Potential Positive Outcomes of the OGL Fiasco (+)

[gweinel]

I am not so sure a diaspora to other games will be as positive a development for the community as folks may think, in the long term.

Why? I am really curious to hear your thoughts.

 

[Matt Thomason]

I am not so sure a diaspora to other games will be as positive a development for the community as folks may think, in the long term.

I think that depends which community people consider themselves a part of.

For the RPG community, I think it'll be a great thing.
For the D&D community, perhaps not so great.

 

[Umbran]

Why? I am really curious to hear your thoughts.

I felt noting it briefly was okay, so long as I was giving other positive developments. Going deeply into it, though, seems against the spirit of the (+) thread.

 

[Willie the Duck]

We see hundreds if not thousands gamers (mostly gamemasters and many creators) looking right now a multitude of game systems and rpg companies for their new games.
I am one of them and I feel both excited and liberated!

I am not so sure a diaspora to other games will be as positive a development for the community as folks may think, in the long term.

Fundamentally, I think that is the question that the OGL tried to answer in the first place* -- is having a bunch of the TTRPG creative energy outside of D&D-proper dedicated to things built on a D&D-like framework better for the flourishing of the TTRPG community than for the same energy to be going into individual other-systems like GURPS, Runequest, White Wolf, and so on?
*beyond just preserving d&d in case D&D failed and left the scene

In terms that will fit the (+) premise of the thread, I think it is absolutely a positive time to test the waters: let's see if -- given the huge amount of new blood in the hobby -- now is the time for some non-class/level/D20-based game systems to try to edge their way into the fore. To my knowledge, we've only ever had non-d&d* take a large slice of the gaming pie when gamerdom as a whole had retracted and D&D in particular was waning. Let's see what happens when the holders of D&D lose the ball when they are ascendant and gamerdom as a whole has been steadily growing.
*counting Pathfinder as a part of this category.

 

[Greg Benage]

To my knowledge, we've only ever had non-d&d* take a large slice of the gaming pie when gamerdom as a whole had retracted and D&D in particular was waning.

The billion dollar question is whether those two are causally connected. The Skaff Effect states that any activity in the RPG space will accrue to the benefit of the market leader. Is the inverse true? Does the "waning" of the market leader cause decreased activity in the RPG space?

To keep this (+), let's say no!

 

[Krachek]

The recent events show that the public want DnD to have a fair OGL.
It’s a part of the marketing and the image of DnD that people want, even if they don’t use or buy any third party products.

So DnD can use the OGL to make his own promotion and can go public like actual play test for the rules to make any change for the OGL. DnD can reverse the actual situation and be the promoter and explain carefully the OGL and any change they want to do directly to the public. That way they will bypass the third party that claim the OGL for their own.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I hope we see smaller RPG systems rise
some new some old...

I keep pimping TORG. It's one of those systems that is really linked to it's story and world... BUT it doesn't have to be. A group of TORG players can peal out the system and run there own fantasy or sci fi or modern game.
In fact I could run the Deadlands game world, the Shadow Run game world the Vampire/Werewolf/Mage world just fine... I can run a superhero game (including doing a DC or Marvel one) with the core book and cards.

 

[Vaalingrade]

With less encouragement to ape 5e, maybe we will see some good game design coming to the fore again.

 

[J.Quondam]

• Several 3pps are already severing themselves from the OGL, especially ones who don't have any real need for the safeharbor for using D&Disms.
• Hopefully, this will a relatively quickly provoke a definitive resolution to the status of OGL1.0 materials, especially for future works based on them.
• Hopefully, the hubub will encourage more gamers to explore beyond D&D, and maybe help push other RPGs, genres, and designs into the mainstream.

 

[SteveC]

It seems likely that there will be another Pathfinder situation where a "clone" or similar system comes to the forefront. From my perspective, I hope this will be a game more in touch with what I want out of a game, and one that use what, to me, are better design elements. Additionally, depending on who is creating the clone, it is likely to have much better adventure support too.

So I guess I'd say a mainstream game more to my tastes would be a positive development. And with the groups that are stepping up, that seems pretty likely.