What WotC licenses remain?

[Treebore]

The Kenzer license is supposedly part of a settlement/agreement with WOTC over the reprinting of the KODT comics in the Dragon Magazine archive. So presumably that's safe.

The real biggies is the d20 license itself (as already said). Unlike the OGL, the d20 license can be revoked at any time. I'm guessing they won't, because at this point, there are so few d20 companies left, it doesn't really matter anymore. But you never know, since most of the remaining ones specialize in the sort of thing that WOTC seemingly wants to get into (Adventure modules).

If I were one of those remaining d20 companies, I would start branching out into other systems right now, just to be safe. (Most of them have, Green Ronin/Mongoose)

I believe your essentially right, but I remember around GenCon time last year Kenzer making some posts about moving away from d20 3E. Not sure about the Hackmaster stuff. Plus I haven't come across anything more recent than last GenCon.

Maybe Mark will be willing to give an update about that if he sees this thread.

 

[Tzeentch]

No. The situation with L5R was complex.

In any case AEG stopped releasing dual-stat books branded with OA quite a while ago now (2004 with the release of "The Hidden Emperor"), and WoTC itself hasn't re-released an updated OA core book. I believe that was the only use of the OA branding elsewhere.

 

[CharlesRyan]

What D&D licenses remain out there at this point?

J!nx has a T-shirt license. There may be another apparel license out there as well.

 

[Ranger REG]

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

They don't own Buck Rogers. The owners are the trustees of the Dille Estate, one of whom operated TSR to the ground. Everybody knows that the Maiden of Pain is the grand-niece of the late Flint Dille (original owner of Buck Rogers).

 

[Ranger REG]

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.

WotC acquired the L5R IP when they bought Ryan Dancey's company, Five Ring Publishing Group, the original producer of L5R TCG. After the sale, WotC continued to honor the licensing agreement made between FRPG and AEG.

Skip ahead a few years, after WotC published the new OA, they sold the IP to AEG, who promised to support OA for a period of time.

 

[delericho]

If I were one of those remaining d20 companies, I would start branching out into other systems right now, just to be safe. (Most of them have, Green Ronin/Mongoose)

Or, just drop the d20 logo, switch to OGL all the time (since the OGL is safe), and use the words "for use with the world's most popular roleplaying game" on the back cover. That seems to be the tack Paizo are taking with Pathfinder.

 

[Roman]

I think everybody is forgetting the electronic entertainment licenses, such as for CRPGs. It will be interesting to see whether these are renewed.

 

[delericho]

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.

But then, why cancel Dragon and Dungeon? Once they're gone, they basically can't be brought back (for market reasons), so those names lose whatever value they had. If, instead, Wizards bring them back into the fold but don't officially cancel them, then any new owner at least has the option of keeping them going, or not.

No, this sounds to me like someone high up at Wizards has just decided that they will no longer license RPG products out. So, the Dragonlance license goes, the d20 license may go, and any remaining Kenzer/AEG licenses that can be pulled back will be pulled back when they come up for renewal.

I also strongly suspect the relative timing of the Dragon/Dungeon and Dragonlance announcements was no more than coincidence - the licenses expired now, so the announcements were now.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

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.

AEG has pretty much dropped d20 as far as L5R goes, shifting the focus of their RPG efforts (what little they seem to be at the moment) entirely to their Roll&Keep system. For them, using D&D mechanics was an attempt to cash-in on the d20 boom, but given the company's scaling back on RPGs in favor of the far more profitable card games, it makes sense to use their own in-house system (which was far more popular with the overall L5R fanbase than the d20 "add-ons").

As far as recent books, ever since AEG launched their 3rd edition "Roll&Keep" version of L5R, there's not been a single d20 stat-block in site. I've always liked L5R for the simple fact that even for a veteran character, combat is extremely dangerous, something that isn't the case for veteran d20 characters.

I still think 3rd edition Oriental Adventures would have been much better served by sticking with Kara-Tur instead of trying to mimic Rokugan.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Or, just drop the d20 logo, switch to OGL all the time (since the OGL is safe), and use the words "for use with the world's most popular roleplaying game" on the back cover. That seems to be the tack Paizo are taking with Pathfinder.

I think a lot of companies are moving towards using the OGL for their games. I know Mongoose has done that for Conan, B5, and I believe Runequest. White Wolf through their Sword&Sorcery imprint did the Everquest RPG (which was surprisingly fun) under OGL, and I believe the World of Warcraft RPG was also created under OGL.

Green Ronin has also put together True20 using the OGL as a foundation.

The number of products using the OGL logo do seem to be outnumbering the third-party d20 logo products these days...