger whenever their deity decides it should happen, why can't I? Why do I have to come up with an entirely different class just because you have a different vision then me? What if I don't like undead being held together with necrotic energy? What if I want some made of radiant energy? Why do I have to come up with a whole different class of monster just to make helpful and friendly spirits? Community standards, absolutely. No porn or violence against kids, sure. No hate speech towards any real world groups, you got it. But frankly, that should be it as far as restrictions on what we can do.
What do you think? Is there anything else you would like in the D&D 5e license? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Sign up for my newsletter where we talk about Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, our hopes for the new edition and where we discuss ideas for potential releases while we are waiting on licensing details. And be sure to follow us at JonBrazer.com.
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