What non-4e would you play if there was no OGL at all?

[Darrin Drader]

Suppose that the OGL never existed. In such a scenario, rather than seeing a number of largish RPG publishers (like FASA, for example) fold during the 3E era as everyone consolidated with D20, we would have instead seen a number of new RPGs, just as we'd been seeing for the past 20 years. The presence of the OGL/D20 license really cut down on the number of alternate systems out there on the market, but had this licensing never been made available, my guess is that we would have continued to see more RPG systems released over the past eight years.

My answer is therefore other, because chances are that there would be some other cool new game that would have caught my attention, had it ever come to exist.

But to answer the real question, I'd say that my choice would either be to stick with 3E or go Savage Worlds.

 

[Mostlyjoe]

TMNT & Other Strangeness, GURPS, Cybergeneration 2.0, nWOD: Changeling. I have options.

 

[sjmiller]

I would have to say that I would be playing GURPS if my group was not playing our extremely hybrid D&D 3.25 game. The other option, equally likely, is that we would be playing Classic Traveller. Still, GURPS is more likely, as I have lots of sourcebooks for it and am quite familiar with the 3rd Edition and want to work more in the 4th Edition.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

AD&D 2E. Forgotten Realms & Spelljammer.

Also GURPS, Alternity, Rifts, Red Dwarf & Star Wars WEG 2ER.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

HARP. I had already switched by the time 4e came out, and I'm already seeing it in the same terms as I did 3.5/d20 Modern/Spycraft-- it's the game system I can use, with a minimum of modifications, to run the kind of campaign I just had the notion of running.

The only thing the loss of the OGL really takes off my table is Mutants & Masterminds... and I'd probably just end up not running any superhero games for awhile.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Homebrew system, for the win.

 

[delericho]

The thing is, that such OGL games do exist solely because the guy who first wrote the d20 OGL license, didn't do his job very well...

As others have pointed out, this is simply wrong. There were discussions at the time about the possibility of whole new games being published under the OGL. That WotC have since changed their minds about what they want from third-party support doesn't retroactively change their intent at the time.

As such, my question is: for those who opted for such OGL games, rather than any 4e, if you didn't have them, what would you do?

Going forward, I expect to be playing:

4e (not particularly reluctantly, either - though I don't see it becoming our game of choice as 3e was for eight years)
3.5e
Pathfinder (possibly superseding 3.5e when it is launched, or perhaps not)
A homebrew melding of the three
WFRP
Star Wars d20
WoD in various incarnations
Exalted
Mutants & Masterminds
and any other games that take my fancy.

Remove the OGL, and you only lose two entries from that list (except I probably wouldn't bother homebrewing a system).

I'm really glad of the existence of the OGL. A lot of material under it has matched the best of WotC output in quality, and some has exceeded it. However, if it hadn't existed, or were to now cease to exist, it wouldn't kill my gaming, though it would be a blow.

 

[Plane Sailing]

RQ2 FTW!

My hands down favourite system to date, bar none. I'd convert anything to work in RQ2 and game happily for the rest of my natural life

 

[Dice4Hire]

OGL or not, really makes no difference to me in the end. I generally buy only WOTC product.

But if I could not 4E or do not (still up inthe air) I will go back to 3.5. Still lots of milage left on that system.

 

[Baumi]

I like and play 4E but still play other RPG's ... so my next pick would be Savage Worlds (one of the few Systems I love to GM).

Honorable Mention should go to Dark Heresy which I play now too. I wouldn't GM it, but I really enjoy beeing a player in that Campaign.