D&D 4E Would you buy 4E if it were not open/had no licenses for 3rd party companies?

[Filcher]

I would really be sad if companies like Goodman Games couldn't easily publish D&D material, but I'd still buy the game if it was "completely closed."

Moyer speaks for me. This would really *suck*.

 

[Zeborah]

I'm interested in third party modules and variants, but I'll still buy the game even if Wizards doesn't license them. I'm mostly going to be making up my own adventures, as I did with 3rd Edition.

 

[nerfherder]

A great majority appear to be willing to buy into 4th Edition without any outside support. I am quite surprised at the magnitude of "pro-WoTC" feeling.

A quick glance at my RPG bookshelf shows about 40 RPG, of which only 5 are open - 2 produced by WotC.

To not buy a RPG because it isn't open seems... odd.

 

[Zil]

I voted for not sure because ... I'm not sure.

My original plan was to buy 4E and see if it was worthwhile converting my games (and investing in the coming round of source books), but as I've said in other threads, I'm liking the sounds of things less and less all the time.

If there is no OGL (or GSL) it would be one more thing that would make me hesitate. Although the OGL and d20 licenses produced a real mix bag of third party support, the cream did eventually rise to the top.

I'm also a big fan of Open Source software and seeing an Open Source style license applied to my favorite RPG was one of the cleverest things to come out of the 3E move. The OGL and d20 licenses really did create a massive space or mind share in the RPG marketplace. Many other RPG systems were forced to include d20 conversion rules just to survive. I'm sure Wizards benefited from the huge space that opened up since most of it fed back directly into D&D.

Switching to a more restrictive GSL (or completely closed) makes me less interested overall in committing to the new system for the long run. Sure, I might possibly buy the rules at some point to have a look, but I'm less likely to stick with it because (a) I really like open source and (b) there a lot of really good designers outside of WoTC who may be forced to continue to work with the older OGL or perhaps spawn off their own completely different systems.

At this point, about the only way I'm likely to stick with 4E is if it surprises me and is an incredibly good system. I suspect that is not the case though - it sounds like it might be fun for a while, but that it wouldn't hold my interest long because it has swung too far away from the simulation side over to something that feels too much like a combo between the D&D minis game and a game and some kind of MMORPG.

 

[BricWuzzy]

I will be going to 4e no matter what the licenses is. Looking back at all the groups that I have played d&d with I can think of only 1 time that we ever used a 3rd party product. Maybe the groups I have gamed with are in the minority but it sure feels like a lot of groups do not use third party products.

 

[hong]

Since I voted for closed, I'll offer up my view- I just don't care about third party material one way or the other.

Ditto. Honestly, I doubt the presence or absence of the OGL/GSL/whatever they want to call it, will affect WotC at all.

 

[jdrakeh]

It would have to be at least somewhat open to interest me, as most of the books that I enjoyed reading or got use out of during the 3.5 Era were third-party products. WotC books were required for play, of course, but I found most of them (not all of them) to be dry and just barely passable in terms of introducing new and/or exciting content.

 

[Agamon]

While I'm interested in what Clark at Necro is doing, other than that, I really don't care. I'm only interested in Green Ronin's non-D&D stuff, and while I was a Paizo crusader a year ago, I really don't care what they do anymore, or any of the other 3rd party companies for that matter.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I'll buy it anyway; I keep collecting RPGs even when I see no chance of actually playing them in years to come. Will I play it? This one has a different answer. If WotC opens no window for 3rd party to work with D&D, I'll keep running 3.5, where I get to see stuff by such great publishers as Green Ronin, Paizo or Necromancer.

Besides that, if 4E is closed, I'll keep playing 3E if only to test the stuff created for Secular Games products; it's a great system and up to date with my needs as a gamer. I don't need 4E right now, and not at all if we'll be confined to WotC products that I don't think are the best the market has to offer.

Cheers,

 

[Aesthetic Monk]

I probably still would but it would definitely make me stop and think about it.

This pretty much nails it for me. In truth, I think "closure" would be a huge step backward for WotC, but I can imagine scenarios under which it could happen.

In truth, I bought relatively little third-party stuff last time around, but I like the option of it being there.