D&D 5E So, 5e OGL
- Thread starter Michael Morris
- Start date
Jester David
Hero
Well, right now it's the barest semblance of what could be called news.Of course you do. In the news today: Fans want more details, and water is wet!
We knew they were planning something, and we knew they were going to discuss it more in the future and that it would take effect in some farther future still. So we didn't *really* get anything new out of the statement. The information could have also been titled "Chris Perkins uses the name of the slightly more well known licence to discuss future plans." We're just getting excited over what could have been an off-the-cuff word choice.
I am pretty sure that Perkins is entirely aware of the meaning of those words, and the choice was because whatever license will be largely similar. There may be differences in the details, but I would now expect to see a license that is very open in nature.
I would not be surprised if this is part of the reason why we don't have many details. There is not a lot of precedent for opening up licenses for digital use. That means the potential for unintended consequences of license terms can be very high. So, they would not be unwise to think long and hard about it.
dd.stevenson
Super KY
So if they don't know when they're going to give us an OGL, then what do they plan on announcing two months from now?
The cynic in me suspects that Perkins just flipped the negative "No OGL for now" headline to "We want an OGL someday."
The cynic in me suspects that Perkins just flipped the negative "No OGL for now" headline to "We want an OGL someday."
prosfilaes
Adventurer
But in terms of the industry, this is a platform issue, important for developers, not just fans. It's like developers waiting on Google or Microsoft or Apple to declare how something will work, so they know whether to jump platforms or not.
Good point, but I agree that the close-mouthedness in general around 5e isn't helping...
Astrosicebear
First Post
They always said an announcement about the OGL in the fall with a formal discussion coming early next year.
My guess is that are going to announce the OGL in the Spring, with the docs releasing summer or fall 2015. Maybe early 2016. This gives WOTC enough time for 2-4 official adventures and maybe 2 splat books. This sets up a core base, and then they can let the flood gates of 3pp open. No market wants to dilute their share with products early that either lower the overall brand quality, or outshine your 1st party products.
My guess is that are going to announce the OGL in the Spring, with the docs releasing summer or fall 2015. Maybe early 2016. This gives WOTC enough time for 2-4 official adventures and maybe 2 splat books. This sets up a core base, and then they can let the flood gates of 3pp open. No market wants to dilute their share with products early that either lower the overall brand quality, or outshine your 1st party products.
Jester David
Hero
Of course, 3PP need to have books in print by May/June to be ready for GenCon. So the longer WotC waits the more 3PP get antsy over whether they'll have to sit on their finished product, make major revisions, and the like.
They were burned on this before. The timing was one of the major gripes regarding the GSL: it came out late in 2008 and had a stipulation that it didn't take effect until Oct 2008, so no 3PP at GenCon leaving several publishes with stock they couldn't sell. If 3PP get nervous waiting to hear if they can or cannot sell 5e product they might decide to skip the debate and support someone else, releasing Pathfinder or Fate or 13th Age product instead. Or take the OGL route and release 5e-ish books like several established 3PP, cutting WotC's wishes and plans out of the equation.
People are most hungry for new content at launch. The wave of "OMG I need more content right now!" If WotC waits that much longer the window of excitement will have passed.
I promise you, they aren't entirely happy with the close-mouthedness aspect of it either. But they have internal fights they need to win before they can be certain they can go the routes they want to go. People forget that many of the 3pp developers are the WotC developers close friends and have been for years. They have as much of a vested interest in allowing their friends to continue their livelihoods as anyone else.
The other big they are waiting for is to codify the DMG and get that on lockdown (which they just did). They absolutely didn't want 3pp developers to try to create content without the DMG locked down and MM locked down and even looked at and fixed if need be. The 3pp developers would all have engaged in a contest to get their content out first in order to sell more products, which would have probably negatively affected the content itself and contributed to unnecessary power creep / bloat.
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