Post originally by nate at 2004-07-20 18:25:02
Converted from Phorums BB System

Banshee:

Thanks for your comments. Some random thoughts and replies:

I'm not certain what, exactly, is mandatory with respect to Attributes, Classes, etc. and the SRD vs. the OGL. It is certainly true, though, that in practice, D20 games haven't strayed far from the basic D&D design. If the rules let them stray farther and they just haven't done it, then shame-shame on the D20 game designers for not embracing their freedom fully enough.

Set up against that, of course, is economics: if your game is quite similar to D&D, then it'll be easier for D&D players to migrate over to it, which might be a draw. Theoretically. I don't see your typical RPGer as someone who's averse to learning new material, though. If anything, we kind of like it.

I'm curious what you think of as a D20 game that does a good job of working within the rules to come up with something vital and new. All my criticisms are based on book-reading, not campaign-playing, so I'm willing to be convinced that particular D20 implementations have sufficient originality in practice.