I stumbled across something in the Unearthed Arcana that has me confused and I would like to get your take on it.
Page 213 introduces an optional level independant XP award system. The question is, is it OGC?
My guts tells me it is not, but the open game content disclaimer does not list it as non-OGC. From what I can make out, only the githyanki/githzerai, slaad, and yuan-ti bloodlines are listed as non-OGC.
Now it made fall under the d20 trademark, but again I am not sure. So, if anyone can weigh in on this, I would appreciate the information. With the ongoing debate over 3.5 and 4e, I found the alternate XP system interesting and wondered where it might fall in the rules.
It's Open Content.
However, Open Content doesn't mean it can be used with the d20 System Trademark License.
Mandatory Restrictions:
No Covered Product may contain rules or instructions of any kind that:
• Describe a process for Creating a Character
• Describe a process for Applying the Effects of Experience to a Character
So, you can reference those XP rules in an OGL-released product, but you can't use the d20 license with it.
I suspected something like that might be the case.
I came across those rules when I was looking through the Unearthed Arcana to see if I wanted to use any of the alternate rules in an upcoming Iron Heroes game I plan to run. I was already toying around with a simplier XP for the game after some discussion on the Iron Hero boards (at MonteCook.com) about XP and advancement. while these rules are not simplier, they did get me wondering if something similar could be created for games that will be impacted with the developement of 4e (like Iron Heroes or Arcane Evolved). Both games have largely seperated themselves from the core D&D books.