Is CoCd20 subject to the OGL?

[scadgrad]

Just curious...

I'm currently finishing up a 3 part adventure written specifically for my CoCd20 campaign. I was wondering if I found some place to host it as a PDF download if that is cool w/in the OGL rules?

If not does that mean we'll have to depend on self-generated modules for CoCd20? I had heard that Chaosium would be producing the supplemental materials & that WoTC's involvement is ONLY the one-shot rulebook. I'd love to see modules/adventures for CoCd20 from other d20 companies since Chaosium's release schedule has been somewhat less than optimal in the past.

Your thoughts?

 

[Dan Stack]

[Disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer, just my speculation follows]

I believe not. The credits page indicates that "This Wizards of the Coast game product contains no Open Game Content" - that's the advantage to owning the d20 system I suppose.

I'm not sure where adventures fit in. TSR had some strict (and of dubious legality) policies before the Open Game concept - treating non-TSR adventures as "derivative works" and claimed that was a no-no. On the other hand, WotC, prior to the 3rd Edition, was more flexible about web-based adventures - I believe their main thing was they didn't want anything reproduced - no reproduction of rules, or pictures, (possibly)stat blocks, etc.

If I were to guess, I suspect the company which would care more would be Chaosium, since WotC is in effect functioning as a licencee of Chaosium, given Chaosium owns the rights to Call of Cthulhu RPGs. Indeed, only Chaosium or those it sees fit may produce future d20 Cthulhu products. Anyone know how Chaosium feels about self-published on-line adventures?

I do know that the next edition of Pagan Publishing's Delta Green will have stats for both the Chaosium rules and the d20 System. Curiously, the upcoming Chaosium Pulp supplement will be dual-stated whilst their upcoming Dreamlands book (just a reprint?) will not.

 

[Eben]

Chaosium has some of the best campaigns ever published. Convert those! None of the are verry hevy on system, nor should they be. That's not what they are about.
The Masks of Nyarlathotep: this is a must play! It's right up there with the original Dragonlace campaign and The enemy within.

 

[trancejeremy]

CoC d20 is not open content.


However, you might be able to write adventures based on it for fan use only, like people can make adventures for Birthright or Mystara or some other setting.

Their fan policy has gotten very very muddled lately, though, so things might have changed.

And Chaosium has a fairly nice fan policy.

So, the answer is, probably you can, as long as it's not a commercial product.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

All of Lovecraft's writings prior to 1923 are public domain; these include some Mythos stories. Therefore, I don't see why you couldn't distribute Lovecraftian d20 products based on those early works that did not include certain Chaosium/WoTC mechanics, such as the Sanity Rules (a direct port from Chaosium's CoC). Various authors, both modern and past (Lumley, Bloch, etc.) have used the Mythos in their stories without any problems. All of Lovecraft's pre-1923 stories are available free online at the Lovecraft Library and other sites. Other sources that inspired Lovecraft, such as Arthur Machen's writings, The King in Yellow, etc., are all public domain as well (written prior to 1923). Anything before 1923 is in the public domain, to the best of my knowledge. I'm not a lawyer, however.

Check out http://www.horrormasters.com for a site dedicated to providing free pdfs of public domain mystery, gothic and horror fiction (some of it quite good!). They have Lovecraft, Stoker, Shelley and many obscure authors. They post a new story every night, 365 days a year!

 

[Piratecat]

I know that Chaosium specifically does not want anyone other than itself to write adventures for CoCd20. That's why the content isn't OGC.

 

[Eben]

I've always been a big Chaosium fan: products, company policies, ...
But with this d20 busines I get the feeling that they just want to cash in. First with Dragon Lords of Melniboné and now this. Why don't they just dual-stat the, mostly excellent, stuff they have?
Well okay, production costs.
What about Pagan Publishing with their Delta Green supplement? Or would that be something covered in the license they have with Chaosium?

 

[teitan]

PD

>Anything before 1923 is in the public domain, to the best of my >knowledge. I'm not a lawyer, however.

This is not necessarily true actually. Some situations can cause this to change or provide special rules as to possible publishing etc. As an example I can use the literary writings of Aleister Crowley. There is a general opinion within Crowleyan circles that that his work is in public domain, but a court in England recently awarded the rights to a continuance of his magickal order, the O.T.O. What is public domain in regards to ALeister Crowley, well, many say the whole of his occult periodical is Public Domain, but that is not true either, just certain parts, mostly before 1912, and even then some of it is still retained by the estate. It is a case by case basis and copyright laws are more confusing than women. The law is 75 years after the authors death the work is released into the public domain, though exact typesettings are copyright to the person who typed it or the company that published it. Same goes for any editorial changes etc.

Jason

 

[Ranger REG]

I've always been a big Chaosium fan: products, company policies, ...
But with this d20 busines I get the feeling that they just want to cash in. First with Dragon Lords of Melniboné and now this. Why don't they just dual-stat the, mostly excellent, stuff they have?
Well okay, production costs.
What about Pagan Publishing with their Delta Green supplement? Or would that be something covered in the license they have with Chaosium?

Chaosium is cashing in on the d20 venture, especially when Wizard did approach them on wanting to do a CoC d20 RPG. But so far the company haven't been supporting it well. Probably because their business strategy approach is to expose d20/D&D gamers to their BRP products, not supporting the d20 System product.

(I hope they learn from this and do a 2nd/Revised edition of Dragonlords RPG.)

Frankly, I am concerned about how much will they support the CoC d20 RPG core rulebook since they are responsible for publishing the supplements. As for the Delta Green I'm sure Chaosium granted Pagan Publishing the right to publish the product as support for CoC d20.

ADDENDUM: Coincidentally(?), John Tynes (co-author of CoC d20) is writing the material for Delta Green.

 

[Dan Stack]

I'm curious as well. They have an incredible game available to them with the new d20 Rules - far better than the Deadlands adaptation for example (which I liked as well). I guess it depends if the goal is to get more people to buy Chaosium Cthulhu supplements (in which case dual-support would be the way to go) or to get more people to buy the "Cthulhu Classic" rules (in which case you'd want to make most supplements use the classic rules).

The kicker is, in some ways I prefer the d20 Cthulhu game. For example, the skills system seems to work better than the Chaosium variant, which had no concept of Difficulty Class - not saying you couldn't add it (and most keepers do), but it's integral to the d20 Cthulhu game.