[Ogf-l] OGC Designation Clarity

[The Sigil]

If it makes you feel any better, Clark, I did factor in OGC designation in a couple of my reviews of Malhavoc's products... the "cripple OGC" (spell names not made OGC) caused a couple of products to lose a full point in the ratings. I will probably go back through and edit my reviews at some point to include this factoring on all of them.

In fact, were I to follow your suggestion, I think that from henceforth in my reviews, a book that is closed content - or has such a convoluted OGC designation that it is de facto closed content - will stand to automatically be docked 3 points. That means that WotC products (excepting the PH, DMG, MM, and PsiH, which due to their inclusion in the SRD are counted by me as OGC) are rated on a scale of 1-2. Overly harsh? Perhaps. It means that the product must otherwise be Superb (5) to garner anything but an "Appalling" rating of (1).

A book with "crippled OGC" - where the names of prestige classes, creatures, feats, magic items, and/or spells (specifically these five types of things - they're the only ones that come to mind, but they are essentially the "smallest contiguous pieces" of OGC that can be re-used; though my feeling on PrC's is not as strong as the other four) are PI'd (discounting the PI'ing of a few selected proper names - i.e, if "JOE" is PI I am okay with a spell called JOE'S BLASTING BOLT but I am not okay with "JOE'S BLASTING BOLT" being PI'd), the product is automatically docked 2 points of 5. Unfortunately, that would include Relics & Rituals II, both Creature Collections, and other excellent products put forth by SSS/Necromancer games. But 2/5 points is about how strongly I feel about "crippled OGC." I hope that doesn't offend you, Clark - it is how I feel about the stuff and the OGC designation you (and Malhavoc) happened to use. Ultimately, though, I feel that if you want "JOE" to be PI, just name the spell "BLASTING BOLT" instead of "JOE'S BLASTING BOLT."

R&R I, with it's "goodie license," would probably get docked a point by me - I give credit for including the goodie license, but IMO, names of spells, creatures, magic items, and feats should never be PI'd so that they can be easily identified when they are reprinted. Similarly, PI'ing proper names and dropping the names into spells "JOE'S BLASTING BOLT" annoys me. Remember the reaction when all the proper names were removed from the SRD? Such as with "Mord's Sword?" If you don't want it to be OGC, keep it out of the spell name. Even with a goodie license or PI'd proper names only, I'm still mildly annoyed by that sort of designation - to the tune of 1 point of 5.

However, I worry that the reviews moderators at ENWorld might choose to delete my reviews for this level of harshness - the one reason that I worry about requesting that folks do the "legwork" on ENWorld. I would do more reviews, except they are quite time-consuming - I note with my 21 reviews, I'm one of the top non-staff reviewers at ENWorld.

In fact, I may just start adding reviews to my own website, graded on my criteria (and probably with a 1-10 scale instead of 1-5).

Something to think about, I guess. We'll what happens - a lot depends on how much time I have to make those revisions/changes/moves.

Just be careful what you wish for, Clark - your OGC designations may not be to everyone's liking, either ;-) LOL. Then again, I'm probably more "extreme" than most - I feel that PI should be limited to (outside of Publishing Company names and Product Names) at *most* a couple of dozen words - all proper nouns/names - per book and the text should be 100% OGC, so you may have nothing to worry about. ;-) Again, if the Realms were produced under the OGL, I would say "Elminster" is important to the FR setting and should be PI'd. "Joe the Fifth Barkeep in Tilverton" is not important to the FR setting and should be Open.

I guess that comes from the name "Product Identity" - which to me means "that which identifies your product" or in other words, the "iconic" parts of your world. In the Scarred Lands, for instance, "Slacerian" and "Mithril Golem" and "Carnival Krewe" strike me as PI-type stuff - while things such as, say, "Fleshcrawler" do not. I think people get confused with IP and PI - people are trying to protect all of their IP under the name of PI. They aren't the same. But that's a matter for another thread. ;-b

Hope that all came across right - not trying to be threatening of Clark or sound mad... just trying to explain "here is what I feel." It's all my opinions, so it's almost guaranteed that Your Mileage Will Vary. I'm not "right" in the empirical sense, but I am definitely right when I say that "this is how I feel." :-)

--The Sigil

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