Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luke" data-source="post: 1181113" data-attributes="member: 602">That certainly wouldn't apply to using any CMP datasets in another program.CMP (I think it was Mynex) stated on their web-site that people are not paying twice for their RPG material (once for the books, and again for a CMP dataset) - which is a very common complaint about the datasets being charged for.CMP have stated that the charge for the datasets is to pay for the efforts of people to enter the data, and do the testing etc.That being the case, there should be no problem with being able to use the datasets in other programs (such as RolePlayingMaster and CS).If you pay for the data, it certainly makes sense to be able to use it as best fits your needs. The efforts of the people who did the work is actually further rewarded by extra sales to RPG customers that use other programs.However there is a background to the whole story that may make the issue less clear.CMP have been licensed by Wizards to charge for the datasets. It may be that Wizards have stipulated that the licensed data was only to be usable in PCGen and ETools. If that is the case, then CMP may have a duty to try and enforce that.Certainly CMP helped rescue a virtually dead ETools (big problems, with no budget to fix them). For that, Wizards gave a few PCGen founders the right to make money off datasets for PCGEN and ETools.So, unless you actually get to see the agreement between CMP and Wizards, you don't really get to find out whether CMP have little choice, or whether they're trying to force people to use Etools or PCGEN.I haven't personally imported anything from PCGEN for use in RolePlayingMaster, and the RolePlayingMaster community that has created many datasets hasn't either (far as I'm aware). Nevertheless, I wouldn't agree with any claims that its unfair to use datasets that are made freely available (like PCGEN) in other programs.Surely the point of creating a freely available dataset under open source is to benefit the wider RPG community? Why would somebody get upset because you didn't use the same program as them?If members of the RPG community find that they get better use out of a different program, or that ETools/PCGEN are just unsuitable - then wouldn't we all want them to get the best possible outcome for enjoying their roleplaying?I guess I could have a problem if a different program used other programs datasets, and then made a surcharge on it for themselves.My personal philosophy with RolePlayingMaster is that people only pay when (if) they register the basic program. From that point on everything is provided for  free. Registration money allows me to pay for on-going development and new features in the program (like advanced wordprocessing, tree interfaces and powerful grid components). From what I can see, people are quite happy to pay once for a small up-front shareware registration, and then continually reap the benefits of a constantly improving program.If other people/publishers want to create RolePlayingmaster datasets, adventures, or other resource material; and then charge for it - good luck to them!Regards,Luke</blockquote>

Verification