D&D 5E Gamehole Con Live Tweeting Perkins Panel

[Nebulous]

What's wrong with competition? It works out better for the overall community.

Pathfinder didn't obtain the top spot because they were backed by deep pockets. They took the spot by producing more creative and interesting content. WotC should not be afraid of competition. Though I am surprised that the business people want an OGL. I think Mearls and the creative people won't mind at all. Many of the creative people make companies and produce content for the game like Monte Cooke or Sean K. Reynolds. I'd love to see Paizo get a shot to produce material for 5E. Their modules are top notch. They would add great stuff to the game.

No doubt they would make great stuff. And I would LOVE to see Paizo create 5e content...but i don't want Paizo to take the game and make Pathfinder 2.

 

[sgtscott658]

Wow, that DM screen at Gamehole Con looks awesome. And Ed Greenwood DM'ing!! I wonder if he was DM'ing 5E. Next year, I am going to Gamehole con. lol

Scott

 

[delericho]

Hmmm. How big is the list of brand new terms?

No idea. I'm sure there's not much.

For that reason, to a large extent it doesn't actually matter what WotC do - third party support will come anyway. So, more than anything, this is probably a symbolic thing; a matter of WotC publicly standing behind the OGL and third-party support, rather than just having to accept it.

 

[Morrus]

No idea. I'm sure there's not much.

For that reason, to a large extent it doesn't actually matter what WotC do - third party support will come anyway. So, more than anything, this is probably a symbolic thing; a matter of WotC publicly standing behind the OGL and third-party support, rather than just having to accept it.

I think it does matter. There are a lot of people - including myself - who wouldn't want to do it without WotC's blessing. It's a small industry. Stepping on toes is best avoided.

 

[Mercurius]

Wow, some great news there: OGL, Hollywood interest, another monster book eventually, and something not mentioned yet - great sales figures.

I seriously doubt the 5e license will be the exact same as the 3e OGL. There's no way they want another Pathfinder. That said, I don't know what the right answer is.

But...

Pathfinder only came about because WotC left 3.5 behind. If they stick with 5e and develop and evolve it instead, I doubt another Pathfinder could ever arise.

This. You took the words out of my mouth, although I would take it a step forward: Pathfinder came out not only because WotC left 3.5 behind, but because 4E didn't have the broad appeal they hoped for. A large chunk of the community wanted a more traditional game; couple this with the OGL and you have a context ripe not only for Pathfinder, but the OSR. Although I think it is more accurate to say that the birth year, or re-birth year, of the OSR was with Dragonsfoot in 1999 and then gained momentum with Dungeon Crawl Classics, Castles & Crusades, and then later Labyrinth Lord and the rest. In other words, by the time 4E came out the OSR was already thriving and thus wasn't as much reactive to 4E as it was to 3E.

Actually - that might be an important point to keep in mind. There's always going to be a revival and reaction to the new iteration of the game. It is simply inevitable. But the scale and degree of it can vary depending upon the edition itself, how WotC handles, etc. We can see the range of difference between the OSR which, what, accounts for a few percent at most of the total D&D fan-base? Versus Pathfinder, which actually took over the number one spot. Given that the reception of 5E is seemingly *much* better than 4E, and given that they're bringing back the OGL and overall seem much more attuned with "What the people want," I don't expect to see another Pathfinder. At most we might see Nerath: the RPG or Power Source or some other kind of 4E revival, but it would likely be small, and I'm not even sure if the licensing would allow for it.

This sucks.
after the great news of no kender I am super bumbed at the idea of an OGL... I was really hopeing for a much more limited license.

... no it's not. It made for a far worse edition war over the last 5 years, and even made the overall community more fractured and tribal.

You're blaming this on the OGL? I think the "fracturing" and "etribalism" occurred a bit later than that, and that the worst edition war in my memory was in 2008-09, not back in the halcyon days of the OGL (2000-03ish).

BS... yes Piazo does a good job but lets not pretend that if they had to start from scratch instead of a prebuilt game it would be just as good. those deep pockets built the frame for piazo... they were just WotC deep pockets.

Yes, true, and people seem to forget that Paizo--whatever their strengths--are riding on the coat-tails of WotC and TSR. While I wouldn't applaud Paizo necessarily for excessive creativity or innovation, what I do applaud them for is how they handled their product. They did D&D right. They created a product format, and a quality level, that has set the standard for the last five years.

so would I.... just in a limited way.

You're being vague about what your problem is with the OGL, other than the possible relation to creating another Pathfinder and/or edition war, which to me is tenuous at best.

 

[The_Gneech]

I'm very much liking what I see here. I particularly applaud the comments about the little b/w cartoons in the 1E books. That was the first thing I noticed about the 5E PHB, was that the touches of whimsy were back, and that's actually very important. D&D is not a "comedy" game, but let's face it, there's a lot of ridiculous stuff in it, and "looking for buried treasure" is the essence of D&D, it was an apt comment.

All that stuff about the OGL, digital distribution, etc., is good too.

-The Gneech

 

[tsadkiel]

I seriously doubt the 5e license will be the exact same as the 3e OGL. There's no way they want another Pathfinder. That said, I don't know what the right answer is.

Limiting the license in the hopes of preventing another Pathfinder* would be closing the barn door after the horses have already eaten all the children. There's a Pathfinder now; people can already stick to an older edition of D&D with broad, high-quality support. Limiting the license won't do anything to prevent hypothetical future competitors, it just means that when third party publishers make cool stuff in the future, they're more likely to make it for the current actual and very strong competitor, giving people one more reason to play Pathfinder and one less reason to play D&D. In the current environment, I can't see a return to the OGL as anything but a positive.

*"Another Pathfinder" is pretty unlikely, anyway. Pathfinder only came about because of a perfect storm of factors, with the exact right people (with money from the WotC sale) who happened to have the exact right built-in audience and were motivated by the exact right delay in announcing the new license, which was exactly too restrictive.

 

[Jester David]

What jumped out at me was the phrase:

and assured folks present that "the role playing game is the heart of D&D, just like comics are for Marvel".

That's interesting as comics are at the heart of Disney's Marvel strategy as they mine the comics for characters, ideas, and storylines.

However, they do so in a way that offers almost zero support to the comics themselves.
The comics are mostly left on their own, struggling to make ends meet and continually having to reboot or pull events and stunts to maintain their dwindling fanbase and expected sales numbers. Meanwhile, the companies put restrictions on the books, like not creating any new mutant characters in the XBooks to avoid giving Fox more characters they can work with for those movies. And even ending the Fantastic Four comic to avoid giving the movie tie-in support (which suggests the people in charge don't know the comic business that well, as the comics have always relied on the movies to drive demand for the comics and boost sales...)
The comics are at the heart of Marvel but they're really there for nostalgia purposes as they no longer generate money or fans. They're the heart, but it's this weird vestigial heart.

I all but walked away from reading comic, getting two books from the Big Two (both Vertigo and ending soon) and have mostly moved onto Image. Comparing D&D to Marvel comics isn't reassuring to me...

 

[mcintma]

Ah, crap - Elemnental Evil is set in the REALMS? I had hoped for Greyhawk

 

[Gundark]

Mayonnaise in D&D? That is ignoring a much more important question:

What about cheese dip?

Groo needs to know!!!!