Discussion - General Discussion Thread '08

B4cchus · Jan 8, 2008

Does anybody know what that new adventure thread named frostrift tower is doing in the LEW forum? I haven't seen an approval request for it and judging by the contents it seems rather out of place on the LEW forum.

LesserSky · Jan 8, 2008

Savage Progressions

Has the possibility of adding savage progression to Enworld ever been discussed?

By savage progression, I meen dividing the abilities of a creature with an ECL greater than one among a series a levels, allowing the character to progress in those levels to obtain the various abilities.

I ask because, though a mechanism does exist to allow for characters with racial HD or LA creater than 0, it is not very easy. Creating and approving savage progressions would open up more species for play.

Knight Otu · Jan 10, 2008

It has been discussed, but at the time, people weren't too keen on allowing them, partially because they're not open content, partially because people didn't think it would fit well with Enworld. I do not think they were vetoed outright.

Bront · Jan 11, 2008

Knight Otu said:
It has been discussed, but at the time, people weren't too keen on allowing them, partially because they're not open content, partially because people didn't think it would fit well with Enworld. I do not think they were vetoed outright.

That's pretty much it, and the first part (not being open content) is more of the limiting factor than anything.

LesserSky · Jan 11, 2008

Sure, I can understand. But it really does not prevent the appropriation of the idea of savage progressions and then take the monster stats in the srd and independently developing a savage progression.

It seems appropraite anyway since each progression should evaluated and approved individually.

Solange · Jan 12, 2008

LesserSky said:
Sure, I can understand. But it really does not prevent the appropriation of the idea of savage progressions and then take the monster stats in the srd and independently developing a savage progression.

It seems appropraite anyway since each progression should evaluated and approved individually.

Actualy, at that point you're copying the idea from Savage Species anyway, which is a fine line of dealing with copyright infringement, particularly since I believe any content made here is OGL as well.

But I'm no a lawyer, so I could be wrong.

LesserSky · Jan 12, 2008

Solange said:
Actualy, at that point you're copying the idea from Savage Species anyway, which is a fine line of dealing with copyright infringement, particularly since I believe any content made here is OGL as well.

But I'm no a lawyer, so I could be wrong.

I am not a lawyer either, but I am pretty sure that an idea cannot be protected by copyright, only the expression of an idea.

Thus the idea to create a savage progression that allows a character to gain monstrous abilities over time in a manner similar to progression in a class cannot be protected by copyright, but the specific description of this idea by WOTC can be protected by copyright.

I do not believe that there would be any legal problems if novel savage progressions were created based on the idea of savage progressions I provided above. I guess my question is whether or not such progressions would be accepted.

Would it be worth creating a seperate proposal thread for further discussion.

B4cchus · Jan 12, 2008

Although i'm not too keen on savage progression (let's starts the discussion by using a different term) I think the best next step would indeed to open a seperate proposal discussion.

Creamsteak · Jan 12, 2008

You should probably limit it to individual proposals for each savage progression. That limits the scope enough that it might work. Note that you clearly can't copy the savage species progressions, and you essentially have to reinvent the rules for it. To be a bit more specific, I'm fairly certain the wording is that you can't use the existing algorithm for the design, whatever that specifically means in this instance (I have no idea).

Bront · Jan 13, 2008

I think we could live without it, and I think it mirrors Savage Species a bit too much for my tastes, but I'm willing to look at any proposals to let someone try to sway me.