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  1. rcade

    Silver Lining to Hasbro's Debacle [+]

    One of those 5E lead designers came from open gaming. Robert J. Schwalb started at Green Ronin Publishing, which released its first OGL products the same year the license was released.
  2. rcade

    Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

    I think the OGL is suitable for use in any project I would undertake to use existing open game content. If I had 125 employees and eight-figure yearly revenue I would be asking myself and my lawyers whether the value of using the OGL is worth the new risk introduced by Hasbro. And I expect the...
  3. rcade

    Can WotC be forgiven?

    You're arguing against nobody with these questions. No one has taken the position that the OGL isn't a legal agreement. The OGL is a license offered by a party that showed good faith for 23 years, making it sensible to rely on by game publishers great and small. That ended. If you have a strong...
  4. rcade

    Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

    Does the harbor look safe to you? I see a lot of floating mines that weren't there a month ago.
  5. rcade

    Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

    It's incredibly dumb for Hasbro's strategy to be "kill the OGL" instead of "starve the OGL." The SRD-derived part of the OGL world is strong today in part because WOTC kept putting out new SRDs under the OGL so that products could fully support new rules in new editions. If Hasbro left the OGL...
  6. rcade

    Can WotC be forgiven?

    Because trust in any agreement requires a belief that all parties will continue to act in good faith instead of looking for reasons to jackhammer the deal. There hasn't been a precedent before of the originator of an open source license trying to kill the license and all future rights to derive...
  7. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    There's no way to damage the D&D brand using the OGL, though. The license has never permitted use of the D&D trademark. If somebody was using a trademark owned by Hasbro in an OGL-licensed work, it could prevent that today because that's a license violation and trademark infringement.
  8. rcade

    Silver Lining to Hasbro's Debacle [+]

    People mad on behalf of D&D are going to have trouble competing with the sound and fury of the open gaming community. That's what happens when you create a network effect for 23 years and then try to bring down the entire network.
  9. rcade

    Can WotC be forgiven?

    I think publishers using the OGL had pretty strong confidence in their legal rights after 23 years in which Hasbro continued to use the OGL on SRDs and never threatened to sue anybody that used it.
  10. rcade

    Critical Role Issues Statement

    I strongly support and oppose Critical Role's statement because reading it left me with no idea where it stands.
  11. rcade

    Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

    I linked to d20srd because it's a good presentation of what WOTC shared in the SRD.
  12. rcade

    Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

    Your premise is that WOTC, having told X "here's our open license to share our content" in an agreement that both parties agreed was valid at the time X published a product, is going to use that as proof of infringement when X publishes something new in the future without the open license WOTC...
  13. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    Anybody who ever created anything licensed with the OGL has a vested interest in the issue.
  14. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    If the issue doesn't affect you because you only buy official D&D products from WOTC, then there isn't as much reason for you to care about the breach of trust. But part of the reason D&D has grown to its current size is the third-party publishers who have been creating products for the last 23...
  15. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    Safe to sell the existing book. Not safe to create new editions. Not safe for anyone to create new games that extend Old School Essentials' magnificent Section 15:
  16. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    D&D wasn't small and insular 20 years ago. It had been around for a quarter century and had millions of players. The Book of Erotic Fantasy didn't cause outrage in the wider culture because it wasn't the 1980s any more. The Pat Pullings of the world couldn't get anywhere by demonizing D&D...
  17. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    The language in OGL Section 9 allowing the use of any version means there isn't any benefit to making more-restrictive changes. Only less-restrictive ones. Hasbro can produce a new license and release the next SRD under it. This would put a wall around anything new or revised from past SRDs. No...
  18. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    Because it's a fantastically annoying argument. Nobody who cares about anything wants to hear from Care About This Other Thing Instead Guy. If we cared about that thing we'd be on another message board. Maybe we'll care about it later.
  19. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    There's an alternate path Hasbro could take: Create a new trademark that means "D&D compatible" and offer a license for it that's profitable for both Hasbro and third parties.
  20. rcade

    WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

    If that's Hasbro's beef they should take it out on the burger maker, not the OGL. Wendy's Feast of Legends didn't use the OGL.
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