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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 6305395" data-attributes="member: 2525">This is another good point for this discussion.  The OGL worked to push WOTC to make the next version a radical change - because non-radical changes can be replicated more easily under the OGL and therefore any new edition which was not a radical change could simply be printed by competitors almost immediately, thus drastically reducing sales of the new edition (because the copy-cats need almost zero money for R&D and playtesting).  Without the OGL, WOTC would have be more free to make a more incremental change from one edition to the next.  Only by embracing radically different rules so lacking a resemblance to some rule already included in the OGL can they prevent immediate competition from essentially themselves. It's also why they are so focused on brand and transmedia things for 5e - the brand is still protected and not in the OGL, and most electronic forms of the rules are also excluded from the OGL.  They have to focus on those things, or else make another radical change (which didn't work out so well last time), to try and mitigate the damage from self-competition engendered from the OGL.</blockquote>