Licensing Legend

[JRoss]

Hi. I'm publishing a multi-system book called Species & Societies. It includes systems for Traveller and Legend, among other systems. I've got all of the texts in place in my OGL page for Traveller, and I have read all of the stuff about where and what I have to include, copyright and trademark notices, logo size, etc.

I can't seem to find, though, any info on licensing Legend. I have the copyright info plugged into my OGL page, but there doesn't seem to be anything else other than that. Is there a compatibility logo and if so where can I find it and the terms surrounding its use?

 

[auyl]

Email Matt at the email address on the main website and he'll be able to answer those questions for you. There is a compatibility package that he'll forward you to that will answer any questions.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Basically, the entire contents of the Legend Core Rulebook and all of the XXXXX of Legend are released as Open Game Content. This includes Pirates of Legend, Samurai of Legend, Gladiators of Legend, the Arcania of Legend books, etc. It explicitly DOES NOT include anything from the Elric product line, the Deus Vult product line, or the Sheoloth product line.

To use this material, you have to comply with the terms of the Open Game License - which means that you need to attach a copy of the licence to your work and update Section 15 to list ALL of the works that you used Open Game Content from. You also need to clearly identify what parts of your work are designated as Open Game Content and which parts are Product Identity. It's considered good form to give at least some Open Game Content of your own back to the community.

Also, if you want to indicate compatibility with the Legend game system and use the Legend logo on your work, you need to comply with the license available on the Mongoose site - http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/leglogopack.zip

The key bit of text is:

The entire text of the Legend RPG is designated Open Game Content, as is the entire text of all books in this line with plain colour covers and the words ‘… of Legend’ in their title.

By using any Open Content material in any of these books, you also have permission to freely use the Legend Compatible logo on any publication or web site where this Open Content is used or modified. The Legend Compatible logo may be re-sized but may not otherwise be altered in any way.

Legend, the text of Legend rulebooks, the Legend logo and the Legend Compatible logo remain Copyright Mongoose Publishing 2011.

Any and all artwork included in Legend rulebooks is specifically not designated as Open Content, and may not be used without written permission from Mongoose Publishing.

The compatibility pack contains a copy of the logo for your use.

Note that while this license doesn't prohibit you from copying the "look and feel" of official Mongoose books, it is probably not something that Mongoose will want to encourage - they don't want too much confusion between what are "official" Legend rulebooks and what are third-party publications. As the previous poster indicated, check with Matt if you want to be on the safe side.

 

[JRoss]

Thanks, guys. Prime_Evil, I was aware of and complying with the stuff in your first two paragraphs. Third paragraph is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Vile]

You probably want to check whether the Legend Logo Licence works in combination with other SRDs. A long time ago I asked Matt whether it would be possible to produce a Traveller Logo Licence book, but with rules based on the Mongoose RuneQuest SRD and the answer was 'no'.

Of course, what you're doing may be very different and Legend is an altogether different beast, so it may not be relevant at all, but I thought I'd toss it out there.

Just as another suggestion, if you're not using the Traveller Logo Licence you might be better off not using the Traveller SRD. Because the SRD does not include setting information there is very little in there that is really valuable branding in the way the D&D 3.5E spells and monsters are. Advanced Combat Rifles, FTL drives, etc. - all of that stuff is common Science Fiction fare (or just straight Science) and can be written up for Legend without the SRD.

 

[Prime_Evil]

You can combine OGC from different System Reference Documents freely, but if you want to indicate compatibility with one game system or the other you need to play by the rules set by the publisher in question. In the case that you mention, the situation is complicated by the fact that Mongoose doesn't own the Traveller trademark, but licenses it themselves from FFE.