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ForgedAnvil D&D 5E Character Generator
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<blockquote data-quote="brooksgbanks" data-source="post: 7355284" data-attributes="member: 25693"><p>So, I agree with all the comments concerning WotC's decision. But what I want to really comment on is the above. Paizo didn't technically split from WotC. Lisa Stevens (CEO of Paizo) left the company in 2000, and made it know to WotC at the time that she would be interested in purchasing Wizard's magazine business if it was ever made available. She already had some idea that that was a route they planned to go (divesting themselves of their magazine footprint) prior to leaving. She formed Paizo Publishing in 2002, and shortly there after, WotC did cut their entire periodicals department (and one of my very good friends Erik Mona), and Paizo bought the rights to the periodicals (and took Erik on board as well). And, until 2007, that's all Paizo was. When WotC announced they were putting out 4th Ed, Paizo initially was planning to be a 3rd Party Content provider for that edition. However, WotC (in typical WotC fashion) took so long to come out with their OGL for 4th Ed that Paizo turned to a gentleman that many Pathfinder folks might know (and whom I've been gaming with since he was 18), Jason Bulmahn, who was their managing editor for Dungeon Magazine (hired in 2004) until getting the lead designer job in 2007). Pathfinder was originally just a small side project that Jason was tinkering with to streamline some of the 3.5 rules (grapple anyone??). But, when WotC was still dragging their heels 6 months after the 4th Ed announcement, the decided to simply back Jason's "side project" and turn it into it's own mainstream RPG. So, Paizo wasn't a split from WotC (it wasn't formed until over 2 years after Lisa Stevens left WotC, and initially she was one of like 3 employees at Paizo that had ties to WotC at all).</p><p></p><p>Now, that doesn't change the fact that Paizo understands the actual gaming market and gamers much better than WotC does since most of their decision makers are gamers (I've been gaming with both Erik since 2nd Edition, and Jason since the 3rd Ed announcement), and as such, they understand how to keep their market invested (using all of the things you mentioned). In addition, there are numerous Pathfinder equivalents to ForgedAnvil's sheet (PathForge used to be the go-to sheet and had a cult following and was an offshoot of the original HeroForge D&D 3.0 excel character generator, which I did some work for. YAPCG is the new darling, and the one that seems to be the best maintained and updated) and Paizo has never felt the need to issue a DMCA takedown of either of them or any others out there.</p><p></p><p>WotC's decision with regards to the various free content creators is disappointing, but given that they ultimately answer to Hasbro, it isn't surprising. Hasbro is vicious in protecting it's IP, and they foster that onto WotC, as a subsidiary. And, given previous editions and the free content creators that thrived under them, I thought maybe that WotC wouldn't be quite the stickler that Hasbro always is. But, I guess since WotC officially partnered with Curse for DnD Beyond, it became more important for them to protect their IP (given that I assume Curse couldn't be happy with other free content creators supplying a character generator with all the licensed official D&D content). Not to mention HeroLabs, which paid licensing fees to WotC to be able to do a 5e character generator in their software.</p><p></p><p>Still, I'm incredibly sad to see this happen.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="brooksgbanks, post: 7355284, member: 25693"] So, I agree with all the comments concerning WotC's decision. But what I want to really comment on is the above. Paizo didn't technically split from WotC. Lisa Stevens (CEO of Paizo) left the company in 2000, and made it know to WotC at the time that she would be interested in purchasing Wizard's magazine business if it was ever made available. She already had some idea that that was a route they planned to go (divesting themselves of their magazine footprint) prior to leaving. She formed Paizo Publishing in 2002, and shortly there after, WotC did cut their entire periodicals department (and one of my very good friends Erik Mona), and Paizo bought the rights to the periodicals (and took Erik on board as well). And, until 2007, that's all Paizo was. When WotC announced they were putting out 4th Ed, Paizo initially was planning to be a 3rd Party Content provider for that edition. However, WotC (in typical WotC fashion) took so long to come out with their OGL for 4th Ed that Paizo turned to a gentleman that many Pathfinder folks might know (and whom I've been gaming with since he was 18), Jason Bulmahn, who was their managing editor for Dungeon Magazine (hired in 2004) until getting the lead designer job in 2007). Pathfinder was originally just a small side project that Jason was tinkering with to streamline some of the 3.5 rules (grapple anyone??). But, when WotC was still dragging their heels 6 months after the 4th Ed announcement, the decided to simply back Jason's "side project" and turn it into it's own mainstream RPG. So, Paizo wasn't a split from WotC (it wasn't formed until over 2 years after Lisa Stevens left WotC, and initially she was one of like 3 employees at Paizo that had ties to WotC at all). Now, that doesn't change the fact that Paizo understands the actual gaming market and gamers much better than WotC does since most of their decision makers are gamers (I've been gaming with both Erik since 2nd Edition, and Jason since the 3rd Ed announcement), and as such, they understand how to keep their market invested (using all of the things you mentioned). In addition, there are numerous Pathfinder equivalents to ForgedAnvil's sheet (PathForge used to be the go-to sheet and had a cult following and was an offshoot of the original HeroForge D&D 3.0 excel character generator, which I did some work for. YAPCG is the new darling, and the one that seems to be the best maintained and updated) and Paizo has never felt the need to issue a DMCA takedown of either of them or any others out there. WotC's decision with regards to the various free content creators is disappointing, but given that they ultimately answer to Hasbro, it isn't surprising. Hasbro is vicious in protecting it's IP, and they foster that onto WotC, as a subsidiary. And, given previous editions and the free content creators that thrived under them, I thought maybe that WotC wouldn't be quite the stickler that Hasbro always is. But, I guess since WotC officially partnered with Curse for DnD Beyond, it became more important for them to protect their IP (given that I assume Curse couldn't be happy with other free content creators supplying a character generator with all the licensed official D&D content). Not to mention HeroLabs, which paid licensing fees to WotC to be able to do a 5e character generator in their software. Still, I'm incredibly sad to see this happen. [/QUOTE]
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