House Rules, DDI, & Open Source Licensing

[howandwhy99]

Forked from>> "'Just House Rule It' and the New DM"

In a response to Reynard's question about how House Ruling will work in the new online DDI environment, the ability for the community to modify the software came up.

(cut)How does the idea of the VTT figure into it, which could potentially get a lot more people playing with a lot broader cross section of gamers?(/cut)

I'm guessing it will be like most internet games... a mess. Not that the system won't work (that's a programming issue), but that people will run the games they want.

The kicker is: will the software allow for customization?
Will it include the ability for community constructed plug-ins, add-ons, and extensions?
Will it allow licensing for these in parts of its code enabling commercial enterprise by other software companies?
Will it license parts for non-commercial software developers like Firefox does?
Will it go so far as to open source all or part of its' code like the in the free software project?
(I'm gonna guess no on the last one)

Certain things will always make the game harder to play online than off. It remains to be seen how assumptive the game board will be for DDI and how the design (not just the internet) will restrain play.

Since none of us know what exactly will be in DDI online play or how it will be licensed, is it possible for a site-based software system to allow for such modification?

Are there examples already in the computer gaming community? (of the licensing, site-based construction, and/or open source software)

Is such flexibility necessary for online play with house rules? Even extensive ones?

How do current online TTRPG software packages handle these challenge?

 

[Geoff Watson]

IIRC, the VTT "Game Table" doesn't adjudicate rules, it just has the 'virtual table' with maps and minis, and 'virtual dice', and some sort of chat program.

So no worries about 'house rules' and the like.

Geoff.