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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5531918" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, we don't know what games were 'rushed' and which ones weren't rushed. Honestly I have no way of knowing what the motivation was for creating things like d20 CoC or d20 Traveler for instance. All I know is they were not particularly successful and there are a long list of other games likewise that failed to convert to d20 with much success (or at least quickly reverted or disappeared). The thing is what did M&M really gain from being a d20 based game? Was their really some substantial advantage there? I mean they had to make pretty extensive changes to d20. It isn't as if the game is THAT close a cousin to say 3.5 D&D etc. Obviously the people who brought it out considered d20 to be a good idea. OTOH I wonder if they would do it the same way now if they could go back? It isn't that I think common generic systems are BAD, it is just that I don't think they have a whole lot of value.Most of what makes a particular game cool and successful has to do with how it evokes the setting and genre the game is aimed at, and maybe how well it reproduces existing material (like say SWSE). All of these things are easier if you have total control of the whole system and build it to do the thing you want to do from the ground up. Honestly, having playtested commercial RPGs, having done a LOT of homebrew stuff, and even having written a couple of systems for my own amusement and home use I can say that the basic construction of the nuts-and-bolts of an RPG are fairly trivial. The hard parts have to do with matching those mechanics to how the game wants to play so they evoke the right feel. Having a generic system as a starting point is at best a very small advantage and often can restrict your thinking unnecessarily. There's just not THAT much value to d20.The OGL was nice for 3PPs as it gave them access to the D&D add-on supplement market. The GSL pretty much does the same thing. In fact the GSL would probably be working fine and isn't an impediment to 3PPs. Access to DDI (CB mostly) is the big issue. Everyone uses CB nowadays. If your stuff isn't in there it doesn't exist. Since WotC will never ever put 3rd party content in CB there's never going to be a viable market for 3PP player-side crunch. 3PPs need to understand this. Even if WotC switched to OGL right now they STILL wouldn't be able to sell it, and the barriers to being in the CB are technical, financial, and operational. It just isn't going to happen. I don't think arguments about if it would be good or bad for WotC if it did happen even matter. It would be great if I could breath water too, but so what?</blockquote>

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