An IP lawyer just broke down the new OGL draft (v1.2)

[Haplo781]

So, do you think the amount of time/effort needed to learn or run a TTRPG (like DnD) is remotely comparable to the time/effort required to learn Monopoly, Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed? Because if so, I would have to strongly disagree.

You can learn most RPGs in like, an hour.

 

[Haplo781]

The only things that would be protected from reuse are the unique and distinctive things that the author introduced about them, such as giving the wolves lasers that shoot out of their mouths (for good or evil)

Inside you are two wolves. They breathe lasers.

 

[kigmatzomat]

This was the most amusing variant. You ran around the board collecting money from OJ for the trial.

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The interesting thing about Monopoly is that since hasbro can't legally establish a monopoly on Monopoly-style games, they actually compete on features/variants. Horse-opoly, dog-opoly, cat-opoly, star wars-opoly, etc.

(Althogh that kind of smarts might have been during the Parker Brothers management)

Had someone else taken that tactic and flooded the market with "mogul" games (movie mogul, sports mogul, pet mogul, real estate mogul, etc) they could have essentially replaced "monopoly" as the "kleenex of board games"

In this case, Hasbro wants a cut of all those knock-off games without the risk of manufacturing all of them and having to eat the costs on flops.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You can learn most RPGs in like, an hour.

Seriously. The up-front learning required on D&D is very low, and D&D is one of the crunchier modern RPGs. Tons of popular videogames have far longer tutorials than the time it takes to make a PC and get playing. Hell, some games have tutorials longer than an entire D&D session.

Even with 4E we got a guy who'd never played an RPG before and didn't play videogames that weren't based on sports a character and playing in well under an hour, and he understood what was going on, made valid tactical decisions and so on (he played a Dragonborn Swordmage IIRC - Dragonborn seem interestingly popular with new players, I don't even have a theory on why).

 

[Justice and Rule]

(he played a Dragonborn Swordmage IIRC - Dragonborn seem interestingly popular with new players, I don't even have a theory on why).

Non-traditional fantasy race while still referencing traditional fantasy. That plus breath weapon and a very solid, easily-diversified look (Dragonborn can have all sorts of little odd physical features, much like Tieflings), and it's just an easy winner. I'm an old-school player but I've come to love to play as Dragonborns. I just wish they were more interesting in 5E. ;-)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Non-traditional fantasy race while still referencing traditional fantasy. That plus breath weapon and a very solid, easily-diversified look (Dragonborn can have all sorts of little odd physical features, much like Tieflings), and it's just an easy winner. I'm an old-school player but I've come to love to play as Dragonborns. I just wish they were more interesting in 5E. ;-)

Literally the only thing wrong with them is the lack of a tail in the default version, but that gradually seems to be self-correcting over time!

 

[ilgatto]

Here's another informed and very informative take on the OGL draft (v1.2).