Zappo said:
The SRD isn't the reference document for d20.
I concede that particular point. It is not officially the reference document for d20. The way things work out, it is rather unofficially such.
AFAIK, there is no reference document for the d20 system, which is probably one of the reasons for which we can't even agree on what d20 is.
Quite true - there is no document. That should say something to you...
Though we use the words "d20 System", in a large sense there is no such
system. "d20" is a
trademark, owned by WotC (and Hasbro, by extension). The definition of what is, or is not, d20 then comes from WotC.
If WotC wants to say that their
Star Wars or
Wheel of Time games are "d20", they may do so. They can also apply the trademark to miniatures, candy, or movies, if they so desire. Does candy follow a system?
In practice you'd probably only see them use the mark on games that are rather similar in many respects. Doing otherwise would erode the usefulness of the trademark. However, they make no claim that there's actually a system all such games that they produce follow.
WotC has also outlined what we may call "d20" in the
d20 System Trademark Logo Guide. The licence includes, among many other things, the restriction that you must include words to the effect that your product
requires the use the D&D Core Books. And you can't say that unless they actually do require it, or you have problems with false advertising. It also forbids you to change or extend the definitions of many game terms ("hit points" being one example). It also forbids description of what happens when you apply XP to a character.
How far from D&D are you going to be able to get without changing the definitions, and without describing what you do when using XP? Not very far. You cannot make it levelless, for example. WotC was fairly up front about the fact that the "d20 System" thing is really about selling copies of the D&D PHB and DMG.
The result? OGL, D20, D&D, three different terms, for different things, but noone knows where one ends and the other begins.
Oh, I don't think folks who have read and understood the various documents pertaining to these are under much confusion, unless they start getting loose with their terms. Nobody would confuse D&D and OGL with them sitting in front of them. The OGL is a legalese document, and looks nothign at all liike a game system.
Somebody might be a little confused about what parts of the D&D Core books are OG
C, until they look at the SRD, and see how it says, "You may consider this material Open Game Content under the Open Game License, and may use, modify, and distribute it." If it's in the SRD, it's OGC. No confusion there.
There should be little confusion about being d20 either. It's d20 if WotC says so, or if you apply the d20 license. The whole reason to call a thing d20 is to say to a consumer that your product is close enough to D&D to use easily. So, that very probably means you are following a system very similar to what's in the SRD and D&D core books. If you can manage to legally use the license without being much like those games, more power to you.
And, in the end, we're still left back where we started - if it's d20, it isn't really generic. By nature of the licences "d20" for the most part equates to "D&D", which isn't generic
