Well, after reviewing the 4E GSL, I can say pretty unequivocably that Adventure Games Publishing will *not* publish any 4E Dungeons & Dragons products. At least, not under the existing GSL, nor under any GSL that even remotely resembles the existing contract. By the terms of that contract, you essentially turn your company into a Wizards of the Coast subsidiary. Not gonna happen with AGP.
What happens with the Wilderlands? That is still up in the air. My advice to Bob will be to not touch 4E with a 10' pole, not for the Wilderlands, not for any Judges Guild product lines.
Ideally, Bob will decide against going with 4E, which means things can get back on track with the Wilderlands of High Adventure products for Castles & Crusades and the Wilderlands of High Fantasy Player's Guides for v3.5. In this case we will likely see Necromancer Games publish Tegel Manor for v3.5... or even possibly Pathfinder.
If he decides to go with 4E regardless... then we shall see where we go from there...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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8 comments:
James, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Judges Guild and Wilderlands in essence itself a license as it JG doesn't produce its own products. AGP, Goodman Games, and Necromancer Games appear to be users of said license.
But I haven't read the GSL in depth.
Matt,
Judges Guild owns the Wilderlands intellectual property and the various modules that were published as conversions by Necromancer and Goodman. Those products and my Wilderlands of High Adventure products are produced under license from Judges Guild.
Here is section 6.1 of the GSL:
"6.1 OGL Product Conversion. If Licensee has entered into the “Open Gaming License version 1.0” with Wizards (“OGL”), and Licensee has previously published a product under the OGL (each an “OGL Product”), Licensee may publish a Licensed Product subject to this License that features the same or similar title, product line trademark, or contents as such OGL Product (each such OGL Product, a “Converted OGL Product”, and each such Licensed Product, a “Conversion”). Upon the first publication date of a Conversion, Licensee will cease all manufacturing and publication of the corresponding Converted OGL Product and all other OGL Products which are part of the same product line as the Converted OGL Product, as reasonably determined by Wizards (“Converted OGL Product Line”). Licensee explicitly agrees that it will not thereafter manufacture or publish any portion of the Converted OGL Product Line, or any products that would be considered part of a Converted OGL Product Line (as reasonably determined by Wizards) pursuant to the OGL. Licensee may continue to distribute and sell-off all remaining physical inventory of a Converted OGL Product Line after the corresponding Conversion is published, but will, as of such date, cease all publication, distribution and sale (and ensure that third party affiliates of Licensee cease their publication, distribution and sale) of any element of a Converted OGL Product Line in any electronic downloadable format. For the avoidance of doubt, (a) any OGL Product that is not part of a Converted OGL Product Line may continue to be manufactured, published, sold and distributed pursuant to the OGL; and (b) this Section 6.1 will survive termination of this Agreement."
Bolded emphasis mine. While the specific reference to "third party affiliates" appears to refer strictly to products in downloadable electronic format, I think this is just an oversight and is meant to apply to all physical published items as well. This certainly means that if Necro were to publish Tegel Manor for 4E, they and Judges Guild and Goodman have to stop selling electronic (PDF) Wilderlands products of any kind that use the 3E OGL (or for that matter any other RPG released under the OGL, as it does not carve out "Wizards of the Coast Games Released under the OGL").
Even if it doesn't include all printed products of third party affiliates *now*, there is nothing to say that Wizards can't change it to mean just that five minutes from now, or tomorrow, or next year... and frankly, I believe they intended it to mean that right now, and just goofed in the presentation of the verbiage.
So essentially it means "if a brand is licensed among several companies, if even one of those companies publishes a product of that brand (as defined by Wizards) using 4E, no new products in that brand may be developed using the 3E OGL, and in fact all sales of PDFs in that line using the 3E OGL must cease immediately."
And again, the verbiage about this can always be changed for the worse... at any time, whenever they wish.
No sir, ain't gonna touch it...
I'm crossing my fingers that you, Goodman, and Necromancer end up using practically any version of D&D but the new one.
This GSL fiasco is really throwing a lifeline to 3.X products and game lines. My LGS was about to start a big ol' d20 sale, but maybe it's worth rethinking that strategy.
I'm crossing my fingers that you, Goodman, and Necromancer end up using practically any version of D&D but the new one.
Indeed. On Free RPG Day, I picked up a copy of The Treasure of Talon Pass (WotC, 4e), Revenge of the Kobold King (Paizo, PathFinder) and Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel (Goodman Games, System Neutral). The WotC offering was by far the worst of the three, a very boring read, whilst Punjar kept my attention all the way through. It is just a pity the future supplements are intended for 4e.
James,
Thanks for the answer. However, there's one problem with your reasoning as far as I am aware. Since when is the licensor responsible and must abide by terms that the licensee has agreed to on its own? I'm no lawyer but I fail to see how the GSL would affect JG if Necro would apply for the GSL. Over on the Necro boards, it was implied that is one of the questions that they have for WOTC. However, this may all be moot anyway...
Matthew James Stanham,
How could a boring WOTC mod serve as an example of a poor GG 4E mod? Whether or not a module is boring depends on the writer/editor not on the game system.
As for Goodman Games, it appears they aren't following the GSL...
How could a boring WOTC mod serve as an example of a poor GG 4E mod? Whether or not a module is boring depends on the writer/editor not on the game system.
Actually, it was not the concept that was boring (it was quite interesting), nor the writing particularly. It was what the module amounted to, which was a string of mechanical encounters and lengthy stat blocks.
However, this module was written by David Noonan, developed and edited by Andy Collins and managed by Kim Mohan. If it's really the best they could manage using 4e, then I have a fair guess the system is to blame. This sort of adventure should be the flagship of what's cool about 4e, and it failed to deliver.
However, I am not saying "This module was boring, therefore 4e sucks and so will Goodman Games 4e modules," I am saying that WotC made a poor offering compared to Goodman Games and Paizo Publishing. My desire for Goodman Games to publish Punjar under a different system (or perhaps even systemless) has more to do with my preferences for other systems than what I think of this particular 4e adventure.
As for Goodman Games, it appears they aren't following the GSL...
Interesting, have to check that out.
Darn, too late at night to be writing (or too early in the morning). Ignore that first 'however'.
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