have 3rd parties gotten the srd yet?

[Shroomy]

Noteable, though, is how quiet it has been from the Undead Vermin in the 4e forums lately. :wink, wink:

According to his LJ, Ari's been kind of exhausted by all the negativity and fighting about 4e, so he's taking a sabbatical from most forums.

BTW, I can't believe that WoTC's NDA doesn't have some sort of stipulation stating that any freelancers with a copy of the rules cannot use it to work on 3rd party products until those companies get their copies of the rules and OGL.

 

[drothgery]

BTW, I can't believe that WoTC's NDA doesn't have some sort of stipulation stating that any freelancers with a copy of the rules cannot use it to work on 3rd party products until those companies get their copies of the rules and OGL.

That would be pretty much unenforceable, I'd think. WotC has no way of knowing how fast a freelancer could work (or how much time he can devote to a project). How could they tell if freelancer X had been working on a 3rd party 4e project in odd bits of spare time over a few months, or blitzed it out in a week starting the day after the SRD became generally available?

 

[tomBitonti]

Tension between DDI & SRD

Won't there be a tension between rules as available through the DDI (which requires a subscription, or a license that was received by purchasing one of the books), and the idea of an SRD? My understanding (and only my understanding) is that the SRD is publicly available as a reference material. Having the same seems to default a part of the point of DDI, which is to obtain a fee for accessing what will be much of the same information.

Also, if the information is available only on a restricted access site (DDI), and available only under a license agreement, will it be usable by third party companies under that agreement? I would imaging that the DDI license will exclude commercial use of the information. That is, a 3'rd part company will need to purchase a separate license to use the material commercially.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Won't there be a tension between rules as available through the DDI (which requires a subscription, or a license that was received by purchasing one of the books), and the idea of an SRD?

Most likely only the rules in the Core Rulebooks will be made available in the SRD. The DDI allows players to have easy access to all of the rules in a database and basically makes everything easy to find and bring up. There really won't be any tension. You'll probably be able to still download a text file of the base rules from the d20 site. You won't have to pay for any licensing. It will remain free. Hope that answers your questions.

 

[Scribble]

Were I a third party publisher right now... I'd start looking at the few "maneuvers" we've seen thus far, and start devising as many as possible. Worry about details like level and such later.

That way, shortly after the SRD hits, you can at least release a book of powers. Betcha power books will at least be about as popular as spell books.

 

[The Little Raven]

Were I a third party publisher right now... I'd start looking at the few "maneuvers" we've seen thus far, and start devising as many as possible. Worry about details like level and such later.

That way, shortly after the SRD hits, you can at least release a book of powers. Betcha power books will at least be about as popular as spell books.

This strikes me as the seed for the 4e equivalent of 3e's early glut. I certainly hope we don't start seeing that happen again.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Just wait five years. The glut of new 4E releases will all be remarkably cheap....

 

[Scribble]

This strikes me as the seed for the 4e equivalent of 3e's early glut. I certainly hope we don't start seeing that happen again.

Shrug. You'd have to wait for the SRD to get the power levels and such, but the power descriptions themselves...

Like I said the powers I'm guessing will be the same thing fueling boos that spells and feats were.

 

[DaveMage]

This strikes me as the seed for the 4e equivalent of 3e's early glut. I certainly hope we don't start seeing that happen again.

I agree. I think 3rd party comapnies would be better off doing things that support the rules, not add to them.

 

[carmachu]

I can see, however, that many 3E GM's will hesitate to move to 4E due to a variety of issues - lack of 4E support (as you mentioned)

If WOTC got the SRD out and got the 3rd parties involved earlier, there would be more material out at the release and at GENCON and 4e would have more supprt. There would be more things out there usable for folks right out of the gate.

I wonder if people are a little more comfortable ordering 3rd-party stuff in these recent days.

I'd hazard a guess and say yes. A very large part of that confort zone is Piazo....and a few others. Piazo has put out quality items as good or better than WOTC. That goes a long way.