D&D Fan Site Toolkit

[thedungeondelver]

I will not be complying with this edict vis my D&D fansite.

 

[Obryn]

Say I create a website "Mercutio01's free adventures for 4E." That website's forbidden under GSL. The actual adventures might be okay, but the website is not. Now, the policy for websites is the fansite policy, which forbids my created adventures. I could link to where there are free adventures from WotC or other publishers, but I couldn't host my own on that site. So the website would be okay, so long as there are no adventures hosted there.

I don't really see how... You can have your website with the fan-site trade dress.

Then you can include PDF downloads on your website of your adventures, subject to the GSL. Those are, themselves, bound to the constraints of the GSL.

It all seems kosher to me. You can set up a website, and let people download your GSL-compliant stuff. Your website itself should not be the product, though, because that is forbidden by the GSL.

I don't think dungeon-a-day style stuff is forbidden, either, as some have speculated. Host them in PDF form, each room its own thing. It's how I'd probably do it if I wanted to do such a thing.

So remind me why I should be upset by any of this?

-O

 

[billd91]

The website is the means of distribution, it is not the GSL licensed product. The licensed content is in the PDF, not the HTML linking to the PDF.

Neither license is relevant at all to RPGNow, for example.

It does seem to preclude, for example, an adventure built as a set of web pages with links to character statistics, references to rules, and so on that could be interactively used or reviewed over the web. That strikes me as unfortunate and unnecessary.

 

[Nagol]

I don't really see how... You can have your website with the fan-site trade dress.

Then you can include PDF downloads on your website of your adventures, subject to the GSL. Those are, themselves, bound to the constraints of the GSL.

It all seems kosher to me. You can set up a website, and let people download your GSL-compliant stuff. Your website itself should not be the product, though, because that is forbidden by the GSL.

I don't think dungeon-a-day style stuff is forbidden, either, as some have speculated. Host them in PDF form, each room its own thing. It's how I'd probably do it if I wanted to do such a thing.

So remind me why I should be upset by any of this?

-O

I expect continual growth items like room-a-day (not dungeon-a-day) are walking on the wrong side of the GSL. Section 3 stipulates single-download product. Having a single adventure split over multiple pdfs won't qualify.

One example of something that is reasonable for a fan site and ostensibly isn't allowed under the current rule is posting my group's progress through an adventure alongside original adventure encounters as written. I was toying with this approach for a campiagn using a different system. I think it could be an interesting approach to demonstrate group dynamics and tactical consequences of campaign play for the group and interested kibitzers.

 

[Dannager]

It does seem to preclude, for example, an adventure built as a set of web pages with links to character statistics, references to rules, and so on that could be interactively used or reviewed over the web. That strikes me as unfortunate and unnecessary.

As long as you weren't stealing large chunks of WotC material wholesale, I'm pretty sure the above situation is covered just fine under fair use.

 

[M.L. Martin]

2. What about sites that include rules other than 4e? What if I use rules for a prior edition, or what if I create True20 conversion rules?


Am I missing something else here?

I'm not well versed enough in lawyerspeak to decipher all the implications of the license, but I get the feeling this was designed with Magic fans first, 4E fans second (some of the things that would concern D&D fans seem to be shuffled off into a "see the GSL" approach) and fans of other/out-of-print material not at all.

 

[Obryn]

I expect continual growth items like room-a-day (not dungeon-a-day) are walking on the wrong side of the GSL. Section 3 stipulates single-download product. Having a single adventure split over multiple pdfs won't qualify.

Why not? Each room in that context is its own "product."

-O

 

[Ashtagon]

As long as you weren't stealing large chunks of WotC material wholesale, I'm pretty sure the above situation is covered just fine under fair use.

I suspect that this contract would replace the normal fair usage provisions that we might otherwise have. But IANAL.

 

[Jack99]

I suspect that this contract would replace the normal fair usage provisions that we might otherwise have. But IANAL.

It can't.

 

[billd91]

As long as you weren't stealing large chunks of WotC material wholesale, I'm pretty sure the above situation is covered just fine under fair use.

But it still leaves us wondering what WotC's web site policy is unless we're to assume that anything not covered by their license is implicitly against their policy...

I know that any policy they might come up with doesn't prevent me from relying on fair use. But people have been asking for a policy - a statement that makes it clear what WotC would like to encourage and discourage, what may be pursued with a C&D and what may not.