Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5E Designer Mike Mearls Talks About The OGL Crisis
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9575072" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>Wizards can't profitably make small-fry stuff. Everything they do has to be at least reasonably big, and appeal to a wide audience.</p><p></p><p>But there are still people out there who would want more niche stuff. A book of weapons based on cardinal virtues and deadly sins? A book about the culture of river-traveling halflings? A 6th level adventure exploring an underwater temple? These are all ideas that potentially could lead to profitable books, but nowhere near profitable <strong>enough</strong> for Wizards. So the original idea of the OGL was "Hey, you guys do that stuff." It makes that stuff available for those who want it, without having Wizards spending time and effort on it.</p><p></p><p>The original concept also had the d20 System Trademark License as a companion to the OGL. The STL allowed people to indicate D&D compatibility using the "d20 System" logo as well as writing "Requires the use of the D&D Player's Handbook", at the cost of following a whole package of much stricter rules – you couldn't redefine certain game terms, and you couldn't include rules for character generation (you could have a class description, but not the rules that explain what a class is and what you do with it). It was believed that this would keep most of the d20 stuff aimed at supporting D&D rather than doing Pathfinder-type stuff. There were some experiments in doing standalone d20-based RPGs without using the d20 logo, such as Spycraft, Arcana Unearthed, and Mutants & Masterminds, but those never made a dent in D&D's sales, and the prevailing idea was "Hey, if there's a d20 supers game out there, that will mean that D&D players looking for a supers game will play that, and when they want to play fantasy again they'll come back to D&D. If there's no d20 supers game, they will look elsewhere, and once they start doing that it'll be harder to get them back." And as for competing in the fantasy genre, I believe the prevailing idea was "I'd like to see them try."</p><p></p><p>The STL was a casualty of 4e, and even when Wizards opened a limited 5e under the OGL they never reintroduced the STL. Perhaps because in the years since, Pathfinder had shown that if you had built enough of an audience, you could do without it because people will flock to the Pathfinder name just as much as to the d20 System logo.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 9575072, member: 907"] Wizards can't profitably make small-fry stuff. Everything they do has to be at least reasonably big, and appeal to a wide audience. But there are still people out there who would want more niche stuff. A book of weapons based on cardinal virtues and deadly sins? A book about the culture of river-traveling halflings? A 6th level adventure exploring an underwater temple? These are all ideas that potentially could lead to profitable books, but nowhere near profitable [B]enough[/B] for Wizards. So the original idea of the OGL was "Hey, you guys do that stuff." It makes that stuff available for those who want it, without having Wizards spending time and effort on it. The original concept also had the d20 System Trademark License as a companion to the OGL. The STL allowed people to indicate D&D compatibility using the "d20 System" logo as well as writing "Requires the use of the D&D Player's Handbook", at the cost of following a whole package of much stricter rules – you couldn't redefine certain game terms, and you couldn't include rules for character generation (you could have a class description, but not the rules that explain what a class is and what you do with it). It was believed that this would keep most of the d20 stuff aimed at supporting D&D rather than doing Pathfinder-type stuff. There were some experiments in doing standalone d20-based RPGs without using the d20 logo, such as Spycraft, Arcana Unearthed, and Mutants & Masterminds, but those never made a dent in D&D's sales, and the prevailing idea was "Hey, if there's a d20 supers game out there, that will mean that D&D players looking for a supers game will play that, and when they want to play fantasy again they'll come back to D&D. If there's no d20 supers game, they will look elsewhere, and once they start doing that it'll be harder to get them back." And as for competing in the fantasy genre, I believe the prevailing idea was "I'd like to see them try." The STL was a casualty of 4e, and even when Wizards opened a limited 5e under the OGL they never reintroduced the STL. Perhaps because in the years since, Pathfinder had shown that if you had built enough of an audience, you could do without it because people will flock to the Pathfinder name just as much as to the d20 System logo. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
5E Designer Mike Mearls Talks About The OGL Crisis
Top
Otomatik - 162.219.208.28
CloudFlare DNS
Türk Telekom DNS
Google DNS
Open DNS
OSZAR »