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First off, I don't know or understand the OGL. I skimmed over it when 3.0 PHB came out, but that's about it. All I knew, was that it allowed other compnies to use the rules to create their own material, which is all I cared about anyway.
With the coming of 4E and a new license associated with it, what happens to the 3.5 rules and the OGL, if anything? Can a company still pump out 3.5 material or will there be newer restrictions on that?
More specifically, can people make variant PHBs (as Monte Cooks Arcana Evolved) with newer rules? Wouldn't WotC see this as competion?
Whatever WotC is going for with 4E (play style, pace of play, fun, etc)
What if, after seeing the rules, a company finds a way to duplicate these same ideas but with the 3.5 rules, would they be allowed to publish it? And call it 3.75,3.85,or 3.99!
The OGL is not revokable. This means that companies can continue to produce product under that license. Especially with regard to systems like Mutants & Masterminds and True20, this is likely to continue. Whether explicitly 3.5 content will continue remains to be seen, though certainly it COULD, if a publisher is willing to take the chance on it.
- Ashavan
The OGL is not revokable. This means that companies can continue to produce product under that license. Especially with regard to systems like Mutants & Masterminds and True20, this is likely to continue. Whether explicitly 3.5 content will continue remains to be seen, though certainly it COULD, if a publisher is willing to take the chance on it.
- Ashavan
I imagine we'll continue to see 3.5 content until at least the end of this year. After that, it's anyone's guess.
With the coming of 4E and a new license associated with it, what happens to the 3.5 rules and the OGL, if anything? Can a company still pump out 3.5 material or will there be newer restrictions on that?
The OGL is irrevocable. The d20 license is revokable. Wizards said they have no plans on revoking the license, but I'm not putting long term stock in that statement.
More specifically, can people make variant PHBs (as Monte Cooks Arcana Evolved) with newer rules? Wouldn't WotC see this as competion?
Oh yes. and I imagine they'd see it as just as much competition as White Wolf is to them.
Whatever WotC is going for with 4E (play style, pace of play, fun, etc)
What if, after seeing the rules, a company finds a way to duplicate these same ideas but with the 3.5 rules, would they be allowed to publish it? And call it 3.75,3.85,or 3.99!
You cannot copyright an idea. US law is very clear on that. What you can copyright is the presentation of that idea. So yes, it is entirely possible for another company to take the whole of the 4E PHB, present all of the same ideas in a slightly different fashion and that game would be legal. Now, Wizards would probably drown them in legal fees and tie them up forever in court ....
Can you explain to me what's the difference again ?
The OGL is irrevocable. The d20 license is revokable. Wizards said they have no plans on revoking the license, but I'm not putting long term stock in that statement.
The OGL license is a copyright license (you can copy wholesale what is in the SRD if you like or modify it as you see fit). Using the OGL license does not indicate compatibility with any wizards product. RuneQuest, Fudge, and soon Traveller and Battlefield Evolution are all OGL games that are in no way compatable with any d20 product (or even each other, for that matter). Only using the OGL, you can create whole games that use the basic D&D engine but are stand alone products (Mutants and Masterminds, True 20, Conan, Babylon 5).
The d20 license is a trademark license. As long as you meet certain requirements (community standards, no chargen, etc) you can use the provided trademarked logo. Using the d20 license, you can create products that are compatable with D&D and not get introuble with Wizards for indicating compatability. The d20 license was a way settle people's nerves about how sue happy TSR was. Now companies could create all they wanted without fear of retaliation.
Will there be a 4.0 OGL?
Just wondering because if so, then our favorite Classes and Races that were removed from the PHB4.0 will not be such a problem as d20 publishers will be racing to get these very needed updates to all of us.
No, there won't be a 4.0 OGL.
However, WotC have said they are going to release a 4.0 Game System License (GSL). The GSL will actually be closer to the old d20 license than the OGL, if I am understanding things correctly.
This way WotC hope to prevent companies ripping off whole aspects of their system for their own games (ala M&M, True 20, Iron Heores etc), but still allow companies to produce material that supports core DnD (adventures, campaign settings, splat books etc).
Necromancer Games have already announced (and started work on I believe) an "alternate PHB" (my words not theirs), that will contain the classes (and races?) that were "cut" from the original PHB. They also have a Tome of Horrors (monster book) due to come out pretty soon after the release of 4.0.
The unfortunate thing is that we still don't know what the GSL will look like. WotC indicated they would have it ready for third parties (Paizo, Necromancer Games etc) by the end of January, but we are still waiting, and it is causing some angst among the community, and even more amongst the third party publishers I would suggest.
The OGL and SRD are designed to be non-revocable (non-revocable definitely not a word) as in the FAQ on the subject Wizards states the any version of the OGL may be used with any version of the SRD.
This is also why I have no fear of 4 edition. If the system is not what I wish to play, it will not matter. While the into of 4 does spell the death for new material from the official source, as well as the main players in the industry, if 4 isn’t all that and a bag of chips there will be an online community. Fans of the 3.X system, unlike fans of the previous editions, will always be able to produce material, from the simple, a Feat or Spell, to complete campaign worlds with alternate players handbooks.
If the demand is there, the fans will fill the void with or without the industry.
So have any companies other than Necromancer declared that they will produce 4.0 material to cover missing classes and races.
On my site (woldiangames.com) are many gnomes, monks, etc. that are very beloved by their "players." If I can't offer them a solution then I will not be able to upgrade the site to 4.0, assuming that we want to.
Yes, I know that we'll be rerolling stats from scratch, but the personalities that make up the true-character can remain.
I've also thought it would be doable to study the pattern of how classes and races are designed in 4E (there is material on that already out in various places) and write our own.
I could tell the players, "You want to keep your gnome? Great. Let's work on writing out the 4E class for that then."
Comments?