Campaign Settings, and The GSL

[Scribble]

Ok, so a lot of people fear the GSL because it "takes away control of their work in the future," and as a result think the big names won't bite... So I'm thinking of an idea. The GSL is per line correct?

Step 1: Create a campaign world book under the OGL. It's devoid of character classes or stats, just mainly fluff, system neutral stuff, or just level info..

Step 2: Release a D&D System guide to X Campaign setting.

The system guide holds all the D&D info for the setting. All the stats, and classes and new powers. All the crunch specific to 4e basically.

Now if the GSL drops, or something, you still have your setting. You just loose the D&D compatibility part of the setting. It's not even sneaky or underhanded, because you're specifically setting apart the parts that are D&D, and the parts that aren't D&D. It's a little more work, but...

Slightly more tricky, I wonder if you could do the D&D campaign guide, and include a "free campaign book with eh purchase...

 

[Henry]

That would probably be VERY easily construed as "one product line" and therefore in violation of the GSL, the way I'm reading it.

 

[Scribble]

That would probably be VERY easily construed as "one product line" and therefore in violation of the GSL, the way I'm reading it.

I guess it all depends on how "one product line" is defined. In legal terms I'd think that's very specific wouldn't it be?

The product line you're doing for D&D4e would be the D&D rules for x campaign setting. The fluff part (the setting in another book) would be your own IP stuff.

Really I think all WoTC is worried about is you taking their rules and OGLing them, and then using them to redefine the system into your own take.

 

[kenmarable]

I guess it all depends on how "one product line" is defined. In legal terms I'd think that's very specific wouldn't it be?

I dunno if there's an existing legal definition of "one product line", but according to the GSL, it's defined according to WotC's discretion.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I wish wizards would just let us know what they dont want small publishers to do and what they want to achive.

Becuse as the gsl is written now, anyone could be canceled at a whim, and theirs no point for all that legal stuff if by following the license, and playing fair If you do everything right, you still can get screwed.

 

[yojimbo]

I think that systemless campaign setting books with 4e players guides might be the way that some companies tackle this.

This way if 4.5 turns up in 3 years time a game company's core product (the setting book) doesn't become worthless.

 

[mjukglass]

I think that systemless campaign setting books with 4e players guides might be the way that some companies tackle this.

This way if 4.5 turns up in 3 years time a game company's core product (the setting book) doesn't become worthless.

Yup. And I would love that, I absolutely hate setting books with crunch.

 

[JVisgaitis]

That would probably be VERY easily construed as "one product line" and therefore in violation of the GSL, the way I'm reading it.

Considering how the GSL is worded, they can pretty much construe it however they want. The simple fix is to release the world book without any license at all.

 

[SavageRobby]

Considering how the GSL is worded, they can pretty much construe it however they want. The simple fix is to release the world book without any license at all.

That is the trick. As far as I can tell (and IANAL, and even if I was, this wouldn't be legal advice), its only the OGL that purposefully gets crippled.

So, pragmatically speaking (that is, Open Gaming concerns aside), if you want to retain the right to use your campaign setting in the future, just don't release it under the OGL, and you can create various offshoots of it for various systems pretty much all you want, with one obvious exception. So, you create your fluffy game world then release it sans-license, and then you could release a 4e Player's Guide, a Savage Worlds Player's Guide, a GURPs Player's Guide, a HERO Player's Guide- pretty much anything but an OGL game Player's Guide.

 

[Delta]

Step 1: Create a campaign world book under the OGL. It's devoid of character classes or stats, just mainly fluff, system neutral stuff, or just level info..

If it's really just fluff and system neutral stuff -- devoid of classes and stats -- then you don't need the OGL (SRD content). Skip that stuff, you're just confusing the issue at hand.

Probably if you release a raw gameless "Fantasy Lands of Shazbot" book, and then a later 4E Gamer's Guide to Shazbot, you'd be in a better position. Clearly if someone made a 4E Thomas Covenant product (for example), WOTC could not argue that you have to stop making other Thomas Covenant products.

Although that does bring up the point that probably we can't see anymore outside pre-existing IP made into 4E games (like Conan or WOW or whatever).