D&D 4E The Soonest You Would Purchase 4e

[Ourph]

I wouldn't be so confident that the 3.5 OGL will allow anyone to continue publishing 3.5 material after 4e comes out. The license is granted by WotC. It can be revoked. Or, more likely, updated to 4e material requirements instead.

The Open Gaming License is perpetual...

In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.

In other words, anything that has already been declared Open Game Content (like the contents of the 3.5 SRD) is and always will be available for use by anyone who wants to. The rights to use it cannot be revoked or changed.

 

[el-remmen]

I voted 2010 in terms of picking up a 4E PHB and decide if I want to give it a whirl.

But the truth is, it would have to be pretty amazing to get me to once again convert my entire setting to it and re-write all the house rules to make it fit the flavor of game I like to run - and since what I think is amazing and what the I think the market for future D&D is, are two very different things - I imagine, I would continue with what I have.

 

[Seeker95]

The Open Gaming License is perpetual...

No it is not. The material under the license is perpetual. Material granted the status of open content cannot be deemed closed under the license[/i]. This protects WotC from getting sued by a third part publisher should it choose to use the material an third party publisher created under the license.

The license itself can be revoked. WotC has not waived its right to do that.

 

[BryonD]

Sooner than they can possibly put it out.

There is a real good chance that after looking it over I'll decide to stay with 3X.
But if 4E makes me think it is an improvement, then I'll happily start buying all over again.

And I'll bet that less than 1 year after it comes out, 80% of the "never" crowd is on board, big stacks of 3X stuff or not. If you don't have a bunch of stuff then there is no big cost to you. If you do then I'll bet you'll still need your regular new game book fix just as much then as now. We may not all admit it, but that is why we have spent so much to date and why we will in the future.

 

[seans23]

I'd consider it once my players finish RTTTOEE and my cleric in another campaign is epic. 2010 sounds about right. Especially if my fellow players keep pushing out babies.

 

[BryonD]

No it is not. The material under the license is perpetual. Material granted the status of open content cannot be deemed closed under the license[/i]. This protects WotC from getting sued by a third part publisher should it choose to use the material an third party publisher created under the license.

The license itself can be revoked. WotC has not waived its right to do that.

I'm not clear EXACTLY what you are saying here.
But I understand from well established and vested lawyers and numerous past discussions that the SRD is OPEN for now and forever.
If you're claiming otherwise you've got a lot of case building to do.

 

[Festivus]

2010+.... whenever my kids are ready to learn to play, I will teach them with the current edition. Until then, 3.5 is fine and I have made a considerable investment in books already... and many many more books are out there that I wouldn't mind purchasing.

 

[Ourph]

The license itself can be revoked. WotC has not waived its right to do that.

Here's the language again...

In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.

Here's the language as it applies to this issue with the extraneous stuff removed.

In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.

The adjective "perpetual" is modifying the noun "license" not the noun "content".

Also, from WotC's own OGL FAQ...

Q: Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?

A: Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.

Section 9 says...

Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License.

In other words, WotC could make changes to a new license, but everyone could still use OGC released under the current license (like the 3.5 SRD) if they wanted to. They could do so using the new license or a previous license and it would be perfectly legal.

You may be confusing the d20 system license with the OGL. The d20 system license is not perpetual and can be revoked or changed by WotC.

 

[MerricB]

I consider a revision that consolidates and cleans up existing material more likely than a true "new edition", though. That would be something I would consider more strongly.

That's what I consider most likely as well.

Cheers!

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

What can you POSSIBLY do in 4e that you COULD NOT do in 3e without: House Rules, Official Optional Rules, Unearthed Arcana, and 3rd Party Products?

Publish 4e compatible material.

In any case, when 4e comes out I'll probably just raid the new SRD for crunchy bits to append to my hideous collection of 3.5e/d20 House Rules, at least for several months. It isn't so much of an issue of when it comes out-- because I'll be delaying anyway.

My game hasn't been 3.5 since a week after 3.5 was released. 4e probably isn't going to do much for me.