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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkj" data-source="post: 7691408" data-attributes="member: 18646">It's of course impossible for me to know the inner workings of WotC and the processes they have to go through to get something like this approved. But my guess is that there are folk at WotC who have known for a long time that this was a good solution, but that working it through the legal and business channels that are required just takes a really, really long time. It's why the OGL took so long, why we still don't have an officially licensed character creator, etc. It's just the way it is. And it probably follows that old software rule: 'It always takes twice as long as you expect, even if you take that into account'. So, sure, they wanted this all to happen a few months after release. Maybe they thought they'd use the Trapdoor license to pull it off (as you may recall, their intended model wasn't all that different than this in concept even if it was in design). But, ultimately, it just couldn't come together that fast. There are likely big advantages to being under a big corporation-- e.g, being able to support a long playtest without bringing in significant income; having bigger reach in terms of product distribution, etc. But there are costs-- a cranky legal department that isn't necessarily versed in the inner workings of a relatively small market. All that said-- One thing I'll say about the 5e WotC team-- However long it takes, most of the time, they seem to get it about right and deliver beyond expectations. So, sure, I wish they'd opened this up 6 months after release. But., holy cow, however long it took, look at what they did! I mean, I'm fairly flabbergasted that they found a way to open up Forgotten Realms IP and let people play in the playground. It makes me very optimistic for other settings. I hope this thing rocks.Cheers,AD</blockquote>

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