D&D 4E Is the OGL the reason for WOTC's secrecy about 4E?

[Plane Sailing]

Too much Jerk-ness in this thread.

One more bit of Jerk-ness and it overloads the Jerkometer, gets closed down and earns somebody a 3-day suspension.

Thanks

 

[Ydars]

Scipio; good to see you again. Had a blast with the PoL forum.

Here is what Orcus (head of Necromancer Games) had to say.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The initial meeting with the publishers was awesome. It was well done, professional, and clearly a part of a well-integrated plan. Then upper management got involved and it got yanked. Then, silence. We knew the GSL was intended to be more restrictive. Frankly, I was ok with that. There were thinigs that didnt make sense for Wizards in the OGL if the d20 STL was not used, which it didnt have to be because the d20 logo lost all value and meaning. Now they are back to the drawing boards. There are three options:

1. Use the GSL, or a version of it, as planned. With some of the restrictions from the STL and Guide built into the GSL itself. I'd be fine with that.

2. Swing to one extreme and say there is no license for 4E at all.

3. Swing to the other side and say 4E can be used under the existing OGL (with a stripped down SRD).

Until last week, it seemed clear that option (1) was in play and we were told that things were proceeding along with option 1. Now, it is clear that option (1) is not the only option in play and that higher ups are considering option (2). Which means they may also be considering option (3).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is buried on page 4 of my OGL thread in the OGL section of the board.

 

[AllisterH]

I wish WotC would do more advertising to help build up the interest. With 3e it started with the GenCon they announced it at and kept running till it released. It seems that since the D&D Exp that the flow has slowed down a lot, save for the Warlord preview (March 14th) there hasn't been any real 4e info since then other than blogs discussing feel of the game.

I think Gygax death might have something to do with that one week. My impression is that the 4E books are now going to have a foreword dedicated to Gygax and that they also had to create blogs/interviews which trumped any releases for the week.

 

[AllisterH]

. Now they are back to the drawing boards. There are three options:

1. Use the GSL, or a version of it, as planned. With some of the restrictions from the STL and Guide built into the GSL itself. I'd be fine with that.

2. Swing to one extreme and say there is no license for 4E at all.

3. Swing to the other side and say 4E can be used under the existing OGL (with a stripped down SRD).

Until last week, it seemed clear that option (1) was in play and we were told that things were proceeding along with option 1. Now, it is clear that option (1) is not the only option in play and that higher ups are considering option (2). Which means they may also be considering option (3).

.

Option 3 is interesting.

I can see WOTC restricting the "new" stuff 4E has, namely tiefling/dragonborn, the warlord, the action point mechanic and any power that doesn't have an equivalent in the previous SRD.

 

[Monkey Boy]

Scipio; good to see you again. Had a blast with the PoL forum.

Here is what Orcus (head of Necromancer Games) had to say.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The initial meeting with the publishers was awesome. It was well done, professional, and clearly a part of a well-integrated plan. Then upper management got involved and it got yanked. Then, silence. We knew the GSL was intended to be more restrictive. Frankly, I was ok with that. There were thinigs that didnt make sense for Wizards in the OGL if the d20 STL was not used, which it didnt have to be because the d20 logo lost all value and meaning. Now they are back to the drawing boards. There are three options:

1. Use the GSL, or a version of it, as planned. With some of the restrictions from the STL and Guide built into the GSL itself. I'd be fine with that.

2. Swing to one extreme and say there is no license for 4E at all.

3. Swing to the other side and say 4E can be used under the existing OGL (with a stripped down SRD).

Until last week, it seemed clear that option (1) was in play and we were told that things were proceeding along with option 1. Now, it is clear that option (1) is not the only option in play and that higher ups are considering option (2). Which means they may also be considering option (3).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is buried on page 4 of my OGL thread in the OGL section of the board.

Thank you for the insightful and helpful information.

 

[AllisterH]

With regard to marketing (or the lack of it).

The Gift set is currently ranked #62 on amazon and we're still not in April as yet. In fact, whoever this time around insisted that all books were sold at the same time is a genius. The gift set on Amazon.ca is such a good deal that the PHB by itself is ranked above #1200 on amazon.com.

This time around, whoever has the PHB probably will have the DMG/MM (most of my players, even those not keen on 4E are enticed at the price point) unlike the current situation.

More potential DMs as people look through the DMG casually and say, "Hey, I can do this" is what I think WOTC is hoping for by bundling all 3 together.

 

[CleverNickName]

Everybody I know who uses the online SRD, and who owns OGL-based third party products, has also bought all of the core books.

/just sayin'

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Didn't Wizards say they were mainly releasing for current D&D players in June and will do a big advertising push to get new players into the game later in the year with the intro books?

 

[Li Shenron]

I don't understand what is the problem with waiting.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Everybody I know who uses the online SRD, and who owns OGL-based third party products, has also bought all of the core books.

/just sayin'

Cadfan didn't

Except the thing is, I would download them for free, if doing so were legal. I did so last time. Played all the way through 3 and 3.5 without ever owning a PHB, DMG, or a Monster Manual. And if they let me do it again, I would.

And fair enough, a few guys I know didn't buy the core 3, mostly casual players (no DMs that I know) but some 'weekly' guys as well. So I know a few who would have at least purchased the PHB if they couldn't get the SRD. Not the kind of guys to pirate off the internet and borrowing a friends can be annoying but the SRD made the core 3 (really the PHB) redundant for some people.
Maybe not great for business (I dunno, I used to fly jets and now I fix computers, so business/economics is right out of my knowledge base) ...but it was awesome for house ruling though

Oh..

I don't understand what is the problem with waiting.

Because I am an impatient git, I want it all, I want it now