D&D 5E Dear WotC: D&D 5, Hero Lab, and the OGL

[Bugleyman]

Dear WotC:

Over on the Lone Wolf forums there is a discussion about Hero Lab supporting 5E. The gist is that their hands are tied until you releases news on 5E licensing.

This is exactly what I feared would happen.

You should have learned from 4E and embraced the OGL early and publicly for 5E. Unfortunately, your failure to do so is already having negative effects on your potential customers. And for what? The OGL genie is out of the bottle. The good news is that it isn't too late to make it right. Release 5E under the OGL. Don't discourage third party support of your product by creating uncertainty. Don't hamstring 5E before it is even released. Please.

Sincerely,



A D&D fan
32 years and counting

 

[Lalato]

No offense meant to you, Bugleyman... But I wish these ultimatum threads would die in a fire.

A D&D fan
33 years and counting

 

[Crothian]

How is third party support or lack of going to hamstring D&D? Sure some good things came out in the OGL era of 3e but most of the books were rather bad. It was tough to find the good through the bad and 4e didn't see much good from the third party companies. What the game really needs is for the people playing to have some patience.

Also, how long you have played the game and that you are a fan of D&D does not matter. Trying to brag about how long you've played the game makes you look petty as if because you've gamed for so long your opinion is somehow better then people who have games less. If that were true then my opinion would be more valuable as I started 34 years ago in 1980, but we all know that my opinion is no better and no worse in value then anyone else's.

 

[the Jester]

No offense meant to you, Bugleyman... But I wish these ultimatum threads would die in a fire.

A D&D fan
33 years and counting

Me too.

I'd love to see 5e under the OGL, but it won't hurt the game to be closed content, especially given that WotC has already licensed some material from other companies.

A D&D fan
34 years and counting.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm not a fan of Hero Lab or their software model.

WotC, blow them out of the water with your own (better) tools.

 

[Umbran]

Dear WotC:

If you have a message for WotC, please send it to WotC. They have their own message boards and e-mail addresses. EN World is not some official WotC communication dead-drop, or the like.

 

[Xodis]

I hope they stay with the format they have now, Licensed 3rd Party Support with a careful eye on the content, so we dont see a flood of useless things. Don't get me wrong there were some gems among the OGL sea, but they were not as prominent as some would lead you to believe. Not sure how allowing other companies to make money off of their product is hurtful to their business either, but thats just me.


13 year D&D player

 

[Bugleyman]

If you have a message for WotC, please send it to WotC. They have their own message boards and e-mail addresses. EN World is not some official WotC communication dead-drop, or the like.

I understand that EN World is not affiliated with WotC. It was intended as an open letter to be discussed, but if it violates the rules or you feel it is otherwise counter-productive, please feel free to remove it.

 

[Bugleyman]

No offense meant to you, Bugleyman... But I wish these ultimatum threads would die in a fire.

A D&D fan
33 years and counting

No offense taken, and no ultimatum implied. I'm buying 5E no matter what, and just want to see it succeed.

 

[Mistwell]

I will hold off on my response until someone ends their response with...

"...36 years and counting."