GSL is up

[nittanytbone]

Guys - I work in publishing - they have a right to protect their intellectual property.

Totally agreed. I think it is VERY generous for them to basically give away their logo and the right to use much of their product.

Porsche doesn't let Joe Blow the Car Building Pro use their logo on something he slaps together in his garage.

The New York Times doesn't let a third party paper from another town copy their articles word for word.

Even in the gaming industry, I don't see White Wolf letting folks use their material or Troll Lord Games letting folks publish in the C&C line.


In a totally different vein, most gamers are cheap. A lot of groups will play every weekend with 5 folks and have one set of books and an extra PHB between them. For every person who buys every splatbook out there, it seems like there are many more that don't buy anything. I don't think it unreasonable that WOTC wants to at least make dropping the $20 for a PHB fairly mandatory.

Finally, WOTC has the right to make a profit. They've spent a lot of dough ramping up the new edition. If gaming companies don't make a profit like any other division of a business, corporations like Hasbro won't operate them, and we won't have high quality products at relatively reasonable prices anymore.

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

I thought there was to be an FAQ? Is one done up yet, and if so where is it? I haven't found it yet.

Uh... right side of the linked-to page, two lines down from the GSL itself. "GSL FAQ."

 

[BASHMAN]

Wow. Some of this stuff is completely asinine. You cannot list the stat block of a monster from the MM in a module you write. But you CAN do stat blocks for your own original monsters.

So for a Cyclops Impaler, all you can say is that it is in the Monster Manual, and you can reference the fact he has a spear. But if you have BERNIE the Cyclops Impaler, you have just made an original monster and can give his full statblock [which will be exactly the same as the one from the MM, maybe with -1 HP or something. Lame.

Trying to stop publishers from putting statblocks in their modules? Can we say petty? Part of the reason for buying a module is the convenience of not having to flip through a bunch of books all the time-- the convenience of having all the info you need at the tips of your fingers.

 

[keterys]

They're preventing people from releasing 'Creature Combat Compendium' which contains all the stat blocks from the Monster Manual, and such things.

I'm going to wait to see what Clark thinks, after crunching on this. Also, I think the GSL may well have changed a couple times over the course of the evening in minor ways, based on quotes I've seen. That or people are just making up quotes.

So, yeah, some time for things to settle would be good.

 

[Treebore]

Uh... right side of the linked-to page, two lines down from the GSL itself. "GSL FAQ."

TY !

 

[Jack Colby]

Wow. Some of this stuff is completely asinine. You cannot list the stat block of a monster from the MM in a module you write. But you CAN do stat blocks for your own original monsters.

So for a Cyclops Impaler, all you can say is that it is in the Monster Manual, and you can reference the fact he has a spear. But if you have BERNIE the Cyclops Impaler, you have just made an original monster and can give his full statblock [which will be exactly the same as the one from the MM, maybe with -1 HP or something. Lame.

Trying to stop publishers from putting statblocks in their modules? Can we say petty? Part of the reason for buying a module is the convenience of not having to flip through a bunch of books all the time-- the convenience of having all the info you need at the tips of your fingers.

I don't agree with you. Stat blocks for monsters I already have in the MM are wasted space in a module. I'm paying money for them to reprint what I already have easy access to?

 

[Tervin]

I am not American, not a lawyer and certainly not great at American contract law. But I am good at reading things from several perspectives.

The sceptic anti-establishment me reads:
'They want to control all the 3rd party publishers - being able to revoke the license at any sign of disobedience. They want to make sure that only their own adventures and sourcebooks are easy to use, so noone else gets to quote from the core material.'

The optimist, funloving fan reads:
'They want to encourage creativity, so that everything 3rd parties make must actually add something to the game, and not just use what is already made. By allowing use of most creatures in the MM, just disallowing the specific variations, they make sure that a lot more variations will be made which is ultimately good for the players. That they want to keep some stuff for themselves is understandable, but nothing stops me from creating better things myself, does it?'

The tricksy troubleshooter reads:
'It will not be allowed to quote specific texts from the core books, which limits how monsters, items and powers can be handled in 3rd party publications. They also have no little legal bit for people who want to release shareable content to use. But... Who says that Wizards themselves have to create those things? 3rd party publishers and/or fans can very well create their own free pdfs of material allowed to be copied and used in adventures. And it is enough that someone who knows their stuff writes a little "open material for the GSL" mini-license to be used by anyone who needs it.'

And in that rare moment of sanity that follows, I just think all those things at the same time. I would have preferred a new OGL, but we knew that wasn't happening and then this will work, as soon as people have understood how to use it in the way that best suits them.

 

[On Puget Sound]

No owlbears? Someone tell Everquest to chase Yelloweyes out of the Paludal Caves before they notice him.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I don't see any surprises here. They announced a long time ago that the new license was going to be more limited-- specifically, that it would give them "content control" provisions and focus the license on producing supplemental material for D&D, which is what they were hoping to achieve with the original OGL.

 

[Protagonist]

No owlbears? Someone tell Everquest to chase Yelloweyes out of the Paludal Caves before they notice him.

Blizzard *would* be so screwed. Say goodbye to Winterspring and the Hinterland.