-----Original Message-----
From: Lizard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Frankly, I am not 100% sure of why the D20 license restrictions exist. I
>really doubt more than the tiniest number of PHBs would be sold due to them
>than would be sold otherwise. That is, the number of people who will buy a
>PHB just to get rules they can easily get off the net, or learn from
>friends, is vanishingly small. As several people have noted, the entire
>'verboten rules' text is less than a page long. The whole thing strikes me
>as something concocted to slip the D20 license idea past some Suits:"You
>see, this way, we can FORCE them to buy the PHB!!!"
I think you underestimate the power of Name Recognition. Names have power,
especially in the business world. I'm sure that every person on this list
has referred back to D&D as an example of a role-playing game when trying to
explain what an RPG is to a friend, co-worker or family member. The
non-gaming populace tends to eqate all RPGs to D&D so D&D is typically the
first game that people are introduced to. I know it was the first RPG that
I ever encountered. Some people will buy it just to have the artwork alone.
Others will buy it to complete their collection of D&D products. Believe it
or not, gaming books and supplements are collectables. If anyone doesn't
agree with that they can try to buy a copy of Zebulon's Guide to Frontier
Space (or any other out of print supplement) off Ebay and see how much it'll
cost them. White Wolf has even gone so far as to include a picture alone
the spine of their Changeling books which can only be seen in it's entirety
if you have all the books in what appears to me to be an active
encouragement of collecting their books.
My point is that no matter how freely available you make something, there
will always be people who will buy it for whatever their reasons.
>On the other side of the coin, the sole reason for wanting the D20 logo is
>marketing -- to tap into the existing D20 fan base. And the intersection
>between the set of "All D20 Players" and "All D&D3e Players" is such that
>the former is practically a subset of the latter, at least at the moment.
Exactly. This is what WotC is giving us when we use the OGL and/or D20STL.
We get access to their existing D&D player base for free in a way that other
games don't have open to them. In mean of course that D&D players are going
to be able to immediately use D20 derived products without the typical
learning curve of a new rule system. It's hard to imagine how anyone (aside
from maybe WotC) could see this as a bad thing.
Chris
www.IDrankWhat.org
www.coincidental.net
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