D&D 4E Does the OGL/D20 liscense hurt 4e? Should 4e be open?

[Najo]

Originally I thought that WOTC might close up D&D with 4e, but the more I think about it seems like that would only cause more competition in the long run and possibly make WOTC look like the badguy. Here is my reasons why:

* Open content is not hurting any says of WOTC product.
* Having an OGL liscense allows for WOTC to use the 3rd party publishers to develop mechanical ideas for D&D and then let them gleen the best from that for their own official products if they wish.
* Open liscense allows fans and freelance designers to release support material
* all OGL roads and a new D20 liscense lead back to D&D
* 4e having good support material and being a nice clean restart like 3.0 could benefit from additional launch materials like 3.0 did. 3.5 was less of a jump in rules and too early and therefore it sputtered at launch.

What does everyone else think? Should 4e be open or closed? Is it being open going to do anything to WOTC or only help D&D as a whole?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The OGL can't ever be revoked. It's there in the license. So now that the horse is out of the barn, unless they scrap the entire system and start with something absolutely different -- and maybe not even then -- people will just modify the D20 system to match 4E and 4E will be OGL, whether or not WotC (or whoever owns D&D then) wants it.

And given how big a piece of the pie WotC gets compared to all other sellers of RPGs in general (most of it), and compared to all the other companies in the D20/OGL space (almost all of it), the notion that OGL "hurts" WotC has to use a very specialized definition for the word "hurt."

In the meantime, it's given us Mutants & Masterminds, Midnight, Freeport, Arcana Unearthed, Blue Rose, a zillion great modules from Goodman Games and Necromancer and countless other goodies, especially once you venture into the PDF frontier.

Hurt? No one's hurt by OGL. And those gamers who have the courage to wander away from home end up finding a whole lot of cool stuff out there.

 

[Alnag]

I think it will be open. Might be a different d20 licence with it, might release more strict version of OGL (OGL 2.0) or whatever, but nevertheless, I believe they will not leave the path of supportive 3rd-party content. It is a long term strategy which is strongy and it actually scares the non-d20 competition.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I think it will be partly OGC, as it is now. Just the 'fundamental rules', again, as now.

And no, I don't think this has hurt WotC, or will. It's a good thing, for them, for other publishers, and for GMs and players all over the world.

 

[Flynn]

Najo,

Your subject line and your poll are different. You appear to be asking "Will 4E be OGL?" and instead ask "Will 4E being OGL hurt it?" A little confusing for a moment....

I answered that it being OGL will only help it. Let's face it, the most popular game system in the world at this time is the D20 System. Although that is primarily through D&D, whose sales are two orders of magnitude above the rest of the RPG industry, we still see an incredible proliferation of D20-based products, many of which are fantasy-based and are only useful when playing D&D. That kind of thing promotes the use of the core rules set. Given their initial sales volume, not having OGL products to support the game wouldn't hurt WOTC, but I imagine having them does help.

So I think 4E will support the OGL.

Also, I know that if 4E isn't released under the OGL, based on the creative minds of the D20 community, someone would come up with an OGL clone that would allow products to be developed anyway. Rather than waste time and money on legal issues, WOTC would probably be better served to harness and direct the D20 community rather than restrict it and cut it off. In the end, it would be cheaper on them, I think.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

OGL, yes.

d20STL, no.

The real failure of the experiment, in my opinion, has been the d20 STL. The best games don't use it, the best companies don't need it, and the dregs hurt it or abuse it.

They'll pull the publicly available d20 STL and offer it much more circumspectly to publishers who have proven themselves.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OGL, yes.

d20STL, no.

The real failure of the experiment, in my opinion, has been the d20 STL. The best games don't use it, the best companies don't need it, and the dregs hurt it or abuse it.

They'll pull the publicly available d20 STL and offer it much more circumspectly to publishers who have proven themselves.

At this point, I'm not sure that anyone really needs the D20 license any more. Everyone has settled on "compatible with the third edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game" as a code word for D&D compatibility anyway.

 

[Mark]

OGL, yes.

d20STL, no.

The real failure of the experiment, in my opinion, has been the d20 STL. The best games don't use it, the best companies don't need it, and the dregs hurt it or abuse it.

They'll pull the publicly available d20 STL and offer it much more circumspectly to publishers who have proven themselves.

This is what I suspect will happen, also. There might even be levels of d20 STL licencing or an approval process for those who want to, and are allowed to, use it. They might even replace it with a D&D logo that mentions third party publisher or some such.

 

[SavageRobby]

I think it will be OGL compatible simply because it won't be difference enough from 3x to not be. Look at all of the various systems that have been released under the OGL. Now, is 4e's mechanics and rules and text going to be so different that other publishers won't be able to use the OGL to publish products that are compatible with it?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it will be OGL compatible simply because it won't be difference enough from 3x to not be. Look at all of the various systems that have been released under the OGL. Now, is 4e's mechanics and rules and text going to be so different that other publishers won't be able to use the OGL to publish products that are compatible with it?

WotC would be cutting their own throat if they had 4E be a bigger change from 3E than 3E was from 2E, which they'd have to do to even come close to making it incompatible.