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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 1112464" data-attributes="member: 14159">What does this mean?The death of the &quot;d20 License.&quot;&nbsp; The tougher termination clause, combined with the easily abusable &quot;sole discretion&quot; of WotC to pull any product with the d20 trademark means that no company in their right mind will produce &quot;d20&quot; branded materials.&nbsp; Too much risk.&nbsp; What happens when they use their &quot;sole discretion&quot; to demand the pulling of a popular competition book that they think is taking sales away from their own book?Also notice the clause about it not being able to &quot;promote&quot; any real world religion.&nbsp; No Christian themed d20 RPG's like Testament or Rapture anymore then I guess, since they promote Judeo-Christian ideology.&nbsp; No books for d20 Modern trying to make a more &quot;authentic&quot; depiction of witchcraft or any real-world priesthood.It isn't the end of open gaming.&nbsp; They can't put that genie back in the bottle.&nbsp; But the &quot;d20&quot; era of open gaming is approaching twilight.&nbsp; Open gaming materials compatible with D&amp;D will be around, they are too big a market to ignore, but no company in it's right mind will use the &quot;d20&quot; name now.What lead to this?&nbsp; I would personally imagine some clueless pointy-haired boss at Hasbro who hears incidental buzz of the &quot;Book of Erotic Fantasy&quot;, wonders why WotC was allowing it to be produced by a family toy company like Hasbro/WotC.&nbsp; WotC explained that they didn't have editorial control over 3rd party &quot;d20&quot; products, so their corporate masters demanded they institute such controls.&nbsp; A brainless stuffed suit who knows jack squat about gaming and not much about the law probably demanded it.The Everquest RPG was a fine example of a non &quot;d20&quot; branded game that uses the &quot;3rd Edition&quot; system.&nbsp; It will probably be a model of future &quot;3rd Edition Compatible&quot; games like what Everquest calls itself (since there is no restriction on that term, and if WotC tries to sue now, it's been in use for well over a year now, so the principle of Estoppel means it will be very hard to enforce a copyright over &quot;3rd Edition&quot;).&nbsp; At least if WotC goes belly up or loses their mind, thanks to open gaming (if not d20) the game will live on, even after it's inventors have gone mad.In the end WotC loses.&nbsp; They look like total jerks to the gaming public.&nbsp; They open themselves to liability by having to review every d20 product or be liable for almost anything.&nbsp; 3rd Party publishers don't want to risk losing money on a product WotC chooses to destroy.&nbsp; Non &quot;d20&quot; books that can publish experience tables and be truly self contained also don't generate sales for WotC core RPG's.&nbsp; No need to buy the Player's Handbook (or d20 Modern) anymore for new gamers.To a lesser degree, the gaming public loses, since &quot;d20&quot; is no longer a universal sign of a compatible game system.&nbsp; It leads to just more confusion in the gaming world.Who wins?&nbsp; Valar and the Book of Erotic Fantasy.&nbsp; They just drop the &quot;d20&quot; name and logo from it, and they get loads of free publicity and buzz about their &quot;banned&quot; gaming book.(I am not a lawyer.&nbsp; I am only moderately educated in legal principles.&nbsp; This is an informed laymans opinion.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 1112464, member: 14159"] What does this mean? The death of the "d20 License." The tougher termination clause, combined with the easily abusable "sole discretion" of WotC to pull any product with the d20 trademark means that no company in their right mind will produce "d20" branded materials. Too much risk. What happens when they use their "sole discretion" to demand the pulling of a popular competition book that they think is taking sales away from their own book? Also notice the clause about it not being able to "promote" any real world religion. No Christian themed d20 RPG's like Testament or Rapture anymore then I guess, since they promote Judeo-Christian ideology. No books for d20 Modern trying to make a more "authentic" depiction of witchcraft or any real-world priesthood. It isn't the end of open gaming. They can't put that genie back in the bottle. But the "d20" era of open gaming is approaching twilight. Open gaming materials compatible with D&D will be around, they are too big a market to ignore, but no company in it's right mind will use the "d20" name now. What lead to this? I would personally imagine some clueless pointy-haired boss at Hasbro who hears incidental buzz of the "Book of Erotic Fantasy", wonders why WotC was allowing it to be produced by a family toy company like Hasbro/WotC. WotC explained that they didn't have editorial control over 3rd party "d20" products, so their corporate masters demanded they institute such controls. A brainless stuffed suit who knows jack squat about gaming and not much about the law probably demanded it. The Everquest RPG was a fine example of a non "d20" branded game that uses the "3rd Edition" system. It will probably be a model of future "3rd Edition Compatible" games like what Everquest calls itself (since there is no restriction on that term, and if WotC tries to sue now, it's been in use for well over a year now, so the principle of Estoppel means it will be very hard to enforce a copyright over "3rd Edition"). At least if WotC goes belly up or loses their mind, thanks to open gaming (if not d20) the game will live on, even after it's inventors have gone mad. In the end WotC loses. They look like total jerks to the gaming public. They open themselves to liability by having to review every d20 product or be liable for almost anything. 3rd Party publishers don't want to risk losing money on a product WotC chooses to destroy. Non "d20" books that can publish experience tables and be truly self contained also don't generate sales for WotC core RPG's. No need to buy the Player's Handbook (or d20 Modern) anymore for new gamers. To a lesser degree, the gaming public loses, since "d20" is no longer a universal sign of a compatible game system. It leads to just more confusion in the gaming world. Who wins? Valar and the Book of Erotic Fantasy. They just drop the "d20" name and logo from it, and they get loads of free publicity and buzz about their "banned" gaming book. (I am not a lawyer. I am only moderately educated in legal principles. This is an informed laymans opinion.) [/QUOTE]

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