NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 4744938" data-attributes="member: 5265">Most of these points have been covered to death, so just put me down as a "me too!" on the majority view.I do have something to add on point 1, though. I've worked in R&D at four different RPG companies, including WotC. This isn't the first time I've heard someone claim that ideas have been stolen (or worry that they might be). But here's the scoop:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">We all like to think we're geniuses, but the truth is good ideas are a dime a dozen. And many good ideas are thought of dozens of times by dozens of different people. And, especially if they're inspired by a particular source, these dozens of versions are often remarkably similar.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The main issue faced by most R&D departments isn't a lack of sufficient ideas. It's a surfeit--how do you decide which great ideas actually make it to print? Nobody at any R&D department is sitting around saying "gosh, if only I had a good idea . . . ." Usually, they're saying "we have twenty really cool options, but only room for three . . . ."</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Most companies that receive ideas worthy of use are happy to pay for them. WotC pays freelancers all the time. Why on earth would they deviate from such a well-established policy in this particular case?</li> </ol>So this idea is was so fundamentally awesome that WotC had to have it--in fact, they had to name a book after it? (But it was also so incredibly unique that they couldn't have thought of it themselves.) But rather than simply paying a few hundred bucks, they go through a convoluted process of writing a denial letter, tucking the idea away, and then carefully, secretly hording it for later?Seriously, who's the 12-year-old in this scenario?</blockquote>

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