GSL news.

[charlesatan]

Maybe I haven't been following closely enough, but how is this a change from previously? Hadn't WoTC said that after a few months the 5k fee would be dropped anyways?

Depends on which side you are. For the "early adopters", it's a give and take. They get the material later than was originally intended but then again, they don't have to pay the $5,000 fee anymore.

As for the rest, instead of waiting for January 2009 to publish material, they can release them later this year.

Honestly, I think WotC was faced with two choices: the present scheme, or to either push back when the license would be open for everyone else to give those who forked $5,000 more lead time.

 

[psionotic]

Great news...!

And while it might be somewhat unfortunate that we won't have third party products on day one, the flip side to this is that everyone will have at least three months with the system (longer, for those with playtesters or that received rules materials early) to get to know its ins and outs before publishing for it. Better familiarity with the system can only mean better products for us rabid consumers....

 

[Ydars]

Fifth Element; Hopefully we'll see some of the doomsayers come in, man up, and admit their speculations were completely unfounded.

Unlikely. But a great day for certain!


I am MORE than happy to concede that I was WRONG!!! YAY!!!

 

[Orcus]

Fifth Element; Hopefully we'll see some of the doomsayers come in, man up, and admit their speculations were completely unfounded.

Unlikely. But a great day for certain!


I am MORE than happy to concede that I was WRONG!!! YAY!!!

Lets not get too much into revisionist history here. Some of the doomsaying was well founded. What was not well founded was the evil conspiracy nonsense. But there were some dark days along this road, some times were I believe it was possible that open gaming wasnt going to happen for 4E. But luckily Scott and Linae pulled this out and got it done. Lets not pretend there was no resistance and no struggle and that this was how it was supposed to work all along, cause it wasnt.

But what we had (and have) is a company with some real good people that hear us, that listen, that understand the benefits of open gaming and are able to convince the powers that be that open gaming is the right course.

This is an awesome day for open gaming and, in my view, for D&D. But the trip to get to today was fraught with peril and there were quite a few times when it was a legitimate possibility that we would not end up where we are today. It is an absolute credit to Scott and Linae and the other good folks at Wizards that this happened.

So rather than requring doomsayers to man up, how about we just all celebrate that this got done!

Hurray Linae and Scott!

Clark

 

[Khaalis]

Adamant Entertainment announced that they have received the advanced notice.

“I will confirm here that Adamant Entertainment is one of those publishers who have received advanced notice.

I will not be making any announcements regarding our plans for 4th Edition until such time as I have actually seen the Game System License, and can thereby determine if the terms of the license are acceptable, and the sort of products we wish to produce are allowed.”

http://adamantenter.livejournal.com/

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't have much to say except: Good news.

Victory dance!

hey!

 

[vagabundo]

I@M SOO ANGRY AT THIS ANNO~UNCEMENT!!!!


Only kidding, great news!!!

Ironically this is the first year I have bought any 3e 3rd party stuff, after the 4e announcement. PDFs mostly. I'm definitely interested in it now, I used to be a 3 core book person+setting+ adventures.

Note to 3rd parties: publish high quality stuff, good art, good layout and be selective.

 

[andrew]

Does the name change seem interesting to anyone else?

Wizards of the Coast is pleased to announce that third-party publishers will be allowed to publish products compatible with the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition game system under the new Dungeons & Dragons 4E Game System License (D&D 4E GSL)

instead of a relatively generic d20 System License, we've now been given a highly recognized and branded Dungeons & Dragons system license. Maybe I'm reading too much into things....

 

[essenbee]

Does the name change seem interesting to anyone else?



instead of a relatively generic d20 System License, we've now been given a highly recognized and branded Dungeons & Dragons system license. Maybe I'm reading too much into things....

But:

Wizards is also working on the details of a second royalty-free license, the d20 Game System License (d20 GSL). This license will allow third-party publishers to create roleplaying game products in non-fantasy settings with the 4E rules. The exact details for the d20 GSL will be released as they become available.

 

[Khaalis]

Does the name change seem interesting to anyone else?
instead of a relatively generic d20 System License, we've now been given a highly recognized and branded Dungeons & Dragons system license. Maybe I'm reading too much into things....

I can see the logic to what they have done. This allows them to control 2 distinctly different aspects of licensing.

Aspect 1) D&D 4E GSL
D&D Fantasy Products - the GSL will likely have a lot of controllers on the exact type of content to be allowed so that no "issues" can arise like the much maligned "Book of Erotic Fantasy" fiasco. WotC wants to be able to maintain a Brand Image (if not quality control). The GSL allows them to manage that specifically for the D&D Brand.

Aspect 2) D20 GSL
WotC made a good business decision here to allow the d20 core system stand as an open gaming format for systems other than D&D. This license will be applied to all products based on d20 OTHER than D&D such as Mutants and Masterminds, d20 Modern etc. This again will allow them to dictate some restriction on the type of content allowed, but allow them to word the license in a format that isn't specific to the D&D brand image.

Pretty straight forward actually when you think about it.