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(From another thread) It's really, really, hard not to keep coming round to "WOTC felt somehow obliged to produce a license, but really doesn't know what they want from third parties". Dancey's vision was clear: He wanted D20 Uber Alles. He wanted to encourage every company to buy into the D20...

I'm not sure how to interpret that, legally, but I *do* know that in the OGL days, some people at WOTC were annoyed that they had spent a lot of time/effort creating new, distinctive, visual looks for monsters (like bugbears or kobolds) and that other companies mimicked the new looks -- not...

Love the idea of replacing attribute damage (with all of its intrinsic headaches) with fixed penalties. The best thing is, it can be done w/backward compatibility easy. You keep the terms the same, but redefine how they work. A monster which does "1d4 drain Str" in 3x still does "1d4 drain Str"...

We shall storm Dragonsfoot and make it our own! Or not. Actually, I don't want to have two different communities -- odds are good that I'll be playing in a 4e game while running a 3x one, or possibly the reverse, fairly soon. They are different games with different appeals. You can, in fact...

I may have been unclear. Company "B" doesn't register for the GSL. They are a pure OGL company. But the *content* of Evoker Games' 4e Volume Of Monsters is now available under the OGL, alongside their own 4e book, and there's nothing they can do to stop it. It is further interesting that while...

Sales were high on 4e because, IMO, the openness of 3e kept people in the "D&D space", even if they drifted to other D20 games -- because they could then easily drift back to D&D. In 1998, if you played D&D but wanted to do a spy game, you were likely to move to GURPS or some other non-TSR...

This, again, is based on the idea that "opinion" is a synonym for "arbitrary". No, actually, I said "The people who WROTE the GSL were afraid of open source." That's not the same as saying people who approve of it of are. In any event, "coward" is not a proper term. A coward is someone who has...

It's a bit confusing. First, it seems clear that one can create new types of kobolds, devils, demons, and so on. However, as I asked in my Devil&Demon thread (and still want an official response on), there seems to be some issue over what "redefining" means, and whether it applies to fluff. It...

Of course. Who is talking about "rights"? WOTC can say "To publish under the GSL, you must strip naked, paint yourself blue, and dance about on the steps of the Washington Monument", and I'd support their right to offer that as their terms of contract. I'd also say it was a pretty crappy deal if...

Again, you make the presumption all opinions are legitimate and equal, that some cannot, in fact, be dismissed out of hand. It's nicely egalitarian, but it's also wrong. If someone begins a conversation with "In my opinion, 2+2=5", there's no real reason to go further. I do not consider that...

The OGL would have nothing to do with it; if you try that, you'd just be using normal copyright law. If anything, the OGL would put you at greater risk. I honestly don't see the point. Such a system would have no commercial use -- no one would risk money making supplements for such a risky...

Yes. Precisely. That assumes the opinions are legitimate. The GSL, as written, is not just aimed at protecting trademarks or avoiding people downloading the SRD -- as if anyone disinclined to pay for a game wouldn't just download an illegal PDF instead. It's about locking down one particular...

I think it was created by people that DO fully understand what open source means -- and are frightened by it.

"Code" does not always mean "a program". A "code" can also be a flagged bit of text used for layout, for example, "XX" is a code. "BEGIN_SIDEBAR" is a code. Etc. In Ye Olden Dayse, before WYSIWYG, all formatting was done with codes. You'd type in things like \\i to start italics, or whatever.

Revised and expanded! Feedback welcome. Familiars in 4e Basic design goal -- mimic, as much as possible, the 'flavor' of 3e familiars without impacting the 'action economy' of 4e. Familiar Rules Once you have taken a familiar (see below), the following rules apply to it: A familiar is a...

Or making them sign over the rights to 1/2e to a company making a parody game...

I believe you can only convert OGC to which you own the copyright to a new license.

It's quite possible they are both using the same 3d modeler and shader. Given that, the dice will look identical, even if designed independantly. A cube is a cube; give two people a 3d program and say "Design a cube using surface X and lighting Y", and you'll get two identical cubes.

It's an interesting conundrum. It seems that the 'no takebacks!' clause doesn't actually keep old products out of print (if they were all or mostly open), just keeps the original publisher from profiting from them. Obviously, anything released new for 4e is immune to this.

Let us say I am the owner of, oh, Evoker games. I produce a book called the "Volume Of Monsters", which is 100% OGC. I decide to move on to 4e. Another company, decrying the loss of the VoM for 3.5, takes all my OGC and publishes it, without my permission -- which he does not need and which I...