Open D6 Part Deux?

[Thayan]

Hi,

My name is Mark Reed and I am working with several Podcasters/Game Designers to spearhead a legitimate bid for the D6 license. There are a lot of ways we can go with the license, so I am going to present our current thoughts on how to proceed. We welcome your feedback on these thoughts as our primary concen is to do what is in the D6 system's best interests. I am cross posting this in several forums to reach the maximum number of fans.

At a high level, our intention is to Open D6 as soon as we can create an SRD and get licensing language together. Now what does it mean to be Open? We are looking at several models right now, though we have several to follow including the OGL, Savage Worlds, Creative Commons. What Open does not mean is a fully public domain product. There will be a company tasked with overall guidance of the license and ensuring quality., What we are trying to avoid is having a flood of D6 products of varying quality, which helped to diminish the impact of the OGL on D20.

What is does mean is that we are going to reach out to you the fans and give you/ask you to publish D6 materials. We will have graphics artists, layout people, and professional editors on the team who can provide their services at a fair rate, but who know the system and will be interested in ensuring the hightest quality product. We will also be ensuring quality by allowing developers to submit the books for review. If they are serious attempts at game design and are not just a book of spells, classes, etc. that are off the charts, they will have the option of becoming "Official D6 Products." Being an official product is a signal to consumers that this book has been vetted and plays nice with other D6 products.

Designers will always have the option of going it alone. You will have a copy of the D6 SRD for reference, but will lose out on the Official D6 Products logo which means that your product will ntot be reviewed. Still, we will not revoke the ability to use the D6 system for your own Projects and for your own profit.

It may be a bit early as we hope to win the bid, but start thinking of your game world. If you have any questions, please post here or email me at groovecast(AT)gmail(DOT)com

[Lee Torres]

Open D6 is a powerful utility to create customized roleplaying, miniatures and board games. Soon, by navigating to the Open D6 website: OpenD6.com, players, gamemasters, and publishers alike will be able to search a robust list of system extensions and addons, picking only those rulesets that work for their game or campaign, and download a fully customized rulebook.

Open D6 is a design resource. Publishers and players alike will be able to use the Open D6 license and website to create new material for Open D6, uploading it for everyone to peruse and use.

I've been following the discussions of your proposal on other boards, and wanted to know one thing about your concept - in the quote above, from Eric's original D6 Open announcement, the "picking only those rulesets that work for their game or campaign" particularly appealed to me, because there are many iterations of D6 out there - the main divide, as I see it, is between D6 Classic and D6 Legend. I know that there were a few projects out there based on the D6 Legend rules (such as Worlds of Honor from Ad Astra Games), and on some of the freeware on-line D6 settings both versions are supported.

Would D6 Legend also be supported under your idea? My primary interest in this answer is that over the past three years I've put together a D6 Legend-based variant system that I'm using for campaigns, and have been considering publishing one particular campaign setting that has gone over particularly well.

It could easily be changed to D6 Classic, since my variant uses "pips" in the Die Code, but some other elements would possibly need reworking. So, in your concept, what happens to D6 Legend? Supported, Open, Dead, or something else?

[Thayan]

I cant speak to that as of right now...

The reason is No Bids have been accepted and non of the particulars have been discussed so at this time I can not speak to that specific question.

We will discuss this and see what is available from Eric in the License purchase...If we win.

[Lee Torres]

Assuming that Legend is considered part of the D6 System at the time of the sale, then, and assuming that your group is the purchaser, would D6 Legend be supported, in your plans for the D6 System once you have rights to it?

[Thayan]

Assuming that Legend is considered part of the D6 System at the time of the sale, then, and assuming that your group is the purchaser, would D6 Legend be supported, in your plans for the D6 System once you have rights to it?

As my understanding of the decisions we have made.. It is our intention to support D6 in whatever form/s we obtain the rights too...

[skeloric]

Hi,
There will be a company tasked with overall guidance of the license and ensuring quality., What we are trying to avoid is having a flood of D6 products of varying quality, which helped to diminish the impact of the OGL on D20.

If they are serious attempts at game design and are not just a book of spells, classes, etc. that are off the charts, they will have the option of becoming "Official D6 Products." Being an official product is a signal to consumers that this book has been vetted and plays nice with other D6 products.

Missed the earlier line over at WEG, but I like these bits the most.
The "widely variable but nearly universally poor" situation with D20 products is why I left D&D behind. The colossal negative impact that the D20/OGL situation had upon RPGs in general is maybe something that D6/WEG will never have to worry about in any incarnation, but it is best avoided all the same.

[The Game Guy]

From what I read (and I could be wrong) it almost looks like Eric is going to sell everything else off and keep D6 and do Open D6 as planned.

Whatever happens it will be interesting to see the end result.

[skeloric]

From what I read (and I could be wrong) it almost looks like Eric is going to sell everything else off and keep D6 and do Open D6 as planned.

Whatever happens it will be interesting to see the end result.
I think he really is planning to just get out.

[The Game Guy]

I think he really is planning to just get out.

It's really hard to tell because he says one thing and then says something totally different.

Right now I am not sure if he knows exactly what he wants. And I can understand that.

[skeloric]

Another issue is that what you had read later on I firmly believe was a layout of what he WAS going to do IF he hadn't decided to sell it all off.
To be honest, I rather wish Hensley would pick it up.
Maybe in collaboration with Vasilakos over at EDEN games.
Or maybe EDEN were just to pick it up.
Either way, they are people I've seen "at work" in the industry that I have gained a feeling that I can trust.
(EDIT: Forgot which thread I was in... But actually here is exactly the thing. These are names I have come to trust. Hensley was one of the designers of TORG and he deems it pretty much good in its current form. And I've been buying AFMBE books and I like their work. These are exactly the bar I set in my mind on what would not have me worrying about the future of the games.)

I sure as hell do not want anyone who might pull a "Bill Bridges" on it all and take something like Mage the Ascension and degrade it Mage the Awakening.

But of course, I'm much more interested in the future of TORG.
I had really liked Eric's plans in updating the settings and I had come to find the inclusion of a Psionic Axiom quite desirable.
As for D6, I had somewhat planned to get some of the current books but now I don't know if they will still be available when/if I finally ever get money together.