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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 2511676" data-attributes="member: 19857">Without the open, unending nature of the OGL, the whole d20 thing would never have worked.&nbsp; If you put those kind of limitations on what outside publishers can do, and claim some kind of expiration date when it could all go away, you wouldn't have had the investment in d20 that happened around 2000.&nbsp; I remember being on the various mailing lists when Ryan Dancey was promoting this idea and one of the key selling points was that Wizards of the Coast (because, remember, it wasn't Hasbro yet) COULDN'T take the license back.&nbsp; It would be there for everyone to use forever.&nbsp; They could restrict the use of the trademark, but your company's R&amp;D work on d20 material could never be taken away by Wizards NOR could Wizards take away your use of the core rule system - ever.&nbsp; That was the guarantee that caused a LOT of folks to take the gamble that this whole d20 thing might just work.Dancey's idea was that it was the name Dungeons and Dragons that was selling books, not the game system.&nbsp; In other words, its the trademark on the D&amp;D name not the actual game system that was the corporate investment.&nbsp; I'm not sure what kind of politicking he did in the offices of Wizards to get folks to sign on to this (I imagine quite a lot), but it was a big risk for Wizards.&nbsp; It had to be - if it looked like Wizards was getting all of the benefit and the other companies had nothing to gain from &quot;going d20&quot; then the whole thing would fail for all sides.Of course, once Hasbro got involved things changed somewhat.&nbsp; The early push for 3.5e hurt the &quot;d20 industry&quot; quite a bit, but it occurred simultaneously with Hasbro tightening the screws on the level of editorial control they wanted over the d20 trademark and when they could tell people to take it off, and I'm sure that THAT didn't help matters either.&nbsp; I think there are probably a lot of other factors involved too, but I still hope that Hasbro/WotC see the benefits of keeping any new editions of d20/D&amp;D open.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jer, post: 2511676, member: 19857"] Without the open, unending nature of the OGL, the whole d20 thing would never have worked. If you put those kind of limitations on what outside publishers can do, and claim some kind of expiration date when it could all go away, you wouldn't have had the investment in d20 that happened around 2000. I remember being on the various mailing lists when Ryan Dancey was promoting this idea and one of the key selling points was that Wizards of the Coast (because, remember, it wasn't Hasbro yet) COULDN'T take the license back. It would be there for everyone to use forever. They could restrict the use of the trademark, but your company's R&D work on d20 material could never be taken away by Wizards NOR could Wizards take away your use of the core rule system - ever. That was the guarantee that caused a LOT of folks to take the gamble that this whole d20 thing might just work. Dancey's idea was that it was the name Dungeons and Dragons that was selling books, not the game system. In other words, its the trademark on the D&D name not the actual game system that was the corporate investment. I'm not sure what kind of politicking he did in the offices of Wizards to get folks to sign on to this (I imagine quite a lot), but it was a big risk for Wizards. It had to be - if it looked like Wizards was getting all of the benefit and the other companies had nothing to gain from "going d20" then the whole thing would fail for all sides. Of course, once Hasbro got involved things changed somewhat. The early push for 3.5e hurt the "d20 industry" quite a bit, but it occurred simultaneously with Hasbro tightening the screws on the level of editorial control they wanted over the d20 trademark and when they could tell people to take it off, and I'm sure that THAT didn't help matters either. I think there are probably a lot of other factors involved too, but I still hope that Hasbro/WotC see the benefits of keeping any new editions of d20/D&D open. [/QUOTE]

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