LICENSING RESTRICTIONS (Formerly 'The Thing' discussion)

[Nerroth]

And to be clear, the Borak are not snails; they as a species look like this, and their ships (that could have been) look somewhat like these. (I suspect Jean was just using the "snail" idea as a hypothetical, and wasn't intending to tie it to the BSL.)

As Iron Domokun noted, the E-series modules are intended to be interim playtest packs, each useful mainly as a stepping stone towards what will hopefully one day be a formally-published module.

Indeed, this has already happened for one of the E-modules; while modules E2 (Triangulum Galaxy), E3 (Borak Star League) and E4 (Peladine Republic) remain playtest material, the now defunct Module E1 (Magellanic Cloud) has been officially superseded by the "full" Module C5.

 

[Jean]

Sheesh, did I mess up! I reread my post and can see the confusion. The snails are my thoughts alone. Jeremy's Borak are far more interesting.

No, we didn't do a full color cover. Play test modules are for play testing by a wider population of our players, but not so many that we think it fair to jack up the price to include a color cover.

Jean

 

[Sgt_G]

We've been reluctant to have fan art because it is so very easy for a fan to think we have the rights to something when we don't. For example, an artist sent us works with a bat-leth in the background. We don't have rights to that, so we suggested one of the Klingon swords from Prime Directive. That art would have needed to be taken down if a fan had posted it.

Just to clear on what you're saying, by "reluctant to have fan art" you mean you're reluctant to have it posted willy-nilly on-line without review because of the issues cited. Correct? Obviously you want fan art submitted for possible use in a Captain's Log or other publication. And there is a lot of fan art posted on the FedCmdr board (mostly 3D images of ships).

 

[Jean]

Sgt_G, we always like to see the work of new artists submitted. Most ships are based on existing models and on the FC Forum, our long time fans know that we cannot put up art of ships we don't have the rights to. SVC and ADB's staff also have admin rights and can politely deal with people who post part of their gaming experience that should have remained around their gaming table.

In these forums, it is a tad more wild and wooly.

That isn't a bad thing; it is just different. A lot of innovation and creativity happens on the wild frontiers. If people post fan art here [edit] that breaks our IP, then they need to be aware that we would ask the person to voluntarily take the art down and then ask the authorities at Mongoose to deal with it. I have no moderator rights here; any edits are either voluntary or via Mongoose's moderators or admins.

Jean

Edited to add clarification as marked.

 

[Sgt_G]

Jean, I know what you meant, but as I read your post, the wording could have been taken either way, and I figured we should make it clear to everyone else. ;-)

 

[djdood]

My understanding (based on previous submittals) is that ADB is awash in 25 years worth of b&w starship art and any new starship art is pretty well locked-in by Adam Turner and Ted Geibel (done in 3D computer modeling software).

What I do know is that ADB is actively seeking character art (humans, humanoids, aliens, etc.) in various settings to use in both the Captains Log magazine and the Prime Directive RPG books. To be able to be used, the art would need to fit ADB's universe (Klingons don't have forehead ridges, Tholians have bodies, Kzinti don't have fan ears or tails, etc.). It's hard for them to find artists who can a) draw figures well, b) can draw within their creative guidelines, and c) don't expect to get paid what WotC can afford to pay.