Re: [Ogf-l] OGC on CD-ROM

[woodelf]

At 19:04 -0500 1/17/03, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

In a message dated 1/17/03 5:47:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<<Most

annoying is that you PIed the name of the spell. Makes it completely
useless from my perspective.
 >>

People are doing this an _awful_ lot in the industry from what I've seen. They PI the spell names, any flavor text, and/or verbatim expression and open up the underlying mechanics of the spell in question.

I can't say that this is not useless to you. I'm not you and wouldn't dare to question your assessment. But I find such things to be hardly uncommon in the industry.

As long as it's come up, i'll jump on the "don't like this way" bandwagon. IMHO, by giving away the mechanics and keeping the name, description, and/or flavor text closed, not only has the reuse of the mechanics been undermined (what's the point of reusing a spell if you have to change the name?), but the really useful part for building on is closed. That is, going beyond simple reuse to building something new based upon another's work, the mechanics are the least-useful part, IMHO, and the flavor text is absolutely necessary. [Shades of the illithid debate--i don't want to raise that again, just want other to know that i recognize the parallel, so tehy don't have to bring it up.]

Nonetheless, it has become the established technique, just as opening mechanics and closing setting have become almost de rigeur. At least SSS has chosen to make it clear that they are willing to license the names out, via a separate agreement, in some cases going so far as to include this additional license right in the work. I'd still rather the names were either (1) part of the OGC or (2) doubled (i.e. "Mord's Sword [Mordenkainen's Sword in the world of Greyhawk]".
--
woodelf <*>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/

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