Charles Ryan on Adventures
- Thread starter MerricB
- Start date
Hussar
Legend
Just a thought about Mr. Ryan's idea that the SRD would grow incrementally.
Is there anything preventing a publisher from creating a document which includes the SRD plus all (or some) of the OGC material that that publisher has created and calling it the ((Publisher's Name)) Appended SRD? For example, could AEG, which has cranked out a number of rules books, create a website and publish online an ammended SRD which includes all of AEG's OGC material from its various books plus the base d20 SRD?
Is there some legal reason why this can't be done?
If not, it would seem that the d20 publishers have failed somewhat to support the SRD. The SRD has never moved beyond core DnD and, unless WOTC updates it, quite possibly never will. But, if d20 publishers started cranking out ammended SRD's for their companies, or even working together with other publishers to create a massive SRD, then we would see the SRD evolve beyond the basic core ruleset. Since the d20 publishers owe their existence to the SRD, I don't think this is an unfair thing for Mr. Ryan to say.
Granted, if there is some reason a company can't do that, then my idea is totally bogus and please ignore my mindless drivel.
Is there anything preventing a publisher from creating a document which includes the SRD plus all (or some) of the OGC material that that publisher has created and calling it the ((Publisher's Name)) Appended SRD? For example, could AEG, which has cranked out a number of rules books, create a website and publish online an ammended SRD which includes all of AEG's OGC material from its various books plus the base d20 SRD?
Is there some legal reason why this can't be done?
If not, it would seem that the d20 publishers have failed somewhat to support the SRD. The SRD has never moved beyond core DnD and, unless WOTC updates it, quite possibly never will. But, if d20 publishers started cranking out ammended SRD's for their companies, or even working together with other publishers to create a massive SRD, then we would see the SRD evolve beyond the basic core ruleset. Since the d20 publishers owe their existence to the SRD, I don't think this is an unfair thing for Mr. Ryan to say.
Granted, if there is some reason a company can't do that, then my idea is totally bogus and please ignore my mindless drivel.
Maggan
Writer for CY_BORG, Forbidden Lands and Dragonbane
Hussar said:Granted, if there is some reason a company can't do that, then my idea is totally bogus and please ignore my mindless drivel.
No reason they can't. Lots of reason why they won't.
Main reason being the feeling that they would then be giving their stuff away for free, without any chance of making money on it. And even for stuff that's oop, there could be sometime in the future when it would be convenient NOT to have release a lot of it in a digital [Insert Company Name] SRD.
Sad, but it seems as if it's not gonna happen.
/M
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Now *that* is an interesting question, Hussar. I'm intrigued to see what answers you'll get!
-blarg
-blarg
Yair
Community Supporter
As Meggan said, there is simply no economic incentive to expand the enormous effort and (in the case of a massive cross-publisher "SRD") legal liabilities. d20 publishers are having economic trouble as it is, and have much to lose and little to gain by such an enterprise.Hussar said:
They don't see supporting the SRD as their responsibility: the SRD was made by WotC for buisness reasons, and they are using it for doing buisness - it is expecting them to do what the OGL doesn't require of them that is "unfair", if WotC wanted them to do something in return for using the OGL it should have put it into the OGL (like the open-programming license requires code to be made public, so could the OGL require SRDs to be made public).
The concept of a massive SRD is actually opposed by many publishers, which believe it will hurt their sales and not help them much. The concept of a publisher-only massive SRD (open only to publishers) is more acceptable, but has its own problems and does not seem economically viable.
Nope, no legal reasons preventing it, but as others have stated, a whole lot of other reasons are preventing it.Hussar said:
<insert annoying buzzer sound> Wrong Answer!Hussar said:
To put it simply, the publishers support the SRD by using it, not by adding to it, or creating their own versions of it. The OGL does not allow them to add to it. As mentioned, they can create their own SRDs, just not update the current one.
That is because the SRD is their property. Nobody CAN update the SRD except WotC. Now, others can create their own SRD's based off the one WotC maintains, but they cannot update it.Hussar said:
In the end you would basically end up with what you currently have (M&M, True20, Arcana Evolved, Iron Hereos, etc..).
DaveMage
Slumbering in Tsar
Maggan said:
It's not quite the same, but IIRC, some of the mechanics from Mutants & Masterminds (Green Ronin) as well as some from The Game Mechanics was included in the OGC of Unearthed Arcana.
So in the whole of the Open Game material available from WotC, it *does* have some 3rd party material.
Cam Banks
Adventurer
Banshee16 said:
All of Sovereign Press' hardcover sourcebooks for Dragonlance have been full-color. I think that's pretty rare outside of WOTC. I do think the product line is less spoken of around here because of the license, but those of us who're writing for the books make sure to add in a lot of lootable content.
Of course, it's not OGL lootable content. But still...
Cheers,
Cam
jgbrowning
Hero
DaveMage said:
I was very pleased to see that. We're all playing in their sandbox and it goes to show that not only we can make some money off their OGC, they can make some money off of ours.
I wish WotC would look into doing a compilation of d20 material released by 3rd parties and turn it into another Unearted Arcana type book. That kind of recipriocity would be a win-win for everyone involved.
joe b.
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