Archiving a thread started by Mort:
As usual I've been reading rpg.net, and happened upon the standard d20 moaning thread. Wherein the question about what d20 really is was asked.
So, what is d20 really? Obviously to use the d20 logo you have to follow the guidelines set up by WotC, which has been nerfed badly lately from what I've seen. But is a OGL game also a d20 game? Only without the license? Or is it something else? Can you make a OGL where you roll only d10's?
From what I've understood d20 is basically two things:
You have six stats, with the standard names.
You roll a d20 to beat a DC.
But this is not the OGL, as the OGL just basically lets you take advantage of the system developed for d20 in your own games. From my understanding of the license (I don't read legaleese very well so I might be wrong) there's nothing stopping you from making a d10 dice pool OGL game. So in other words OGL is not d20.
This means that what d20 is is rather more defined than most people think, d20 is what is covered by the d20 license, which is much more restrictive than the OGL license, and thus d20 is a distinct and only to a limited extent mutable system.
Did that make any sense at all?
Archived comment by me:
ReplyDeleteI do love the whole anti-d20 thing. If you don't like it, guess what? You don't have to play it! (Mostly - there are reasons why it's not too good to have a single system in such a dominant position, since it can make it hard to find a non-d20 game. But then, it was always much easier to find a D&D group than a non-D&D group. The counter argument is that d20 has allowed the publication of a bunch of games that might well not have existed otherwsie. Designing mechanics is hard, and so it has to be considered a benefit to not have to do that. And I know that the grammar in that last sentence is shocking - sorry.)
I agree with your assessment of what d20 and OGL games are, again, mostly. There are some OGL games that are very close to d20 (Everquest, Arcana Unearthed, Mutants & Masterminds). So, some OGL games are, at least, d20 compatible.
To be honest, I prefer d20 to be fairly monolithic in implementation. Okay, you probably could do an entirely different skills system under d20, and you probably could ditch classes, feats, levels, and so on, but that would just mean learning a new system. Better if it sticks fairly close to D&D, and goes OGL for any more radical departure.
That, of course, is from my point of view as a consumer. As a game designer, I think I would prefer to use the d20 logo if there was any way I could, since I suspect it probably does sell books.
I'm not sure that's really helpful in any way. Oh, well.