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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dungeonosophy" data-source="post: 6371743" data-attributes="member: 6688049">Well, I'm not here to suppose whether Paizo would've invented the OGL if WotC/Hasbro hadn't already done it. I can't fault Paizo for not traveling in time.Now it comes down to this: the GSL was and is not open in the way I'd like to see it. Pathfinder's SRD and "Pathfinder Compatible" license are *closer* to what I'd like to see. Yet what I myself want to see is:1) A Public Domain, Free Culture release of the 5E SRD.2) Along with a WotC/Hasbro-initiated d20 Quality Mark association which really includes all of the high- to mid-high quality publishers, such as Green Ronin, Necromancer, Goodman Games, and even Hasbro's "competitor" Paizo(!) if they decide to publish 5E things (though I don't expect them to do that). That would be a shift from corporatist competition to quality-enhancing association.3) Plus an experimental Public Domain, Free Culture release of the Birthright campaign setting materials. If this turns out interesting and profitable (in the widest sense) for Hasbro, then do a ceremonial release of other worldsetting IPs, to fuel interest in, and sales of, the 5E campaign setting worldbooks (FRCS, Greyhawk CS, Eberron CS, Dragonlance CS, Dark Sun CS, Mystara CS).Oh, I don't know the story. Would you tell me? Which competitor?That's a good point. And there was no personality or business culture within Hasbro which would have initiated an Open Game if Dancey and Adkinson hadn't had the OGL coming out of the oven when they sold WotC to Hasbro.I hereby credit Hasbro for serving as the steward of D&D when the OGL was released in 2000, a few months after their purchase of WotC. Not many cultural/entertainment companies invite any sort of small publisher or self-publisher to produce products with their logo on them and receive bread for their work in the way that Paizo and Savage Worlds and MnM do. I haven't seen a "Walt Disney Compatible" self-publishing industry or "Powered by DC Universe" self-publishing culture. Walt Disney with Star Wars and Paramount with Star Trek are the closest thing I know of examples where a lively culture has some space to flourish without legal-corporatist hindrances. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_fan_productions" target="_blank">Star Trek aficionado-made films</a> are quite something. But I suppose from a strictly pragmatic perspective, they are only tolerated, without the corporate steward's blessing.Even though Paizo didn't invent the OGL, and even though their own profitability is served by making space for others to write compatible books (which is what I suggest Hasbro do too), I still appreciate that Paizo (and Green Ronin and Pinnacle and Pelgrane some other RPG enterprises) do this. This provides space for cultural richness and diversity. If you read my <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/blog" target="_blank">"From Open Gaming to Free Culture" essay</a>, you'll see that I hold Paizo to the same standard. There are things I like about Paizo, yet I do not hold them up as my examplar for what I'd like to see happen in D&D culture. I'm no partisan. I own like one Paizo product--the Pathfinder Beginner Box. 3.75E is still too gearheady for me. And I was miffed that there was a semi-hidden "handling" fee on the online order.</blockquote>

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