In defense of Open Gaming

[UniversalMonster]

There are an awful lot of idiots out there.

This is the thing: if anything, the pie (for everyone, d20 and non-d20) is larger now than it was in 1999. This is directly due to the juice from D&D3's release and the open gaming movement.

What is upsetting for a lot of gamers is that D&D used to be the game everyone felt free to ignore and marginalize. It was the lowest common denominator. We are a community of a lot of extremes: many gamers are really very talented creative geniuses. There is also the "bad gamer" stereotype- we all know exactly who this guy is. For many people- the bad gamer is synomous with a D&D player. Ironically- the people that squeal the loudest about how we D&D players are such a menace ARE the bad gamer stereotype. They epitomize the kind of lifelong failure, lack of vision, poor social skills-havin', and more often than not bad personal hygiene stankin' that they would like to brand D&D players with.

Well, anyhow.

Now D&D3/d20 is the biggest thing going. D&D/d20 players are getting everything they want- we get the best writers, new products practically every week are released just for us, and companies are going out of their way to try and interest d20 players in their games with d20 conversions. And it's working- I wouldn't ever have touched L5R or Deadlands or ever gone back to Chaosium's horrible BRP system if it hadn't been redone with a system I was comfortable with.

So it's a combination of things. Intense jealousy, false perceptions that we're "lower" gamers, false perception that we are "taking over" and just plain bad social skills.

There is also a weird belief that floats around in various places on the internet that playing a different game will (somehow) make you a better gamer. It's laughably false, but the people who believe in it, believe in it loudly and fervently. Luckily enough, these are usually the gamers that just hang around on gaming websites and talk about theory rather than actually play much.

In the end, nothing seperates "us" from "then" other than personal preference.


And OH YEAH, I'll go ahead and say it- I only buy d20 stuff now. I used to get everything (EVERYTHING), but at this point, this is the best stuff going, and I play in two games a week. (Run one, play in one). I almost broke down and bought Adventure! for a second and then that Polyhedron Pulp Hero special came out. And thats more my style.. I don't like the overwrought White Wolf settings, I like to develop my own.

 

[Ranger REG]

So, I am over at the Decipher Star Trek Boards. One poster says, "open gaming is the worst thing to happen to gaming ever." I ask Why, just out of curiosity, just to see what the guy's opinion is. Then some other dude responds by insulting me (at least in my eyes, but maybe I took it wrong.) I flew off the handle. I felt like I was in Nutkinland again and responded as such! (with expletives omitted of course)

That's why I will never go back there. I prefer www.trek-rpg.net for my source of Star Trek RPG, whether it's Icon or Coda rules systems.

So, any way, maybe I (we?) are wrong. Are WE destroying the hobby of tabletop role playing games buy buying only d20 stuff? Did WE kill CoC and Deadlands and FASA etc. etc. etc. by buying into the WOTC "scheme" to control the whole industry and kill off other game systems?

I don't think we, the customers, killed the other products and companies (although FASA have shut down for a great while) because of d20. Wizards has to reinvent their products, in order to increase sale and revenue, the lifeline of every business. Their gameplan is to make it more like Linux in the pen-and-paper RPG market. If other businesses do not even try to get their heads into the game, they will be left behind in the race for the customer's wallet. So they have to ask themselves, "what do I have to do to increase sale of my product?" "How the hell am I going to expand my current customer base?"

Honestly, open gaming is the best way to increase your customer base and your network. After all, some of us gamers have experimented using other rules system that we would think is more suitable for a genre. (GURP Star Trek, anyone?) Why not exploit it in the commercial market?

So far, in addition to the d20 System from WotC, Gold Rush Games is also entering into the open gaming arena with their Action! System. Also, Microtactix Games have formally released a trademark license for their PlainLabel Game System, comes complete with the free Simply Roleplaying core rules.

They want to expand their network of consumers and exposed them to their products.

