Game News RPGDot reports new ruleset for Minions of Mirth

[Spazmo]

Tags: Minions of Mirth; Prairie Games

<a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a> received a press release/e-mail thing from <b>Josh Ritter</b> of Prairie Games announcing the use of Third Edition rules in their upcoming Minions of Mirth. Here's something from the press release that's at RPGDot.<blockquote>"Minions of Mirth uses the Third Edition of the world´s most popular tabletop role-playing game. We are commited to having the best Third Edition rules implementation in existence. This gives us a rock solid rule base to build upon and expand." - Marketing Director, Barry Trottier.
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Prairie Games, Inc is founding an Open Source initiative to create a great Third Edition implementation for computer role-playing games. We are very interested in collaborating with others on Open Source games and technology. Our flagship product, Minions of Mirth, will use the Third Edition rules and expand them with our existing designs.</blockquote>Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I was pretty sure that the whole open system d20 thing didn't apply to computer games. And notice how they carefully avoid any direct mention of D&D? It ought to be interesting to see what comes of this.

 

[Volourn]

I would presume they have a deal with WOTC/Hasbro; but I wonder what Atari has to say about it. Weird. Can't say more than that until we know the full facts...

 

[Reklar]

Why would they be specifically vague when they announce something like this? It seems counter-productive, at least from a consumer point of view. Maybe from a PR standpoint it makes sense, but I couldn't say since I'm no marketeer.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[dojoteef]

Well I can shed the light on this. First if you head here which is Josh Ritter's .plan he discusses what a game needs to do in order to be in compliance with the OGL (open gaming license) that WOTC has set forth. And to give further information, you can check out the FAQs on the WOTC site here which discuss how it can be used in games. One of the most relevant quotes comes from the Software FAQ regarding the OGL which states:

"Q: So I could make a game?

A: Sure. Remember though, you cannot use any Product Identity with the OGL or claim compatibility with anything. So you can't say your game is a d20 System game or uses D&D rules or call it Elminster's Undermountain Crawl."

This is the reason why they are being vague. They can't say they are using the D&D rule set or d20 or anything for risk of breaching the licensing agreement for OGL content.

Another thing that is required for compliance is this:

"NOTE: The biggest problem we've found with software and the OGL is that programmers aren't paying attention to Section 8 of the OGL. Section 8 states: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Content. This doesn't mean you can say all rules in my program are Open, the users need to be able to see all that Open Content. You can do this by putting Open Content in a format that is easy to understand. Popular solutions have been to place everything in text files that the program pulls info from, having everything in a viewable database within the software, using Java script on a webpage (viewing the source of the webpage will display the code and Java script is relatively easy for a user to interpret). The key is that the user has to see everything that is Open Content that the program uses and be able to understand it without too much effort. The whole point of the OGL is that once information is declared Open everyone has free access to it under the OGL. Compiling that information into a program denies the user that access and violates the spirit of the Open Gaming License."

and

"Distributing the source code not an acceptable method of compliance. First off, most programming languages are not easy to understand if the user hasnÍt studied the language. Second, the source code is a separate entity from the executable file. The user must have access to the actual Open Content used."

The bold is added for emphasis. Now I'm sorry, but that seems like it makes it damn near impossible to make a computer game that is incompliance since anyone should be able to understand the Open Content. Good luck to Ritter though for trying I guess.

Oh and sorry for quoting such long sections, but I think they are pretty damned important for the discussion.

 

[JRitter]

Hi guys...

Prairie Games, Inc is founding an Open Source initiative to create a great Third Edition implementation for computer role-playing games... We have worked very hard on being OGL compliant.

Here's a link to our Open Source SRD 3.5 Implementation test program: http://www.prairiegames.com/testsrd35_win32.zip

This clearly demonstrates that all the Open Content we are using is viewable, in HTML and plain text, as well as being hyperlinked on demand. You can't get any clearer.

Vibes,
-Josh Ritter
Technical Director
Prairie Games, Inc

 

[Whipporowill]

So you're basically trying to outsmart it?

 

[JRitter]

No, complying with it. We cannot outsmart it. We can however follow the rules and create a really fun game!

-Josh Ritter
Technical Director
Prairie Games, Inc

 

[Whipporowill]

Just saying that it was a widespread belief that the OGL couldn't be used in computer games - probably due to the factors previously highlighted in this thread. Seems you might have find a way to work around it - which if it works would be pretty big, as noone else has.