> Something I wonder -- should the D20 rules be released under the OGL,
> what happens if someone slaps on character creation and advancement
> rules and calls it something catchy, like "Frogs and Fiends?" The new
> game would be practically identical to D&D. Would it catch on? What
> would Hasbro do to stop it? (They could spend marketing dollars
> against it, or they could litigate it's copyright holder(s) to
> bankruptcy. Anything else?)
Why would anyone care? It would have the same base rules as D&D (D20) but wouldn't
have that WotC flair. ;) Most likely, it would be far less useful to gamers than the
readily available PH and probably of lower quality. IF it had any really interesting
rule additions, these could easily be incorporated back into the D20 core. Any
possible game-related benefits of "Frogs & Fiends" (other than the groovy name) would
now be shared with the D20 System. So why even bother publishing "Frogs & Fiends"?
On the other side of the question, the D20 is Open. Anyone can take it and release
their own game rules. The problem would be not in the similarity to the D&D rules
(because they're the same, duh) but similarities to the WotC PH itself. Then WotC
would have other IP issues to consider with the F&F publishers unrelated to D20 or OGL.
-Andrew
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