• Please note: In an effort to ensure that all of our users feel welcome on our forums, we’ve updated our forum rules. You can review the updated rules here: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=5528.

    If a fellow Community member is not following the forum rules, please report the post by clicking the Report button (the red yield sign on the left) located on every post. This will notify the moderators directly. If you have any questions about these new rules, please contact support@wolflair.com.

    - The Lone Wolf Development Team

Recreating Eberron in RealmWorks

A

artimaeus

Member
Recently, I've been taking my favorite D&D realm Eberron and migrating it over to RealmWorks. I've been working on it for about a month now, and while I was doing more research about it, I discovered these forums. I was surprised to see that seemingly no one else was attempting this, so I'm now reinvigorated to finish it. I'd say I'm about at 30% completion. This is the map so far https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9HgXgwSReYheDA4YTgtaFpBQVE . It's been interesting finding sources for the realm. This is my list so far

Websites
https://kingmaker-in-eberron.obsidianportal.com/
http://eberronunlimited.wikidot.com/locations
http://dungeonsmaster.com/eberron/
http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Eberron_Wiki
https://sites.google.com/site/eberronpathfinder/Home

Books
An Adventurer's Guide To Eberron
D&D 4.0 Eberron Campaign Guide
Dragonmarked
Dragons of Eberron
Eberron Campaign Setting (D&D 3.5 I think)
Eberron Explorers Handbook
Eberron Five Nations
Eberron Secrets of Sarlona
Eberron Secrets of Xen'Drik
Eberron Sharn: City of Towers
Eberron The Forge of War
Faiths of Eberron
Kyber's Harvest
Magic of Eberron
Player's Guide to Eberron (D&D 3.5)
Race's of Eberron
Eberron Player's Handbook (D&D 4.0)

I've been making this realm assuming all these sources are 'canon'. If anyone else finds any good sources not on this list, please feel free to bring it to my attention. Any advice as I'm going through this is also very welcome.
 
Last edited:
I've been wanting to take a look at the Eberron setting for a future campaign, still fairly new to the DM'ing side of things so wanted to start with the WotC 5e adventures before attempting any of the other realms. Thanks for rekindling the creative fire... and I'll be sure to keep you in mind if I do run into any sources :)
 
mazzy said:
I've been wanting to take a look at the Eberron setting for a future campaign, still fairly new to the DM'ing side of things so wanted to start with the WotC 5e adventures before attempting any of the other realms. Thanks for rekindling the creative fire... and I'll be sure to keep you in mind if I do run into any sources :)
Click to expand...
I've played around with 5th Edition. It's fun, but I've enjoyed pathfinder much more. It has seemingly endless character customization, and 5th edition didn't seem to be quite as flexible.

One note about this realm I'm building. I, of course, do plan on uploading it when I've gotten to a presentable state. It will be using a lot of HeroLabs Plugins with the Pathfinder mechanics. If you do use it for 5th edition, 90% of it transfers with no difficulty.

I've done a few campaigns in Eberron before. I wasn't really proud of any of them though, partially because of being newish to DMing, but mostly because it's hard to keep track of everything that goes on in Eberron. There is quite a lot of kife-and-dagger elements that help keep the party on their toes, full-on warlike battles, and really technology-like magic. Once I discovered RealmWorks, I finally found a way to do this Realm justice.
 
I, of course, do plan on uploading it when I've gotten to a presentable state
Click to expand...

Presentable state wouldn't be the concern here. Who own's the copyright on the world and the source data?
 
daplunk said:
Presentable state wouldn't be the concern here. Who own's the copyright on the world and the source data?
Click to expand...
Strictly speaking it's WotK, though Keith Baker was the original author of the origional content. This project draws on more than just his content though. Hopefully copyright won't be an issue, since it's very much like distributing a book report on the Lord of the Rings. Since no money is made, it isn't in it's original format, and it will be clear that I hold no personal copyright/ownership to it.
 
Eberron is still one of WotC's properties though. They hold the copyright and the trademarks.

Repackaging material WotC, or a licensee, has published and making it available in a different format for free is circumventing their rights. You could get in a lot of trouble.

At a bare minimum you can't quote anything. Everything has to be in your own words.
 
I wouldn't hold your breathe on that one. Pretty sure it was kbs666 who reached out to WOTC to see if he could include a simple map in the custom content he has made and he got a rejection. Unless of course the content is covered under a current OGL.

Licensing is going to be really interesting in relation to WOTC. Really what is needed is a similar agreement to the DMsGuild.com so people can release content based around the d&d rules and settings. But I would wager it's much more likely that any license agreement would be between LW and WOTC and not cover user content submissions.

