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d20 License Revision Creates Controversy
travail_jgd writes "Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Dungeons and Dragons and the owners of the popular d20 license, have made some changes that are very unpopular in the RPG community. The new clauses allows WotC to censor d20-branded books with sexual, excessively violent, or other questionable content by revoking the book's d20 license: 'Wizards of the Coast may terminate this License immediately... if it deems, in its sole discretion, that your use of the Licensed Articles does not meet the above standards.' (The full listing can be found in a 12 KB RTF file.) Needless to say, people aren't happy. BTW, Wizard's own 'Book of Vile Darkness' violates most of the new rules." There are further details about this change, which only affects "any work carrying the d20 logo", over at GamingReport.com.
A quick clarification for those who aren't too familiar with the licensing situation:
There are two licenses involved here, the Open Gaming License (OGL) and the D20 System Trademark License (STL).
The OGL is the open-source style license under which the core rules of 3rd edition D&D were published. It's more or less GPL-like, in that it requires derivative works of OGL'ed content to be themselves released under the OGL (Though it allows publishers to designate non-game-mechanical sections of their work as non-open "Product Identity".)
To use material covered by the OGL, you're required to agree that you won't use anybody's trademarks without their permission, even as an indication of compatibility. In other words, you can't slap a big "Use this book with 3rd Ed. D&D" sticker on your product.
What you can do, however, is make use of the other license put out by WotC, the STL. This license allows you to use the d20 logo and the phrase "Dungeons and Dragons" in a very specific, limited manner. This is the license which has been updated to include the new content restrictions.
The most valuable commodity I know of is information. - Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
Won't change a thing. Second rate game publishing houses will continue to line up around the block to make their game the next D&D-alike, even if it means black-boxing a few less than decorous pieces of artwork.
The RPG market has been deluged with games using the d20 game system, and I couldn't be more disappointed with the fact; I really enjoyed alternates like Dream Pod 9's Silhouette, or even White Wolf's systems over D&D's strictly class-based straitjacketed templates. While 3E has more latitude than previous versions of the game, it's still a very rigid, boring system for me that plays more like an overblown wargame than a storytelling game.
Weapons of Mass Analysis
If one were to actually read the d20 Licence Guide (which I have--I was the one who posted the GamingReport.com article), you'd probably realize that the "covered but not quite graphic" coverage of the BoVD is well within the new d20 agreement.
The big controversy isn't that they want quality guidelines--it's that Valar Publishing, makers of the Book of Erotic Fantasy, broke the rules (really, really, REALLY broke the rules--which they really didn't have to do!), and the rules were changed stealthfully to this new "WotC can kill your product if we find it immoral" stance.
Every producer of d20 products, aside from Wizards of the Coast themselves, has expressed doubt and worry over what the new license changes might mean for them.
You will have plenty of opportunity to play evil characters in The Temple of Elemental Evil.
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ToEE is the first computer game to use the D&D 3.5 rules. The module has been updated to 3.5 rules, but is otherwise a faithful implementation of the original module (i.e. you will be able to use the original module as a walkthrough if you wish). Troika have expanded the roles of several NPCs, etc - just as any good DM would have done - and have been in semi-regular contact with Gary Gygax to ensure that the game meets his vision for the module.
Most importantly, ToEE fully supports characters and parties of all alignments - to the point that parties of different alignments start the game in different ways
D&D may be class-based, but D20 isn't necessarily.
For example, Call of Cthulhu d20 doesn't have classes.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak