Monday, March 8, 2010

The Biggest problem with 4e

What I perceive as a weakness to Fourth Edition is the inability for 3rd Party publishers to add to the DDI Database.  This wouldn't be so bad if Wizards didn't say it was possible to actually support 4e Edition as a 3rd party publisher.

I mean if this thing didn't exist:

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition
Game System License
This Game System License Agreement (the “License”) is offered by Wizards of the Coast LLC, a Delaware
limited liability company (“Wizards”). The License applies to the use in third party publications of certain
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reference. Licensee acknowledges that Wizards has previously defined each 4E Reference. Licensee will
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sized identically to the Compatibility Logo as shown in the files listed above. Licensee may additionally
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artwork contained in 4E solely to independently create and publish 2-D pictorial derivative works
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DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Compatibility Logo, D&D,
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MONSTER MANUAL, MONSTER MANUAL 2, and ADVENTURER’S VAULT are
trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries and are used with
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Document, available at www.wizards.com/d20.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 4th Edition PLAYER’S HANDBOOK, written by Rob Heinsoo,
Andy Collins, and James Wyatt; DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE, written by James Wyatt;
and MONSTER MANUAL, written by Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert and James Wyatt;
PLAYER’S HANDBOOK 2, written by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, and James Wyatt;
MONSTER MANUAL 2, written by Rob Heinsoo, and Chris Sims; Adventurer’s Vault,
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written by Logan Bonner, Eytan Bernstein, and Chris Sims. © 2008, 2009 Wizards of the
Coast. All rights reserved.
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Flayer, Illithid, Slaad, Umber Hulk’ and Yuan-Ti.
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other group or in a way that promotes disrespect for those groups or practices, or that endorses those
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It wouldn't be so bad.  I would be happy to buy a copy of 4th Edition and use it as a game if this license or the DDI as presently constituted didn't exist.  So I suggest a compromise:  DDI plugins made by third parties so that players of 4e can enjoy the 3rd party products.  Isn't a plug in system something we all want?  I mean really, Wizards.  If you are going to let people write 3rd party products for D&D 4th ed, wouldn't it be wonderful if you could allow plugins to 4th edition so all your players who have to use DDI so that they can use the 3rd party products they bought?

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