ENWorld highlighted some of the tweets coming out from GameHole Con, more specifically some of the statements coming from Chris Perkins at a 5e panel.
Actually, "intention" is not a guarantee, but there you have it. Hmmm, I wonder who will write the first OSR ruleset based off of the 5e OGL to clone 0e? ;)
And this tidbit on electronics versions of the rules
So, we have intentions but no dates.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the bean counters are the ones holding back on approval...
The OGL never went away. The compatibility licence and their open game content has not been released yet.
ReplyDeleteTrue. But I suspect intentions and results may be two different things in this case.
DeleteI think the lack of content is hurting the game. People who didn't like the two hardcover adventurers are going to have to either convert older material, not as difficult as it was with 4th mind you, or come up with their own material. Not necessarily an unsurmountable tasks, but often those buying the prewritten adventurers aren't necessarily doing so because they lack the ability of confidence, but the time.
ReplyDeleteI suspect now that their attitude will take a 'see no evil' approach while giving loose guidelines that allow them to retain some control. Suing your fans and broke one-man publishing empires did wonders for TSR in the 1990s. I assume that has been pointed out.
ReplyDeleteI imagine they would take issue with a giant D&D logo emblazoned on published materials. Especially for sourcebook type materials that change the mechanics unrecognizably or, worse in their mind, intriduce darker or more adult elements. Since the flip side to being T$R was allowing a deluge of mediocre material during the d20 era; I tend to think they are fearful of having the brand diluted more than letting a few pennies fall to small press guys.
If the were really concerned about containing all releases they probably would have unleashed their +5 vorpal attorneys on the Necromancer Kickstarter.
That being said I would prefer less caginess on their part. It leads to a suspicion that they know what they are going to do but won't tell us until after we buy the books. :)
I wonder if some of the third party publishers who have put out 5e-compatible material without the license in place have had encouragement from the designers as a way to force the issue.
ReplyDeleteUnlikely. That's a sure-fire way to have a prominent place on Wizards' annual Christmas announcement...
DeleteThe lack of an official D&D 5th Ed PDF is irritating me the most. One of the guys I Skype-game with is blind, and PDFs are pretty much a necessity for him (otherwise he has to hand-scan 300+ pages into his screen reader). It's making it difficult to get a 5th ed game going with that group.
ReplyDeleteI'm still surprised anyone cares about yet another edition of D&D.
ReplyDelete