D&D 4E A couple of things that suck about the 4e SRD/OGL

[mxyzplk]

Here's some more things that suck about the 4e OGL.

1. "Community Standards" in it. Screw that.

2. We can't even see the real OGL. Only potential companies with $5k that sign an NDA can even read it. What does that make it hard for me to trust?

3. No significant vairants like M&M, Spycraft.

4. No referring to the online SRD.

 

[Glyfair]

If they still plan to call this the Open Gaming License, I wonder how this section impacts it:

I'm pretty sure that a lot depends on the legal definition of "this license." Every license titled "Open Game License" isn't necessarily legally "this license."

 

[ronin]

Maybe they wanted to remove the crappy random dude in his garage to make bad products.

Thanks for the laugh! If I ever decided to have a signature, I think that would be it.

4e has no love for the crappy random dude!

 

[Henry]

I'm pretty sure that a lot depends on the legal definition of "this license." Every license titled "Open Game License" isn't necessarily legally "this license."

True, but it'd be in interesting case of hash to make out of the willful confusion of a second "Open Gaming License" released by Wizards of the Coast, which is why I'd think they'd want to call it something else other than that; I could be wrong, though.

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Much wanting the 'butter and price of it' bemoaning here.

 

[Hussar]

Here's some more things that suck about the 4e OGL.

1. "Community Standards" in it. Screw that.

Really? You feel that it's perfectly acceptable for a company to use the material that you came up with and stick it on a femdom lesbian S&M porn game, fully illustrated? I'm thinking if I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing something, and then made it available for the public to fiddle with, I might want to be able to have some say in what's being done.

2. We can't even see the real OGL. Only potential companies with $5k that sign an NDA can even read it. What does that make it hard for me to trust?

Remember, that's only for six months. This time next year, you can read the OGL and the SRD, same as everyone else.

3. No significant vairants like M&M, Spycraft.

There is no proof of that. Mechanics aren't copywritable. However, this would put a spike in publishers putting "Core Rulebook I" on the front of their book and then referrencing NOTHING in the PHB, such as my Relics and Rituals does.

4. No referring to the online SRD.

Now this does suck. But, I have a sneaking suspicion, that in a couple of years, same as what we waited for the 3e online SRD, we'll see something come down. It might only be bare bones referrence, such as "Toughness, see Page XX PHB ", but, we'll see something.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Speculation: With 3e it was anticipated that the majority of companies would go for d20 licensed products, and it was a bit of a surprise that Mongoose, Green Ronin (and others?) have been able to take the OGL side and run with it to bring out whole new, successful product lines

I can confirm this speculation.

 

[starwed]

Really? You feel that it's perfectly acceptable for a company to use the material that you came up with and stick it on a femdom lesbian S&M porn game, fully illustrated?

Well, yeah. That's what the word open means in this context.

I'm thinking if I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing something, and then made it available for the public to fiddle with, I might want to be able to have some say in what's being done.

Certainly the law gives you a say in what's done with this. But unless you agree not to assert this right, your product is less open because of it.

 

[Flynn]

I thought the SRD would become available to all on June 6th, 2008, when the core books come out, and that the OGL wouldn't be made public (save in the Phase One publications) until January 1st, 2009.

As an aside, I imagine that some adventurous soul will likely take up the challenge of doing all the typing (or using technology in some form or fashion to extract the appropriate text from an electronic source) to create an SRD-style document of the type that we are used to seeing which contains all the Open Game Content outlined in the 4E SRD, and then release it somewhere on the web. This "expanded SRD" won't be available immediately, but I can see it being done. Heck, someone might even do all the work and then sell it online as a publisher's aid, specifically marketed towards helping the small-time publisher with 4E-based products.

Either way, I don't think people will have to wait too long after the release of 4E before they can see an "expanded SRD" in some format or another.

At least, that's my two coppers,
Flynn

 

[GMSkarka]

I thought the SRD would become available to all on June 6th, 2008, when the core books come out, and that the OGL wouldn't be made public (save in the Phase One publications) until January 1st, 2009.

No. The SRD *and* the OGL (or whatever they're going to call it, because, really, it isn't the OGL, and Bill Slavisek copped to that when I pointed it out in the conference call) are both going to be public on June 6th.

As per the press release on the WOTC site :

Wizards of the Coast will release the second phase of the developer materials on June 6th, 2008 with the free, public availability of the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition SRD and OGL. The SRD will be live immediately upon release. The OGL will go-live on January 1, 2009.

January 1st is only the "Go Live" date -- the date when publishing under the License is allowed for all. I suspect the date will be mentioned specifically within the text of the license, as a term of the license.