[WW] [OT] D20 System and OGL (was: DMG?)

["J. H. Frank" <frankjoh@pilot.msu.edu>]

> The Official Game License says that you need the PHB, DMG and Monster
Manual
> to use them.  By the binding contract of the Arch-Fiends at WOTC/Hasbro
PEG
> is required to say you need them all.

The OGL (which, incidentally, means Open Game License, not Official), does
not require any of these things.  The OGL is a system to insure the
"copyleft," or open-source nature, of anything carrying it.  Specifically,
the OGL makes it so that all things declared as open game content may be
copied, modified, and distributed (minus Product Identity, such as names and
game-world info) by anyone as long as certain rules are followed.

The effect of this is that open game developers can use each other's work as
a basis for new rules developments with no legal snags.

Confusion comes into this because there are _two_ licenses used by almost
all the OGL-carrying products on the market, and the second one is the D20
System Trademark License.  The D20 System Trademark License is an additional
set of strictures placed on the use of (a) the D20 system logo, (b) the D20
system rules.  The logo stuff is essentially bland intellectual property
right stuff, but the D20 system rules part is actually quite interesting.

The D20 System License states that you may not, in a D20 System License
carrying product, include rules for character creation or advancement.  You
are also prohibited from changing the definition of certain terms outlined
in the D20 System Reference Document (SRD), such as changing a melee attack
roll to be done on a D10.

More relevantly to the point I was trying to refute and clear up, the D20
System License allows that you _may_ put into or onto your product the exact
phrase, "Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, Third
Edition, published by Wizards of the Coast."  As I understand it, any other
reference to D&D trademarks (such as mentioning the DMG by name, as opposed
to calling it Core Rulebook II) can be dealt with in a court of law.

Sorry about all this OT stuff, but I've been following threads like this on
RPG.net, Eric Noah's boards, the Wizards boards, rec.games.frp.dnd, and a
few other mailing lists, and it's beginning to get to me that the OGL and
D20 licenses are being accused of things that they don't do.

> I personally don't dislike the D20 system but I hate the fact that WOTC
> requires you to buy 60 bucks worth of books for just the rules. I feel
that
> WOTC should print a book that covers just the skelton generic rules(kind
of
> like what they did with Amazing Engine).

As a few others have stated, WotC is making their money by selling the three
books.  There's not really an angle in selling a bare-bones D20 system with
the things not in the SRD included until the PHB, DMG, and MM stop selling.

      J. H. Frank