D&D 4E Monte Cook on licensing (and 4E in general?)

[Dedekind]

If you read his past blogs, he's discussed it previously, and (in my understanding and paraphrasing) it boils down to he's happy with a house ruled 3.5. It does what he wants it to do and works very well for him.

He may be happy with it, but perhaps he is missing out on 4E? As mentioned before, BoEM had a lot of 4e-like things. Maybe a system built from scratch with these ideas would be better?

 

[Cryndo]

The other thing to consider is that success for 4E is based on Hasbro ROI needs, not just making a profit. For much of the 3rd party publishers making a profit is considered a success. For Hasbro a success is making a huge profit. Anything less is a failure for them. If even 10% of the current base does not convert and is not replaced by "new gamers" this is a failure for Hasbro even if 90% is still millions of books.

If only 10% of the customer base doesn't convert it will be a huge success for Hasbro. By all accounts, RPG sales have been down for a couple of years. A new edition, if adopted by 90% of the existing customer base, will mean the best year in quite some time for D&D. Factor in the excitement of the new game and the purchase of new rule books, adventures, settings, etc and Wizards is going to do just fine. Add in new miniature sales and Insider subscribers and WotC can easily afford to lose 10% of their customer base. And in the next few years, D&D will likely grow as a brand as it did after 3.0 was released.

 

[Puggins]

I don't see what the problem is, though, with completely dispensing with the GSL. There's no "GSL equivalent" for White Wolf's game systems, for the various Warhammer lines -- heck, for pretty much anything except 3rd edition D&D. And yet, many of these game lines are successful and profitable.

Well, I'm eagerly awaiting 4e, and I'm going to buy it regardless of the GSL. But part of me really, really hopes that the GSL will still exist and will be fairly magnanimous. There's a difference between realistic about what we should expect WotC to do and being hopeful that idealism wins out in the end.

Regardless of the intention of the original OGL, the overall philosophy was pretty idealistic- WotC was willing to share its profits with other publishers in order to promote the d20 system and PnP gaming as a whole. You could argue that the underlying motivation was still profit-oriented (and no one would be able to disprove that), but you can't argue that the ultimate OGL wasn't remarkably generous to the community as a whole. I don't think it's fair to expect WotC to continue that tradition, especially now that it's wrapped up in the corporate culture, but it would sure be neat if they would continue it, even if it was more limited.

 

[malraux]

He implies that he has no desire to do 4e stuff. Sounds to me like he is happy with 3e and the terms of the OGL for his foreseeable RPG game publishing sideline and will stick with it.

In fairness, Monte has also been pretty clear that he wants to focus on stuff other than writing RPG books, regardless of edition. Cleaning up a few house rules to a pdf book form is barely even reaching the level of RPG book publishing. With that in mind, I can see him not wanting to spend the time to gain mastery of a new system just to publish one or two books, especially when he's gonna be a big name for the 3e players.

 

[I'm A Banana]

He may be happy with it, but perhaps he is missing out on 4E? As mentioned before, BoEM had a lot of 4e-like things. Maybe a system built from scratch with these ideas would be better?

"Good Enough" is good enough. If you're happy, why bother delving further? I don't need a nitro-burning tricked out custom race car if all I do is go get groceries every day -- the basic station wagon works fine.

I think that folks like Monte could be one of 4e's more persistent problems. Other editions have weathered the storm, some better than others, but other editions haven't had to deal with competing with a still-existing edition that they created, either.

If only 10% of the customer base doesn't convert it will be a huge success for Hasbro. By all accounts, RPG sales have been down for a couple of years. A new edition, if adopted by 90% of the existing customer base, will mean the best year in quite some time for D&D. Factor in the excitement of the new game and the purchase of new rule books, adventures, settings, etc and Wizards is going to do just fine. Add in new miniature sales and Insider subscribers and WotC can easily afford to lose 10% of their customer base. And in the next few years, D&D will likely grow as a brand as it did after 3.0 was released.

100% yes. The challenge will be if D&D doesn't grow the base from what it is, or if that base quickly erodes after the initial success.

 

[Mistwell]

The other thing to consider is that success for 4E is based on Hasbro ROI needs, not just making a profit. For much of the 3rd party publishers making a profit is considered a success. For Hasbro a success is making a huge profit. Anything less is a failure for them. If even 10% of the current base does not convert and is not replaced by "new gamers" this is a failure for Hasbro even if 90% is still millions of books.

Given the size of all of WOTC relative to Hasbro, I doubt they are looking that deep into a particular re-release of these books as far as ROI. As long as the unit of WOTC is profitable itself, that's probably the only thing they care about for that aspect (and maintaining the value of the IP for future projects, like movies and television).

 

[Vempyre]

Monte's game has so many houserules that are way closer to 4E in spirit than 3.5E... Many of the 4E designers played in Monte's games too, and are of like mind. I suspect many of 4E's basic ideas came from that "circle of friends who think alike".

So hedoes not "need" to switch to 4E, since he already has a lot of what 4E brings to the table in his modified home game (except simpler mechanics, I guess). So technically 4E is way closer to what Monte looks for in a game than 3E is. He's probably too sentimentally attached to his own houserules and and the fact he helped design 3E to switch though, even though it would make sense for him. That and the prophesied more restrictive GSL which is soon to come since he's a guy who doesn't like too much restrictions for his DnD creations.

 

[The Little Raven]

So, Monte's not going to write for 4E? Big surprise, considering the guy said he is retired from the roleplaying industry, and the BOXM was just a last hurrah because of popular demand.

 

[Carnivorous_Bean]

I've been thinking about this and I guess I'd like to add 2 points to what I've already said, one of which is an alteration of my former stance ....

....1. I still don't think that the GSL stuff is a fiasco or is going to harm WotC much, or at all.

....2. That said, I've changed my mind and would prefer if they did issue a GSL. I'm all for the small guy being able to make a few bucks off of his creativity, and the lack of a GSL will put paid to that in the RPG industry. I was thinking at first that 'house systems' would be the way to go. Then I realized that D20 is like 'branding' brought to the RPG market.

Most people probably won't even look at a small-press product, no matter how good it is, unless it's got the 'brand' on it -- D20, OGL, GSL, what have you. To put it another way, they're far more likely to buy a small-press product that DOES have D&D official blessing than one that uses a house system, making what's already a very tenuously-profitable industry (RPG small press) into one that probably has no economic viability at all.

So, yes, I am in favor of a GSL/OGL arrangement, not because it's going to help WotC along massively, but because it will provide a semi-viable outlet for some very creative people who might otherwise end up working as Wal-Mart greeters and whose ideas would thus never see print.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Given the size of all of WOTC relative to Hasbro, I doubt they are looking that deep into a particular re-release of these books as far as ROI. As long as the unit of WOTC is profitable itself, that's probably the only thing they care about for that aspect (and maintaining the value of the IP for future projects, like movies and television).

Except that the new president of WotC is from Hasbro Corporate.