I'm thinking about using material from the Legend line of products in a Swords and Sorcery game, probably/initially only via a virtual table top system, but including material from several Mongoose Publishing works. I'd initially publish this material via something like dropbox for the players to read.

I'm doing a player guide to character generation which includes material from the core Legend rules with some changes to accommodate specific features of the game. There will also be a guide to the campaign world, some of which uses material from both Legend product line material and also material that is taken from a wiki page. I'd also like to include material from earlier products (MRQI Empires - the Renown rules and MRQI Necromantic Arts - the Fear rules). The material in these earlier rules are not OGL so I presume that in order to include anything relating to those rule sections I either have to write that you read the rules in these books or just state that I'm using the rules without providing any further information as to how they might work in my game/campaign.

For material from the Legend line I know I have to include the OGL with the products referenced added to the bottom of the licence. For the material taken from a wiki page I have to include a Creative Commons licence. Similarly my own material could be under either licence.

I think that I'd have to put the two licences on separate pages to avoid confusion between them but how should I indicate which parts of the material relate to which licence?

The credits page from Mongoose's own publications state:

"All rights reserved. Reproduction of non-Open Game Content of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Legend is presented under the Open Game Licence. See page XX for the text of this licence. All text paragraphs and tables containing game mechanics and statistics derivative of Open Game Content and the System Reference Document are considered to be Open Game Content. All other significant characters,
names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved"

I believe that I should include "All text paragraphs and tables containing game mechanics and statistics derivative of Open Game Content and the System Reference Document are considered to be Open Game Content." with a statement that certain material is licenced under a Creative Commons licence namely - "All characters, names, places, items and text pertaining to XXXXXXX (name of author and his work, now out of copyright) and taken from the wikipedia page relating to his work are used under a Creative Commons licence." plus "All other material is copyrighted by XXXXX and may be used under a Creative Commons licence."

Will a statement like this provide sufficient notice of Mongoose's rights and my own obligations under the OGL?

Would Mongoose consider making the non-Gloranthan content of earlier works released under the Runequest brand OGL retroactively or does their licence from Issaries preclude such a move? (I'm thinking that a statement about game mechanics etc. would allow people to reuse potentially useful material that is non-Glorantha related from books like Empires, Factions etc. in current/new works.)

_________________
My Getting Started with Legend file including a suggested starting adventure.

My Romano-British Game setting.

This is certainly possible, and we are working through older material at the moment.

_________________
Matthew Sprange

Mongoose Publishing
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com

Thanks for considering this for fans of your products. How about the main question though Matt? Am I covered by using the language I suggested in reporting material that is Legend OGL as well as material that is CC?

Is there a guide somewhere as to what should be used for Copyright information and its placement in a work or does everyone throw something down and leave it to a copyright holder to complain?

I know I should probably ask a lawyer but this is a fan project and lawyers are expensive.

_________________
My Getting Started with Legend file including a suggested starting adventure.

My Romano-British Game setting.