At 11:11 PM 9/6/00 -0400, Alexander P. Macris wrote:
>As far as the D20SRD. I�ll be very surprised if D20SRD under the OGL turns
>out to be very useful. If it is, well, then, that�s something. In fact,
>the more useful they make D20SRD, the more impressed I�ll be. If, as you
>seem to believe will happen, I can use D20SRD to actually replicate PHB and
>DMG and MM and then distribute it as �Alex�s Fantasy Game� for half the
>price of those books (or for free), the way Red Hat can distribute LINUX,
>then I�ll be really impressed. I will gladly and humbly eat crow. And after
>eating crow, I�ll write "Alex�s Fantasy Game" and no one will buy silly
>overpriced WOTC books when mine are just as good, are fully compatible with
>the D&D product line, and cost less.
>
Twenty dollars for a full-color hardcover is not overpriced in any world I
have ever lived in. As a comparison, it's over twice as long in raw page
count as the original 1st ed PHB, which cost 10 dollars in 1978 -- easily
20 dollars in 2000. AND it's in full color. AND the rules are much better.
In other words, adjusting for inflation, the 3e PHB is *cheaper* than the
1e, and BETTER. Do you think you can beat that? I applaud your confidence.
Now deliver the goods.
You can take the SRD, add the chargen and experience rules to it, throw in
all the OGLed material others have created, and sell it or give it
away...and unless you're someone very, very, special, WOTC's beancounters
ain't gonna notice. You CAN'T produce something better than the PHB and
sell it for less, not unless you have an uncle named "William Gates III"
who really, really, loves his nephew Alex. You won't have the economies of
scale to print 500,000 copies, so you can sell it for 20 bucks and still
make a profit. You won't have the capital to hire top-quality artists to do
all the pretty pictures. You won't have the influence or 'name recognition'
to get hundreds of hardcore gamers to playtest it to death for a year, nor
will you get every hobby shop in the country to order enough copies to suck
up that 500,000 copy print run -- and if you print less than that, your
cost per copy goes up, so your retail price goes up...death spiral.
And unless you're a better game designer than the gestalt who put together
the PHB, it won't be enough of a better game to make someone choose it over
the PHB. Perhaps you are, but you'll forgive me if I wait to see some
designs.
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