OGL rumors vs news?

[heirodule]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't someone say way back that the "rumor" was that d20 was going away, publishers would have to pay for the SRD, and there was no more free ruleset online for 4e.

And then someone from WOTC said that wasn't the case.

But now, that's kinda what is the case.

fair?

 

[Piratecat]

Can you source those quotes? They aren't ringing a bell for me.

 

[BASHMAN]

They do ring a bell for me--- but I doubt the quotes were that black & white. Probably something like, "well we're considering all the options at this moment, however, I am reasonably sure that it would be safe to assume that in the near future you can... yada yada yada.... double speak & deniability talk..."

You will never get a straight answer out of these people if the question is asking them to tip their hand before they are ready to drop the bomb. Mixed metaphors aside, they have been deliberately vague on information just so that when something like this happens people won't "catch them" in a lie...

 

[Dire Bare]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't someone say way back that the "rumor" was that d20 was going away, publishers would have to pay for the SRD, and there was no more free ruleset online for 4e.

And then someone from WOTC said that wasn't the case.

But now, that's kinda what is the case.

fair?

I'm pretty sure you are wrong. Totally reminds me of the brouhaha over "Wizards LIED about working on 4E when they were!!!" which was total BS.

Until you or someone else provides linkable quotes on a WotC staffer regarding these "rumors", then that's how I'll take your post, as simple rumormongering.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

What I do here is a bit of interpretation of your post, so I may be wrong.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't someone say way back that the "rumor" was that d20 was going away,

The "D20" label will not be available for 3rd party products using the OGL for 4e.

publishers would have to pay for the SRD

If a publisher wants to release his 4e products before 2009, he'll have to pay $5,000 up front to WotC for the so called Designer Kit. This gives them access to preliminary versions of the SRD and advance versions of the core rule books, too. If they do not want to pay, they can get the OGL and SRD for free in June 2008.

, and there was no more free ruleset online for 4e.

The SRD, what you call the "free ruleset online", will change. It will no longer contain the actual text of the rulebooks, but references the sections which are available via the OGL.

Depending on the wording of the OGL it might be legal to produce an online ruleset from the rulebeooks or not.

And then someone from WOTC said that wasn't the case.

But now, that's kinda what is the case.

fair?

What is fair? I think it was ore than fair from WotC to give us all the tools a they did for 3e. I don't know of any other company in the business which has done this before.

When they tighten the rains this time around, it is still fair for them to open up their game, the biggest RPG by far, for others to use in their own products.

I'm not one to complain that last year's birthday present was greater than this year's; it is still something I've received as a present, and I'm happy that I've got it.

---
Huldvoll

Baron von Bomberg