Cheiromancer said:
I suppose someone could ask Monte straight out if they could use a particular bit of closed content. Malhavoc press has, imho, a lot of hard-to-use OGC. OGC spells whose names are closed, etc.. It may be that he wants people to ask personally for permission to use them. And since it is courteous to let someone know when you use their OGC, this shouldn't be too much of an extra burden.
AE opened up feat & spell names that were closed in AU.
Asking for a limited license or special permission defeats the purpose of the OGL for me. I don't mind telling people I intend to use their OGC, but if & when I do, I make whatever changes are necessary to create something that can stand on its own, without special licenses.
Unless he says no, of course. Then you are basically stuck. It is hard to have read the material and not make something similar that is not derivative of it.
Depends on what you mean by "derivative". The spell templates in Dragon are open, and the open feats in AE define quite a bit. This, in essence, is the template for creating a spell template:
[Effect] is applied to [indicate subset of spells, choosing from: school, subschool, descriptor, energy or element type, type of damage dealt (ability, hit point, other), save type, spell resistance, component type] for [indicate cost, choosing from: ladening (OGC term), increased spell level, distinctive unmodifiable spell component, priced material component, ability damage, hit point damage, other condition]. If template adds [X] descriptor to modified spell, spells with [X] descriptor preexisting gain [enhanced effect]. Other changes go here.
[Effect] is obviously the most obvious thing to change, but changing the modified subset of spells is a good idea too. At that point, you're pretty far away from being derivative.
For instance, the Fire spell template in AE adds 1d6 fire damage and the fire descriptor to spells that do hit point damage, 2d6 additional damage to spells that already have the fire descriptor, and boosts fire elementals. Cost is a 20 gp red gem. This paragraph is closed content & etc.
Fire is a "basic" idea, so I want to do some kind of fire template. I can call it fiery or burning, and change the effect or the subset of spells, or both. Fire usually doesn't do much besides hurt, so I'll say the effect is still damage of some amount, but the subset is spells that create a solid object. There are examples for this sort of thing -- flaming weapons, wall of fire, acid arrow, flame blade -- so I can check them for an idea of how much damage, for how long, what the cost should be, and etc (ie, can it apply to summoned creatures?). Now I've got a new template that fills the same niche (fire) but doesn't duplicate the original, and I've added a new template to the list of existing ones. People who don't care about OGC can use both, and people who do get a fire spell template.
And just to be clear, I'm not slamming Monte in this thread. He declares what he declares, and that's what you work with. Anything else is split milk.
