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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dmccoy1693" data-source="post: 6620992" data-attributes="member: 51747">Here's the real question: what would I gain and what would I lose? The whole point of a license such as this is to keep people in the area you want them to be in. The trade off for doing so would be to give some benefit that is otherwise unavailable. Here's what I mean: 3.x OGL & SRD gave away alot, I could use the exact text from almost the whole PHB with few restrictions on what I could do. I could essentially plagiarize large sections of those books with no repercussions. The benefit to Wizards was that they had far less legal issues with unofficial created content. There were a few incidents, but by in large no one touched anything they were not allowed to. That access was balanced with the d20 logo. Those that were in the know knew that the d20 logo meant that it was D&D compatible. However, I knew GMs that ran the game for years never even heard of the d20 compatible products. You had to educate people. Compare that to Pathfinder's license. Same plagiarism levels of openness with no repercussions. The logo says "Pathfinder Compatible Product" right on it, so that is something I gained. However, it came at the cost of writing for a game that was back in 2009 a smaller game. The 4e GSL allowed "Dungeons and Dragons" right on your ... back cover. You couldn't have it on the front cover. You had to turn the book over to the back to see that it was for use with Dungeons and Dragons. That did not help things. Plus the publisher was not allowed to change the flavor of anything Wizards established, net giving up. No more plagiarism levels of openness. You couldn't just use the stats of a red dragon all you wanted. Net give up. There were a number of other restrictions as well. All because they felt that making material for D&D, which you did not have a logo on the front cover, was suppose to make sales. It turns out that all the major publishers that signed the license (Mongoose and Goodman) both abandoned it due to lack of sales.  So what would a 5e license offer me that I currently don't have? Can I essentially plagiarize the basic rule? That would be a net positive and a net negative. I could use spells like Witchbolt, but I'd have to use 3.x/Pathfinder OGL or public domain to do anything with the druid and monk. Can I mix and match existing OGL material in with this? That would be helpful if it were all on the same license. That would mean no dragonborn warlocks, but I can live with that. Do I get to put a logo on my front cover that says "Dungeons and Dragons Compatible"? That would get me to sign on. If it were another d20 logo, no.</blockquote>

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