[RYAN SAID IN ANSWER TO FAUST'S QUESTION]
> >> Unless you can honestly and openly answer the question "Why
> >>CAN'T I put 'Designed to work with Dungeons and Dragons' on the
> >>box?"
> >1) Because you're not us,
> >2) Because consumers have a right to expect a consistency
> >3) Because "Dungeons & Dragons" has a value outside of the RPG
[FAUST REPLIES]
So create a SECOND STL by taking the D20 STL, remove&replace all references
to "D20" with "D&D compatible", and adding some specifying language about
what constitutes "compatible with D&D" and add additional language such as:
- "The phrase "Dungeons and Dragons" and "D&D" are registered trademarks of
WotC. All other uses of the D&D brand other than specified in this document
are expressly prohibited and are reserved to WotC."
It seems this would protect your trademark and still would allow you those
lucrative licensing deals for movies etc. The license could be virtually
identical to the one that TSR has/had with Mayfair games. This never
seemmed to dilute the value of the "D&D" brand - otherwise the brand would
currently have no value.
The D20 thing just seems like a dodge - primarily if I want to write a
module or product that is "compatible with D&D", I can, but then I have to
drop hints that that is actually what I did, and my potential customers have
to wonder if it is, in fact, compatible.
More to the point, there WILL BE those unscrupulous folks out there that
write D20 stuff that ISN'T compatible with D&D, but that seems to imply
(intentionally or unintentionally) that it is.
So I think customers who are willing to buy D20 stuff for their D&D games
may come to distrust the D20 label as a source for D&D content. If the "D&D
compatible" trademark were made in a distinctive fashion, there would be no
doubt from any but the densest of customers that they were not buying a WotC
product.
To answer your reasons one by one:
> >1) Because you're not us,
No, true. But actually from where I sit YOU are US. Very few of my friends
who have been published have not contributed material to either (or both)
Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Over the years also the playtesters and
gamers have contributed enormously to the core content of the game AND to
the value of the "D&D" brand - So much so that it would be difficult to
point to a concept or a technique, or an idea in the game that could not be
tied back in some way to one of these contributors.
> >2) Because consumers have a right to expect a consistency
Do you mean the consistency that will begin to be evident under WotC? I
think you will have difficulty selling the notion that the D&D brand has
heretofore been a hallmark of consistency either in product or in quality.
Don't get me wrong as I believe many highly thoughtful, creative, simply
GREAT work came out of TSR, but there was also a great deal of stuff that
didn't quite "meet the standard", so to speak.
> >3) Because "Dungeons & Dragons" has a value outside of the RPG
Not being an attorney it seems that that value could be retained and
protected with a document similar to the STL, but still allow for a much
greater diversity of product for the "D&D compatible" consumer.
Faust
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