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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 6196181" data-attributes="member: 70">I bought 3e because I was exhausted by 2e.I didn't make this point well enough in my earlier post.  Prior to 3e, I posted material online, but I posted it as discrete files to the AOL/TSR file library. I don't remember if there was a review process, but certainly things that were blatant copies of D&D products were deleted.  The OGL gave security to moving off of TSR's site and opening my own website, one not under the aegis of WotC.I don't remember the exact sequence of events (this was 14+ years ago), but the internet was also a very different place.  Google wasn't incorporated as a private company until 1998.  It didn't go public until 2004.  There was no Facebook.  PDFs were relatively newfangled technology.  There were a lot of rumors and second- or third-hand information about people getting cease & desist, or being sued, for the content of their websites.  Companies like TSR & WotC were still figuring out how to deal with the internet.I sold one article to Dragon, (and had 3 rejected) around the time 3e was announced (Gen Con 1999; the only Gen Con I've ever been to.  My article was in the issue that was on sale that month.)  The switch to 3e more or less killed my ambitions of writing for Dragon (I had to learn the system first), but the OGL opened up another avenue that hadn't been possible before.  I was conflicted about it - I felt, and still feel, that the 3e publishing market has had a negative effect on the quantity and quality of free material - and decided that rather than sequester my campaign material and house rules against the possibility of one day publishing it, I'd put them on my own website with the OGL, for free.  The intent was to develop other material for publishing, plus answering open calls, etc, etc. (again, never really worked out or followed through - I sent a few magic weapons properties to Bastion Press for Arms & Armor that got accepted, but otherwise I didn't submit anything anywhere.)Not sure if that made sense.  Basically, I always viewed "generic/publishable" and "house campaign/free" material as two separate tracks, and both were affected by the OGL.</blockquote>

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