D&D 5E So, 5e OGL
- Thread starter Michael Morris
- Start date
delericho
Legend
Sword Coast Legends, I think.
Trickster Spirit
Explorer
Can I ask why SCL is your threshold?
I mean it's possible that they're holding off on an OGL until after it's out, but I doubt it - it's hardly like releasing an OGL would pull the IP's trademarks out from under the video game developers feet.
More likely I think it's just wanted internal hurdles and delays - I'm not even talking about jury duty, just the stand and quagmire that is legal red tape.
Actually, I'd say the facr that it's taking so long is an indicator of a brand new license being developed, not just a retread of the original OGL - they only ever said "an OGL", never "the OGL'. I think if they got approval from the suits it would be relatively quick to release 5E under the original OGL, but if they're drafting a new license from scratch legal would no doubt be triple and quadruple checking everything with a fine tooth comb this time around. I can easily see it taking a year for them to finalize a brand new license which resembles but doesn't necessarily guarantee the same freedoms as the original.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
While I don't necessarily disagree, Perkins's infamous recent quote was "It is our intention to bring back the OGL. We just don't know when we are going to do it yet."
Personally, I think those shooting for anything less than the full OGL are being unnecessarily conservative, but I'm a big supporter of the OGL, so there's probably plenty of room to disagree reasonably with that.
TL;DR. Has the topic of emulating *ahem* a certain game *ahem* using OGL/d20 come up? I don't see what any lawyered-up types could do about that. Give it a name that the community agrees on and knows to be *ahem* a certain kind of game *ahem* and done (heck, the job of herding cats could be avoided by a company producing their OGL *ahem* certain-game-like *ahem* product and calling it whatever they like). I for one don't care much if it has to forgo certain trademarked or copyrighted nomenclature.
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Kramodlog
Naked and living in a barrel
I call it the OGL because the community knows what we are talking about. Plus KM quoted Perkins on saying the OGL.
As for the time to write an OGL, the legal department had that time. That is not the constraint and unless the juror is from legal, yeah, jury duty ain't a reason either. If there is no OGL it is because they do not want one. At least for now.
SCL being the threshold? Because that is what is driving the IP nowadays, not the RPG. Maybe they want to somehow cover what will be in the game with the OGL. Or exclude it. I do not know. But we do know that the video game is what is important and could be what needs to come out before the OGL does. If a few months after the video game has come out we do not hear about the OGL, well, I do not think it will materialized plain and simple.
Trickster Spirit
Explorer
I fully agree with that last point, but that's just a matter of a few months after SCL coming out would be around the one year anniversary of them saying "we'll be announcing things soon", heh.
I still don't think the OGL actually has anything to do with the IP used by SCL - everything is already out in the wild except for the things reserved as "Product Identity" in the original OGL. So unless this new OGL is specifically going to give away Beholders and Mind Flayers and they want to hold off on that til after the game is out, there's no reason to think the two or related. The other copyright-able elements used by the game - Drizzt, The Forgotten Realms, Orcus, etc. are all protected anyway. So while the game could be the reason for the hold up, I'm far from convinced it's the most obvious explanation, you know?
Kramodlog
Naked and living in a barrel
I fully agree with that last point, but that's just a matter of a few months after SCL coming out would be around the one year anniversary of them saying "we'll be announcing things soon", heh.
I still don't think the OGL actually has anything to do with the IP used by SCL - everything is already out in the wild except for the things reserved as "Product Identity" in the original OGL. So unless this new OGL is specifically going to give away Beholders and Mind Flayers and they want to hold off on that til after the game is out, there's no reason to think the two or related. The other copyright-able elements used by the game - Drizzt, The Forgotten Realms, Orcus, etc. are all protected anyway. So while the game could be the reason for the hold up, I'm far from convinced it's the most obvious explanation, you know?
I'm not fully convinced either, but until a better explanation comes a long this one makes the most sense. We really need to rethink D&D's business side with 5e. When the PHB came out last year, if I would have told you only two RPG books would come out in 2015, that they were both in the FR and that one of them would feature Drizzt and Demogorgon, would you have believed me?
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