Business

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taustinoc
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Re: Business

Post by taustinoc »

My experience - having run an online gaming store - is different than yours. Neither of us has anything new to add, so I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.

paulstrait
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Re: Business

Post by paulstrait »

Full Bleed wrote: You can prove me wrong. ;) Go ahead and try to get a license for a 5e MT framework. After they've established whether you can produce what you say you can, they're going to quickly follow-up with:
1) How are you going to protect their IP?
2) How are you going to distribute it?

I guarantee that they aren't going to accept the honor system for protection and aren't going to accept a distribution method that they don't see safeguards for. Heck, you actually have RPGNow for a distribution method... but the MT cmpgn format *will* be a non-starter.
Two thoughts about this: 1) I don't think you'd need a license unless you wanted to include a small amount of proprietary elements like "Melf's Acid Arrow." Just base it on the 5e SRD and OGL. Unless you want to include details about specific campaign settings or spells with proper names in them, you shouldn't have a problem. Just include a token that spells out the details of the OGL and you should meet the requirements. (that said, I'm not sure what functionality the FG or roll20 5e frameworks provide that isn't also provided by the MT 5e framework we currently use, except that we haven't explicitly included the elements for subclasses that we haven't used and that no one has asked us for, but that part is pretty trivial)

2) There's not a lot, but there are some people selling .cmpgn files on rpgnow...

Now, you might have problems protecting *your* IP, since people can just share or modify a framework easily. But it seems like it could be done if there were a market for it (perhaps making the framework free but selling compatible modules?) All that said, I've always thought the quality of community produced maptool stuff was remarkably high given the lack of any commercial interest on the part of the creators.

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Full Bleed
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Re: Business

Post by Full Bleed »

paulstrait wrote: 1) I don't think you'd need a license unless you wanted to include a small amount of proprietary elements like "Melf's Acid Arrow." Just base it on the 5e SRD and OGL.
This is a good point. You *could* release a framework on the 5e OGL without a license. But, no one has. I wonder why...

As for the 5e OGL, it's a pretty gimped version of the game... and was only released in the last year or so I believe (significantly after the initial release). Roll20 and FG had negotiated licenses with WotC well before they essentially had to give away a chunk of their commercial rulesets as the 5e OGL.

As a side note, I'm not a fan of the idea of a gimped OGL (this is another thing that I believe Paizo does right with their RD).
2) There's not a lot, but there are some people selling .cmpgn files on rpgnow...
Which is indicative of a problem. If it was "worth doing" their would be tons of material there.
Now, you might have problems protecting *your* IP, since people can just share or modify a framework easily. But it seems like it could be done if there were a market for it (perhaps making the framework free but selling compatible modules?)
Exactly. Is anyone really going to make "professional" frameworks or adventure IP with all the accompanying issues with supporting a professional product that wasn't protected? On this platform? The unprotected copy would be freely distributed like wildfire... especially if people really started to adopt it in earnest. Any sort of popularity would actually kill it. No one's done it because it doesn't make any sense to even try.
All that said, I've always thought the quality of community produced maptool stuff was remarkably high given the lack of any commercial interest on the part of the creators.
I'm not criticizing the MT model... this open system has been awesome. But my point was simply that it undercuts commercial interests when there is no way to protect an investment. If I was going to create a commercial quality module, releasing it on RPGNow in the .campgn format would be the last thing I'd do.
Maptool is the Millennium Falcon of VTT's -- "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts."

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