Hello, all. Mr. Wild Idea here, with a bit of a philosophical question on
how OGL might actually INHIBIT some forms of creativity.
Some of you are folks I recognize from the Alternity List from way back. And
on that list, we all had the "advantage" that we were ALL unofficial (except
for the occasional A-Team member who popped in). So we could speculate
wildly, argue for particular points of view, etc.; and we could count on our
fellow A-Listers to point out where we were way off in Lala Land. A lot of
good home brew rules came out of that process; but they were good in large
part because the dumb ideas were shot down quickly. And of course, none of
it was official. On a very rare occasion, we would devise a good idea that
would affect the "official" game; but mostly, our wildest speculations died
peaceful deaths, and our better speculations made folks think.
But here in OGLand, things are a little different. A particular reading of
the OGL (and the STL, to some extent) leads me to believe that all
publicly-expressed ideas are equally official, even the dumb ones. It seems
like OGL paradoxically gives more "life" to a dumb idea than the old rules
did. Before, when a dumb idea came to light, it certainly COULD propagate;
but now, it's almost ENCOURAGED to propagate.
Case in point. During some forced time off today (orders from my boss), I
have been designing Classes, Feats, and Skills for my vision of near future
hard SF under D20. Right now, I'm merely at the brainstorming stage. No idea
gets rejected: listed, yes; organized, maybe; rejected, no. This will
inevitably lead to more skills and feats and classes than are practical or
necessary. (What, we don't need six different Tactics skills? Probably not,
but they just flowed out naturally.) So my impulse is to put them together
and post them to the list for help in weeding them out. It is the nature of
OGL that, in my own works, I can bloody well ignore you all and say that
yes, weaponsmith and machining and manufacturing ARE different skills, so
there! You can't stop me, just make fun of me for being stupid and ignore me
when you write your own works. But during the brainstorming sessions, my
dumb ideas can take root and spread out of control. Do I REALLY want to be
remembered as the man who inflicted six different Tactics skills on the
gaming world? If I post it, that could happen.
I realize, too, that there is no official OGL yet, just a proposal. And
maybe I'm worrying over nothing. But I did hesitate at the idea of posting
my skill list. I will post it; but I have this fear that some day, years
from now, Mob Tactics will come back to haunt me.
Martin L. Shoemaker
Emerald Software, Inc. -- Custom Software and UML Training
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.EmeraldSoftwareInc.com
www.UMLBootCamp.com
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
