A question about eberron and licensing.

[Dan True]

Hello.

After I am done with my current projects (about 2-3 months) I am going to compile som Eberron-RQ conversions, for easy use of the setting in RQ. Things like stats for shifters/warforged, cultural background for the nations, skills for artificers and so on.
I plan to compile a pdf with it and put it here/on my webpage, for people to use freely.

Now, I bet there are someone here who knows something about licensing. Can anyone tell me if this would be in violation of the Eberron license and/or copyrighting rules? If it is I will just have to keep it to myself.

I am still hoping that Wizards have a breakdown of mental abilities (something like what happened when they made 4th ed.) and allows the Mongoose to print books for Eberron for a snickers. One can dream.

- Dan

Edit: Hmm, seems like Wizards are abandoning the Eberron setting. Weird.

 

[Jujitsudave]

Wizards was brilliant when they made d20, but 4e is pathetic. If one wants to play a Warcraft clone, they don't need paper and dice to do it.

 

[Dan True]

Wizards was brilliant when they made d20, but 4e is pathetic. If one wants to play a Warcraft clone, they don't need paper and dice to do it.

I agree, but what does that have to do with anything? I just believe Eberron is a brilliant world and I wanna use it for RQ2. Therefore I need to know if I can do it, but just not upload a pdf with the things I write.

- Dan

 

[cerebro]

Wizards was brilliant when they made d20, but 4e is pathetic. If one wants to play a Warcraft clone, they don't need paper and dice to do it.

Very true. 3.0 was a leap foward in Rpg history.

 

[AKAmra]

Wizards was brilliant when they made d20, but 4e is pathetic. If one wants to play a Warcraft clone, they don't need paper and dice to do it.

I agree, but what does that have to do with anything? I just believe Eberron is a brilliant world and I wanna use it for RQ2. Therefore I need to know if I can do it, but just not upload a pdf with the things I write.

- Dan

You can do anything you want for personal use. If your going to upload it you can include a disclaimer. I'm no legal expert, but gamers have been doing this kind of stuff since day one. Seems it was only since the internet and self-appointed forum "legal experts" that this has become an issue. My personal opinion is that this kind of stuff fits in the "don't care" box of most company's legal offices.

I guess a rule of thumb would be not to put out something that can be used without the published books; conversions but not content. Also, stay away from reusing art - that really pisses some folks off.

 

[simonh]

Articles of the "Here's an outline of a setting and how you an run games in it" have been published i gaming magazines for decades without any problems. Specifically I remember White Dwarf publishing several including on on a David Eddings series. Pyramid had a semi-regular column specifically devoted to this sort of thing, and several of those articles went on to be expanded into licensed supplements.

IANAL but I think this falls under the same rules as a review. So long as you stick to the basics and don't get too ambitious I don't think it will be a problem.

Simon Hibbs

 

[AKAmra]

Articles of the "Here's an outline of a setting and how you an run games in it" have been published i gaming magazines for decades without any problems. Specifically I remember White Dwarf publishing several including on on a David Eddings series. Pyramid had a semi-regular column specifically devoted to this sort of thing, and several of those articles went on to be expanded into licensed supplements.

IANAL but I think this falls under the same rules as a review. So long as you stick to the basics and don't get too ambitious I don't think it will be a problem.

Simon Hibbs

Yeah, I remember Dragon articles and Traveller mags doing conversions of movies and such that would cause a stir on forums today. Those were the good old days.

 

[Dan True]

Okay, so as long as I put in a disclaimer and don't earn any money of their IP it should be okay?

- Dan

 

[Mugen]

Wizards was brilliant when they made d20, but 4e is pathetic. If one wants to play a Warcraft clone, they don't need paper and dice to do it.

Really ?
I heard 3.0 was a Pen&Paper version of Magic, could not be played without miniatures and therefore was not a roleplaying game.

 

[Jujitsudave]

The beauty was in it's simplicity and cohesion. No system is perfect, except maybe MRQ2!

 

[cerebro]

When it came out, it was an amazing improvement over AD&D. Massive,and cool improvement. 4th edition was a disgrace. I wonder how well is it selling.

I still play it,Well Pathfinder. And in my opinion, combat mechanics has nothing to do with Roleplaying.

 

[Vile]

Two topics for the price of one! Any chance the discussion of d20 vs. 4e could be moved elsewhere, such as ENWorld?

Dan, just the disclaimer and the fact that you don't make money off it may not be enough. Whatever you write should certainly not be usable on its own, but even that may not be enough. Things are not as they were back in the dead tree age, although I'm not sure that any laws have actually changed - people are just more willing to sue, or at least threaten to sue over perceived IP violations.

And no-one here (myself included) is really qualified to advise you on this, unfortunately.

 

[Dan True]

Two topics for the price of one! Any chance the discussion of d20 vs. 4e could be moved elsewhere, such as ENWorld?

Agreed

Dan, just the disclaimer and the fact that you don't make money off it may not be enough. Whatever you write should certainly not be usable on its own, but even that may not be enough. Things are not as they were back in the dead tree age, although I'm not sure that any laws have actually changed - people are just more willing to sue, or at least threaten to sue over perceived IP violations.

And no-one here (myself included) is really qualified to advise you on this, unfortunately.

I just know that sometimes the RQ designers frequent this forum, and I hoped one of them might know something about it. I guess it will be a lot clearer for anyone to help me, when I've actually written the damn thing.

I guess I could write an email to the wizards asking what is okay and what's not..

- Dan

 

[Mongoose Pete]

I just know that sometimes the RQ designers frequent this forum, and I hoped one of them might know something about it. I guess it will be a lot clearer for anyone to help me, when I've actually written the damn thing.

I have no idea I'm afraid. Personally there's a number of IPs I'd love to do a conversion for, but I have no idea how litigious the owners would be towards a free fan based document, tucked quietly away on a minor forum somewhere...