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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orcus" data-source="post: 1131024" data-attributes="member: 1254">Lets look at the license term:Translation (as I translate it):Open Game Content includes rule mechanics unless such mechanics are PI and an enhancement over prior art; and also is anything else the contributor designates as open content.That seems to say on the face of the license: there are open rule mechanics and there can be closed rule mechanics that are PI and enhancements over prior art.If that is true, if there are those two categories, then the perfectly logical position you state above which is logical on its face (that all rules detailed using OGC terms must be OGC) is contradicted by the license itself and we have to legally give effect to the terms of the license. A principle of legal interpretation is that things are not put in licenses or statutes meaninglessly. They must be given meaning and read together when that is possible. Here it is possible to distinguish those two categories.Thus, back to what I said, that mechanics that are PI'd and are enhancements over prior art can be kept out of OGC. I (and this is just me) interpret this to mean a new or novel rule mechanic. I would include templates and sanity checks as new mechanics that are not part of the OGL. They may exist in other systems but they are new to the d20 system (putting aside CoC). Why does this exist? I think to encourage publishers of other game systems (Chaosium and thier Elric system for one were very worried about this) to convert to d20 without running the risk that some of the things unique to their game system would now be open to everyone.Clark</blockquote>

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