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Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Yeah, Magic has changed A LOT. Especially with Magic 2010 when they completely overhauled everything and, among other things, got rid of mana burn because it apparently made the game too complex. When playing against opponents with enough money and/or booster luck it's absolutely possible to see this abomination out on turn eight or so. (Yes, that thing is ridiculous. I won't touch the entire block because of cards like that.)

Here are some tis on how to semi-cheaply build workable decks without having to buy half a display worth of cards. If you don't intend on getting back into the game feel free to disregard them.

One powerful thing you do have are removal spells. Early white had a lot of these and they still kick ass. Nobody can do squat about an uncountered Wrath of God and any white deck with a full playset of Swords to Plowshares in it will not be popular with your opponents. If you play white a lot one fairly simple deck you can build with a lot of old cards is a traditional wall deck with a few removal spells and Stuffy Doll and Pariah's Shield tossed in. Keep your opponents at bay until any damage they deal to you is returned to them. For added complexity add Guilty Conscience to create an infinite damage loop and use any removal spell on Stuffy Doll to break it (as unbroken infinite loops force the game into a draw). Beware blue opponents who might counter that remover.
Also nice is Armored Ascension. It makes any creature awesome and can turn Stuffy Doll into a fearsome attacker nobody wants to block with anything sensible. Also (newer than your collection but still quite old), creatures with the shadow keyword. Since nobody plays with shadow anymore most Soltari become really cheap unblockable creatures. If you have a few of these you can forgo any other attackers in favor of more walls.

If blue is your forte just invest in a playset of Forced Fruition and mix it with all variants of Counterspell and Boomerang you can get your hands on, especially those two (both haven't been around in undiluted form for a while). Slow down your opponent until FF is out and then keep them from destroying it. Watch as they mill themselves to death. Bonus points for going blue-black and playing Megrim or Liliana's Caress. (Note: The latter is more useful, being cheaper and working through life-loss instead of damage but it's also about twenty times as expensive on the open market. Money-wise, Megrim is extremely cheap for what it can do.) Oh yeah, just remembered: Black Vise and Underworld Dreams go really well with Forced Fruition and might already be in your possession.
If you feel cheap, bind a Counterspell into an Isochron Scepter so you're not even limited by your hand. I think that card lacks style, though.

Note that both of these decks do especially well in Two-Headed Giant (aka two-on-two with shared life) and extremely poorly in free-for all. In Two-Headed Giant your mate can attack (white) or block (blue) for you until your deck has come out. In free-for-all t

Oh, he probably just plays Magic.

It's called an aurochs. Research fail.

Nope. Wall of Air = Card.

Don't forget that the ponies inspired a ground breaking innovative RPG by the makers of D&D.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060401a

Well, the only .Net application I am currently interested in running does not run in Mono.

It requires "Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1"

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/tool.aspx?x=dnd/4new/tool/characterbuilder

They are supposed to be bringing back Dark Sun, but it'd be best to have very low expectations, cause they just want something "gritty".

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drfe/20090814

Actually, in DnD Cha != Looks. Unless you think the average Mummy (Monster Manual, Cha 15) or Gibbering Mouther (Monster Manual, Cha 13) is more attractive than the average human/elf/gnome/halfling/half-elf/whatever (Cha 10). A Nalfeshnee (Monster Manual, Cha 20, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG45.jpg it's the big monster in the background) would be prettier than even the prettiest (3d6 = Cha 18) humans!

Besides, elves don't even have a bonus to charisma so they are no more likely to be attractive to the girl in your post than a kobold (who also has +0 Cha).

Charisma may make you more attractive but it doesn't make you pretty. DnD doesn't have an ability score to indicate physical beauty unless you use one of those third party books that all players will deny having read.

Sounds like Axis and Allies http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/aa/welcome with nukes to me.

We just know from WoW that most people can connect online and play.

I wonder how many people play WoW offline?

Those are called "Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games", son.

Dungeons and Dragons is the most popular one. If it seems superficially similar to WoW, it is because it predates it for 30 years and many of the WoW concepts were inspired by it.

Yes, there is a lot of creativity and players come up with smart combinations that are very effective against certain other decks, but that's kind of the point. If you're a serious player, you're supposed to keep yourself updated about that and construct your deck to face known strong decks accordingly. That's what makes the whole thing so interesting. The thing is, there are so many cards, effects, and ways of playing that there is never a single deck at the top. At worse, all major decks contain the overpowered card, but that's not a problem.

Once again, you seem to be missing that this is what game balance does. MTG's remarkable balance is why the there is never a single deck at the top. If you want to see what happens when the game isn't balanced, look at this article, when your only options are Necropotence deck, or deck that is tuned specifically to beat Necropotence decks, then it's a less healthy metagame.

