Bear in mind that without WotC doing d20, and making it so appealing to work
with, a lot of great gaming modules, games, etc would not be seeing the
light of day. Chances of a Farscape game coming out with its own unique game
are slim without a commercially viable product to base it on. For this
reason alone, 'rewarding' WotC seems appropriate..
-Rob
----- Original Message -----
From: "woodelf (lists)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 12:42 AM
Subject: Re: [Ogf-l] "Shared-Source"
> >I think Wizards is depending upon the Skaff Effect for a return on
> >investment, not direct licensing fees. They're going to sell a heck
> >of a lot of PHBs because of the d20 system. Like I said, it's a
> >great business move.
>
> you know, i have to wonder if i'm the only one who bridles at being
> the SKaff Effect's guinea pig. personally, i refuse to buy a D&D3E
> PH *precisely* because i need it to play some otherwise good games.
> initially, my intention was to not buy any D20 games, solely for this
> reason. promotion of the D20 "brand" by buying a game that uses the
> D20 system? if it's good, why not? promotion of WotC's profits for
> a game that someone else wrote? not on your life. my resolve is
> crumbling, however, and i may buy the Farscape RPG, and muddle
> through without the PH. (well, more likely, convert to Fudge or
> CORPS.) i've seen nothing yet to convince me that the underlying
> system in D&D3E is ownable, therefore i see no reason to reward WotC
> when another game uses it. (there are quite a few bits of the D20SRD
> that are quite copyrightable, IMHO, but they're mostly the parts that
> a game with as different of a setting from D&D as Farscape won't use.)
>
> oh, and i may have asked this on this list before (but i think it was
> elsewhere), so forgive me if so: do you really think they're going to
> sell any appreciable number of D&D3E PHs *because* of other D20
> games? so far,in my admittedly very limited experience, i don't know
> anyone who has bought a PH solely for a non-D&D game. i know people
> who bought 3E and are planning on using it as the basis for other
> games (commercial or homegrown), but they would have bought it even
> if 3E was the only game using D20. but i haven't yet heard of anyone
> who doesn't want to play D&D, but does want to play some other D20
> game, buying a PH. admittedly, so far there aren't a lot of options
> (IIRC, The Foundation is the only one so far (Star Wars stands on its
> own), and it got very lackluster reviews), so it's not that
> surprising that it hasn't happened yet. on the other hand,
> everything i've heard says that the buying public is not amenable to
> the idea of having to buy B so that they can use their new toy, A.
> even buying batteries separately (something that is inevitable with a
> battery powered object, even some are packaged with it, due to their
> consumable nature) seems to be a bit of a sales hurter. and that's
> an additional, say, $10 to make a $50 toy work. how are people going
> to feel when they're looking at this new game on the shelf, and it
> only costs $30, but then they read that they'll also have to buy the
> $20 PH? it'll take some pretty devoted fans, IMHO, to buy a game
> that requires them to also buy a D&D PH. [and if the target market
> is only people who only already own a PH, then there goes the Skaff
> Effect, because you're only marketing to the converted.] if i were a
> huge Farscape fan but not already a roleplayer, and heard there was
> an RPG coming out, and then found out that it would require me to
> also buy the D&D3E PH to play it, i'd be as or more likely to write
> the company a nasty letter (and buy neither) than to buy both. heck,
> i *am* a huge Farscape fan (though already a RPer), and i've been
> following the whole WOGL/D20 thing so if the Farscape RPG requires
> the PH to play it, i even know and understand why, and i'm *still* as
> likely to write AEG a bitchy letter and not buy the game (though my
> letter will be "why'd you use D20?" rather than "why didn't you tell
> us how to create characters?").
>
> woodelf <*>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://members.home.net/woodelph/
>
> The Laws of Anime <http://www.abcb.com/laws/index.htm>:
> #31 Law of Follicular Chroma Variability
> Any color in the visible spectrum is considered a natural hair color.
> This color can change without warning or explanation.
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