NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5450756" data-attributes="member: 42582">Adding to what MerricB said - I'm not at all surprised that WotC tried to move away from the OGL.Ryan Dancey's original conception, as I remember it, was that the OGL, operating in combination with network externalities, would generate momentum towards d20 as a common ruleset. That idea seems to have worked out to an extent, although perhaps not to the extent the Dancey anticipated. I think that Dancey may have underestimated the interest that RPGers have in the different play experiences that different mechanics produce, which aren't always easily obtained using d20 (a more-or-less simulationist mechanic by default).But from the point of view of WotC as a business, Dancy must also have imagined that increased momentum for d20 would support if not increase sales of D&D core rulebooks. I can only assume that this didn't work out, because if it did then the business case for 4e would not have been made out (assuming that WotC has even somewhat rational internal processes).So when 4e was released, one has to assume that the business prospects, for WotC, of sticking with 3.5 weren't that rosy. So from WotC's point of view 4e may well have been rational, even if not as successful as they anticipated.What Paizo's rise does tend to suggest is that, if WotC had abandoned the whole 3.5/4e model of rulebooks and the odd setting book and instead gone into adventure publishing in a wholesale way, they might have found an alternative way to move forward. But I can think of at least two reasons why WotC didn't take this route: (i) they seem to lack the capacity to produce compelling adventures (not that I know Paizo's adventures, but a lot of people seem to like them); (ii) they would still have been stuck with the OGL - and thus the potential for being crowded out of the d20 market - hanging over their head like Damocles' sword.</blockquote>

Verification