Some “more or less well chosen words” on the process, from my favorite author.
From Show magazine, August 1962:
Update on the Compatibility Issue…
To follow up to yesterday’s thoughts about that the lack of an STL is going to mean for publishers trying to demonstrate compatibility —
Scott Rouse posted a comment on ENWorld where he says:
We are looking to incorporate some sort of compatibility language within the new version of the OGL. Something like “Compatible with the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying game…”
Which would take care of the problem quite nicely.
He’s still ignoring the multiple posted questions about WHEN the publishers will see the rules…. to the point where it is now obvious that he’s doing so. The pessimistic side of me has the sinking feeling that
No d20 STL
Looks like my hunch was right.
Scott Rouse, Brand Manager for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast, has made the announcement over at ENWorld:
“There will not be tiers within the OGL.
There will be Wizards official D&D products (which will include licensed D&D products for foreign language translation) and OGL products made by third parties like Paizo, Expeditious Retreat, etc.”
For those who don’t understand the difference, I’ll sum up: The Open Game License (OGL) is the license that allows publishers (and non-publishers, for that matter) the right to use core elements of the rules system that drives Dungeons & Dragons. The d20 System Trademark License was a secondary license which allowed publishers the right to use this symbol:
to indicate compatibility with those rules.
This announcement means that while there will be Open Content in the forthcoming 4th Edition of D&D, allowing publishers to produce 4e-compatible products, there will NOT be a d20 System Trademark License. No official logo to show that your product can be used with D&D.
I’ll be interested to see how this shakes out, since it will now mean that there will be a push for publishers to come up with methods of indicating compatibility (expect a dozen or more competing logo co-ops, with various publishers signing up for each…as well as a few dozen more publishers who go their own way and use their own sole-use logo), and it will require a lot more product-knowledge savvy on the part of retailers and consumers.
It does affect me directly, since it effectively means the end of d20 MasterKit as a line, since the trademarked logo will no longer be usable.
Also: Still no word on when, exactly, we publishers are going to get a look at the rules, so we can start prepping releases.