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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 8834355" data-attributes="member: 907">It looks like that now, but I think most of the protection of "product identity" is something of a side track in what was originally important to WotC when building the OGL – or at least, important to them. I'm certain it was important to many 3PPs who were thinking about publishing under the license without giving away rights to their settings and stuff, but given that WotC were in the position of publishing a separate SRD to form their OGC core instead of having it as part of their books, making certain concepts off limits doesn't seem like a high priority: they could just choose not to include those concepts in the first place (which is what they did with the first official SRD).Back then, the important bit about product identity was probably this: "You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark."The OGL was originally intended to work in tandem with the d20 System Trademark License. This restricted what you could do by quite a lot. The big one was that you could not include instructions on how to generate or advance a character (you could have a new class in a book, but you couldn't provide instructions to the effect of "choose a race and class, roll/select stats..."), there was a long list of game terms you couldn't redefine, and eventually (after the Book of Erotic Fantasy) clauses were added about nudity and such as well. The d20 STL was also subject to change by Wizards in ways the OGL were not. The advantages for the 3PP publisher of the d20 STL was that it allowed them to put the d20 System Logo (which was also on all the D&D books) on the book, indicate that you need the PHB to use the product, and similar things.That was the big ask of the OGL: "You get to use (some of) our stuff, but you can't use our name." Normally, there's nothing preventing you from indicating compatibility with another thing as long as you make it clear you do not own that thing. As an example, there are numerous companies making inserts for various board games, and they generally do not need the permission of the publishers of those games. The STL then went on to say "OK, you can use our name in these narrow circumstances."</blockquote>

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