OGL material from Wizards?

[Angellis_ater]

Hi there everyone!

I am new here so if this has been asked before, please just refer me to the correct thread and area. I was wondering exactly what material made by Wizards of the Coast is OGL?

 

[aceofgames]

Anything that could be found in the SRD, which you can find on theWotC website.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Anything else? I understand that some material is Product Identity, but why aren't Slaad or Kua-Toa in the SRD?

 

[Yair]

There is also some OGC in other books published by WotC, most notably Unearthed Arcana. Be careful about extracting it though, not to violate PI or include closed content.

Slaad, Kua-Toa and other beasties and tidbits are not in the SRD. For example, you won't find rules for settlement statistics there (power centers, city size, gp limit, and so on). These things were deliberately left out of the SRD, and are not OGC.
As to why, you'd have to ask WotC. I think mostly it is their intention to preserve "iconic" elements of D&D such as beholders, mind flayers, and so on.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Problem is you can read how Mind Flayers and Beholders are Public Identity and therefore not OGL, but nothing is clearly stated about the Slaad or Kua-Toa. Therefore one could think that they ARE OGL, and were forgotten in the SRD, or are PI and forgotten in the printing of the book?

 

[arwink]

Problem is you can read how Mind Flayers and Beholders are Public Identity and therefore not OGL, but nothing is clearly stated about the Slaad or Kua-Toa. Therefore one could think that they ARE OGL, and were forgotten in the SRD, or are PI and forgotten in the printing of the book?

It's fairly clearly stated: The stuff that is in the SRD is open, the stuff that isn't is product identity. If they aren't in the SRD, it isn't because Wizards forgot to put them in there, it's because they didn't want other people to use them *without permission.* Simply put - they're Product Identity and Wizard's doesn't need to announce them as such (although they are if they reprint 3rd party material).

Back when the whole OGL agreement started, wizards let companies use the rules under a 'gentleman's agreement' until certain portions of the OGL were finalized. After it was finalized and a number of the monsters were left out, they still allowed a few companies to finish products they had announced that focused on PI creatures (such as the mind flayer and beholder), although these books specifically noted that the creatures they were dealing with were PI of WotC and not Open in any way.

 

[kingpaul]

Anything else?

To my knowledge, other than Unearthed Arcana, is d20 Modern Weapons Locker and 2 monsters at the back of MM2. I don't believe that they have any other books containing OGC.

 

[Dragonblade]

As far as I know, the SRD contents and most of Unearthed Arcana are open. Nothing else is.

Monsters like Mind Flayers and Githyanki and have been deliberately left out of the SRD and are not open content. WotC didn't "forget" to include them. They intentionally left them out because they are iconic D&D monsters and WotC wants to retain all rights to them.

 

[Alzrius]

As far as I know, the SRD contents and most of Unearthed Arcana are open. Nothing else is.

Save for those two monsters in the back of the Monster Manual II, and quite a bit of material from the d20 Weapons Locker.

 

[Angellis_ater]

If you check the OGL ( http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/v35/Legal.rtf ) Wizards list Mind Flayers and Beholders among others as being Product Identity even though they are not included in the SRD. THIS is the reason I asked about the Slaad and Kua-Toa. There is no definitive listing of them being Product Identity, but on the other hand they are not in the SRD.

Now why have PI references for SOME of the monsters not included in the SRD?