D&D 5E Upcoming OGL-Related Announcement!

[Mistwell]

Do you think if the GSL had been there for 3.x instead of the OGL, people would have lauded it as much as they do the OGL? Honest question.

I think if the final GSL had been there for 3e instead of OGL and we had never heard of an OGL for the most part in the context of RPGs then yes, I think a lot of people would have loved the GSL and been very happy to use it and to praise WOTC for offering such a generous license.

 

[Morrus]

Actually I think the final GSL was a rather reasonable agreement and a lot of people have greatly exaggerated, or were simply misinformed, about what was in it. I think they remember the initial GSL, and never adjusted their views after the GSL was made much more reasonable (mostly I think due to negotiations with Necro games?)

Yeah. The GSL is fine, other than the revocation danger. The d20 STL got revoked, but by then it didn't matter too much.

I'm OK with everyone avoiding the GSL. Meant my 4E adventure paths got more attention than they might have otherwise.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The GSL has treated ENP just fine. The only danger is sudden revocation, but since they plan to leave the 4E online tools online until folks stop subscribing to them, I'm hopeful that won't be an issue.

Some companies totally made it work. My perceptional was that the GSL was a lot less popular than the d20STL among most of the publishers, just judging from the amount of d20 3PP products vs. the amount of 4e 3PP products. Though I could be wrong about that perception!

 

[Morrus]

Some companies totally made it work. My perceptional was that the GSL was a lot less popular than the d20STL among most of the publishers, just judging from the amount of d20 3PP products vs. the amount of 4e 3PP products. Though I could be wrong about that perception!

Oh, it is much less popular. Very much so. But it's not as bad a license as that would make you think it is. Lots of people talk about it without reading it.

 

[sidonunspa]

Actually I think the final GSL was a rather reasonable agreement and a lot of people have greatly exaggerated, or were simply misinformed, about what was in it. I think they remember the initial GSL, and never adjusted their views after the GSL was made much more reasonable (mostly I think due to negotiations with Necro games?)

to be honest I had totally missed out on the fact the GSL was revised in any way.

what scared us (PCI) off was the ability for WoTC to revoke the license..

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think if the final GSL had been there for 3e instead of OGL and we had never heard of an OGL for the most part in the context of RPGs then yes, I think a lot of people would have loved the GSL and been very happy to use it and to praise WOTC for offering such a generous license.

I would go 1 step further and say that if it was MORE restrictive then the 1st GSl people still would love it compared to 2e and 1e

 

[Dausuul]

to be honest I had totally missed out on the fact the GSL was revised in any way.

what scared us (PCI) off was the ability for WoTC to revoke the license..

I would imagine their treatment of Paizo played into that? Suddenly cutting off Paizo from their highly successful stewardship of Dragon and Dungeon can't have been reassuring for anyone else contemplating a business model that relied on "Trust Wizards to let you produce stuff under license."

 

[sidonunspa]

I would imagine their treatment of Paizo played into that? Suddenly cutting off Paizo from their highly successful stewardship of Dragon and Dungeon can't have been reassuring for anyone else contemplating a business model that relied on "Trust Wizards to let you produce stuff under license."

For sure... also the fact that, knowing we just started printing spell decks in 3.0 (which sold in WoTC stores) they never gave us a heads up about 3.5

we were suddenly looking at a warehouse full of unsellable spell decks.

 

[bhandelman]

Also I don't know if there would be so much 3pp early on. I mean the ones with the ability to publish printed material a almost non existent: Paizo is doing PF, as is Kobold Press, Monte Cook is done with Malhavoc Press and has much to do with Numenera and The Strange, Alderac Entertainement is out of D20 business since what a decade now as is Fantasy Flight Games, Sword and Sorcery Studio is closed, Fiery Dragon is all but gone and Green Ronin is doing it's own subset of 3.x with Mutants and Masterminds.

So it leaves only the smaller companies like EN World who have to rely on kickstarter/subscriptions models to publish meaningful product like campaign setting and/or adventures path. Thus I don't expect them to be able to raise fund and publish that fast.

The situation was very similar when 3e came out and the market flooded very quickly. Death in Freeport from Green Ronin hit the stores before any official adventures. Many of the companies you mention existed solely to provide d20 content at the time, and there is no reason a new group of them couldn't pop up again. These days, with the advances in self publishing, it would be even easier for this to happen. I don't think we would see a flood and collapse, hobby stores are going to be a lot more cautious these days after what happened 10 years ago, but I feel if DnD does open up like that there would be plenty of content pretty quickly even if it isn't as much as what we saw for 3e.

 

[ExploderWizard]

That used to be allowed, but no longer. Why? Because they just included that on the cover of their new books, so it's clearly part of their trade dress now. I would not advise anyone use that on their covers anymore.

Good luck defending a matter of opinion as trade dress. That's right up there with GW trying to trademark "Space Marine". We have two places in town that feature "Worlds Greatest Chili Dog" on their signs.