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The 1st and 2ed career systems were actually more restrictive than 4th’s, as they forced you to leave your current career in order to advance, and much more strongly incentivised you along one career path. There were tiers in those editions too (though most career ms only had 3), they just...

Yes, it’s ok. The artists in both cases aren’t trying to pass off someone else’s work as their own, they’re intentionally invoking someone else’s work in their own. They want the viewer to think of the John Wick image - they’re not trying to hide it. It’s a form of flattery.

In my current campaign only two of five players have stuck with their original careers (an engineer and a wizard) and I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of those switched at some point. One has gone Smuggler-Boatman, and is now considering a third career. Another has gone Beggar-Rat...

Many Kickstarters at that level of revenue break even, or lose money. And even 3PPs with decent revenue operate on thin margins. A company on 2 million in revenue would be looking at royalties of 312,500. That’s crippling.

You take royalties on profits because if you don’t, you’re likely to destroy the viability of the company. 25% of revenue over 750k would render most of the larger 3PPs unviable. It could wipe out their profit margins, or even result in them losing money.

For simply practical reasons they were. If they’d abandoned it after 4E (had their plans for the GSL worked) then they could have left the SRD as it was, but when they decided to use the OGL for 5e they needed to release (and maintain) a new version of the SRD.

No, WotC hated the OGL, they just didn’t think they could just declare it to be deauthorised to get rid of it (both for legal and marketing reasons, I imagine). And initially they didn’t think they’d have to - they could release 4ed under a new (more restrictive) license, everyone would switch...

There’s more to it than not copying it word for word. Copyright doesn’t just protect against duplication, if also protects against derivative works. And no one is really clear on how that applies to RPG mechanics. Yes, a good lawyer could probably help you avoid crossing that line. In fact, at...

A lot of that will come down to money. Each side will put legal experts up on the stand to argue for and against the license being irrevocable. Consider some of the arguments that we’ve seen online over the last week - there’d be those, plus god knows how many others, with references to previous...

Oh I think they knew that at some point in the future WotC could be that evil. They did everything they could to exclude the possibility that the OGL could be deauthorised. They didn’t just release the OGL with “perpetual” and clause 9 in it, they publicly stated that it was intended to be a...

And if those minor trust violations hadn’t occurred, do you think the OGL 1.1 wouldn’t have resulted in this backlash? It’s not enough that trust violations erode someone’s trust. The mistrust has to be widespread, across a significant percentage of the fanbase, with the result that one more...

I really don’t see this as an example of the trust thermocline phenomenon. If anything, I think trust levels in WotC were high. The biggest issue to hit them since the launch of 5e was disappointment in Spelljammer and the whole Hadozee incident, but they weren’t enough to erode the trust they’d...

I'm not a lawyer, but a number have commented on how this would likely go. The general provision regardind discovery for Washington are here. In summary: There are certainly grounds by under which you can refuse to hand over materials (ie they're not pertinent etc) and try to get a speedier...

Something to remember is that you don't actually need the OGL to publish DnD compatible materials. People have done so without the OGL and gotten away with it - most notably Kenzerco. But Kenzerco had an advantage that most RPG companies don't - the head of the company is a lawyer with a great...

Well right off we see part of the problem here. Because you're not a lawyer, you have trouble seeing what documents you could be holding that could possibly make a difference to that question. So if WotC demand that you hand over all of your accounts, meeting notes, IP files (containing drafts...

Ah, no, you skipped a step there. Before “Publisher presents Exhibit A, OGL 1.0a as their evidence they had a license” there’s the “Discovery” bit. In discovery WotC’s lawyers will ask you to hand over a bunch of documents. These documents may hurt your case (even if you think they don’t). You...

I do. I’ve seen such language before (hell, I’ve signed contracts that basically said the same thing). In fact, I think part of the problem is that they took boilerplate legal language from somewhere and stuck it in the license without really grasping how it would come across.

shrug think what you like. I am apparently more cynical than you.

Eh. I think this means that 6e might be a little less profitable… maybe. Or maybe this will blow over and will be forgotten by next year. If not, Hasbro just shelve DnD for a decade or three. They’re unlikely to sell it.

In the nineties TSR was known in some circles as T$R for their reputation for issuing C&D letters or suing people at the drop of a hat. In 2003 WotC released 3.5 with little warning, causing the D20 bubble to burst, costing 3PPs and FLGSs a fortune. When they released 4ed they first delayed the...