 

[Nightfall]

Because these fools think that Jack Chick and his cronies are going start burning their gaming material...even though I'm sure if Jack Chick ever decided to be impartial about ANYTHING, he'd send ALL RPG games to the cinders. To him, anything that uses the imagination is a danger and must be contained.

 

[evileeyore]

I don't know if I am the only one out here... but I don't own any d20 books at all. I GM (yup whole different term) GURPS... i own other systems, but I see no reason to buy any d20 products. Our group consists of multiple D&D enthusists who purchase damn near every book as it is. So there are usually two or more copies of any given "core book" (extended to cover the Guide books) and atleast one copy of any given other book...

Of course the same could be said of Gurps (between three of us damn near every book is owned), and probably Rolemaster.

Heck I can only name a handful of systems we don't have.

Now as to your question:

Is d20 killing off the other games?

Yes and No.

Yes it is nuking most other systems. I HATE the d20 system. Why do I play it? Good Dming.

and No, most of the systems it is replacing have the genre live on in its system. Personally as long as the genre doesn't lose any flavor, hell I'll play TWERPS, Hole, Amber, HomeBrew... heck even Vampire the Masquerade-for all it blew... heh, poke-poke... I LOOOOVVVVEEED the world, but the system has so many holes I can grate cheese with it... wait I did- I made characters

Anyway, as long as I don't see GURPS d20, or RuleMaster d20, and as long as other companies continue to occasionaly spit out *new* things, its all good.

Editted to fix 6 am stupids

 

[JohnNephew]

Wow, that's a pretty amusing thread. Normally I have to visit lunatic fringe political sites to find half-baked mishmash conspiracy theories like that!

It's pretty funny to have these guys trying to sound authoritative about people and events they weren't around, and fundamentally misunderstand. Basic things, like talking about WotC revoking the OGL (can't be done, as is clear to anyone who has actually read the license), or weird claims like that small game publishers "can still eke out a small living here and there, mostly if they have a publishing company behind them."

I think they could have spiced up their point by inserting something about black helicopters and secret symbols on the backs of roadsigns to guide the UN troops when they initiate martial law and crack down on illegal non-D20 games!

 

[Nightfall]

Now John, you're talking about MY organization. I'm afraid I'm going have to exterminate with extreme prejudice! Boys get him to a firing line! *black ski masked individuals come and take away John to a place no one knows about*

 

[JohnNephew]

Y'know, I wonder if they realize that some of the Decipher design crew run a D20 publishing operation on the side?

 

[thundershot]

<looks around>

<raises hand>

I only buy d20...

HOWEVER, it used to be that I'd only buy AD&D products, now I'm buying from a multitude of companies. So it's all good.



Chris

 

[Mouseferatu]

Yes it is nuking most other systems. I HATE the d20 system. Why do I play it? Good Dming.

I don't mean to sound confrontational, but...

Show me one.

Original Call of Cthulhu is still going strong. Original Deadlands is still going strong. Original Lejendary Journeys is still going strong. No, they're not nearly as big as D20, but they never were, nor were they ever going to be. D&D holds the top spot in the market by a wide margin, and that's not likely to change any time soon.

As I said, to my knowledge, there is no game system that's been destroyed by D20, and some that have been saved by it.

 

[Umbran]

Re: Re: In defense of Open Gaming

Honestly, open gaming is the best way to increase your customer base and your network.

Actually, I don't think this is true. I think people are overestimating the power of an open license.

Sure, for a big selling game like D&D, where there's a large known market for product - so large that the original publisher knows they canot fill the demand - then Open Gaming is a boon. The D&D core books sold in the millions. There's a goodly market there to exploit.

But, what about smaller games? How much use can they make of an open licence? If the game has only sold a hundred thousand copies of it's core books, how many third-party supplements will sell? Who is going to bother with the risk and expense of publishing for a game that isn't selling big itself? Even if a smaller game is released as an open game, I don't think you'd see many people writing for it.

Open Gaming makes some things possible, even easier. But it doesn't make them anywhere near inevitable.