3 Replies to “Blog Revisited.”

  1. Hitting the topic from that post: what D&D and other new games do to attract younger writers is remove the gatekeeping role. If I want to publish an adventure for Pathfinder or Monster Hearts or whatever, I don’t need to submit it to Paizo, I can just publish it on my own so long as I don’t use any IP. I can use DrivethruRPG if I’m lazy, but some publishers like Kobold Press have their own websites and others use Patreon or whatever. D&D goes further and also allows IP to be used freely on the DMSGuild, but again many people leave the IP out of it and publish all over the web.

    I.C.E. is (or at least appears to be) blocking any new writers behind their own internal pipeline based on the comments and content of that post. That is never going to work. Streamers need freedom to stream, artists need freedom to draw, and writers need freedom to write. No one knocks on closed doors anymore. Especially not younger gamers.

    1. But does this not make it essential a chicken and egg problem ?

      ICE is (honestly speaking) quite protective about its IPs both Settings and Rules Systems.

      On the other hand if they would publish an SRD with a fair usage License like the OGL, what prohibits a larger player in the field to do as Paizo did and create a new PathMaster out of it?

      ICE would effectly be dead in the water, except for its Setting IPs.

      1. That is a risk, no one denies it. But if you look around more often people prefer to make their own product than steal someone else’s. The Paizo phenomenon was pretty unique to the way that WotC abandoned them moving into 4e. In general, the question comes down to this: Do you want 100% of what you alone can publish, or 30% of what you plus more people can publish? Only ICE can answer this question for themselves, but if they want younger people, they need to let go of some amount of control. There are half-steps like having a monthly ezine and publishing submissions from freelancers at minimal effort. But this will not result in much growth, if any. Crossovers, streaming games, kickstarter, patreon and other forms of monetized social media work also. I don’t think any of the can replace the power of letting young creative people just do their own thing.

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