Honestly I don't think that the OGL is as confusing as everyone makes it out to be. What makes the OGL different is that the stakes are higher. The OGL lets you release DUNGEONS & DRAGONS COMPATIBLE WORK. This is not the relatively minor set of Domion rules, not the basement work project that is FUDGE. This is DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, the game that started it all. This is MAINSTREAM GAMING (Or at least as mainstream as gaming gets).
Lets face it, every nut (most of us included) who ever drempt(sp?) of sending their stuff to TSR to get published and made official can now do so on their own. Deny it if you like, but its a common dream I still see people on the White-Wolf boards talking about their manuscripts they're going to get WW to publish.
Speaking of WhiteWolf, I think that Necromancer has more than shown us how easy it is to take those dreams and do it right. So why are there still so many violations? Why do people make me want to bang my head on the wall? Because quite simply those dream projects often don't mesh with the license and they can't bring themselves to see it.
-"I want to publish something for Planescape"
-"I want to use stuff from the Psionics Handbook"
-"I want to completely re-copy the game, but mine will be Kewl!!!"
-----Original Message-----
From: John Kim
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 10/7/01 4:21 AM
Subject: RE: [Ogf-l] of OGL and GRG (was: Open Gaming Alert: Action! System by GRG)
And I don't think that it is correct to blame them rather than
the license. The WotC OGL is confusing -- we see that particularly in
the many cries of "hire a lawyer" whenever a question comes up here.
More importantly, actions speak louder than words on this point. WotC
has legal counsel, wrote its own license, and has had over a year since
the OGL was released -- yet still the SRD releases past the first
handful
of notes are delayed, ostensibly for legal reasons. If it is this
difficult for WotC to use its own license, how can you find fault with
other publishers for not using the WotC OGL?
- John
_______________________________________________
Ogf-l mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