The fact that, as you say, 'there are so many cards, effects, and ways of playing' and not one of those is flat out best is a testament to how good Wizards are. Although, I bet they wish they hadn't printed a couple of Faeries (Mistbind Clique, I'm looking at you.)

Mark Rosewater, current head developer of Magic the Gathering, explained a much more in depth categorization. It has a lot more "gray areas" (in which people act like one or the other at different times), but I find it a lot better than this description (at least for tabletop games).
You can find the original article here. The other articles are found here and here/

Mark Rosewater, current head developer of Magic the Gathering, explained a much more in depth categorization. It has a lot more "gray areas" (in which people act like one or the other at different times), but I find it a lot better than this description (at least for tabletop games).
You can find the original article here. The other articles are found here and here/

Mark Rosewater, current head developer of Magic the Gathering, explained a much more in depth categorization. It has a lot more "gray areas" (in which people act like one or the other at different times), but I find it a lot better than this description (at least for tabletop games).
You can find the original article here. The other articles are found here and here/

That'd be like using Giant Growth because it's an instant and gets you +3/+3 until end of turn, right?

Oh, wait..you don't like me so my attempt to get the data will be refused as you play a Counterspell.

That'd be like using Giant Growth because it's an instant and gets you +3/+3 until end of turn, right?

Oh, wait..you don't like me so my attempt to get the data will be refused as you play a Counterspell.

I play Magic: the Gathering a bit and read some of the daily articles from time to time. One of the authors is Mark Rosewater, a head designer. One of the things he talks about is design in the abstract, which has a lot of application beyond games. One of the things he talks about is how to learn to be creative. Here is a sample article about how to be creative:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr273

Another example is the book "How to solve it". This is a rather interesting book, because it gives steps on how to solve problems -- steps that, once they become ingrained, act exactly like creativity.

And for teaching a creative people to be formal, a famous counterexample is Ramanujan, and Indian mathematician of great creativity that could never be made to learn "the correct ways to apply [his] ideas". Hardy tried, and failed to do that.

This is ironic: only after writing the about paragraph did I read down to where you said "lack of creativity is why Indian ...".

In related new, Wizards of Coast filed suit against the scientist for violating their Intellectual Property. They are seeking damages in excess of 100 million dollars.

Nice job being a dick.

When you brought out 4e, it was supposed to be a self-contained series of books. There were three books - the DM guide, the Player's Handbook, and the Monster Manual.

There's nothing preventing you from playing 4E with just the original three core books, just as with previous editions. In fact, thousands of gamers are doing just that, myself included.

Then you wanted $15/month to access your online content.

And how is it wrong for WotC to charge $15 a month for access to all the new optional content they put on their website? It's not like Dungeon and Dragon magazines were free either. Plus they had ads and came out once a month instead of every couple of days.

Then you announced that there were more CORE books coming out. There's a release party every month now. Twelve books a year? Are you insane?

Yes, WotC is releasing multiple core books for 4E. So what? You don't need them to play the game. And I suppose you just forgot that 3E had 2 PHBs, 2 DMGs and 4 MMs. Plus another one of each if you count 3.0 and 3.5 separately. Also, why is it a problem that WotC releases products every month? (The vast majority of which are not, in fact, core books.) You don't have to buy them you know. Are you also complaining when Nintendo is releasing a game every month? Most gamers would be delighted.

Then you killed the SRD.

Granted, 4E is not nearly as open as 3E/OGL/d20 was, but there is still a 4E SRD, and 3E is still open source.

You see me as a cash cow. Fuck you. I'm not paying you a thousand dollars to get all the books when the full set was supposed to be a hundred - or just fifty online.

You had to pay thousands of dollars to get all the books for 2E and 3E too. 4E is no different in that. But just as with those previous editions, you don't actually need any books beyond the 3 original core books. I know I'm having a blast playing with just those and I did pay just $50 for them.

You're liars, you're fuckups, and I do not reward incompetence with my cash.

You're either a liar or an ignoramus, a copyright-infringer, and you have a twisted sense of entitlement.

In related news, D&D is also getting new class, the Witchaloks, designed by the Penny Arcade crew.

It's rather hard to stick with what you love when the core rulebooks go out of print as soon as the new ones come out.

How can you be on SLASHDOT and not know about this?

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srdarchive

D&D 3.5 and d20 Modern, less a VERY small subest of the rules, free and copyleft for your geeky enjoyment. Yes, copyleft. Same principle as the GPL.

(Why is 4e SO different from 3e? So they could break the OGL.)

The to-hit thing sounds like an interesting point. I used Google to find this forum discussion of it.

Some people claim that hit rates aren't really that low (people are always trying to optimize, so few people really have "average" characters) and that team cooperation can more than make up for it.

I have no idea. The only contact I have with 4e has been the Penny Arcade podcasts.

