This is a letter I sent to WOTC on 4/28. I have yet to hear a reply, except for a 4/29 reply that they will "put it up for review." I plan on posting this letter over on the WOTC boards in the near future, once their boards upgrade is completely.
QuoteDear Wizards of the Coast:
I am writing to you on the subject of the Open Gaming License (OGL). I am of the opinion that the OGL is a revolutionary document in gaming, one that allows third party publishers and independent parties, such as online game designers and posters on message boards, to expands the material available to Dungeons and Dragons players to unprecedented level, a move which I am sure does nothing but arouse interest in the game we all love to play so much.
However, I am of the opinion that the OGL has become stagnant. Created a few years ago, the OGL was only significantly updated with the release of the Expanded Psionics Handbook and Unearthed Arcana. While both additions to the OGL were wonderful additions, new OGL material has stopped there, and it is my question as to why.
One would assume it is because sales of Expanded Psionics Handbook or Unearthed Arcana decreased after the OGL was expanded to include the materials in these books. If such is the case, then I would like to hear so, as such a statistic would be surprising to me, considering they are two of the most often talked about non-core books in the Wizards.COMmunity. Being part of the OGL has not weakened these two excellent books at all.
This letter is a request for you, staff of Wizards. I ask that you expand the OGL, to include new material. Wonderful mechanical information has been produced in the Complete Series, Tome of Magic, and Magic of Incarnum, as well as new classes in Heroes of Horror and spells, feats, creatures, and other game rule information all around, and it would be wonderful if these materials were open to further development by third parties and independent parties.
Now, it is understandable that there would be some hesitance on this subject. Therefore, I suggest that the OGL would be expanded to include any game rule information that can be used in a diverse application for the development of new material by third party groups, and it should be added to the OGL one year after the release of the official Wizards of the Coast sourcebook that first printed the material.
Such a policy may actually increase book sales by causing an increase in interest one year after the book was produced. Also, one year should be plenty of time to gain initial profit from the material. Meanwhile, using material that has a diverse application would apply to new class abilities such as sudden strike and skirmish, (meaning most new base classes would qualify), new spell systems such as those contained in Tome of Magic and Magic of Incarnum, any new skills, new creature types and subtypes such as the deathless and (dragonblood) subtype, while not applying simply to new spells, feats, monsters, and PrCs, all of which should be considered Product Identity unless released as part of a entirely new system. (So the new creatures provided in Tome of Magic, the mantles of Complete Psionic, the Invocations of Complete Arcane would fall under this expansion, but the creatures of Complete Arcane or Complete Psionic would not.).
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your reply.
I sincerely hope your letter reaches the right people with the right open minds.
So do I. I'd love to hear thoughts on the specifics of my letter - when I post it on WOTC, I plan on doing it in petition form, trying to see if they will listen.
I doubt they will, but it's worth a shot. Maybe someone will hear, or somebody crazy will start something on their own... Like some sort of Fallen gaming company or something *significant cough*
In an email to WOTC, I once used the phrase "campaign setting". The return email asked what a campaign setting was. :wtf:
The petition idea is a good one, also.
How about you set it up on an online petition as well? http://www.petitiononline.com/petition.html
Consider it done. (http://www.petitiononline.com/dnd4134/petition.html)
the url is http://www.petitiononline.com/dnd4134/petition.html : spread it everywhere you guys know of, to get everyone who loves DnD to sign it.
I'm personally much less bothered by wotc not expanding the ogl than other companizes not using it to make more innovating products.
Like, there's no 3rd-party company using the ogl who realeases a hardback book, with a cd inside that contains a pdf of the book, and also an hyperlinked html file in the same vein as here (//d20srd.org).
Wizards isn't going to innovate too much, cuz they have a business that's doing okay, and they're not fixing what's not broke. But there's a lot of crazy stuff other companies could be doing, and all i've seen as far as innovation goes is releasing material as pdf as well as printed books. :/
The only real heavy use of the OGL that I know of was Mongoose Publishing's pocket handbooks, and I've never actually seen one in a retail establishment. I only know of their existence because I chanced upon a set at a used bookstore. Tragic.
Don't forget to post this link all over WotC, enworld, theForge, GitP, and others that you can think of.
Yeah. I'd like people to spread it to forums where they post: I'd have to register new accounts at most relevant boards, and someone making a new account to do this would look cheesey. People who visit other forums, spread the word!
On a related note, see my survey thread (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?6859.0) to see the kind of thing that WotC is going to wonder about when it comes to issue of creating of new Open Game Content.
I signed. Good luck. My MP system is entirely OGC, so I'm a contributer.
On the letter/petition itself: Yay! I agree.
On the form of it: It's been said to me in the past that it goes against the etiquette of letter-writing to start a letter with "I" or "We". I suggest you change the first sentence to start with a different word.
@LC: The Mongoose Pocket Player's Handbook and Pocket Game Master's Guide have found their way to my FLGS in the Netherlands, and three people I know (including myself) own a copy of the former. It is an excellent low-budget substitute for the PHB, and very useful for quick reference considering its size.
Turin
I signed the petition as well. Wait! Only 6 peepo have siynned. Dis mayks mi speyying foony.
I forgot aboot the petition. Now I have signed, making 7.
Well, I signed. I mean, what can it hurt?
Was this ever spread around the WotC message boards? that would bring in a few signatures, I imagine... enworld and GitP as well.
Quote from: IshmaylWas this ever spread around the WotC message boards? that would bring in a few signatures, I imagine... enworld and GitP as well.
I put it in my .sig of my WotC acount. Every little bit helps.
Thanks, Taken. I want this to spread. It's allready hitting the WOTC boards slowly, could people who frequent Giant ITP, Dicefreaks, and ENWorld post links to it on those forums?
Update: I just posted it over to WOTC. The thread can be found here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=711022