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OGL question.

F

Frodie

Well-known member
Can we input non-OGL material if we do not include a description.

Kind of like what this guy has done:
http://www.pathguy.com/cthulhu.htm

Say input a class and class abilities but give a MLA in the description.
Works Cited
Author’s last name, first name. Title of Book. City: Publisher, Year.
Author’s last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication Date Published: Pages.
Author’s last name, first name. “Title of Online Article.” Title of Online Publication Version (Year Published): Pages. Date Accessed <Web address>.
“Title of Article.” Title of Media. CD-ROM. City: Publisher, Year.
 
Frodie said:
Can we input non-OGL material if we do not include a description.
Click to expand...

Can you do it? Yes

Can you legally use the material? Probably not but depends on the license the material has

Can you publish it? See 2nd answer

Can you use it yourself? Yes but see 2nd answer

;-)
 
Disclaimer: The following is my understanding from various discussions with our IP attorney. However, I'm NOT a lawyer and may have misunderstood things, so please don't rely on the above without first checking with an actual attorney.

If you obtained the original published material legally (e.g. purchased the book), then it is perfectly legal for you to create corresponding data files for the content. The caveat is that those data files can only be for personal use.

The moment you share those data files with someone else, you will likely be in violation of one or more laws. However, the copyright holder would need to object to what you're doing for you to actually get into trouble. At that point, it becomes a question of what the copyright holder considers to be acceptable. Omitting description text and including references instead may be perfectly acceptable to the copyright holder - or they may not. Since another site is using the technique, it's quite possible the copyright holder considers the approach acceptable. Unfortunately, it's also possible the copyright holder simply isn't aware of the other site and will object as soon as they find out. There is no way to actually know without getting an official reply from the copyright holder, and only the copyright holder has the official say on how their property can be used.

If you are in violation and the copyright holder takes issue, the big question becomes whether you are doing it for profit. If not, then the copyright holder will generally just demand that you stop violating their rights, which in this case would be the sharing of the data files. Using data files you created yourself from properly acquired books for personal use should be considered perfectly acceptable from a legal perspective.
 
Ok, I might give it a try and see what happens. I will use no discriptions but add a MLA with page number. Keep it very basic. What I would like to add material for the d20 CoC and d20 McWoD to the Pathfinder Modern dataset. IDK, I hope it will be ok. I have the books and I know I can add it for my pc, but I would like to share the material. I think it would help sales of the settings and HL. Hopefull everyone will be happy with it.
 
Usually if you are no ttrying to make a profit from the created materials most companies wont care. But it can get tricky. Also the OGL is different for each game system. Even D&D 3.5 and D&D 4.0 have different OGLs.

Even differenrt companies have different OGLs, such as Pathfinder. Piazo used the D&D 3.5 OGL as their base and ran with it from there. But if you were to take some Pathifinder information and try to profit from it you would be in violation with the Piazo OGL but not the D&D OGL.

It can get complicated sometimes. What we might want to do is contact the various companies and ask if we can make the content in order to distribute it to the user community. Wizards of the Coast can be difficult to work with and they might try to shut down the operation. I suppose there would be a question about the 3.5 file we have set up.

I dont have any contacts over at Wizards to ask, if someone does just let us know and we'll see about drafting a letter to them. Of course the result of all this might be that Wizards would want to sell the data set and take a cut of the procedes.
 
I think I have a better idea, I think I will make “generic OGL setting” called “Shadow Heroes”. I will add it to the Modern Pathfinder dataset.

Template names: Vampire, Werewolf, Demon, Angel and Hunter, with various special abilities, (like the class custom ability count tab, but for templates that will be in the next update for HL).

Power Pools as Trackers called: Blood, Lunar, Sin, Grace, and Awaken.

Faction names for different historical and cultural names for the Vampires, Werewolf, and Angels.
Faction names for Demons use Seven deadly sins.
Hunters, IDK, maybe Collector, Conspiracy, Observer, Protector, Trainer and Whisper, sort of synonyms for the oWoD Hunter creeds.

I think I have found a great OGL page that will help a lot with the various template special abilities. And draw from them.

http://www.purpleduckgames.com/start

This might be a better way to go.
 
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