Newsgroup: it.hobby.giochi.gdr.dnd
Titolo: QUARTA edizione 4th - OGL e Green Ronin

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2008
Some Further Thoughts
My previous entry sparked some lively debate over on EN World. I
posted the message below earlier and figured I might as well add it to
my blog. Here it is:
Running a hobby game company is a curious thing. Nearly everyone gets
into the industry because they love games but at a certain point you
have to face the realities of doing business. Now a part of me will
always be a D&D fanboy. I started playing when I was 10 years old and
it really did change my life. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today
if I hadn't cracked open that white boxed set all those years ago.
Tapping into that passion is an important part of being an effective
game designer, but it takes more than that to run a successful
business.
It is tempting to just say, "Wohoo, it's D&D, let's go for it!" That
is in fact just what I said back in 2000 when I started Green Ronin.
At the time though the company was a side project and the only money I
stood to lose was my own. Now I have seven staffers relying on me to
make the right decisions for Green Ronin and I don't take that
responsibility lightly. I thus have to be a little more sober in my
assessment of what's going on and what will be good for GR.
Right now Green Ronin has four important lines: Mutants & Masterminds,
Freeport, True20, and the upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. We
could easily keep ourselves busy handling just those four lines and we
don't need to rely on any other company to do so. M&M and True20 are
stand alone games and they won't be changing because of 4E, A Song of
Ice and Fire has its own brand new system and doens't use the OGL, and
the new Freeport book is systemless and can be used with any fantasy
RPG. So really none of what we're doing at the moment is reliant on
what WotC does or doesn't do with the new OGL.
The question we are now wrestling with at GR is what to do with 4E.
Should we support it or just keep doing what we're doing? If we do
support it, should pay the 5K to become a phase 1 publisher or wait
until next year? My blog post took a short look at some of the factors
in play. We are giving this serious consideration but we are not ready
to finalize plans yet. First we must see the new OGL. I have to know
under what terms we'd be doing business before I agree to anything.
There are absolutely some great designers at WotC. Hell, many of them
have done work for Green Ronin. Jesse Decker, Chris Thomasson, Rodney
Thompson, and Matt Sernett all worked on d20 books for us. I have a
lot of respect for 4E's lead designer, Rob Heinsoo, who has been a
friend and collegue of mine for over a decade. I know these folks can
kick ass, but having worked at WotC for four years I also know that
it's an environment that doesn't always get the best out of its
designers. I hope 4E is a real step forward, but the question is
whether or not I'm willing to bet $5,000 that it is? I don't think
it's unreasonable to wish I could see what I was buying before I write
a check, though I do understand why WotC is handling things this way.
I'm heartened that so many of you want to see GR keep its place in the
d20 world. I hope that we'll be able to and that it'll be a win/win
for everyone.
Labels: Game Industry
posted by Chris @ 8:16 PM   0 Comments
TUESDAY, JANUARY 08, 2008
To 4E or Not to 4E
After the announcement of Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons back at
GenCon, I wrote in my blog about what would need to happen for this to
really benefit Green Ronin. Today WotC announced the new terms of the
Open Game License and how publishing would work under it. I was part
of a conference call yesterday with nine other companies in which WotC
gave us the skinny, so I've at least had a day to chew over the news.
Back in September I said six things would need to happen for 4E to
work for us. Let's take a look at these again in light of the new
info.
1) The new rules need to be good.
Jury is still out on this. More to the point, I can't find out if they
are good any time soon unless I'm willing to shell out $5,000 to get
early access. That's a big leap of faith.
2) WotC needs to convince the lion's share of their fanbase to make
the switch.
The marketing of 4E has not been stellar to date. This is still an
open question.
3) The new rules need to be more successful at recruiting new
roleplayers.
This remains unknown.
4) The d20 brand needs a new iteration that sheds the bad connotations
the original took on.
We now know the d20 logo is dead. There will now only be the Open Game
License, but it is going to include the type of strictures that
previous only appeared in the d20 System Trademark License. The new
OGL apparently will allow the use of some kind of compatibility
language that includes a variant of the D&D logo. This may remove some
of the onus of the d20 logo, but it is going to make it harder to
solicit books to retailers and distributors.
5) WotC needs to get us the new rules in time to learn them well
enough to design good product and to make strategic plans that can
capitalize on the game's launch.
If you are willing to pay $5,000 up front, this can happen for the
hobby market at least. It doesn't help the book trade business of
companies like GR and Paizo, since we needed to get info on our summer
releases out this past October. One hopes that six months of lead time
is enough to learn the rules and design for them, but without seeing
the rules it is still hard to say.
6) WotC needs to do something to prevent a second d20 glut.
They have done something but perhaps not enough. The six months of
exclusive time for those that pay for the Designer's Kit will prevent
a huge rush of stuff from small companies. This plan does nothing to
prevent well funded and established companies from flooding the market
with junk though and that was just as much of a problem in the
original d20 market.
Naturally, people want to know what Green Ronin's plans are for 4E.
All I can tell you right now is that we are still debating internally.
When WotC gets us the new OGL, we have to review it and see what we
can and cannot do under it. So while I was hoping that this news would
make our decision easier, our path is not yet clear. It may be that
the smart play is just to put all our muscle behind a A Song of Ice
and Fire Roleplay and push that like mofos. We'll see.

Francamente mi auguro che alla GR se ne sbattano ampiamente di D&D4, hanno 
già per le meni due ottimi sistemi, *nettamente* superiori all'attuale 3.5, 
considerando oltretutto che M&M è il secondo gdr più giocato negli USA direi 
che il passaggio (e lo sgancio di 5000 verdoni) è superfluo.
salut
-- 
_______________________
l'Iran ha chiesto l'intervento dell'Onu contro gli Stati Uniti perché
loro hanno Chuck Norris 

che il passaggio (e lo sgancio di 5000 verdoni) è superfluo.
Io aspetto con ansia game of thrones... Ho preso l'edizione deluxe
pubblicata lo scorso anno, e non è affatto male, ma Pramas mi ha
abituato bene, e quindi mi aspetto grandi cose.
ciao

 abituato bene, e quindi mi aspetto grandi cose.
Beh, il regolamento sarà completamente nuovo e non d20 com'era quella della 
Guardians of Order immagino... D non lettore di Martin francamente aspetto 
con più ansia Wildcards (basato su di una serei di racconti dello stesso 
Martin e altri) per M&M
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