Necromancer Games NOT going with current GSL.

[Treebore]

I would have to read it again to make sure I understood what he wrote, but I believe Clark posted today that he was waiting until October to start making decisions.

 

[Scribble]

One thing I don't understand is this part:

Necro and Paizo? I still very much want to work with them and they very much want to work with me. The problem is the GSL. Necro will definately be supporting Pathfinder when it comes out. If the GSL issues are resolved, Necro and Paizo will be bringing you some amazing products that we already have lined up and in the hopper. Seriously, there are several awesome products literally ready to go just awaiting the fixing of the issues with the GSL.

How does the GSL effect his working with Paizo?

 

[Psion]

How does the GSL effect his working with Paizo?

Paizo is Necro's publishing partner. If he publishes 4e at all, it's through Paizo.

 

[JohnRTroy]

The interesting question to me is - how long Necro will wait at the alter for the groom who never shows up? The GSL dates come and go - and Necro waits. The GSL arrives - and Necro waits. Complaints about the GSL arise - and Necro waits. Other 3PPs abandon the GSL - and Necro waits. Necros seeks "clarifications" to no observeable effect - and Necro waits.

Maybe Clark will decide to shut down Necromancer games if he can't do official or authorized D&D materials under certain terms.

Simple as that.

Don't make fun of him. It's his choice to make.

 

[Fifth Element]

(and you know Monte doesn't publish anymore, right?)

Has anyone told Monte that?

 

[evilref]

Has anyone told Monte that?

Given he announced it, and has repeatedly confirmed it, I think he knows.

http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mc_los_157

He's done about 4 rpg books in the last two or so years but is pretty much commited to his work on novels, short stories and non-fiction books for mainstream publishing now.

 

[Scribble]

Paizo is Necro's publishing partner. If he publishes 4e at all, it's through Paizo.

Ahhh I was not aware o that. Thanks, that makes sense now.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

The interesting question to me is - how long Necro will wait at the alter for the groom who never shows up? The GSL dates come and go - and Necro waits. The GSL arrives - and Necro waits. Complaints about the GSL arise - and Necro waits. Other 3PPs abandon the GSL - and Necro waits. Necros seeks "clarifications" to no observeable effect - and Necro waits.

How long will will Necro wait? How long will it whistfully hope that its 4e prince will come? How long until the cold hard light of day makes the painfully obvious impossible to ignore - Wotc has gilted its Necro lover. 6 months from now does Necro admit the GSL is the GSL? A year? Two?

I can see it now - 5e is announced. Necro greets the announcement with a statement that it hopes to have its concerns with the 4e GSL resolved "soon."

"

Fry's Dog.

 

[pemerton]

That's a biggie.

As I posted upthread, I think another (perhaps bigger) biggie is that if you publish a GSL book that uses content from any of your OGL books (including class names, race names, arguably even class concepts depending on how "content" is defined in clause 6.1) then all those OGL books become Converted Products and can't be published anymore.

I think that's the big problem for something like an Advanced Players Guide, which is intended to reintroduce old elements into the game.

I also think the lack of clarity on "extend" vs. "redefine" makes books like the APH -- or, really, any splat -- risky.

Let's suppose I want to a swashbuckling setting, with flintlocks and so on. I think giving rangers a bunch of gun-based exploits is a good idea. To avoid some redundancy, I might just borrow a lot of the bow powers and recast them as gun based. So I rename "Knockdown Shot" as "Kneecapping", and give it the same effect. Here I run into problems:

a)Unlike the OGL, I cannot use any text. But let's face it -- there's not too many ways to say "Target takes damage and falls down". There's almost no way, other than the flavor text, that "Kneecapping" will not be written very, very, closely to "Knockdown Shot". Will WOTC care? The seeming intent of the GSL is to prevent wholesale copying of the rules, not to make it impossible to make similar powers, but "seeming intent" has no legal value.

b)Does giving gun based powers to the ranger "extend" him, or does it "redefine" him? I have no clue.

Given that the SRD authorises the use of templates for powers, and the GSL authourises additions to a 4e reference, I don't think that there's much doubt that new powers are permitted.

 

[Fifth Element]

Given he announced it, and has repeatedly confirmed it, I think he knows.

Yes, yes, I'm well aware. Check my custom user title.