Boing Boing on the GSL !

[WhatGravitas]

...creating a book that can really only be played with itself unless you want to spend HOURS reconfiguring and balancing the classes/spells/feats. All the while, he reprinted almost 90% of the PH in his book and says ON THE BOOK to use it as an alternative to the D&D PH.

Actually, you can plonk down AU classes and PHB classes in the same game. It works. And AU still required a DMG and a MM to play, hence still helping WotC. And I don't think there's a single gamer who has AU and NOT a WotC product - even if they buy a MMV to enhance their AU game, it's still a net win.

Also: This resulted in Iron Heroes. By Mearls. Who's doing what now? It's not like that particular development has hurt WotC.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Ace]

I don't think it's a scoop. This was one of the topics for 4e news at the top of the page. I saw it last week I think. Here's a link to the original news topic (there was a discussion post too).

I am not surprised that it wasn't a scoop -- as I said slow on the draw --

Ah well. At least it was interesting if anyone missed it.

 

[Ace]

Not only on Boingboing - it starts to crop up in totally unexpected places. Sure, nothing important - but it's interesting how many different people start to pick this up.

Cheers, LT.

The internet is nerd central and a lot of us play or played some form of D&D or other RPG. It makes sense that it would show up here as vs. say on CNN -- we care -- most people don't

 

[Ktulu]

How can the GSL not prevent that? They [WotC] have already been very vocal about not allowing 3rd party companies to Publish their own PH books that duplicate the rules in the PH. They can put out a PH that adds their own classes, but they won't be able to cut/paste the SRD into their book, which is something that can be done under the OGL.

I was only using AU as an example (one I actually own, BTW). I am aware of who Mike Mearls is and what he did before joining WotC. I'm also aware that the Iron Heroes classes/feats cannot be simply dropped into a 3.x game without making some serious changes, either. It can be done, just as any conversion can. However, as I saw it, the OGL was meant for compatable material to be made that didn't step on anyone's toes. Making a Variant PH (AU has a MM of their own, too) that changes the rules on feats/skills and omits certain ones along with copying all rules is not what they had in mind.

Ktulu

 

[Kishin]

Boing Boing posting about it is pretty significant, and the blurb has about the right of it: this thing goes against the principles of the OGL by kind of transforming it into a little bit of gaming fuedalism: "We'll let you work our fields, but you can't work your own! Or, you can go work your own fields! GOOD LUCK, we've got the biggest castle around!"

The OGL is amazing, and I don't know why Wizards would have to force companies as a whole to choose between 4e and the OGL when it's entirely possible that some company could release some killer adventure for 4e and then some new OGL game under a different umbrella.

I haven't seen the confirmation of this "by company" restriction yet, but if Boing Boing is paying some attention, the negativity has already reached a bit of critical mass.

You mean Journalists are ambulance chasers, too?

Shocking and revelatory, I know.

Boing Boing heard about some sort of controversy and jumped on it to increase their page views.

Wizards invested scads of money in 4E, of course they want people to publish for it, rather than a system they've abandoned, Scott Rouse said as much. Looking at it from the perspective of their investment, this makes perfect sense.

 

[Xethreau]

Maybe I am just an uber noob, but I thought that the OGL was way to un-restrictive. How in the world is it right for people to copy and paste OTHER people's hard work into their own products? That being said, I do think that it is a little harsh for WotC to want to deny the OLG to anybody who wants the GSL, but I think that might partially be because people will "reverse engineer" 4e rules to the 3.5 ruleset or something. How that is possible, I don't know, but if they did, it would really F up the GSL and WotC's rights as rights as they could have been.

 

[BryonD]

You mean Journalists are ambulance chasers, too?

Shocking and revelatory, I know.

Boing Boing heard about some sort of controversy and jumped on it to increase their page views.

Wizards invested scads of money in 4E, of course they want people to publish for it, rather than a system they've abandoned, Scott Rouse said as much. Looking at it from the perspective of their investment, this makes perfect sense.

WotC is abandoning Mutants and Masterminds, True20, and Spirit of the Century? That is news to me.
It makes perfect sense to pull the d20STL.
Attempting to poison the entire OGL community is simply a good way to tick off a lot of gamers.

 

[Kishin]

WotC is abandoning Mutants and Masterminds, True20, and Spirit of the Century? That is news to me.
It makes perfect sense to pull the d20STL.
Attempting to poison the entire OGL community is simply a good way to tick off a lot of gamers.

Again, its not confirmed yet, so I think we should spare the righteous anger and the poisoning metaphors until it is.

Also, simply put: For WoTC to 'abandon' those lines, they'd have to have been supporting them in the first place.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

I own very little 3.5 stuff, so I'm pretty indifferent to the existence of the GSL in that sense.

But one thing I will observe is that dual stated books are terrible products, they fill up with useless information and break one or both systems as the authors desperately try and make things line up and stay within each set of rules.

The only issue is if the restriction will be company wide or product only. Company wide seems daft, product wide makes plenty of sense to me.

 

[olshanski]

If people cannot afford to buy the relatively inexpensive 4e Player's Handbook on Amazon or a similar discount site, then they cannot afford to buy yet more 3e-type products anyway. I do not think it's going to come down to cost for the success or failure of 4e vs. 3e-type products.

At some point it is not a matter of what I can afford, but my making a ethical decision with my money. I can afford to own a gas guzzler, I choose to ride my bicycle to work. I can afford to own a home theater, I choose to take my family on overseas vacations. I can afford to by 4E several times over, but with this announcement (and the delayed GSL), I've decided that I prefer the products put out by 3rd party companies. I hadn't pre-ordered 4E, I've been on the fence and withholding my decision. This latest GSL fiasco has convinced me to buy another 4 of Goodman Games DCC adventures and keep putting the pre-order 4E on hold. I ordered the DCC adventures today. I still have not pre-ordered 4E. (I actually have so many Necromancer Games sourcebook/adventures lying around that I will not have a chance to read the DCC adventures for a few months).