Online Open Gaming Source Libraries: What should be included?

[nikolai]

The (continuing) debate over the construction of an Unearthed Arcana System Reference Document has raises the topic of Open Gaming Source Libraries: online rules collections collated from various open gaming products.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=82908&page=8

What should be included in these? There are lots of areas of d20 material where the same topic has been revisited over and over again by different people and there are lots of different rules for doing the same thing. The Libraries should presumably focus on the best and most balanced set of rules. Which are the best choices?

 

[Bendris Noulg]

The Libraries should presumably focus on the best and most balanced set of rules. Which are the best choices?

This would, to me, be the problem with such libraries. For instance, if to choose a single set of Herbalism Rules, would you choose Bastion over Atlas? Or would you pick the one that is more popular even if you don't personally feel it's the "best" system?

And no matter which you pick, you'll end up with people that prefer "the other system" and complain about your criteria for "best".

That said, if you are selecting specific material based on criteria that stipulates that only one rules-set can cover any single topic, than what you have isn't an "OGC Library" but (what I guess would be better called) a "Specific Distribution".

An OGC Library should be just that: A library compiled of as much as is available.

 

[Wombat]

If it were to be truly Open Gaming, I would say you would ultimately have to include everything, with or without editorial comment. To pick and choose will necessarily lead to bad feelings and too many arguments.

Of course you might not want to put up everything immediately ... it would be a site constantly Under Construction, so...

 

[Emiricol]

I'd include all systems, and have a user rating system. Just a thought. And for Herbalism, neither of those mentioned beat the FFG herbalism system from Midnight setting.

 

[RodneyThompson]

The Libraries should presumably focus on the best and most balanced set of rules.

I disagree with this statement. As many have pointed out above, this picking-and-choosing will ultimately lead not only to hurt feelings but to endless debate. All the points above are completely valid and I agree with them 100%.

However, I think there is an important point that hasn't been touched on yet. As a writer, say I'm looking for a set of rules on herbalism (to use the aforementioned topic) to integrate into my next book. For argument's sake let's say one company put out a set of rules that were considered pretty unbalanced and left out of the library. I come along looking for herbalism rules, and none of the existing ones fit my ideas. The herbalism rules that were left out might be just what I'm looking for, either that I could possibly fix or lift just small portions from. Even if a system is universally considered bad that doesn't mean it has no value. Capiche?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Just an observation:

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the ENworld community was able to do what the publishing community could not.

 

[kirinke]

Just an observation:

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the ENworld community was able to do what the publishing community could not.

that's what the house rules are for.