Magic: The Gathering cards often have had to have modified artwork for the Chinese versions to remove skeletons. See http://www.redkemp.com/?p=344 and http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/arcana/948 which discusses this for some cards with the original version and the Chinese version both shown. Note that clearly dead beings such as zombies are apparently ok. The issue is purely if the being is skeletal And for a skeleton to be made acceptable it just needs a tiny bit of flesh added on to make it look more zombie-like.

Well, its sort of the nature of the game: in order to keep up demand for new sets, they have to keep overpowering them. Which is super lame for guys like me who still have cards from arabian nights. :(

I quote from the flavor text of the Booster Tutor card: Real men use Arabian Nights boosters.

By the way, the Un-sets (Unglued and Unhinged) are surprisingly useful in spicing up old decks. Of course you get a lot of chaff and technically the Un-sets aren't legal, well, just about everywhere. But it's not like Rocket Powered Turbo Slug or Goblin S.W.A.T. Team are particularly overpowered...

Well, its sort of the nature of the game: in order to keep up demand for new sets, they have to keep overpowering them. Which is super lame for guys like me who still have cards from arabian nights. :(

I quote from the flavor text of the Booster Tutor card: Real men use Arabian Nights boosters.

By the way, the Un-sets (Unglued and Unhinged) are surprisingly useful in spicing up old decks. Of course you get a lot of chaff and technically the Un-sets aren't legal, well, just about everywhere. But it's not like Rocket Powered Turbo Slug or Goblin S.W.A.T. Team are particularly overpowered...

Well, its sort of the nature of the game: in order to keep up demand for new sets, they have to keep overpowering them. Which is super lame for guys like me who still have cards from arabian nights. :(

I quote from the flavor text of the Booster Tutor card: Real men use Arabian Nights boosters.

By the way, the Un-sets (Unglued and Unhinged) are surprisingly useful in spicing up old decks. Of course you get a lot of chaff and technically the Un-sets aren't legal, well, just about everywhere. But it's not like Rocket Powered Turbo Slug or Goblin S.W.A.T. Team are particularly overpowered...

For some reason it's having some kind of a renaissance among my friends, with some just picking it up for the first time. As someone who plays using mostly his old Fifth Edition cards I'm pretty frustrated - pretty much everything from about Eigth Edition onwards is seriously overpowered, with the latest set, Shards of Alara, being the worst; it contains gems like this one.

If you're thinking of picking up Magic again I advise either getting a Tenth Edition* deck (so you won't be comletely outgunned) and never plaing against someone with an Elf dack (those can produce infinite Mana) or only playing against people who stick to the older editions. Or getting something like Magic Workstation, a nifty (if somewhat buggy) program that allows you to build decks and play Magic online. The trial verison isn't too limited, just a nag screen and limited solitaire play.


A note to the mods: Before you mod this -1, Offtopic remember that this is more nerdy than most of the news you see on this site nowadays so it deserves a little credit for that. ;)


* Mirrodin/Darksteel/Fifth Dawn work, too. If you're into artifact decks these contain all you need to build an indestructible army that doesn't require any mana to play. Which is about on par with the rest of the newer sets.

By that definition, the hullabaloo at Guantanamo would certainly be both immoral and unethical ...

This is all too confusing. Can't we use terminology that we're all familiar with ?

"could not one just as easily publish a rulebook, and leave it at that?"

Yes, they can.

Large Chicago law firm Jones Day are suing internet startup BlockShopper over the issue of whether linking to a business with their trademarked name should be legal.

Yes, it should be.

"RPGs? Try White Wolf or Wizards of the Coast."

Trademarks exist to differentiate businesses. You have an ABSOLUTE RIGHT to use somebody else's trademark to refer to them or describe their product. Any law that says otherwise is fundamentally flawed, and violates the first amendment.

A trademark is a name, and names are fundamental to speech.

Consider collectible card games like Magic. It could cost you hundreds of dollars to build an effective deck.

What I'm surprised about is that nobody has ever considered trying the same sort of thing with online gaming.

Never heard of Magic Online?. All the cards from real Magic (the last couple years of sets anyways)...for exactly the same prices. Yes, it's really $4 for a virtual pack of 15 random cards.

Gleemax: http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=gleemax#

The only one I read is the one for the Wizards website so I know when they've updated it.

Yea, last night I was listening to those Penny Arcade and PvP 4th Edition podcasts and while I have never played any tabletop game in my life, listening to that made it sound like a lot of fun. It's a damn pity that I don't know a single person that plays IRL and it seems that the majority of the online players play there own settings instead of classic Greyhawk.

Anyway, Gabe and Tycho seem to like it.

See also the SRD.

Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny-Arcade fame got together with Scott Kurtz of PvP and played D&D 4th Edition. The escapades were recorded and are being posted as Podcasts. You can subscribe to the podcasts at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml or download the First and Second files directly.

Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny-Arcade fame got together with Scott Kurtz of PvP and played D&D 4th Edition. The escapades were recorded and are being posted as Podcasts. You can subscribe to the podcasts at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml or download the First and Second files directly.

Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny-Arcade fame got together with Scott Kurtz of PvP and played D&D 4th Edition. The escapades were recorded and are being posted as Podcasts. You can subscribe to the podcasts at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml or download the First and Second files directly.

I was talking about alignment in terms of D&D 4e, not previous editions. Unaligned does not mean that you are not good or lawful. It just means you do not devote yourself fully to law or good, or anything else. Unless you fully devote yourself to fighting evil and injustice, you are not Lawful Good. This is not my opinion, this is the way the system works in 4e.

I can not link to it now because it is blocked at work, but there was a article a few days ago on http://www.wizards.com/dnd.

What is this, some kind of Thawteweft? http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=145799

They never did. The current 3e/3.5e SRD is quite far from "Free" in many regards, and the d20 System License is full-blown branding

It seems you understand the difference between the SRD, the OGL, and the D20 License, but a lot of readers might not. So others can follow as we get technical: the OGL is the Open Gaming License, which I and some others would argue is not really very open. The SRD is the System Reference Document, which are the D&D 3.x rules as trimmed down and released under the OGL. The D20 System License is a separate license one could use to put a "D20 System" logo on one's product, which was supposed to indicate some level of compatibility with D&D. To get that logo one had to consent to rather odious and very non-free license terms.

What about the SRD is not free? I don't see how the "Product Identity" clause of the OGL affects the SRD because the SRD doesn't include any WotC "Product Identity." Are you referring to something else?

That's a complete lie. Here's the press release about the OGL for 4th edition. There is a fee for a prerelease OGL, but once the game actually launches it's free. I assume they charge for the extra work getting the documents to the third party takes, and because there'll be an obvious bonus to other publishers due to the PR frenzy at release. And what's so bad about not being compatible? It's an entirely different rules set, designed to play much differently. It's not like there's a dearth of 3rd edition material that hasn't been played by the average group, and campaign settings have always been described in terms of both flavor and mechanics, so if you're really desperate for new ideas you could just steal them from there (or any other gaming company's publications). Also, I'm tired of hearing people complain about having to buy new books. No one is forcing you to upgrade if you really love 3ed that much, and all your REALLY need to play is the player's handbook (plus DMG and Monster Manual, but that's for the DM). I really wish I had ANY hobby as cheap as PNP RPGing can be; you can buy into D&D4e for less than the cost of two semi-recent video games. Buy a couple of supplements a year and you're still way below the threshold for basically any other hobby. There's plenty of fan-generated material you can get for free on the web, you seriously never have to spend more than $30/$90 plus dice ever to play the game.

Open Gaming License by egg_green:
With D&D 3rd Edition, we were introduced to the D20 System and the Open Gaming License, which allowed third party publishers to produce supplements for the game. Will there be something akin to this for 4th Edition? What form will it take, and will it be more or less restrictive?

WotC:
The initial 4th Edition plans for allowing third-party publication of compatible supplements have been announced, and we're currently working with a number of independent publishers to iron out the details and get them started. Our goal is to allow 3rd party publishers, both large and small, the opportunity to publish products compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition.

First, thanks for getting rid of the red-tape-ridden "d20 System License." I'd like to follow up this line of thought with some clarifications on what the OGL can and can't actually do: What is the official response to claims that game mechanics themselves cannot be patented or protected as Intellectual Property (the way Software Patents are)?

The view of OGL presented by Technomancer Press, for example, is that the OGL and d20 System License restrict more than they enable; US patent and trademark law already allows almost everything "granted" by OGL, whereas the only extra bit given by the license is the ability to reproduce the copyrighted text in exchange for restrictions on references to WotC printed materials. (The d20 System License grants use of the copyrighted/trademarked system logo, viewed by the industry as a requirement to sell successfully.) This presentation seems to indicate that a publisher is permitted (by law) to release D&D-compatible products and clearly mark them as such, so long as no WotC-owned logos are used and no copied text blocks are included. What response do you have to such a view?

What are your goals in drafing the next OGL, and how do they differ from the current version? What can you acknowledge as mistakes made with the previous OGL and d20 System License?

Link to the Software FAQ.

Note that a lot of this will be changing for 4e. They're backing away from a true "open" license in favor of a new license they've tentatively called the Game System License. They will also not be releasing an SRD which is little more than the PHB with a little Product Identity filed off. They do NOT want people just playing with the SRD and not buying the PHB anymore, so that's going to go away.

A fair number of 3.5 books had updates released as pdfs. Don't ask me when - it's not something I examined more than a couple years ago. Here's the link. Given that it's free, it's at least worth examining. Of course, once you're there, why would you as a publisher keep on printing the 3.0 version?