One D&D. The clue was right there, in the name.

Brand confusion is something all major brands suffer. Because own brands and renegade brands and imposter brands and counterfeit brands steal elements of trade dress to pass off their bran flakes or washing powder as similar enough that a cost conscious consumer - or an idiot - buys their competing brand.

Competing brands existed begore OGL of course 'for the world's best selling rpg' with system agnostic 'rules' was the pre 2000 equivalent of the ubiquitous d20 logo.

Because all rpgs are fruits of the D&D tree.

Here's the thing.

Rarely are supermarket own brand jaffa cakes the quality of the original product. But with D&D almost every game system is better. It's like insisting we eat gruel rather than caviar.

Now, I love D&D. I love it for its wierd fetishes and manic creativity. But OGL was what made the tree blossom with a hundred thousand crazy fruits. It turned little known designers with their own small press companies into household names (at least in my house), and many of whom are my personal friends. it gave a framework into which an entire industry could thrive. And maybe some of its fruits weren't to everyones taste - Book of Erotic Fantasy anyone? - but that wasn't the point.

We were a broad church.

And now?

Nobody expects the brandish Inquisition.

Wizards want to burn it all, but with fire and sword. And lawyers. They want to tax the big players and squeeze out the weirdos. To sanitise. To create conformity and police thought, to preserve brand integrity and profitability.

All my friends are targeted for reaping.

Do people honestly think this will make the industry better? Do people think it will increase profits? D&D books sell for me in a factor of ten to one against the esoterica. Do wizards think the same people buy both?

Gentle reader, they do not.

Me? I want to see a hundred thousand freak flowers bloom. I don't sell washing powder or bran flakes. I sell happiness. I sell dreams and belonging, wonder and adventure. And history tells me the more you try and crush the butterfly, the more it's existence will mock you. Far better to cover yourself with nectar and let a hundred thousand brightly coloured lepidoptra flourish.

There's an idea... for the Book of Erotic Fantasy Volume Two.!