Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Stupid Question II

On Saturday, I asked this:

Why are the works that purport to be "publishing enablers" all written, laid out, and presented as if they were games in and of themselves?

If the idea is to present a game, fair enough. If the idea is to allow third party products of a specific flavor, shouldn't they be made up of lists and "how-to" guides?

When asked, I had a hard time explaining exactly what I meant.

And now the GSL for the new Wizards of the Coast Fantasy Game has been released. And that SRD, that's what I meant. If someone puts one of those together, in that format (using the OGL of course, and not this back-door kill-the-competition GSL) for traditional gaming instead of writing a whole game, I think we'd be in happyland.


6 comments:

  1. There's still a leap I'm not quite making. The SRD does nothing but reference the actual rulebooks and provide formatting standards. Making a simulacra SRD in this model would be like me drawing you a map to Raggiopolis. The map might be three different flavors of cool blended to perfection, but it's completely useless unless there's actually a Raggiopolis to go to.

    - Brian

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  2. But there already are several Raggiopoli to go to... and the names on the bylines are Gygax, Arneson, Mentzer, etc.

    The simulacra are just pointing the way to these things anyway, the thing I'm unclear on is why they are bothering to try to be complete games unto themselves.

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  3. But if your simulacra is merely going to be a sheet with headings, under which it says "do it like Gygax says to on pp. XX-YY of the AD&D PHB," why bother? I suppose something that blatant might get the job done in regards to avoiding legal complications, but I don't really see how.

    - Brian

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  4. The point is, if the idea is to just be a publishing enabler, you don't need to list or even reference any rules at all. You just need a reference of terms and formats that are in the clear.

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  5. Ok, I think I see what you're saying now.

    I think the answer is, it's fun to make a game. And by the time you'd finished your list of terms and mechanics, you're more than halfway there already.

    - Brian

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  6. Because not everyone has the old games on their shelf. I play BFRPG rules, but if I wanted to play B/X without the changes that BFRPG put in I would purchase/download Labyrinth Lord instead of chasing down the old rule books on ebay. Everyone in my group could do the same and we could all have the same rule books at no cost other than paper and ink.

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