D&D 4E 4E boon or bust for Old School support?

Valiant

First Post
Melan said:
By writing style, phrases (e.g. 1Eers) and typical mistakes (e.g. you are --> your), my guess would be "Axe Mental". ;)

As for OSRIC, the funny thing about it is that the document doesn't do anything the basic documents don't allow you to do: you can create the same stuff working from the SRD. Its value is in being a recognisable label publishers can point at, a nice source of publicity (as demonstrated by this thread, among other things), and probably as an "orientation post" for people who are not quite that familiar with the SRD (although, if they want to do the for-profit thing, they'd better be - and with the OGL too!). Outside the OSRIC document, the supplements are on par with Role Aids material... and contrary to some online myths, those had never been ruled to be in violation of TSR's copyrights and trademarks. With the OGL, a case would be even harder to make.

Melan, I think in your list, you've missed one critical "value" of OSRIC and that is introducing new players to the AD&D world. Certainly some of the 6000+ individual downloaders (some too young to know AD&D (or perhaps getting back into it after 20 years), have garnished enough interest to order the original PH, MM and DMG. And of those perhaps...just perhaps some of them have actually started playing 1E (that otherwise wouldn't have). And if thats true, then OSRIC has been well worth the effort. ;)

And of course, another important point you missed is that OSRIC is a great aid to help teach new players the rules, as it explains things more clearly then the original books. People want fast understanding these days, and OSRIC provides that.

One more value, though perhaps not as important, when all of the copies of the DMG and PH have rotted away x number of years from now, people will at least be able to legally get a copy of OSRIC (which is better then nothing).

As for OSRIC not being a problem for publishers to fear. I agree, they shouldn't, and I hope they don't. But you also have to be realistic, C&C for instance, isn't trying to convince people to go back to playing AD&D, they are trying to sell C&C rule books. So it is logical that they may be at odds with OSRIC (which has the objective of making 1E more popular).

PS one more destinction that should be made. There are some here that play AD&D and are happy just doing that. They don't really care if anyone else plays it, if its supported by publishers, or if the game goes extinct after they die. I differ from these guys in that I do care that AD&D (the game, not just the style) continues into future generations.
 
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WSmith

First Post
Orcus said:
Its not like that name/logo/whatever actually has significant recognition. If it did, you guys wouldnt be here tryijng to drag it into the limelight with these otherwise useless and highly repetitive discussions just to say OSRIC OSRIC OSRIC over and over again. But hey, its my fault. I'm getting baited into it :)

Wow, talk about a slap in the face.
 

Jack Daniel said:
I find the Napster analogy brought up earlier to be both fallacious and misleading. It's far more accurate to say that old-school analogue systems are rather a lot more like video game emulators.

OSRIC and LL are driven by the OGL and based on the SRD--in your analogy, they're similar to video game emulators based on open source code.

I must say, I'm grateful to this thread for the column-inches. ;) Controversy makes people download the document to check what all the fuss is about, and OSRIC's worth nothing unless people download it...
 


Rel

Liquid Awesome
Orcus said:
Valiant, I'm not really sure why I continue to discuss this. It just leads to people being unhappy. So maybe the smart thing to do is just put it to bed. But I've never been accused of being smart, so here we go...

Let me assist you with that. Orcus, please do not post any further in this thread.
 

grodog

Hero
I'm waiting to see the terms of the 4.0 OGL and d20 licenses and to see what's made open in the 4.0 SRD before I will have any idea if 4.0 will be any more or less friendly to OOP editions of D&D than 3.0 and 3.5 have been. Both are pretty open, so I'm not expecting as much openness in 4.0, truthfully. We'll learn more in due time, and hopefully I'll be wrong! :D
 

Goblinoid Games

First Post
grodog said:
I'm waiting to see the terms of the 4.0 OGL and d20 licenses and to see what's made open in the 4.0 SRD before I will have any idea if 4.0 will be any more or less friendly to OOP editions of D&D than 3.0 and 3.5 have been. Both are pretty open, so I'm not expecting as much openness in 4.0, truthfully. We'll learn more in due time, and hopefully I'll be wrong! :D

I can't imagine 4e will be more closed than 3.5. It is entirely in WotC's interest for 3rd party publishers to switch over to supporting the current edition of the game. Why would they cripple all those publishers, who might go on supporting 3.5 otherwise?
 

Goblinoid Games said:
I can't imagine 4e will be more closed than 3.5. It is entirely in WotC's interest for 3rd party publishers to switch over to supporting the current edition of the game. Why would they cripple all those publishers, who might go on supporting 3.5 otherwise?

It's interesting to speculate. :)

Personally I'm of the view that since Ryan Dancey's departure, WOTC have less of a clear vision about the value of open gaming. I suppose I expect them to try to close off more, but I have no evidence in support of that.
 

Reynard

Legend
PapersAndPaychecks said:
It's interesting to speculate. :)

Personally I'm of the view that since Ryan Dancey's departure, WOTC have less of a clear vision about the value of open gaming. I suppose I expect them to try to close off more, but I have no evidence in support of that.

I would expect that, given WOtC essentially enabled their own competition with the OGL the first time around -- when all they really wanted was someone else to do the unprofittable (relatively speaking) work of making adventures and campaign settings -- they'll try and make it so complete games are herder to develop and market using 4E's open content. I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped the d20 label in favor of some "Powered by Dungeons and Dragons" license that limits the kinds of things that can bear the label, not just the rules content.
 

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