OGL Magazine?

[mthomason]

Just an idea that popped into my head while responding to a post on another board.

Would anyone be interested in a magazine dedicated to the OGL core rulebooks? It'd be an online subscription, either similar to SJGame's Pyramid (pay-to-view website) or issued as PDFs....

Contributors would be paid via a profit-sharing scheme, on percentage of content contributed by them (possibly something related to page hits if we went for the website idea)

Anyone? Anyone at all?

 

[redlaco]

Well, Mthomason, I can see you ran with your idea...

Although I see a lot of potential in that option, I voted no as I didn't bought a single OGL yet (probably Ancients soon though). It would be only tempting for those who bought most of the OGL line, IMHO.

The saving grace would be if you'd put the emphasis on settings, NPCs and other material that could be useful to other systems. For example, the excellent "Breakdown Control" article you mentionned in the other post can easily be adapted to other rules systems and I think that's what you should be aiming at. That would make me change my mind assuredly.

Just my 2 pennies of course.

 

[mthomason]

Hmmm....

What if scenarios (for example) were dual-statted to work with standard d20/d20 modern too?

The genres used would be specific to the OGL rulebook range, but a lot of material could be used by anyone with Core Rulebook I (or the Pocket PHB for that matter)

As you say, campaign settings shouldn't have any problem being transferred to pretty much any rules set.

 

[redlaco]

Sorry, but D20 Modern never cut it for me. For modern games, I choose GURPS or Tri-Stat DX for realism, or even Feng Shui when I want cinematic action.

If you'd produce mainly scenarios and campaign settings with general guidelines so the GM can adapt it to her system of choice, I'd be your first consumer . Again, look at "Breakdown Control" as a model of what I have in mind.

 

[mthomason]

If you'd produce mainly scenarios and campaign settings with general guidelines so the GM can adapt it to her system of choice, I'd be your first consumer . Again, look at "Breakdown Control" as a model of what I have in mind.

Expressing a personal preference, I *hate* putting stats into scenarios, because it means the GM ends up with a scenario thats fixed for a particular level of play. Of course, this means extra work for the GM....

However, that means that anything I write scenario-wise is usually very stats/rules-light and concentrates on background info (check out my OGL Wild West setting in next month's S&P for an idea)

While I can't speak for every prospective contributor, it's certainly a model worth bearing in mind.

You mentioned d20 modern, but what about straight d20?

 

[redlaco]

You mentioned d20 modern, but what about straight d20?

Well I mostly play D20 games that were adapted for a particular setting, like Star Wars, B5, the upcoming A Game of Thrones from Agents of Orders and maybe Midnight someday. For steampunk, I'd adapt it to Castel Falkenstein. Old West, I'd use Deadlands. Cybernet, I'd adapt to Ex-Machina. And so on...

 

[mthomason]

Looking for more input here. Lots of people saying there's not enough OGL support so lets get some suggestions of what kind of support you want to see

 

[The King]

As I told Matt (mthomason) in a pm, an OGL magazine could be very useful to implement new rules for specific points that weren't covered by the rules.
Concerning OGL Ancients, some historical background could be included because there isn't much about this in the core book. Detailing ancient cities and people and heroes would indeed much improve playability.
Of course the same is true with OGL Wild West (that I don't own).

 

[Confused Wolf]

I would prefer to see more OGL support in Signs & Portents instead of in a new online-magazine - that's why I voted "no".

 

[El Diablo Robotico]

I'd probably subscribe to S&P if it had more OGL stuff in it. But I'd also be interested in a separate online mag. I'd like to see new options for the existing lines, plus settings, adventures, prestige classes, etc.

 

[toothill man]

having before suffered from total destruction of the harddrive would pay for a say quartaly OGL line magazine but printed like signs

 

[mthomason]

having before suffered from total destruction of the harddrive would pay for a say quartaly OGL line magazine but printed like signs

Currently leaning more towards a subscriber website than a downloadable PDF, which would mean losing the HDD wouldn't lose you anything.

 

[The King]

having before suffered from total destruction of the harddrive would pay for a say quartaly OGL line magazine but printed like signs

Don't you burn your files on CD?

 

[mthomason]

Actually...

Sending it out *on* a CD could be an option

 

[toothill man]

never got round to getting a cd-burner before the collaspe but a CD would intreast me far more that a download would but for me paper wins every time(ie will take the disc and will print myself a copy like I do all the mongoose PDFs I have brought)

 

[elforcelf]

How much pages in each one? I might get the CD if I could pay by check.elforcelf.

 

[mthomason]

Pretty much depends on the amount of material people are looking to contribute, but an absolute minimum of 32 pages (or page-equivalents in HTML) each month. Hopefully double that

 

[saint]

It would be interesting to determine the amount of time people spend playing OGL games against the amount of time they spend playing the more popular licensed products such as B5 and Dredd.
Certainly - with reference to a poll on another thread - the OGL line does not appear to be remotely as popular as Mongoose's flagship lines, and so the amount of OGL material in S&P probably relects the degree of interest in the latter. Which begs the question: how much interest would there be in an exclusively OGL related product?
I'm all for seeing more source material, but a periodical (in any format) that is choked with superfluous rules would not interest me in the least

 

[mthomason]

Certainly - with reference to a poll on another thread - the OGL line does not appear to be remotely as popular as Mongoose's flagship lines, and so the amount of OGL material in S&P probably relects the degree of interest in the latter. Which begs the question: how much interest would there be in an exclusively OGL related product?

Well, currently we're looking at a mix of scenarios and settings interspersed with the occasional rules article. It's true the OGL lines aren't as popular as the others, but they're the ones with room to work within There's also the mix of Horror, Wild West, Ancients, Steampunk, and Cybernet, and the fact that most scenarios should be able to be reworked to "other d20-derived game systems" with the minimum of effort. Dual-statting or conversion notes for d20/d20 Modern is a possibility...

 

[elforcelf]

What I read on other websites is the reason they are not as played is that there is no suport for them.elforcelf.