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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4003937" data-attributes="member: 42582">I agree to this extent: 3E was definitely more defined than 2e, which was incoherent from the get-go (promising a game experience that the rules as written couldn't deliver for any number of reasons, ranging from the action resolution system to the alignment mechanics) and only dug itself into a deeper pit over time.I don't know if you have concrete evidence for this, or are inferring it from what is being said and done.If the former, I have to defer to your evidence in the absence of any familiarity with it on my part.If the latter (which I gather, from your reference to a guess) then I'm not sure I agree. My main reason for not agreeing is that there is very little in Worlds and Monsters (I can't talk about R&C as I don't own it and have only skimmed it) that (IMO) would attract any sort of IP protection other than copyright (which by default inheres in any text). Although particular names like Feywild and Shadowfell might enjoy trademark protection (I'll leave that to better IP lawyers than me to judge) I don't see anything in any of the actual game concepts in there that couldn't be reproduced by other authors and publishers provided that they used their own words (and thus avoided copyright infringement).Now it may be that WoTC has decided to label some of its key concepts with trademark-able names. But this is really quite orthogonal to their use in building the backstory/implied setting. After all, Planescape already did a lot of that for the Great Wheel cosmology (Seven Heavens becomes Mount Celestia, etc) - you can make up fancy/silly names for the backstory elements and leave the backstory unchanged, or you can change the backstory whether or not you decide to use trademark-able names to label it. And whatever sort of IP protection the world of 4th edition might enjoy, the prior worlds of Planescape, Greyhawk etc would enjoy equally (in that they consist of just as much original text with just as many cooked up fantasy names).IMO, the explanations given in W&M really suggest an attempt to build a decent game.</blockquote>

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