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Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are altering the deal in a manner that would make Mr Callrissian say, "I got off light with that Vader dude!"
The most galling thing about it is D&D, like all tabletop RPG's, is fueled by content created by the GM and players.
That's the gigantic distinction about them from other games.
While I don't know what they think they are doing...
It appears that they think that they deserve the money for other people's creativity and consider someone selling their creativity as a lost sale.
What's missing from that equation is, "would this content exist if the third party had not created it?"
If the answer is yes, then it's a lost sale.
However: The reason a third party created it was because such content was not forthcoming from WOTC.
The original Open Gaming License encouraged third parties to create content and that sold the core ruleset. Importantly, it allowed them to profit from their creativity.
The new version of the OGL discourages third parties from making content.
First it assesses a fine based on the gross income of the third party's sales. Considering how low margain such things can be, especially if you're having hard copies printed, this kills off anyone subject to the "license fee"
Second, it asserts the right to use your creativity without compensation forever.
So you can't make money and you won't own what you create for any game that WOTC operates under the new OGL.
I think what Hasbro is missing here is how many people are coming to the game for the third party content who will now be buying a different core game to play it on.
More than one of the larger third party content creators have announced work on a new set of core rules too.
WOTC should be worried about that.
If I can convert OG Little-Black-Book Traveller to GURPS 4e, there's nothing keeping someone from converting from D&D to... well a new game that's designed to be easy to convert to.
WOTC doesn't own the idea of a role playing game or even how most of the mechanics work.
There are lots of moribund systems out there waiting to be resurrected which were perfectly cromulent RPGs which do fantasy settings and are not owned in any way by Hasbro.
Disclaimer, I've not played "real" D&D in ages... Our group when I played pre Army was one that disliked some of the mechanics, specifically the hit vs. damage one. The Dwarf wearing 40 kilos of armor was going to be easy to hit, but chances are he won't notice that you did hit him. Alternately, the Elf with the super high Dex wearing very light armor would be hard to hit... But they would certainly know they had been hit. So, "Fantasy Hero" it was for us to min/max... But just watching this unfold I have to wonder if Hasbro has decided that "burn it all down" is a viable option? So, destroy the competition, let things sit for a while then start over? Seems a risk, and I am not a business person so... But looking at it asking the question of "If I were going to intentionally destroy it, what would I do differently?" and not having a good answer... Well, my conclusions might be wrong, but...
ReplyDeleteI think it's simple greed and not understanding that they're not really losing money when the customer buys OGL content from a third party.
DeleteGreed and desire to control the entire game ecosystem. It's nothing new really. Back in the day TSR made threats to sue a number of other RPG publishers for violations of their IP. And TSR was in turn threatened or sued by the heirs of the Lovecraft and Tolkien estates for use of their characters. Early on, I think because Gary Gygax encouraged others to use the system, TSR was pretty open to letting 3rd parties make D&D compatible products. But eventuallly TSR also threatened to sue a number of companies that published modules intended for use with D&D like Judge's Guild, even though they had licensed them to use TSR Trademarks for a while before that. Because of that most of the module publishers started to make the details of the stats of monsters, items and references to game mechanics as generic as possible. I think this probably actually hurt TSR more than helped it. Because generic materials out there... mean they can be used more easily with any system. When 3rd party publishers built directly and specifically for AD&D it solidified TSR's position. History showed that eventually the TSR empire crumbled, like they so often did. And it got sold off... WOTC is even more corporate than TSR was.
DeleteHmmm... One of the things that got me out of gaming and to sell/give my stuff away was the continued obsolescence of editions. I did D&D, AD&D, AD&D 2nd and balked at 3rd edition. Same thing with Squad Leader, after buying all the SL supplements except one, Avalon Hill came out with ASL which only used the boards from SL, so my carefully hoarded and sorted counters and the over $1,000 I put in them became totally not-good. Dammit.
ReplyDeleteSame with Traveller. I liked the LBB, had some problems, and I liked the codification under The Traveller Book. But 3rd edition, 4th edition, 5th edition, Mongoose Traveller with their horrid floor plans? Beyotch, please.
Just stop.
Would have jumped to GURPS but they were transitioning from one edition to another and I had bills to pay and a wife to be with, so gaming went away, far away, bu-bye.
Even worse, found a whole buncha Traveller stuff at a garage sale and started trying to make sense of it and because the editions were so wildly uncompatable, sold all the T stuff and bailed, yet again.
Build a system. Play that system. Figure out the flaws and then fix them in the next and last edition. Make the rules book a 3 ring binder that when whole sections get somewhat changed, the new rules can be dropped in (this is what Advanced Squad Leader did. A rules binder. Where you could swap out old rules with new rules as the rules changed.) I mean, with ADD, changing the treasure section with additional sheets, same with magic as new magic comes along, the action charts should stay the same....
GURPS: Traveller uses 3eR, and that edition is still supported by SJG. 4e was the last GURPS edition and is likewise still supported.
DeleteIf, by support, you mean that they still sell all the books via digital download. That makes them nice and safe to use without worry that they will pull the rules rug out from under you.
Considering just how bad the OG Traveller ruleset is by today's standards, converting to GURPS and just using the setting has been working for me for almost 30 years.
The GURPS: Traveller line is really just republishing the LBB setting and ignoring the MegaTraveller timeline.
This appears to be some MBA at Hasbro yelling "monetize everything" because they have no clue how paper RPGs work. It's the same with all your content are belong to us. This will cost them far more than they think they will make.
ReplyDeleteThird party creators like the Pathfinder people are already working on their own rule sets to remove the D&D dependency and end users have access to hundreds of samizdat copies of older books. I could play A D&D like in 1983 for the cost of some paper and Hasbro won't make a penny.
I've thought about porting Warhammer FRP over to GURPS. Mainly because I love the background world.
ReplyDeleteThat's not even a hard port! The worst part is converting the spell effects, and that's not even too tedious.
DeleteI wonder if FuzzyGeff wants to help?
I hadn't thought to ask him. I probably should. Of course, you get into the question of WHICH edition of WFRP to convert. I'm not familiar with the whole "winds of magic" thing and wish bitterly that goddamn GW hadn't insisted on keeping WFRP compatible with WFB.
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