4E SRD and OGL
Filed under D&D 4E Preview on January 9, 2008
Keywords: 4E, d20, Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast announced their plans for the release of a 4th edition System Reference Document and Open Gaming License yesterday. Unlike 3rd edition (IIRC), there will be a Designer’s Kit that publishers can purcharse. This kit will allow publishers an early look (January 2008) at the core rules and the right to publish products five months before the OGL “goes live” (January 2009). The free, public release of the SRD will be on June 6, 2008.
I don’t want to go so far as to say this business model is unethical, or an example of corporate greed, but something about it just seems contrary to the spirit of “open gaming.” Not that I have any plans to publish d20 material. This does give me some dates to create a timeline for the release of the d00M RPS, however.
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January 10th, 2008 at 10:06 am
In that spirit, the OGL Designer’s Kit helps to establish a minimum bar for early entry into the OGL publishing world.
It’s a cash grab.
Perhaps the big players in the OGL world would benefit from a five month headstart, but frankly, I’d be curious how many gamers buy based on publisher name alone, and how many actually consider the content of the product first.
My partner and I in Hollow Relic Studios had already long since decided to stick with 3E/3.5E for Mirrors, our d20 project. Much like what happened with Neverwinter Nights 2, despite all the initial interest and marketing, there will be a sizeable segement of the market that will stick with the tried and true long past 2009.
I don’t fault Wizards of the Coast for adding a revenue generating component to the roll-out, but it will serve to marginalize many of the excellent, though tiny operations, that publish PDF and small print products.
I only wish I was more astute at recognizing trends, and could see the eventual fallout and/or outcome as the lines between pen and paper and CRPG gaming become more and more blurred. There is a niche to be filled somewhere, the trick is finding it in time.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
It shouldn’t come as much of a shock. Considering the initial stance of WotC was “All you will ever need is the three core rulebooks”… unless of course you want Psionics. Or special Prestige classes. Or any other numbers of variations that have come about due to them pumping out another game supplement every other month. All of this after they acknowledged that 2nd edition suffered from way too many rules variations and 3rd edition was designed to make things “simple”. Well, it really didn’t. In fact, based on what I blogged about today, I’m beginning to think WotC and 3rd edition truly sucked the “role play” out of D&D. And I don’t see that coming back with 4th edition…
I’ve already chalked up WotC as simply a company looking for profits, rather than really having a vested interest in what the gaming public is actually wanting or looking for. But then again, that’s what *most* companies are looking for. It’s more about convincing the public that the product you have is what they want, even if it really isn’t what you want or is far inferior or much more expensive (Apple, for instance, is REALLY good at this).
January 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
It’s important to remember that it was the Pokemon CCG that more or less saved Wizards of the Coast from the Hasbro chopping block when they were cutting costs left, right, and centre. Wizards of the Coast was turning a profit, and in the CCG world, the only way to continue to generate revenue is to print more cards.
I don’t doubt that the bean-counters at Hasbro took note of this, and extended the same logic to their role-playing products. As well, the OGL meant a wealth of new d20 product lining the shelves (and various gaming-related websites), all competing for dollars that Wizards normally could count on. It wouldn’t surprise me that they also decided to flood the market with expansion book after expansion book, to allow retailers (my local store certainly has!) to fill their displays to the brim with Wizards of the Coast product. The covers, colors, and fonts all blend together, and I can’t even tell the books apart anymore, without specifically reading each title or back cover copy.