Necromancer Games NOT going with current GSL.

[Christian]

To help clairify my point, is there anybody in this forum or on this site that started playing D&D and had not been introduced to it by someone that already played it?

[Raises hand.] Saw an ad in Games magazine, IIRC, and convinced an uncle to buy it for me as a present. Early 1978, Holmes blue box edition.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

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

There can be only one.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I hear a lot of comments like this that seem to imply that WotC has a single point of view. I realize it's often just an intentional simplification (and likely is in Dr. Awkward's case, for example), but that attitude is out there. I believe that attitude is wrong.

Well, it is a simplification, but the fact of the matter is that no matter what the various parties involved at WotC feel about the subject, or what they're doing about it, the official position of the company at the moment is "GSL: like it or lump it."

If there were a release (or even a messageboard comment by someone involved on the inside) saying "we understand the problems that people like Clark Peterson have with the GSL and see that they need correcting in order for this thing to work. We are working it out," then things would be different.

As it stands, WotC does have a single point of view, because it's a company, not merely a group of people. And that single point of view is currently that the GSL is what we're going to have to live with. As far as the buying public is concerned, it doesn't matter how the various WotC employees feel about the license if:

1. There is in fact no move toward fixing the situation in process, or,
2. We aren't aware of any such move.

Either way, we're left with the collective corporate voice of WotC putting a deal on the table that Clark sees some big dangerous holes in, and no hope at the moment that anything will be done about those holes. As far as we know, WotC the company is pleased, despite the gnashing of teeth on the part of some elements of that company. So that's the situation we are left to make commentary on. Without at least an official acknowledgment that there are problems with the license, we really have no reason to believe that anyone's concerns are going to effect any change, whether those concerns come from Necromancer or The Rouse.

 

[Wyrmshadows]

COMPANIES THAT WILL GET MY MONEY IN THE NEAR FUTURE

Wizards of the Coast
Paizo
Necromancer Games
Green Ronin
Goodman Games
Adamant Entertainment

I'm not sure that many people are in the same boat as me, and I don't really care.

I'm certainly with you on this.

Nothing against 3pp publishers of 4e products. However, I choose to spend my money on good products whose mechanics I enjoy, created by companies whose work supports open gaming. The more companies that are willing to support the OGL/3.5 and its offspring, the more OGL will become a permanent part of the gaming landscape and not something meant to "die" once WoTC creates its new edition du jour.

One exception. I will happily purchase system free products from anyone whose material/fluff is exceptionally good. I'm a big fan of the idea of system free settings and believe that there is an opening here for folks willing to focus more on lore/fluff than specific mechanical elements.



Wyrmshadows

 

[Minicol]

Others on these boards have suggested that nobody really knows Paizo, unless they're regulars on the boards....but really, whether it's EN World or somewhere else, I'm sure that a pretty large number of players follow up to some degree. It's just that many of them probably spend most of the time lurking. So I bet that there's a fair number of people who either know of Paizo, or of the products they make.

Banshee

More importantly : do the DMs know of Paizo ?

It's all nice and good to say that there are plenty of players interested in 4e, but who is going to organize the game for them if the DMs go Paizo ?

Who is going to devote the time, the money, and provide the gaming room
for the session ?

DMing is quite an investment of resources, and DMs are often a lot more informed than the casual gamer. The DM votes will go a much longer way than any single players' in deciding what is played. And word of mouth goes a long way between DMs.

Whoever wins a larger part of the DM market is a winner.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

[Raises hand.] Saw an ad in Games magazine, IIRC, and convinced an uncle to buy it for me as a present. Early 1978, Holmes blue box edition.

Same here (different circumstances). I saw the ads for the boxed set in 1980, and got stuff for Christmas.

 

[Fifth Element]

There can be only one.

That's becoming apparent.