So were you one of the companies that received "The Email" with more info?

So it isn't all bright and shining news, but much better than expected.

Good news for WOTC and brand-name D&D! A lot of people were afraid that Hasbro would kill the open licensing strategy and "close" D&D.

Glad to hear that they are making up for the delay by offering it for free.

BTW, does this mean our donations can be applied toward an OD project?

I wonder when the time will come when all these ...errr..irregularites are explained. I bet there´s some serious stuff going on behind the scenes.

They did hire a new President of the department. This was the kind of action I expected from the new blood.

Well, the delay was kind of anoying, but the end result is probably a good thing. Especialy interesting they are licensing D&D itself. Very curiouse indeed. More than I'd expected them to do.

We shall see what the restrictions are... but I'm hopefull its not much worse than what we have now.

I'm for rolling my donation into whatever the first 4E OD project ends up being.

Good move on their part. For many reasons.

Let's just hope they don't go insane with the licensing.

This could be really cool stuff.

But disappointing in the fact that it limits the amount of third party material that will be available at GenCon. At least they're allowing publication for the holiday season.

-Ben.

If I read the news correctly, OpenDesign will be disallowed from publishing anything 4e, as long as there is KQ?

So, based on what you are saying here, KQ WILL go to 4e? Do you know if that will be the issue that comes after the October start date? If so, can those of us with open subscriptions cancel them and get reimbursements? I for one have decided to completely ignore 4e. That is a shame, because I was kind of enjoying he OD products and experience and absolutely love KQ.

Now I REALLY want to know what´s happening behind the scenes. I fear it will influence gaming as much as Buck Rogers did. Something weird is going on, right from the start of 4e.

The other thing--you can't have two products available at the same time (one 3rd and one 4th edition product of the same thing, say KQ). However, KQ is a printed magazine--it is in print for a month, then gone.

The solution then, is simple: publish the 3e version of KQ on one month, then two months later, print the same mag with 4e stats. You would need to dump your PDF market to do this, or, you could only off the 3e PDf up to the day you printed the 4e version.

Think of the fun you would have!

It's still unclear if a company can sell 4E product, but provide free downloadable 3E stats as bonus material. Even if that is disallowed, nothing would prevent an OD project from being designed for both 3.5 and 4e. Only the final pdf would have to include material from only one release. Worse case, the excluded material could be provided on a fansite not directly associated with OD.

I consider it only a "modest proposal"...;-)

I think this is bad for gamers, so I am right there with you on feelings Wolfgang! And yes, this IS a deliberate fracturing of the market. It is a shame. However, it is also reality, so we must go on! With several thousand dollars invested in 3x material (and several thousand in previous editions as well), and now 8 years familiarity, there is no way I am swapping editions to re-buy every book WOTC has published in a previous edition, yet again.

When White Wolf trashed the original WoD in favor of a new one, I stopped buying their product, too (and still continue to play and enjoy the original edition just fine). To paraphrase Mike Mearls himself, "what most gamers fail to realize is that they don't need us game designers to play their games..."

This is obviously just a method for WotC to have companies tie their futures with them or to be autonomous. Sure, it means that those companies are serious about 4e, but at the same time, you are tying yourself to something that is not completely defined right now, and may be ambiguously defined later. Plus, who know what things you will be allowed to publish after all?

As I see it, I think the good publishers are going to go on their own, and the ones that can't stand up by themselves will go 4e.

I do see this an as act of overt hostility to their public (for WotC), and is really very sad.

I had really hoped to see both 4e and 3e material in KQ and OD projects.

This is incredibly sad news.

Yes, it does seem being forced to choose sucks. I was originally thinking how companies like Green Ronin, Mongoose and Blue Devil Games would be affected, and then I thought about Open Design. I like the option of being able to write for either, but the market fracture seems inevitable...I don't know.

Yes, btw, I don't know what the legal (in the USA) (and financial) ramifications are for this, but you probably could start another company.

Open Design does what it does (but we need to choose an edition).
Kobold quarterly for another company (if it's in a different system than OD), etc.
(And no, I don't mean putting out stuff while alternating between two editions. Each product/company would be one or the other.)

I smell a poll a-coming...

For what it's worth: Nothing against 4e, but I'm staying with 3.5.

Patrick

this is disappointing, but not unexpected. Even if the market does fracture (and I believe that it will. You already have Pathfinder, C&C, and True 20 based off the OGL) KQ can fill the need of a publication for the OGL market with no competition.

I would also point out that no one has actually read the GSL yet and there may be some easier work arounds, especially for patron based private projects. We'll have to wait and see.