Wizards of the Coast has announced on its Website that it is planning to issue a revision to the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Game System License (GSL) and System Reference Document (SRD).  Linae Foster, the D&D Licensing Manager, put it this way: “We recognize the important role third party publishing support plays in the success of the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. We have listened to the community and our valued colleagues and have taken their concerns and recommendations to heart. Our commitment to the health of the industry and hobby gaming lifestyle is reflected in the revisions to the Game System License.”  The announcement indicated that the revised GSL and SRD documents “will be available in the very near future.”

In an attempt to avoid the over-proliferation of third party D&D-related releases that resulted from WotC’s first attempt at stimulating the market by creating an open gaming license, Wizards announced last November that there would be no “System Trademark Licensing” associated with 4th Edition (see “No 4th Edition d20 STL”).  Then in January came the announcement of a two-tiered rollout of 4th Edition content to third party developers and the early availability of an OGL (Opening Gaming License) Designers Kit with a cost of $5000 (see “WotC 4th Edition SRD & OGL Release Schedule”).

The reaction to the 4th Edition GSL has been mixed at best.  While some companies such as Mongoose and Goodman are producing third party 4th Edition product, others such as Green Ronin and Necromancer are not.  Necromancer’s President Clark Peterson called the 4th Edition GSL “an unmitigated failure” (see “Third Party 4E Releases”), and Green Ronin’s Chris Pramas stated that his company, which was one of the most successful RPG publishers to emerge from the d20 glut, “will not be signing the Game System License (GSL) at this time,” claiming that “we do not... feel that this license treats third-party publishers as valued partners” (see “Green Ronin Says No to GSL”).