A lot of digital ink has flowed on the subject of the changes to the way the 4e OGL will be handled.
I’ve chimed in on Critical Hits and Omnius’ blog about it. The debate rages on and will for some time and I don’t want to spend any more on this than needed (It’s funny how I keep saying “I don’t want to talk about it” and keep on doing it… I must be insane or something).
One thing is for sure, having a 5000 $ entry fee makes small press’ early access to the “1st wave to market” difficult.
WotC says it’s for quality purposes, I won’t argue the relative merits of that except to say that some of the bigger 3rd party that will cough up the 5k now were probably small press then… and they managed to get qualty stuff out. That irks me.
I’ve worked in the Generic Pharmaceutical industry (as a Product launch manager) and I know firsthand the importance of being the 1st to the market (or at least in the 1st wave) to get a significant market share (market share that will be very small to start with).
Anyway, last night I fired up my Gtalk and rang my Nemesis, Freelance Designer Wolfgang Baur. After the typical Crunch Overlord/Fluff Nemesis exchange of pleasantries and half-concealed threats (I might be taking some narrative liberties here), I asked him his thoughts on the 4e OGL subject.
He confirmed that he was in the same boat as all other small press (Freelance/Indy RPG publication is not a moneymaking career move). I asked him if he was trying to get patrons of his Open Design imprint to chip-in to buy a Licence for Open Design and Kobold Quaterly (Wolfgang’s 2 independent projects).
Turns out that he is and he made an interesting proposition here.
Here’s the gist of it:
- A group of patron pay to support Open Design’s bid for a access to the SRD and the right to publish 4e stuff with the other big dogs.
- The top 20 contributors get to be Freelancers for Open Design and get access to the SRD to create material under a formal business agreement with Wolfgang.
I’ve decided to pitch in my support (There goes my monthly RPG budget) and help a talented professional with crazy great ideas get his break. It won’t make me a freelancer, but I believe I’m better off as a customer and part time blogger… 🙂
Aside: And what fun will it be to reign supreme as the Crunch Overlord of 4e if I don’t have my Nemesis to try to foil my fiendish rules loophole and Fluffless adventures?
If you want to stick it to the Man (In that particular case, the Man being a Magician who lives close to the Ocean), I invite you to consider adding your support to those who already chipped in more than 2000$. Any amount counts!
You know as long as you keep linking me I’m going to keep coming by…
Anyway, that’s a veeerrryyy interesting proposition by Mr. Baur, and something I would love to do with Critical Hits money.
Hey, if I’m not going to rant here about the OGL, I might has well offer the service and point to those where it happens…
I gave 50$ of my future ChattyDM money! 🙂
It’s good to see you NOT blogging about 4e. I hope you keep NOT blogging about 4e for a long time to come.
Just one question though; surely if fluff and crunch meet, that’s like matter and anti-matter (or pasta and antipasta) colliding.
4e will bring about the end of the world.
I just know it.
Darned good idea though.
You, dear Greywulf, are now hereby christened the Pessimist Minion!
😛
I’ll see if I make the blog jump to 4e if and when I jump to DMing 4e.
As for Fluff and Crunch meeting, Wolfgang and I already agreed to meet at Gen Con to settle this once and for all… (if Mike Mearls doesn’t get to him first)
Peace out man!
Get him involved in your Paranoia game. Teach him what the cold, hard hand of Crunch… I mean The Computer feels like.
How dare my nemesis support this All-Fluff Expedition!? It’s… It’s humiliating to be supported by a Crunch Overlord. To renew my fluff credentials, I hereby vow to print a statless, all-fluff book as my first official 4E product! 🙂
Ok, maybe not.
But when matter and anti-matter meet at GenCon, the gaming universe will never be the same. (And thanks for the pointer!)
Plans within plans my dear Mr.Baur…
I shall await our prophesied meeting.
(Chatty somehow feels like having a white cat on his lap would be appropriate)
Man, that’s an intriguing idea… Pretty feasible, too, if your group’s hardcore enough. Consider this:
20 people get to be freelancers for him. That means, at most, each of them will have to have pitched in $250. Probably less, that’s assuming that everyone pitches in an equal amount, which is very unlikely. But pitch in $250 and you’re guaranteed a spot.
So what’s $250 to a gaming group? Let’s say there are 6 players and a DM. That means each person needs to pitch in $36.
Thus, your group could get early access to the rules AND a chance to write an actual product for a fairly paltry sum.
Of course, this ignores some pretty obvious questions… First, I’m sure Wizards would consider this a violation of the spirit of the offer. Second, they’ve said that each company which buys in will get a single copy of the pre-release rulebooks, in dead-tree form, and that they are amenable to making arrangements for more copies if necessary.
I think it might be difficult to convince them to throw in 20 extra copies and ship them to 20 different addresses across the US (maybe across the world).
Hmm… Well, this is all an academic thought experiment, my friends are too cheap to try it anyways and I’ve got other stuff to waste $250 on.
Asmor –
The top 20 patrons won’t actually get rules access, though they’d likely be able to see the OGL. The rules are hard-copy binders, and a business that applies like this gets a maximum of 3 binders, on non-photocopyable paper.
Though any of those patrons in the Seattle area may be able to stop by Wolfgang’s place to see them.
That said, they would get access to any material that Wolfgang writes, which would be 4e rules material, and may be enough to infer a lot from.
It took less than 4 day but Wolfgang got more than 5000$. That’s amazing and shows the dedication of gamers to their providers!!
Woot!
Now for plan B of my fiendish plot to control his brain and turn him into a Crunch Zombie!
Mwa HA HA HA!
And it also shows that, despite the naysayers being the most vocal, most gamers seem to be excited (or at least interested) in what’s coming out with 4e.
Agreed… and Wolfgang’s more vocal fans are actually more Pro-3e than 4e… which goes to show… well nothing really…
🙂