What I've heard through the rumor mill is that there's no free lunch with 4.0, which means it's going to be closer to the D20 license than the OGL. It won't even be a matter of "PBH required" -- if you want to develop based on the 4e rules, you will pay WotC for a limited-time license. This is why Paizo, Mongoose, Green Ronin, and a number of others are either falling back on OGL-based house rules (Pathfinder, Runequest/Traveller, True20) and not getting into the 4e business.
The other rumor I've heard is that WotC doesn't want to be in the PDF business; if you're not publishing a dead-tree book, they won't grant a license. They may or may not grant licenses to electronic toys like character generators, provided those eletronic aids don't compete with their own electronic tabletop product.
The reason for all of this appears to be that WotC's business model seems to be fashioned heavily around that electronic tabletop and its subscription scheme. They want all official material to be compatible. They seem to fear that if someone spends money on a 3rd-party product that doesn't work with their tabletop, people will blame the tabletop and not the 3rd party product.
Again, however, this is all rumor. We'll see how this plays out in reality.
Thu, 04/17/2008 - 7:34pm
What I've heard through the rumor mill is that there's no free lunch with 4.0, which means it's going to be closer to the D20 license than the OGL. It won't even be a matter of "PBH required" -- if you want to develop based on the 4e rules, you will pay WotC for a limited-time license. This is why Paizo, Mongoose, Green Ronin, and a number of others are either falling back on OGL-based house rules (Pathfinder, Runequest/Traveller, True20) and not getting into the 4e business.
The other rumor I've heard is that WotC doesn't want to be in the PDF business; if you're not publishing a dead-tree book, they won't grant a license. They may or may not grant licenses to electronic toys like character generators, provided those eletronic aids don't compete with their own electronic tabletop product.
The reason for all of this appears to be that WotC's business model seems to be fashioned heavily around that electronic tabletop and its subscription scheme. They want all official material to be compatible. They seem to fear that if someone spends money on a 3rd-party product that doesn't work with their tabletop, people will blame the tabletop and not the 3rd party product.
Again, however, this is all rumor. We'll see how this plays out in reality.
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