Green Ronin Publishing

"Why doesn't third party provider <insert your company> switch to supporting 4E? Won't they make more money than supporting their current OGL system?"

That's one of the biggest arguments 4E advocates ask about Green Ronin, Kenzer, Paizo, and Troll Lords. It's a good question. Isn't that all your company is about?

I'm sure Green Ronin, like those other companies, are hard at work figuring out a way to both have the cake (keep publishing existing lines of IP) and eat it too (sell stuff for 4E).

So the answer probably is "who said we aren't going to and you're probably right."

Also keep in mind the GSL is only a few days old and nobody in their right mind would make a decision without a lengthy consultation with a lawyer first.

I think most of the staff at Green Ronin (and at almost any other game company, for that matter) would take exception to that last sentence. If making money was was it was all about, Green Ronin would be selling subprime mortgages or buying oil or trading in corn futures.

Instead, the folks at the company make games and game supplements because they like to make games and game supplements. And if they do their jobs well, they make enough money at it that they don't have to sell subprime mortgages in order to pay the rent.

Spike Y Jones

I have a feeling that they are mulling over the GSL in order to figure out how to make their contribution to 4e support. It will probably be something new which won't interfere with their OGL based product lines. The GSL only came out last week or so, so it takes a little time to mull over how to go about things. Unlike OGL, game designers may be more inclined to seek legal advice in order to work out what they can and cannot do with the GSL.

Every company out there wants to make a profit. GR is no excpetion as far as I'm concerned. Thinking otherwise is naive. How they go about it is different. In any case last time i checked GR was not a non-profit company.

Whatver GR decides to do with 4E I will support them. Even if they don't publish anything for 4E. They produce quality stuff.

First, it's not a certainty that we'd make more money doing 4E material. That market is as yet unproven.

That said, we'd have jumped in faster if the GSL was a better license. We are still debating what to do and we may indeed decide to publish some 4E material. The GSL is not real friendly though, so we are taking our time and weighing our options.

Spike is right though that this is not just about making money. We'd all be working in other fields if that was our primary concern.

Thanks, Chris, everyone.

The genesis of my question is from this post, specifically "Pathfinder has a pretty good reputation and I’m thinking since 4E has been pretty well received it might have been wiser for them to simply converted and continued to reap the benefits of providing D&D players with quality products…rather than trying to force fans of the game to make a choice." (Emphasis mine.)

I immediately wanted to lash out, making snarky remarks how the poster didn't understand how businesses worked, how companies consider other factors besides profit, etc. But I then got to thinking that, if such "benefits" were so important, how come well-established companies like Green Ronin, Kenzer, and Troll Lords didn't suddenly start declaring 4E lines. (I already knew Paizo's reasons.) Curiosity overcame my nerdrage and thus my OP was born.

I think Kenzer's staying away because of issues they had with WotC over HackMaster (they had liscened AD&D to make the game and then had a hell of a time getting wizards to approve pretty much every book they put together).

When someone who owns a business tells me that it being a profitable is not important that is simply not true imo. I have a friend who has a business of his own. He likes what he does. He also wants it to be profitable too. He has to pay bills and his employees Anyone saying otherwise is just trying to look good and make bonus points with the fanbase. While making a profit for GR is not the main reason for them being in business it has to be a factor. No one opens a business expecting no return on it.

Meh. It's not like Kenzer & Co. have carte blanche because they have an exclusive agreement to use WotC's 1e/2e (A)D&D copyrighted material. These days, any license with a copyright owner is always going to have power of product review and approval stipulated in the contract.