Alzrius
The EN World kitten
The question of d20 vs OGL is ultimately a question of which can last longer in the boxing ring...
...no wait, wrong thread, sorry...
The question of d20 vs OGL is ultimately a question of how do you plan to structure your new game, and what resources will you draw upon?
Using the d20 license has its own requirements that you must adhere to, but at the same time gives you access to everything else that adheres to them as well. By using the d20 license, you agree not to provide any new character creation or advancement rules. You won't be able to offer new ways to make characters, nor will you be able to offer ideas about alternate ways to gain levels beyond experience points, or other ways of advancement besides levels. However, you will have access to everything in the SRD (and implicit permission to use everything in the Gentlemen's Agreement beta version of the SRD), as well as OGC portions of d20 works from other companies.
Using the OGL directly frees you from those restrictions, but at the same time cuts you off from anything else as source material. By making your game directly under the OGL, you can provide alternate ways of creating characters, and alternate ways to gain levels or spend experience points, or even do away with the concept of "levelled characters" altogether if you wish. However, you won't be able to directly use anything of WotC's. You can structure the characters and monsters and magic all to work just like in 3E, but you won't be able to use the spells or feats or classes in the SRD. You'll basically have to make new spells/feats/classes/monsters, etc. for your game, since you can't use WotCs. Its important to remember that some things aren't totally copywritten by them though. You can make your OGL game have trolls, just don't make them just like WotC trolls, since that would be violating their IP.
(If I got any of this information wrong, anyone who knows better than me please feel free to correct me).
In the end, which is better for your game is ultimately something only you and whoever is working with you can decide.
...no wait, wrong thread, sorry...
The question of d20 vs OGL is ultimately a question of how do you plan to structure your new game, and what resources will you draw upon?
Using the d20 license has its own requirements that you must adhere to, but at the same time gives you access to everything else that adheres to them as well. By using the d20 license, you agree not to provide any new character creation or advancement rules. You won't be able to offer new ways to make characters, nor will you be able to offer ideas about alternate ways to gain levels beyond experience points, or other ways of advancement besides levels. However, you will have access to everything in the SRD (and implicit permission to use everything in the Gentlemen's Agreement beta version of the SRD), as well as OGC portions of d20 works from other companies.
Using the OGL directly frees you from those restrictions, but at the same time cuts you off from anything else as source material. By making your game directly under the OGL, you can provide alternate ways of creating characters, and alternate ways to gain levels or spend experience points, or even do away with the concept of "levelled characters" altogether if you wish. However, you won't be able to directly use anything of WotC's. You can structure the characters and monsters and magic all to work just like in 3E, but you won't be able to use the spells or feats or classes in the SRD. You'll basically have to make new spells/feats/classes/monsters, etc. for your game, since you can't use WotCs. Its important to remember that some things aren't totally copywritten by them though. You can make your OGL game have trolls, just don't make them just like WotC trolls, since that would be violating their IP.
(If I got any of this information wrong, anyone who knows better than me please feel free to correct me).
In the end, which is better for your game is ultimately something only you and whoever is working with you can decide.
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, one OGL in PDF for the sake of the game.
