Well, I’m sure all of you who read gaming forums have heard that Wizards of the Coast announced their 4e GSL today. Translated for those of you not in the know, that means Game System License for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. It means that third-party publishers will be able to produce and publish D&D-compatible products for 4e D&D, the same as they did under the Open Game License for 3rd Edition. Well, not technically the same, since the licenses are going to have different requirements, but it means that 4e will be open source, to a limited extent.

It’s great that they announced this, because people were starting to get antsy about the license, which was promised in January but only delivered now. The terms have loosened up, allowing any publisher almost immediate access to publish once the game is released, but the delay means that most publishers won’t be able to get out any quality material by Gencon. Still, we’re likely to see several adventure modules, at the very least, for sale at Gencon, mirroring what happened at Gencon 2001 at the advent of the Open Game License.

Wizards also announced a second license that will allow publishers to create non-D&D compatible games using the 4e game system. That’s going to come sometime after the GSL, however.

My shelves have gotten skinny, bring on the glut!