Andy_Collins
First Post
Unearthed Arcana open content
Good question. Here's our thinking on the matter.
There are a lot of companies out there publishing d20 products. While many (maybe even most) are intended to be used by D&D players in their D&D games, and thus tend to hew pretty closely to the existing D&D rules (as published in the SRD), that's not always the case.
I'm sure that anyone here could, without even trying hard, name a half-dozen game systems and supplements that introduce significant variations of the d20 SRD rules. Some of these closely mimic non-SRD content (such as the VP/WP system from Star Wars), while others create entirely new subsystems to handle things in a different manner than D&D does (such as Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system, which effectively expands the concept of Will saves vs. fear effects into an entire rule system). In both cases, the games rely on most of the core concepts of the d20 system, but vary or expand on certain key elements relevant to the setting.
The problem is that these subsystems are either not very widely distributed (even the most successful products in the d20 industry only hit a fraction of the readers that a typical D&D book does), or they're off-limits to other publishers (if published in non-open products).
In either case, it means that these new rule variants aren't seen and tried out by a wide range of players. That in turn prevents them from getting a fair chance to shine--without the shared base of players, it's hard for a new rule system or variant to gain footing. By publishing a collection of these rule variants and options in one place, by putting the official D&D logo on it, and by making the book Open Content, we're hoping to overcome some of these obstacles.
Now, if Green Ronin or Sword & Sorcery or Big Joe's Garage Publishing Studio wants to use SW's cinematic Defense system, or Oriental Adventure's Taint rules, or a spell point system, or a variant item creation system, the company doesn't have to start from scratch (or, perhaps even worse, write a system that's a lot like an existing D&D ruleset but just different enough that people don't accuse them of plagiarism)--they can just pick up the ruleset they want from Unearthed Arcana, knowing that tens of thousands of players (aka potential customers) have already seen the ruleset in question (and are thus more disposed to accept it when they see it again).
As the lead designer on Unearthed Arcana, I was a big proponent of the concept of making the book entirely open. Only time will tell whether it was worth the effort--and make no mistake, it added a significant amount of effort for me, for D&D Design Manager Ed Stark, and for Andy "Hardest Working Man in the Industry" Smith, among others--but regardless of success, I think it's a great experiment.
The best-case scenario is that the player base latches on to a few of the new or adapted variants in a big way, which pushes publishers (including even WotC) to support them, and in turn leads eventually to them being integrated into the core game experience at some point down the line. No one's foolish enough to believe that every option in this book will receive such a reaction, but that's OK--I think there's something in there for everybody.
On the other hand, what's the worst-case scenario? People use the book like they would any other, taking what they like and ignoring the rest. In that case, we've put in some extra work for little or no payoff, but the average gamer isn't impacted by this in the least. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
In case you can't tell, I'm pretty stoked about Unearthed Arcana. I'm already planning on using several of the variants in my next campaign, and have ideas for a half-dozen other campaigns just from reading what the other designers came up with. My belief is that other DMs and players will be similarly inspired.
But then, I'm a bit biased, I'll admit.
Li Shenron said:
Good question. Here's our thinking on the matter.
There are a lot of companies out there publishing d20 products. While many (maybe even most) are intended to be used by D&D players in their D&D games, and thus tend to hew pretty closely to the existing D&D rules (as published in the SRD), that's not always the case.
I'm sure that anyone here could, without even trying hard, name a half-dozen game systems and supplements that introduce significant variations of the d20 SRD rules. Some of these closely mimic non-SRD content (such as the VP/WP system from Star Wars), while others create entirely new subsystems to handle things in a different manner than D&D does (such as Call of Cthulhu's Sanity system, which effectively expands the concept of Will saves vs. fear effects into an entire rule system). In both cases, the games rely on most of the core concepts of the d20 system, but vary or expand on certain key elements relevant to the setting.
The problem is that these subsystems are either not very widely distributed (even the most successful products in the d20 industry only hit a fraction of the readers that a typical D&D book does), or they're off-limits to other publishers (if published in non-open products).
In either case, it means that these new rule variants aren't seen and tried out by a wide range of players. That in turn prevents them from getting a fair chance to shine--without the shared base of players, it's hard for a new rule system or variant to gain footing. By publishing a collection of these rule variants and options in one place, by putting the official D&D logo on it, and by making the book Open Content, we're hoping to overcome some of these obstacles.
Now, if Green Ronin or Sword & Sorcery or Big Joe's Garage Publishing Studio wants to use SW's cinematic Defense system, or Oriental Adventure's Taint rules, or a spell point system, or a variant item creation system, the company doesn't have to start from scratch (or, perhaps even worse, write a system that's a lot like an existing D&D ruleset but just different enough that people don't accuse them of plagiarism)--they can just pick up the ruleset they want from Unearthed Arcana, knowing that tens of thousands of players (aka potential customers) have already seen the ruleset in question (and are thus more disposed to accept it when they see it again).
As the lead designer on Unearthed Arcana, I was a big proponent of the concept of making the book entirely open. Only time will tell whether it was worth the effort--and make no mistake, it added a significant amount of effort for me, for D&D Design Manager Ed Stark, and for Andy "Hardest Working Man in the Industry" Smith, among others--but regardless of success, I think it's a great experiment.
The best-case scenario is that the player base latches on to a few of the new or adapted variants in a big way, which pushes publishers (including even WotC) to support them, and in turn leads eventually to them being integrated into the core game experience at some point down the line. No one's foolish enough to believe that every option in this book will receive such a reaction, but that's OK--I think there's something in there for everybody.
On the other hand, what's the worst-case scenario? People use the book like they would any other, taking what they like and ignoring the rest. In that case, we've put in some extra work for little or no payoff, but the average gamer isn't impacted by this in the least. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
In case you can't tell, I'm pretty stoked about Unearthed Arcana. I'm already planning on using several of the variants in my next campaign, and have ideas for a half-dozen other campaigns just from reading what the other designers came up with. My belief is that other DMs and players will be similarly inspired.
But then, I'm a bit biased, I'll admit.