Raises an interesting question though... could the export files not be hosted via DMsGuild.com effectively allowing you to host anything that is based on the 5e rules or set in the Forgotten Realms. You couldn't release Eberron setting stuff there currently, it's restricted to the following: 1) Has no setting or 2) Uses the Forgotten Realms setting.

I did something similar to you but with the Faerun (FR) setting. There was absolutely demand for it. I for one would pay for an official Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Pack. Imagine a map full of pins and information. Would be so good.

Obviously I have no idea what's actually going to happen. Ultimately we would need to know the outcomes of any discussions between LW and WOTC which are not likely to be made public.

You should probably have a read here, it covers the difference between publishing under the OGL and the DMsGuild.
What is the DMsGuild.com
 
Last edited:
kbs666 said:
Eberron is still one of WotC's properties though. They hold the copyright and the trademarks.

Repackaging material WotC, or a licensee, has published and making it available in a different format for free is circumventing their rights. You could get in a lot of trouble.

At a bare minimum you can't quote anything. Everything has to be in your own words.
Click to expand...
not quite. For instance, the wikia website does similar work (which is literally copy and paste; not what I'm doing) but has not had copyright issues. I'd double check with them except their contact page is down. Either way, this is happening.
 
No, the wikia is not what you are doing. And if the wikia is not officially approved and uses extensive quotes it is on shaky ground. Also note that the wikia makes a point of trying to sell the user the WotC setting products right on the front page.

You OTOH say you intend to distribute your end product in a format meant to be imported into a program advertised as a GM's aid. That would be in direct competition with any future sales of Eberron products by WotC. That is well across the line. They could sue you for infringement.
 
kbs666 is correct ... this is a theme I have mentioned repeatedly on these forums. RealmWorks is a new publishing medium ... by sharing your Realms, you are a "publisher", and the rules and restrictions on Intellectual Property (which can be much more than just copyrights) apply you and your "publication".

Whether you are making money on it or not does not matter. If they perceive that they are losing sales because of your efforts, that's enough for them to sue. Even if they don't feel like you are costing them enough money to be worth the lawsuit, the way some intellectual property law works, they would HAVE to take some action to stop you or they could lose right to sue later if someone else does something more damaging.
 
There would probably not even be a need to WotC or any other similarly affected company to file an actual suit. The company could just send a Cease and Desist letter to the alleged offender and Lone Wolf Development. LDW, whose interest is to sell RW as a viable new medium, might choose to revoke the user's license -- especially if the violation is blatant -- which could either brick his copy of RW or at least prevent him from using the server (even to just create a new empty realm) in the future.
 
That may be correct, but I am not a lawyer, so I phrased it as "take some action". A "Cease and Desist" letter is, if I understand correctly, one of the most basic actions that would put the holder of the rights on record as defending their rights. If the offender ignored that, then a lawsuit and/or potential criminal complaint would be next.

The main point, though, is that unless you are posting only material you created yourself, you should be consulting a lawyer for real advice on what you can and cannot do. ("You" in this case being "someone" or "anyone".)

Different publishers have different policies regarding derivative works ("fan fiction", for one example), so what applies to one may not apply to another.
 
Actually LWD could be in a much trickier situation. Since they host the cloud storage we all use, and will control the CM even if they won't directly be able to keep us from being able to swap XML files amongst ourselves, they could be subject to receiving DMCA take down notices.

As a hosting site, much like youtube or the like, once they are made aware that infringing material is on their server they are obligated to determine whether it is actually infringing and if so to take it down. If they don't they lose their protections under the DMCA and become just as liable for the infringement as the person who posted it.
 
artimaeus said:
I've played around with 5th Edition. It's fun, but I've enjoyed pathfinder much more. It has seemingly endless character customization, and 5th edition didn't seem to be quite as flexible.

One note about this realm I'm building. I, of course, do plan on uploading it when I've gotten to a presentable state. It will be using a lot of HeroLabs Plugins with the Pathfinder mechanics. If you do use it for 5th edition, 90% of it transfers with no difficulty.

I've done a few campaigns in Eberron before. I wasn't really proud of any of them though, partially because of being newish to DMing, but mostly because it's hard to keep track of everything that goes on in Eberron. There is quite a lot of kife-and-dagger elements that help keep the party on their toes, full-on warlike battles, and really technology-like magic. Once I discovered RealmWorks, I finally found a way to do this Realm justice.
Click to expand...

I've not had the opportunity to play a Pathfinder campaign unfortunately. It'd be interesting to see how things are handled in a different system :)

The knife-and-dagger, warlike battles, and technology-based magic is exactly why I want to play or run a game in that setting!! Once the holidays are over and things settle down I'm definitely going to read up on Eberron and get a feel for that world :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top