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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dm4hire" data-source="post: 6256965" data-attributes="member: 14848">The problem with that logic though is that there are a finite number of ways to generate probability when it comes to games.  Eventually you have to repeat or it becomes tedious.Roll dxRoll 2dxRoll 3dxRoll 4dxRoll (and you see the progression)Alternative styles such as roll and keep, percentile, dx+dy, draw a card, draw a card from a bigger deck, and so on, cover that gambit but eventually they would expound to an unmanageable level.The use of the OGL or d20 license serves only to allow association to a shared system, originally D&D, but now has grown to include other game systems.  The copying of the mechanics itself isn't lazy, it's just picking a mechanic that works for what you want.That's actually why you can't copyright mechanics because they realized that there was a limitation on methods of producing variables.  Even if you switched over to a computer format using basic mathematical calculations you would be limited.  For simplicity sake you have to use a standard variable generator or every time someone decided to create something new they would have to create an outlandish formula and then somehow verify no one else was using it in order to add it to a new game.Even if you mean that "using the d20 system to create your game is lazy" that still really isn't since they are modifying it to their own uses a lot of time.  If we didn't modify or adapt something then there would be no evolution in technology or in terms, gaming.  People would still be living in caves because there is not point in having anything better.  No car, since there would have been no predecessor to it dating back to the wheel.  Because why build a wheel when walking is just as good?No, the use of the d20 is not lazy.  It's just practical.  Why wrestle with trying to make the next mathematical break through in order to be different from company Z?The only time I think you could justifiably call someone in the game industry lazy related to d20 was when Mongoose published the OGL verbatim in book format, both the player's guide and the gamemaster's book.  Even then it was ingenious on their part because they realized that people would pay for a cheap printed copy of the material.</blockquote>

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