WOTC, Scott, Where in the World is the GSL

[Lizard]

Just look back at early announcements of the GSL discussed by Rouse - he discusses how the d20 License was not a success and actually bad for the parties involved - it's archived somewhere on this website. I've taken that to mean that it is less restrictive than the d20 license.

That's an...interesting...interpretation.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Even if they got out the GSL today, a company would only have three to four months to produce a product to be out at about the same time as the core books ("at launch").

How long was this exclusivity supposed to be?

Unless a company has a "freelace cheater" under their wing who has the rules and can work on stuff already, I think it'd be kind of dumb for anyone to pay WotC $5 grand to get the jump.

Better to wait, watch, listen, and continue on. And now that Paizo is "supporting" 3.5, it makes it viable for others to do so too, perhaps throwing n their tokens into the Pathfinder event.

 

[mhensley]

Plenty. Why? As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if each and every group in the world uses a different, splinter, house-ruled system.

Yeah, that would be great for the hobby.

 

[HyrumOWC]

I don't expect Scott to pop on and say more than "Sorry guys, we're working on it. It'll be out soon." He really can't say much more unless the GSL is ready to be shown and from what I've heard it isn't.

I don't know the reason why, but I'm sure glad I didn't pony up the $5k back in January. If I had, I'd be more than a little angry. The production window is getting incredibly short for GenCon unless you're doing nothing more than an adventure or two.

Hyrum.

 

[Fifth Element]

I don't know the reason why, but I'm sure glad I didn't pony up the $5k back in January. If I had, I'd be more than a little angry. The production window is getting incredibly short for GenCon unless you're doing nothing more than an adventure or two.

No one ponied up the $5k in January. No one had to pony up the $5k until they had a look at the GSL, which no one has yet seen. All they had to do in January was indicate an interest in maybe ponying up $5k, depending on whether they liked what they saw in the GSL.

 

[Nytmare]

Even if they got out the GSL today, a company would only have three to four months to produce a product to be out at about the same time as the core books ("at launch").

I hadn't toyed with this idea before, and forgive me for the blasphemy, but might this mean that WOTC is already operating under the assumption that they're going to be releasing the core books late? Gencon Indy is only two months further down the road. Was there some other date the June 9th release was tied to? (aside from the bazillion pre-ordered books?)

 

[Xorn]

And while I can't speak for sales, I will say that 4e is likely to bring in new players where Pathfinder seems unlikely to do the same. As a matter of fact, I haven't purchased a 3.x game product in around 2 years or so, maybe longer. I haven't actively played a d20 game since Fall 2006. When I saw the previews for 4e following Gencon I started rounding out my dungeon tiles collection and have since preordered every 4e product be released through August. I've now run a few rough 4e demos with the quickstart rules, characters, and monsters we've gleaned from 4e. I have people showing up to game with pregenerated characters that cannot level and nobody is complaining. From what I've seen with my gaming group and a few others around town, my situation isn't exactly unique. Take from that what you will.

Same. I've joked with my players that I'm just going to say a huge comet smashes into the world and destroys everything because people stopped dreaming. (Lucifer's Hammer meets Neverending Story.) That will be the end of our 3.5 campaign. It might as well be, because they just want to keep playing fan playtests without leveling till June!

On the topic presented, the point that keeps resonating with me, is that Paizo is going to lose everyone that goes over to 4E. Every poll I've seen with any weight shows that more people are going to 4E than not--so it's a fair speculation that more of Paizo's market is going to move to 4E than not. It feels pretty unlikely that Pathfinder is going to bring in more players than Paizo has leaving for 4E.

And they do make some awesome adventures, I'm not in high-school/college anymore, and I don't have time to make long, expansive campaigns up. I learned the name Paizo when looking for pregen adventures! But I'm going to 4E, so I'll be looking to Necro, and hoping to see Paizo when the switch is over and the dust settles.

 

[HyrumOWC]

No one ponied up the $5k in January. No one had to pony up the $5k until they had a look at the GSL, which no one has yet seen. All they had to do in January was indicate an interest in maybe ponying up $5k, depending on whether they liked what they saw in the GSL.

That's good to hear!

The window is still getting close though if you do want to get in early. It'll be interesting to see if WotC extends the exclusivity arrangement.

Hyrum.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I hadn't toyed with this idea before, and forgive me for the blasphemy, but might this mean that WOTC is already operating under the assumption that they're going to be releasing the core books late? Gencon Indy is only two months further down the road. Was there some other date the June 9th release was tied to? (aside from the bazillion pre-ordered books?)

Don't worry, there's no blasphemy.

I think that Wizards is in too deep to change the release month, but that they might be close to giving up on having 3rd party support "at launch," as opposed to "Maybe by GenCon?"

 

[vagabundo]

Same. I've joked with my players that I'm just going to say a huge comet smashes into the world and destroys everything because people stopped dreaming. (Lucifer's Hammer meets Neverending Story.) That will be the end of our 3.5 campaign. It might as well be, because they just want to keep playing fan playtests without leveling till June!

.

I ran a 4e playtest on Sunday and this was the question I was asked. They do not what to go back to the "old" edition and would rather play with these characters. I told them I doubt they could level up and they didn't mind. They felt like heroes already. Cool wit h me, to be honest.

Although they will get pretty sick of Kobolds I'm thinking.

Since I have a pre-gens few left over I'll swap some out when they get bored. Just another two months until H1 anyway.

WOTC: Give us some more stuff for our pretests. It just makes us more hungry anyway.