Is All Still Quiet on the SRD Front?

[dmccoy1693]

Any publishers have anything from WotC yet? I'm noticing that more and more companies are jumping ship and going elsewhere. I'm wondering how long WotC can wait before they perminently lost the existing 3rd party companies. If they do, they'll fire the existing customers and 3rd party publishers.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Any publishers have anything from WotC yet? I'm noticing that more and more companies are jumping ship and going elsewhere. I'm wondering how long WotC can wait before they perminently lost the existing 3rd party companies. If they do, they'll fire the existing customers and 3rd party publishers.

Well, my guess is that WOTC is trying to lock down the rules by the time D&D Experience happens at the end of February since the are previewing the game there and thousands of people will get a chance to play 4e. They won't want the rules to change after that.

So, given that their DMs for the show need a couple of weeks to prep, I would figure that the middle of January would be the actual lock down date. Once the lockdown is put into place and some basic editing is done, I think you will find that the early SRDs might go out early to mid February.

 

[Grymar]

Any publishers have anything from WotC yet? I'm noticing that more and more companies are jumping ship and going elsewhere. I'm wondering how long WotC can wait before they perminently lost the existing 3rd party companies. If they do, they'll fire the existing customers and 3rd party publishers.

I don't keep up on the 3rd party news like I should. Who has jumped ship and to what?

 

[Scribble]

Any publishers have anything from WotC yet? I'm noticing that more and more companies are jumping ship and going elsewhere. I'm wondering how long WotC can wait before they perminently lost the existing 3rd party companies. If they do, they'll fire the existing customers and 3rd party publishers.

This never makes sense to me... It's not like it's a party where if you don't get your invites out soon enough, everyone is going to go to the other guy's New Years fiesta...

If 4e is popular, and there is money to be made in selling 3rd party 4e products, companies will do so.

I'm also wondering about your notice of more and more companies jumping ship... Got something to back that up?

 

[Deset Gled]

This never makes sense to me... It's not like it's a party where if you don't get your invites out soon enough, everyone is going to go to the other guy's New Years fiesta...

Its because small party publishers have had business drop significantly (read: pretty much die) since the 4e announcement. They need to do something to keep themselves afloat. If they had a copy of the 4e SRD, they could be spending their time on creating new product to release alongside the core books. It would still be a bit of a downtime, but hopefully something they can live through. Without access to the SRD, they have nothing to do but wait. Many of them cannot afford to wait for the 4e release to start their own product; the downtime will kill the complany. The only other option is to release product for other systems, which means investing significant amounts of time and money into other systems, which means they're less like to spend that time and money (by economic necessity, not by choice) to develope 4e product once they finally get the SRD.

 

[Agamon]

This never makes sense to me... It's not like it's a party where if you don't get your invites out soon enough, everyone is going to go to the other guy's New Years fiesta...

If 4e is popular, and there is money to be made in selling 3rd party 4e products, companies will do so.

I'm also wondering about your notice of more and more companies jumping ship... Got something to back that up?

Aside from rumors of Paizo doing a D&D 3.75 (gawd, I hope not, I likey the GM/PF line...don't ruin it), I'm not too sure either.

 

[Carnivorous_Bean]

Well, isn't that part of the reason for the SRD and the edition change in the first place? It allowed WotC to pick the brains of the competition for free (since rules based on the SRD are pretty much the property of WotC, thanks to the very hazy wording of IP in the SRD concept), and see what new system ideas could come up .... and then, by switching editions, they can really put a spoke in the wheel of the competition.

Yes, I know all the stuff about how they did it for the good of the hobby, blah blah blah. The truth of the matter is that they're a business, out to make money, and if a business has the chance -- whether by accident or design -- to torpedo a good portion of their competitors, who were foolish enough to place themselves and their product lines at the mercy of the 'industry leader,' I doubt that too many business decision-makers are going to flinch at pushing that button and sending the 'torpedo away.'

If this kills half the industry, WotC will smile. Just like the small presses would if they could kill WotC and take its stuff. Except that WotC has the power and the opportunity. At best, they just aren't going to give a dang what happens to the ones riding on their coat-tails; at worst, they're giggling hysterically at the thought of getting their foot firmly on the neck of the competition.

 

[Scribble]

Its because small party publishers have had business drop significantly (read: pretty much die) since the 4e announcement. They need to do something to keep themselves afloat. If they had a copy of the 4e SRD, they could be spending their time on creating new product to release alongside the core books. It would still be a bit of a downtime, but hopefully something they can live through. Without access to the SRD, they have nothing to do but wait. Many of them cannot afford to wait for the 4e release to start their own product; the downtime will kill the complany. The only other option is to release product for other systems, which means investing significant amounts of time and money into other systems, which means they're less like to spend that time and money (by economic necessity, not by choice) to develope 4e product once they finally get the SRD.

Someone, however, will.

My point wasn't that 3rd party companies won't be hurt, if they wait for the SRD.

I'm just confused by the attitude that WOTC is taking a risk by not giving the existing companies a look at the new rules far in advance of their release.

If 4e is a success, and there is money to be made by 3rd party companies selling product for it, then 3rd party companies will do so. Be they old companies, new companies, or something in between.

WOTC's first priority is making sure the game is finalized and attractive to consumers.

 

[Monkey Boy]

I'm just confused by the attitude that WOTC is taking a risk by not giving the existing companies a look at the new rules far in advance of their release.

I don't see this attitude expressed in any of these threads. Rather I see concern for well loved and established companies that can't plan to support 4E in any capacity without access to the framework of rules.

A concern shared by many is that when 3E launched draft versions of the rules were distributed in a timely fashion with WOTC keeping lines of communication open. The result was a well supported 3E at launch. If they were able to do this with the 3E launch why not with 4E?

At present it appears WOTC are only paying lipservice to the OGL concept. What has changed from 3E to 4E to make WOTC abandon their support of the OGL and third party publishers?

 

[Rechan]

I don't see this attitude expressed in any of these threads. Rather I see concern for well loved and established companies that can't plan to support 4E in any capacity without access to the framework of rules.

A concern shared by many is that when 3E launched draft versions of the rules were distributed in a timely fashion with WOTC keeping lines of communication open. The result was a well supported 3E at launch. If they were able to do this with the 3E launch why not with 4E?

At present it appears WOTC are only paying lipservice to the OGL concept. What has changed from 3E to 4E to make WOTC abandon their support of the OGL and third party publishers?

I find it interesting that the actual third party individuals have said nothing but good things about WotC, and trust WotC to get them their stuff, and yet the people who are concerned are people on messageboards.