Quote from: The Traveller;693654Yes and D20 is OGL 3rd edition D&D. The point is that WoW is clearly based on D&D, WoW releasing an RPG license is not unlike a chariot manufacturer releasing a license for the wheel. I didn't think they'd actually do it but with the costs to entry being so low, why not I guess.


Most of it is up on the wiki anyway, so the setting pretty much already exists for anyone to write up if they wanted.

Considering that all computer RPGs are descendants of D&D to a greater or lesser degree, that seems an interesting position to take.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693659Considering that all computer RPGs are descendants of D&D to a greater or lesser degree, that seems an interesting position to take.

Yes, which is why I said as much earlier, right there in the second post. Ah the joys of actually reading a two page thread.

Quote from: The Traveller;693662Yes, which is why I said as much earlier, right there in the second post. Ah the joys of actually reading a two page thread.

Oh, I read it.  I'm responding to the idea that because of the roots CRPGs have in pnp RPGs that they shouldn't/couldn't license out their intellectual property as an RPG.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693663Oh, I read it.  I'm responding to the idea that because of the roots CRPGs have in pnp RPGs that they shouldn't/couldn't license out their intellectual property as an RPG.

Sure you did, and so you are. I'm a bit hazy on what that response actually is though. Perhaps you would care to elaborate beyond 'that seems an interesting position to take'.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693663Oh, I read it.  I'm responding to the idea that because of the roots CRPGs have in pnp RPGs that they shouldn't/couldn't license out their intellectual property as an RPG.

To clarify, it seems silly to say that a CRPG couldn't license out it's intellectual property because almost all RPGs --computer and pencil/paper-- owe some debt to D&D.  Since there are a plethora of RPGs out there on the market that never paid a dime to TSR (or WotC) for the use of stats, rolling to hit, classes, monsters (except very specific ones), F/SF settings, etc, why should CRPG manufacturers be prevented from creating a pencil and paper RPG of their own?

Also, CRPG manufacturers operate on a complete different scale than pencil and paper RPGs.  Far more people will play the Dragon Age video games than will play the Dragon Age RPG.  Pencil and paper is not competition to CRPG manufacturers.  Maybe thirty years ago they were, but not now.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693668To clarify, it seems silly to say that a CRPG couldn't license out it's intellectual property

Interesting. I didn't say they couldn't, only that they wouldn't bother, and for the most part that's quite accurate.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693668why should CRPG manufacturers be prevented from creating a pencil and paper RPG of their own?

Also interesting. Although you seem to be the only one saying this because I certainly didn't.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693668Also, CRPG manufacturers operate on a complete different scale than pencil and paper RPGs.  Far more people will play the Dragon Age video games than will play the Dragon Age RPG.

Finally, something I actually said.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693668Pencil and paper is not competition to CRPG manufacturers.  Maybe thirty years ago they were, but not now.

Meh, never underestimate the power of paranoia in the corporate mind.

Quote from: The Traveller;693311I mean WoW couldn't sell an RPG license, they'd have to call it D&D.

Sounds like a video game company (Activision Blizzard) not being able to create an RPG to me.

If you meant something else, I'll take it back, but it sure sounds like you're saying that CRPGs are too close to d20 style D&D to be considered for a license in their own right.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;693674Sounds like a video game company (Activision Blizzard) not being able to create an RPG to me.

If you meant something else, I'll take it back, but it sure sounds like you're saying that CRPGs are too close to d20 style D&D to be considered for a license in their own right.

I'm way too tired for this bullshit.

The official WoW RPG is incredibly awful, because as Traveller alludes to it really is, quite literally, just reskinned D&D. The designers at Blizz were too in love with D&D to let the S&S folks actually make a more faithful adaptation, so it winds up being just an awful mess of unworkable and dull houserules for vanilla D&D.

The S&S Everquest game was much more faithful, it's just that EQ is actually incredibly dull, so it doesn't work any better on tabletop.

I actually developed a WoW game of my own as a game design thesis. You can find it here: http://drumsofwar.wikia.com/wiki/Drums_of_War_Wiki

I think the main reason I'd try to run Elder Scrolls, or any other video game IP, is the elevator pitch.

Taking the first similar tabletop setting that comes to mind (Glorantha), and going to a friend who plays video games but not TTRPGs, it's just an easier sell. Elder Scrolls has a long history, not compared to D&D sure, but long for a video game. Glorantha has... King of Dragon Pass. A well regarded game among strategy/sim fans, sure, but not exactly famous.

It may even be possible that Elder Scrolls, and its predecessors like Darklands, wouldn't have existed as we know them if not for Glorantha! But that doesn't help when I want to play tabletops with someone who was born after Glorantha came out (which describes myself as well).

Quote from: The Traveller;693678I'm way too tired for this bullshit.

Your original statement was incorrect and you've wasted the better part of a page of this thread defending that incorrect statement.  I'm not sure what you have to be tired about.

Quote from: Shauncat;693693I think the main reason I'd try to run Elder Scrolls, or any other video game IP, is the elevator pitch.

Taking the first similar tabletop setting that comes to mind (Glorantha), and going to a friend who plays video games but not TTRPGs, it's just an easier sell. Elder Scrolls has a long history, not compared to D&D sure, but long for a video game. Glorantha has... King of Dragon Pass. A well regarded game among strategy/sim fans, sure, but not exactly famous.

It may even be possible that Elder Scrolls, and its predecessors like Darklands, would have existed as we know them if not for Glorantha! But that doesn't help when I want to play tabletops with someone who was born after Glorantha came out (which describes myself as well).

This is the main point that I was getting at; the video game SETTINGS are a point of connection with the younger people; most of us exclusively had books as our points of imagination when we were growing up, the settings like LOTR, Robert Howard, and The Eternal Champion for fantasy, pulps and the list of classic sci fi authors.

For movies we had mostly b-rated stuff, Star Wars, and Conan.

Look at the difference today, the games are mainstream and the movies are super-realistic, but most of them are stuck in IP's that aren't affordable for a TTRPG company.  TES would make a great setting, and their system isn't un-handleable as a ttrpg either (not any worse than Fallout's original system).  I think that being able to say to someone "Yeah, it's set in Cyrodil, and it's a lot like playing Skyrim, but without the whole problem of only being able to do what the computer is programmed to let you." is a good selling point.