Tuesday, May 27, 2014




So why am I disappointed about this?


Nice, but not the best kind of free.








I guess I was just hoping for a bit more freedom.


benensky said...

I am very happy with this. he OGL was great and there was much published under the GSL. Just search drive through RPG under 4E.

Doctor Futurity said...

Much as I'd like it, I don't expect them to offer more than a specific license option for 3PP....as you say, the OGL was a monster that they let lose and probably wish they haden't. I personally sometimes think that the OGL was originally designed by a network of designers at that time to basically all plunder and exploit 3E together....and it worked for those people, just not for the company itself for the long haul.

The interesting thing about the OGL is that it is so flexible that one will easily be able to produce compatible content for 5th edition...you just don't brand it specifically as a D&D product. Goodman Games and others (myself included) published 4E content under the OGL, referring such books in a manner that indicated their intended compatibility while still being properly OGL. Will be interesting to see what percolates to the surface over the next few months if WotC doesn't offer a new OGL or a new license agreement of some sort.

greywulf said...

You're disappointed yet they haven't said anything about the license at all. I suspect your disappointment is very premature.

The problem with the OGL is that it was abused by unscrupulous individuals who made a fast buck by bundling the whole (or part) of the contents into pdf format and selling them on RPGNow with little or no original content of their own. That soured it for the rest of us. I hope the new license (when it's announced) will limit such behaviour but not the the crippling extent of the GSL which swung the other way.

My ideal license would be as simple as "anyone can make adventures and new content for D&D. You can use the monster stats found in Basic D&D but they can make up no more than 15% of your total page count". That's all it needs, really.

As for Basic D&D itself - it's fantastic. No complaints at all from me. It's an easy entry into the game and might even be all many groups need to play. Can't fault it.