What WotC licenses remain?

[Darrin Drader]

The way things are right now, I don't think anyone will miss the D20 logo. Besides, any publishers that want to publish D&D themed fantasy rules supplements and materials can just put their heads together and come up with a brand new logo that means the same thing. Heck, they can put their own license on it and charge a fee to use it if they want.

 

[Friadoc]

Oddly enough, I think, if they did revoke the d20 side of things, it'd actually empower d20 companies a bit more since they'd just had to include the character generation rules and such into the main setting product.

Or, they could just release the system rules in a main OGL book (similar to true20, or what not) and, blammo, write their setting books around those.

Or, a group of smaller publishers work together on a main system OGL rules set, and agree wot set their settings around it.

Pretty much, even if the d20 logo got revoked, 'd20' is pretty much in the hands of the fans forever.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Blackmoor is the only outstanding license I can think of, though it's not a D&D license like Kalamar or Ravenloft. It's technically WotC's property, though, even with the ownership weirdness.

Hopefully this license doesn't get pulled as well. I'm starting to wonder if WotC is reeling in their licenses for a potential corporate sale. This whole DI thing seems like something that would be done to throw out a few buzzwords to prospective buyers.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Hopefully this license doesn't get pulled as well. I'm starting to wonder if WotC is reeling in their licenses for a potential corporate sale. This whole DI thing seems like something that would be done to throw out a few buzzwords to prospective buyers.

Getting WotC out from under Hasbro would only be a positive thing.

 

[Mercule]

Getting WotC out from under Hasbro would only be a positive thing.

Amen. I'm actually intrigued by DI and not overly distraught about Dragon and Dungeon (though I'll miss Dungeon) and I still agree with this statement.

The other side of the coin is that the licensing may be being collected because WotC is about to come in line with the rest of Hasbro and D&D will be put in a cardboard box at Target and managed in the same way as Heroscape.

 

[Darrin Drader]

The other side of the coin is that the licensing may be being collected because WotC is about to come in line with the rest of Hasbro and D&D will be put in a cardboard box at Target and managed in the same way as Heroscape.

I honestly don't think they would be hiring a bunch of people if that was the plan.

 

[caudor]

Whatever happened to Buck Rogers in the XXV Century? Are they still sitting on that one?

 

[ephemeron]

Whatever happened to Buck Rogers in the XXV Century? Are they still sitting on that one?

Probably not -- according to the rumor mill, XXVc wasn't exactly a commercial success, and there probably won't be another Buck Rogers RPG license unless/until another member of the Dille family is running an RPG publisher.

 

[Treebore]

AEG produces the Rokugan setting which is Legend of the Five Rings done in D20 mode. They will likely have to stop using D&D mechanics and go back to their proprietary mechanics. The most recent Rokugan books came out with details for both game systems.

My understanding is AEG no longer uses the D20 license and has gone back to just their d10 roll and keep system.

 

[Treebore]

AEG, right? With Rokugan?

That's a more complex situation, because to my recollection WotC no longer owns Legend of the Five Rings.

WOTC never owned the L5R license. AEG has always had control of their L5R license. They just had an agreement to use their L5R setting, Rokugan, under the d20 license.

OA was done by WOTC themselves, with references to Rokugan, AEG's property.

Now AEG has gone back, last year, to not supporting d20 3E, and did a third edition of their D10 version. A very nice book with my liking most of the changes they made (system wise, not setting history wise) to the D10 system from their 2E version.