RPGXPlorer - anyone tried it?

[ladyofdragons]

Nowadays, I'm pretty convinced that the way to make money is to open source the main product, but sell plugins that extend the feature set. Using this technique, you get a bunch of eyeballs looking at the main code, fixing bugs and making architectural changes. But you still get to sell a product and make money. IBM did something like this with the Eclipse IDE (their product is Websphere Software Application Developer). There is now an entire market around writing plugins for that particular tool! Many are done by enthusiasts and are free, others are massive enterprise-wide tools that cost some big bucks (or yen or rubles or whatever). This spurs the companies to produce better products, and it gives enthusiasts ideas for yet more plugins!

Of course, I work in a service industry -- I teach corporate computer classes, such as networking, security, system administration, operating system internals, device driver writing, and so on -- so I'm quite familiar with making money by selling a service instead of a product.

An API allowing for integrated add-ins is already a feature request. This I think is a great way for RPGXplorer to quickly expand into other functions by utilizing programmers out there willing to make a tool, but wanting something that integrates rather than stands alone. Just need to figure out the legal issues regarding add-ins and build and document the API, I believe.

 

[Mercule]

An API allowing for integrated add-ins is already a feature request. This I think is a great way for RPGXplorer to quickly expand into other functions by utilizing programmers out there willing to make a tool, but wanting something that integrates rather than stands alone. Just need to figure out the legal issues regarding add-ins and build and document the API, I believe.

As a .NET developer, myself, I'd consider it a plus to be able to add in my own plug-ins.

 

[mattcolville]

So I take it this is not something endorsed by WotC and therefore won't have any of their protected IP in it?

 

[Anurien]

The initial release of RPGXplorer contains the 3.5 Fantasy SRD used under the Open Gaming License.

The initial dataset will not contain any content beyond this but you can input a wide range of rules yourself including classes, feat, spells, races etc. quite easily.

While I'm on the subject (plug) I think it's fair to say that we offer a level of rules creation and editing functionality that is new to the market. Check out the beta demo on our site and see for yourself.

We hope to produce datasets for RPGXplorer from a variety of publishers inc. WoTC but only under license or agreement with the publisher in question.

We will be contacting publishers in the near future to discuss the production of datasets and other content for RPGXplorer but at the moment we're very busy trying to get the software ready for October. We do have an outline agreement with one well known publisher already though.

 

[kingpaul]

We hope to produce datasets for RPGXplorer from a variety of publishers inc. WoTC but only under license or agreement with the publisher in question.

Does this mean that any datasets you sell based upon OGL books will not be, themselves, distributed under the OGL but your special license with the publisher?

 

[Anurien]

I expect datasets of material published under the OGL License will retain roughly the same open to closed content ratio as their print equivalents.

This would of course, be derived from the original license and copyright declarations in that publication.

We're introducing a license property onto each component so you'll be able to see precisely what's open and what's not.

 

[ladyofdragons]

Does this mean that any datasets you sell based upon OGL books will not be, themselves, distributed under the OGL but your special license with the publisher?

Correct. Any datasets of IP will be distributed through a license agreement and by agreement with the publisher, for a small purchase price. This way publishers get paid for distribution of their property.

(edit - LOL, I posted at the same time as Anurien. Listen to him, he's head Xplorer in charge.)

 

[Anurien]

Correct also, but I think Paul's question was more related to OGL material and whether it remains OGL after it becomes a commercial dataset.

 

[kingpaul]

Correct also, but I think Paul's question was more related to OGL material and whether it remains OGL after it becomes a commercial dataset.

Kinda. What I was wondering if you would be making OGC datasets, similar to how PCGen does it or if you would be using a special license with the publisher, thereby bypassing the OGL entirely.

 

[Anurien]

I'm not sure I understand the question Paul, could you elaborate plz?