Hello all. I am new to the Tribe and wanted to say hi to everyone. I have been a role player for well over 20 years and am currently hosting a WEG Star Wars game on Friday nights until I go back to UNR in a month.
I wanted to ask, what does everyone think about the Open Gaming License (D20 Rules)?
I wanted to ask, what does everyone think about the Open Gaming License (D20 Rules)?
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Re: New to the Tribe
Tue, July 26, 2005 - 6:51 PMHello.
For one thing, the OGL and d20 are actually significantly different things. Anyone can publish damn near anything under the OGL, as long as the only copyrighted d20 material used is drawn from the System Reference Document or other OGL materials. The d20 System Trademark License (required to put the d20 logo on a product) is *MUCH* stricter, and WotC/Hasbro keeps on changing it when someone pushes the envelope (such as when the d20-legal Book of Erotic Fantasy was already printed, Hasbro/WotC changed the d20 STL so that the BEF wasn't legal anymore (even though their own Monster Manual and Book of Vile Darkness violated the new terms)).
While the d20 STL makes it a lot easier to sell stuff, it makes it harder to innovate. The OGL, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing negative about it; it's impossible for it to. It's based very heavily on Open Source software licenses, so you can change *everything* if you wanted to.
However, I'm a bit babble-ey about this subject. If you want to know anything else about it, I can continue. -
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Re: New to the Tribe
Tue, July 26, 2005 - 7:07 PMI see. This makes a lot more sense. Thank you.
As for the legal books and what not, is it the new 3.5 Monster Manual? Or the old 3.0? -
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Re: New to the Tribe
Tue, July 26, 2005 - 7:15 PMIt's also complicated. Since Hasbro/WotC owns the d20 Trademark, they *aren't* bound by the terms of the d20 STL for their own products. However, if someone *else* had published the MM3.5, it would have violated the new d20 STL terms (visible nipples: succubus, nymph and harpy).
And you're welcome. I'm actually in the process of designing a product that will be either OGL or d20, so I've done my research. especially since I've followed the d20/OGL matter since it started, out of interest, and particularly after the Valar Project debacle (the above-mentioned Book of Erotic Fantasy issue). Sadly, the BoEF is actually a very nicely-done book that most people will just dismiss as silly and peurile. -
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Re: New to the Tribe
Tue, July 26, 2005 - 7:37 PMYeah, the product people are not about to bring the hammer down on their own. Corporate bull.
What are you designing? I have two Adventures that I have written that I was thinking about trying to get published, after some major re-working and setting (world) changes, when I graduate from UNR. -
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Re: New to the Tribe
Wed, July 27, 2005 - 8:11 AMPublishing adventures independently is *tough*. If they're not overly long, submitting them to Dungeon magazine would be more feasible. Other than that, selling them as cheap PDFs might work better. (Adventures inherently have a smaller market than sourcebooks, and the gaming companies have finally realized this; they're leaving almost all adventures to the magazine.)
The product I'm designing is somewhat an idea-based property, so I'm not really talking about details until I get it copyrighted... But it's related to campaign settings. -
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Re: New to the Tribe
Fri, July 29, 2005 - 8:24 PMYeah, be sure to keep your lips shut until the copyright is in place. People can be shitty to each other to make a buck....
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