D&D 5E So, 5e OGL

[Morrus]

It would be pretty hard to make OGL 4e products since so many of the terms that are used in 4e don't exist in the SRD. Push, pull, slide jump to mind, and that, right there, would make doing an OGL 4e product pretty tricky.

5e doesn't use a whole lot of new terms, although the terms might be defined differently. So, you can use the OGL with a 5e product, without too much of a language issue.

Those terms are vague enough that you could do it. "Hit Points" and "Armor Class" are less vague. In fact, I'd bet that those terms are OGC somewhere. It seems unlikely that all those years of OGL content could have developed without something called a "push" or a "pull" being in there. But I don't think you'd need those to be in there; they're not unique enough.

 

[Hussar]

How about Encounter and Daily powers? And Utility powers? I know you can't copyright mechanics, but the presentation can be, right? Am i understanding that right? So, trying to present a new 4e class, without being able to access the terminology would be problematic, no?

Then again, I thought the part about stopping producing OGL products was removed from the GSL, or am I misremembering?

 

[Morrus]

How about Encounter and Daily powers? And Utility powers? I know you can't copyright mechanics, but the presentation can be, right? Am i understanding that right? So, trying to present a new 4e class, without being able to access the terminology would be problematic, no?

Just call it "once a day" or something, I guess. I don't think "Daily" is an inaccessible word.

Then again, I thought the part about stopping producing OGL products was removed from the GSL, or am I misremembering?

Well ZEITGEIST has 4E and Pathfinder versions.

 

[Nylanfs]

Yes, not supporting other versions was taken out in the first revision (of which there were three I think) after EVERYONE said they would never use the GSL.

 

[Charles Wright]

OK. I stopped paying attention after the first draft because of how disgusted I was with that clause (so that's on me and duly noted for future reference).

I think you CAN do 4E under the OGL, but it would just take way more linguistic tap-dancing than is required for doing 5E under the OGL.

 

[darjr]

That tap dancing is exactly what Goodman Games did. I really like their adventures, and at the time really dug 4e and played a ton of it, but even I didn't appreciate the tap dancing. I wanted jazz hands.

 

[Nylanfs]

Another month, and still no news...

 

[darjr]

I'm starting to like the status quo. Call me a heretic but I like the pace of third party releases. And it does seem that quality third party products are being made.

 

[Wicht]

Another month, and still no news...

Give them time, they've only had four years to work on it.

 

[Wicht]

I'm starting to like the status quo. Call me a heretic but I like the pace of third party releases. And it does seem that quality third party products are being made.

You heretic.