D&D 4E 4E: What we think we know

[Remathilis]

What does it mean that “4th Edition will fall under the OGL” but that at the same time “3rd party publishers will be able to get licenses to create 4e material from Wizards.” Those sound like contradictory statements; i.e. the presence of OGL by its nature means 3rd party publishers do not have to get licenses to create 4e material.

Not necessarily; maybe the license is to play in their sandbox with their IP (Gods, mind flayers, Eberron, etc)?

 

[Bacris]

What does it mean that “4th Edition will fall under the OGL” but that at the same time “3rd party publishers will be able to get licenses to create 4e material from Wizards.” Those sound like contradictory statements; i.e. the presence of OGL by its nature means 3rd party publishers do not have to get licenses to create 4e material.

it's because Joseph Browning, a 3rd party publisher with Expeditious Retreat, has posted that there will be licensing arrangements, while thormagni posted that at the GenCon announcement, they said 4E will be under OGL / SRD.

Until it's not 2nd hand info, I assume Merric is trying to keep all the information posted available - once the "official" doc from WotC is available, I assume it'll be updated accordingly

 

[TheLe]

I'm not entirely convinced that's a bad thing, depending on how hard/expensive they make it to licence 4E. There are some great 3rd-party publishers to be certain, but (over the years) there has been some very, very bad ones too.

Maybe requiring a licencing fee will keep the quality up from the very beginning. Just a thought.

A high licensing cost ($1000+) will easily eliminate 50% or more of the publishers out there.

`Le

 

[DaveMage]

Well, if the mechanics *don't* change significantly, then I may stay on board....

 

[WhatGravitas]

I was at the press announcement last night (I work for an Indiana newspaper) and they very definitely said that 4e would fall under OGL and they would be releasing a new SRD. They very clearly expressed a desire for third parties to continue to produce D&D compatible material.

Makes. Me. Happy.

I'm stoked 'bout 4E. And cannot wait to read the (hopefully) new-fangled, sparkling holographic announcement on the wizards.com-website.

Cheers, LT.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

But there's objections to this: first, why three times? If a game runs on a weekly basis, that number needs to be 5 (to encompass 30 day weeks where the game starts on day 1 or 2). And second, there certainly has to be a better way to do this than to impose an arbitrary limit. Many other online communities have handled password sharing problems, I'm sure D&D could do the same.

I have no information regarding this whatsoever. However my bet is they'll allow you to have more games for a fee. The number is low enough so guys like me are tempted. Three games is ideal in my case. I suspect a lot of other dads feel the same way. Three games a month with one "week off" so your group can schedule around holidays without "losing" a game day.

 

[Rangoric]

Well, damn. I guess I'll see what's offered, then, but now it sounds like we're really seeing 3.75

Well, I don't see the mechanics changing all that much. The mechanical change between 3.0 to 3.5 was small.

Content and how its presented and created is what I expect to change.

So basically you will play the game the same way, but the actual things you will be playing with will be different.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

A high licensing cost ($1000+) will easily eliminate 50% or more of the publishers out there.

Sheesh. A low licensing cost would do the trick for most of them.

Which isn't necessarily bad if the goal of the license is to earn a few bucks while preventing a market glut and to keep control of the brand (e.g. Book of Erotic Fantasy 2: The FATAL Edition)

 

[Drkfathr1]

I wonder how much of the "change" will be identical to the Star Wars Saga edition?

 

[Maggan]

What does it mean that “4th Edition will fall under the OGL” but that at the same time “3rd party publishers will be able to get licenses to create 4e material from Wizards.” Those sound like contradictory statements; i.e. the presence of OGL by its nature means 3rd party publishers do not have to get licenses to create 4e material.

3rd parties with licenses can probably put a snazzy official WotC logo on their stuff, which OGL publishers can't.

/M