wingsandsword
Legend
While the fight over OGL 1.0a goes on, there is also the fact that it seems WotC will be releasing a lot of the generic "nuts and bolts" of the 5e system via a Creative Commons, albeit leaving out all the setting-specific elements for a fantasy RPG.
Whatever their hostile intents towards the D&D community, that seems to indicate they aren't targeting the gaming community outside 5e D&D with their aggression. The OGL, and SRD's provided an easy, fast way to make D&D compatible games and a promise from WotC they wouldn't go after fans doing it. Now, that promise is gone. . .but the idea of using what they have released via CC to create a D&D retroclone (like one similar to 3e would be my intent) that is outside the OGL seems viable.
So, it makes me wonder, is there, or will there be, a project to create such a thing through the elements they released to CC? Most character classes, races, monsters etc. that people would associate with a D&D-style fantasy game would be things (both in name and general concept) that could be shown to be inspired by or derived from other things. . .novels, non-D&D video games, folklore, history, mythology etc. They don't own the idea of a monk that's based off old Kung Fu movies, or a "fighter" that is a guy in heavy armor with big weapons, or a "ranger" that is an outdoorsman and archer, or a "thief" or "rogue" that's a sneaky guy that stabs people in the back and picks people's pockets, or a "wizard" that is a guy in funny robes and casting spells.
While terms and creatures (and items and spells) that can clearly be shown to be unique to D&D are things that WotC could plausibly make a court case out of, there's a LOT of elements of D&D that
can be shown to not be unique to D&D and have become common throughout fantasy gaming well beyond D&D (and not under the OGL), especially things released in the 1980's and 1990's and aren't specifically WotC's IP, whether or not they were ever in the SRD as a character class, magic item, spell etc.
Am I really the first to think of this, or are others thinking there may be a CC-derived D&D copy or retroclone produced, or at least a library of monsters, character classes, feats, spells etc. released via CC to go with the system core materials they're also releasing?
Whatever their hostile intents towards the D&D community, that seems to indicate they aren't targeting the gaming community outside 5e D&D with their aggression. The OGL, and SRD's provided an easy, fast way to make D&D compatible games and a promise from WotC they wouldn't go after fans doing it. Now, that promise is gone. . .but the idea of using what they have released via CC to create a D&D retroclone (like one similar to 3e would be my intent) that is outside the OGL seems viable.
So, it makes me wonder, is there, or will there be, a project to create such a thing through the elements they released to CC? Most character classes, races, monsters etc. that people would associate with a D&D-style fantasy game would be things (both in name and general concept) that could be shown to be inspired by or derived from other things. . .novels, non-D&D video games, folklore, history, mythology etc. They don't own the idea of a monk that's based off old Kung Fu movies, or a "fighter" that is a guy in heavy armor with big weapons, or a "ranger" that is an outdoorsman and archer, or a "thief" or "rogue" that's a sneaky guy that stabs people in the back and picks people's pockets, or a "wizard" that is a guy in funny robes and casting spells.
While terms and creatures (and items and spells) that can clearly be shown to be unique to D&D are things that WotC could plausibly make a court case out of, there's a LOT of elements of D&D that
can be shown to not be unique to D&D and have become common throughout fantasy gaming well beyond D&D (and not under the OGL), especially things released in the 1980's and 1990's and aren't specifically WotC's IP, whether or not they were ever in the SRD as a character class, magic item, spell etc.
Am I really the first to think of this, or are others thinking there may be a CC-derived D&D copy or retroclone produced, or at least a library of monsters, character classes, feats, spells etc. released via CC to go with the system core materials they're also releasing?
