Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Publishing Business & Licensing
WotC Backs Down: Original OGL To Be Left Untouched; Whole 5E Rules Released as Creative Commons
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="see" data-source="post: 8929433" data-attributes="member: 10531"><p>Granting that distinction, how have you reached the conclusion that it is remotely certain that a court is going to treat everything in the 3.5 SRD as "game rules" rather than "material about a setting" for purposes of copyright law?</p><p></p><p>Seriously. When I said eleven points of similarity on the drow, I was not being hyperbolic. Both the 3.5 SRD and PF2's <em>Bestiary</em> use 1) the Shetland dialect word "drow" for 2) chaotic 3) evil 4) light-sensitive 5) elves with 6) red eyes, the specific ability to cause 7) magical moving lights 8) magical darkness, and 9) a magic glow around a target, and who 10) use knockout poison and 11) hand crossbows.</p><p></p><p>Those are all narrative/setting similarities. Sure, those similarities often reference game mechanics that implement them, but they're narrative/setting similarities.</p><p></p><p>And the same sort of thing runs down over dozens of individual items. A localized English dialect word "duergar" is attached to evil dwarves with the ability to change size and become invisible. The name "Deck of Many Things" is attached boxed deck of 22 vellum cards which have 21 identical names and 1 synonymous name, with differing implementations but identical narrative effects down all 22 cards. Black dragons are acid-breathing swamp dwellers collected with four similarly-matching other types of "chromatic" dragon, set against a group of five specifically-matching "metallic" dragons. And so on, and on, and on.</p><p></p><p>It would have been entirely possible to publish a Pathfinder 2e that limited its narrative/setting similarity to D&D to the same level as, say, Steve Jackson Games' <em>Dungeon Fantasy RPG</em>. But they <em>did not</em> do that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="see, post: 8929433, member: 10531"] Granting that distinction, how have you reached the conclusion that it is remotely certain that a court is going to treat everything in the 3.5 SRD as "game rules" rather than "material about a setting" for purposes of copyright law? Seriously. When I said eleven points of similarity on the drow, I was not being hyperbolic. Both the 3.5 SRD and PF2's [I]Bestiary[/I] use 1) the Shetland dialect word "drow" for 2) chaotic 3) evil 4) light-sensitive 5) elves with 6) red eyes, the specific ability to cause 7) magical moving lights 8) magical darkness, and 9) a magic glow around a target, and who 10) use knockout poison and 11) hand crossbows. Those are all narrative/setting similarities. Sure, those similarities often reference game mechanics that implement them, but they're narrative/setting similarities. And the same sort of thing runs down over dozens of individual items. A localized English dialect word "duergar" is attached to evil dwarves with the ability to change size and become invisible. The name "Deck of Many Things" is attached boxed deck of 22 vellum cards which have 21 identical names and 1 synonymous name, with differing implementations but identical narrative effects down all 22 cards. Black dragons are acid-breathing swamp dwellers collected with four similarly-matching other types of "chromatic" dragon, set against a group of five specifically-matching "metallic" dragons. And so on, and on, and on. It would have been entirely possible to publish a Pathfinder 2e that limited its narrative/setting similarity to D&D to the same level as, say, Steve Jackson Games' [I]Dungeon Fantasy RPG[/I]. But they [I]did not[/I] do that. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Publishing Business & Licensing
WotC Backs Down: Original OGL To Be Left Untouched; Whole 5E Rules Released as Creative Commons
Top