D&D 5E So, 5e OGL

[Jester David]

3) More people with system mastery. This one was told to me by someone at Wizards. Compatible publishers are a training ground for new developers. You need experience to get better. And writing for that compatible publisher means that Wizards can hire people that are already experienced with the system, a level of experience they would not otherwise have. Sure, someone can be good writing for their home game about stuff they like, but when you have to write 10 magic items under a theme you had not thought of before all on a deadline, you learn more.

This is especially true with WotC farming their adventure storylines to second parties like Sasquatch games and Green Ronin. There's maybe three or four publishers that can do that currently and they can't make a storyline back-2-back. There will come a time when one company is busy with the current storyline and the go-to staff at other publishers are busy with other projects. And WotC has to choose between putting the storyline on hold, giving it to an overworked studio, or risking a really untested company. I like Goodman Games (and have given them hundreds of dollars) but it's uncertain if they have staff and expertise to do a full colour product at the standards WotC expects.

More 3rd Parties means more companies that *might* be able to move to the big leagues and more staff for the existing publishers.

 

[Morrus]

Yes, but the license was very different. An OGL with the 4e style SRD would be perfect.

I don't see how that works. How do you open your content via the license if you're not providing open content? An OGL by definition needs open content. You can't attach it to a 4E style SRD.

 

[Jester David]

@MikeMearls Any ongoing OGL plans? Originally you said "plan to announce the details of our plans sometime this fall [2014]" Where's it now?

@YetiMoose Nothing to announce. Yet. Sometimes a dragon needs a little more time in the egg.

So there we have it. An update, on this topic, from today. Yes, they are still working on the OGL in some fashion. @Morrus may be interested in this as a news item.

So they're woking on it but it's either delayed due to jury duty (aka not likely to happen any time soon) or it's a low priority. The latter doesn't inspire hope.

 

[Jester David]

I don't see how that works. How do you open your content via the license if you're not providing open content? An OGL by definition needs open content. You can't attach it to a 4E style SRD.

I imagine it would work in that your could reference rules and options (feat names, class features, etc) but would be unable to reprint them. So you could make a new fighter subclass for dragonborn and reference a fighter class feature, the dragonborn race, and a dragonborn race feature but not copy and reprint the text of the powers.

Which sounds workable. It's not ideal (what if I want to make an Orc fighter for an adventure? But I can't copy the Orc text or fighter powers), but such a licence would allow people to make their own optional rules and content as well as adventures and campaign setting, but those products would be wholely reliant on the core rule books and could not replace the core rules.

(An alternative would be limiting reprinting to, say, the free Basic rules. Which would be a lovely compromise.)

 

[tomBitonti]

Perhaps I am displaying my ignorance here, but I am wondering what WotC gets out of making a 5e OGL? Is there any incentive for them to release it, other than making some fans happy?

I've got a similar view: What is there that clearly forces there to be a 5e OGL?

I can see there being a market strategy which makes heavy use of an OGL, similar to 3e. But, there are other strategies which don't require one.

I'm more concerned that there doesn't seem to be a big push to create products around D&D related IP. Maybe there is too much cheese in the Drow and Drizzt, but an Underdark movie series seems to have a much bigger potential than the paper and pencil game. (If you could only get someone to take the idea seriously, instead of creating another movie like the D&D movie.)

Also, if the tablet marked can be cracked, there would seem to be a much bigger potential there, too.

Thx!

TomB

 

[prosfilaes]

I've got a similar view: What is there that clearly forces there to be a 5e OGL?

The 3e OGL. The fact that you've got people out there publishing 5e work using the old OGL. It's an increasingly moot point, but I'm really surprised they've let their control over 5e slide the way they have, when they could have kept the illusion of control easily.

 

[Nellisir]

True, but they *have* commented on projects delayed by jury duty. If both were delayed for the same reasons it'd be strange to comment on one but remain silent on the other.

I don't see their comments on some affected projects as an assurance that they've commented on all affected projects.

 

[Mistwell]

If it were me drafting it, I would include a 10-15 year expiration date on an OGL. That's long enough for serious companies to produce plenty of material but not make it the basis of a total challenge to WOTC on their own game. And, it would cull the worst whiners of the industry who think any restriction at all is too much of a restriction, who I suspect are the parties most likely to seek out corner cases and abuses of the OGL.

 

[Kramodlog]

Since the video game Sword Coast Legends seems very important to their business plan, could their be reasons why they would need to wait for the video game to come out before they release the OGL?

We need to think outside the box with 5e. The RPG isn't the central driving force behind the bran anymore.

 

[Morrus]

I imagine it would work in that your could reference rules and options (feat names, class features, etc) but would be unable to reprint them. So you could make a new fighter subclass for dragonborn and reference a fighter class feature, the dragonborn race, and a dragonborn race feature but not copy and reprint the text of the powers.

Which sounds workable. It's not ideal (what if I want to make an Orc fighter for an adventure? But I can't copy the Orc text or fighter powers), but such a licence would allow people to make their own optional rules and content as well as adventures and campaign setting, but those products would be wholely reliant on the core rule books and could not replace the core rules.

That's the 4E GSL. That's how it worked (works). It's not an OGL, though.