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Hypothetical question for 3pp: 5e goes OGL what would you publish?
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<blockquote data-quote="Alphastream" data-source="post: 6211295" data-attributes="member: 11365"><p>The purpose of the OGL was two-fold. Which was foremost can be argued. One was to ensure that D&D would remain forever, because it could always be remade by anyone. A dying TSR could have locked up the game in the hands of lawyers for decades, so Peter <em><strong>Adkison </strong></em>wanted to prevent that possibility. Achieved very nicely. The other purpose was a financial model where, realistically, the operation of D&D would be gutted down to a bare minimum required to maintain the brand and the core books, while the OGL allowed others to create material. After an era where TSR created tons of products that were more expensive than their cover price (and therefore always sold at a loss), this likely seemed like a good idea. Ryan Dancey was still singing the praises of this model a while back. That idea, of third parties creating supplements and driving core book sales, never was attempted. But, I think that it would have fared poorly, for the same reason that WotC isn't making tons of money on 3.5 core books today. It is too easy to use the OGL for true competition (while still benefiting from 3E's material for free) and WotC never gets a penny. At the same time, I don't think any RPG company really wants to gut all of its writers and designers and just maintain a product core. I think it is a terrible plan and very much would doom that company to be completely blind and skill-less in the marketplace.</p><p></p><p>I suppose the OGL did enhance the network, but the network was already amazingly strong. D&D gross sales in 1981 were $12.9 Million. During the transition from 1E to 2E TSR sold 289,000 PHB's in 1998. When 3E released in 2000 (before any network effect), they sold 300,000 PHs in about 30 days (according to Ryan Dancey). 4E core book pre-orders in 2008 exceeded that, according to accounts.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, the number of adventures ordered at the start of the Living Forgotten Realms 4E campaign vastly exceeded any previous amount for the 3E Living Greyhawk campaign. 4E's D&D Encounters program (also running 3E and D&D Next) has been a great success. My local store saw more than 300 unique players, just in the first two seasons! Walk the D&D room at a PAX convention and it is filled with players that are aware of D&D as a brand but who are new to it or are only casual players. (The missing piece of the puzzle is making them stay active. I'll argue 3E didn't even get this crowd to the table, let alone try to keep them active.)</p><p></p><p>So, yeah, a network is important. But the DnD brand has always had a powerful network. I don't find the OGL to be about the network.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alphastream, post: 6211295, member: 11365"] The purpose of the OGL was two-fold. Which was foremost can be argued. One was to ensure that D&D would remain forever, because it could always be remade by anyone. A dying TSR could have locked up the game in the hands of lawyers for decades, so Peter [I][B]Adkison [/B][/I]wanted to prevent that possibility. Achieved very nicely. The other purpose was a financial model where, realistically, the operation of D&D would be gutted down to a bare minimum required to maintain the brand and the core books, while the OGL allowed others to create material. After an era where TSR created tons of products that were more expensive than their cover price (and therefore always sold at a loss), this likely seemed like a good idea. Ryan Dancey was still singing the praises of this model a while back. That idea, of third parties creating supplements and driving core book sales, never was attempted. But, I think that it would have fared poorly, for the same reason that WotC isn't making tons of money on 3.5 core books today. It is too easy to use the OGL for true competition (while still benefiting from 3E's material for free) and WotC never gets a penny. At the same time, I don't think any RPG company really wants to gut all of its writers and designers and just maintain a product core. I think it is a terrible plan and very much would doom that company to be completely blind and skill-less in the marketplace. I suppose the OGL did enhance the network, but the network was already amazingly strong. D&D gross sales in 1981 were $12.9 Million. During the transition from 1E to 2E TSR sold 289,000 PHB's in 1998. When 3E released in 2000 (before any network effect), they sold 300,000 PHs in about 30 days (according to Ryan Dancey). 4E core book pre-orders in 2008 exceeded that, according to accounts. Similarly, the number of adventures ordered at the start of the Living Forgotten Realms 4E campaign vastly exceeded any previous amount for the 3E Living Greyhawk campaign. 4E's D&D Encounters program (also running 3E and D&D Next) has been a great success. My local store saw more than 300 unique players, just in the first two seasons! Walk the D&D room at a PAX convention and it is filled with players that are aware of D&D as a brand but who are new to it or are only casual players. (The missing piece of the puzzle is making them stay active. I'll argue 3E didn't even get this crowd to the table, let alone try to keep them active.) So, yeah, a network is important. But the DnD brand has always had a powerful network. I don't find the OGL to be about the network. [/QUOTE]
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