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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 4055499" data-attributes="member: 22424">Firstly, one should only spend the $5,000 for early access if one believes one can recoup that money over the six month window of opportunity. That basically means you need to already have a significant print presence, and at least one successful line. As such, it makes some sense for Paizo, Necromancer, Goodman, and maybe Mongoose. For anyone who is PDF-only, anyone new, and any very minor publishers, it's not a good idea. Better to wait, and release next year.(Additionally, I will be very surprised if one cannot publish 4e-compatible materials under the existing OGL using some careful wording on compatibility statements and the like. I'm not an IP lawyer, but if I were in the 'not quite big enough to make it worthwhile' category, I would be tempted to explore that option.)(Additional additional: it may well be that the legalities of the situation are irrelevant, though. The OGL has never been tested in court, and the only players who might be large enough to take on WotC will probably pay the $5,000 anyway. So, if one were to publish a 4e-compatible OGL product, one might be forced to back down if WotC were to press the issue, even if the law is on one's side.)For the second question, I think we'll see a mix of the three options. We'll no doubt see a bunch of new settings (for example, I expect Paizo's Pathfinder setting to be, or very quickly become, 4e).Any existing setting that is now 'dead' will probably stay that way. I would be very surprised to see a "Scarred Lands 4e" for example, because although there are a number of rabid fans out there, there obviously wasn't the demand for the setting prior to this point, so there probably wouldn't be sufficient demand now.Existing 'live' settings may or may not convert. Many of those that do will simply publish a new 4e-ised core book, with no major setting changes, and move on. Others will do a WSE (World Shaking Event) and proceed from an essentially blank slate. To a large extent, the option taken will depend on how tied the setting is to 3e rule elements, and also the presence of metaplot in the setting (I think the more metaplot, the greater the chance of a WSE).In all seriousness, though, I doubt we'll see many 4e settings, be they new or converted. The "Points of Light" paradigm seems to have grabbed hold of people quite thoroughly, and that cuts out a lot of the need for a setting - if you're living in an isolated town, it really doesn't matter what the rest of the world looks like, and indeed it might be better if it not be fleshed out until the PCs get there.</blockquote>

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