Official D&D names to avoid for published eBook

[Ulrick]

For the names of gods and goddesses, just use names from Greco-Roman history/culture. They might not be an exact fit with the D&D Pantheon or the psuedo-medieval feel (maybe Norse or Celtic deities might work better), but they'll work and readers will find them familiar.

For example, Pelor might be replaced with Apollo or Sol Invictus.

 

[Morrus]

WoTC don't own the copyright in our D&D campaigns. Not unless we're running a published adventure - in which case they own what they wrote, not what we added.

So if in that case it's not a derivative work, why say so?

Why would you ever put in a book words to the effect of "This is a derivative work" - especially when, as you're indicating, it isn't?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

While there is a risk, it is vanishingly slight. S'mon is basically saying that, while WotC may own things like Illithids, they have no economic interest in tales of someone's campaign featuring subterranean alien overlords...

And if they did, HG Wells's estate might have had some prior claims...

 

[Alan Shutko]

So if in that case it's not a derivative work, why say so?

There is a difference between saying something is a derivative and explaining where inspiration came from. For instance I might be watching a play and decide that I want to write a book about a bunch of lovable goblins trying to stage a great musical while being beset by monsters.


Why mention your inspirations? Many readers are interested and it could be good marketing for your hobby.

 

[S'mon]

So if in that case it's not a derivative work, why say so?

Why would you ever put in a book words to the effect of "This is a derivative work" - especially when, as you're indicating, it isn't?

"Derivative Work" is a term of art in US copyright law. It is functionally quite close to an "Adaptation" in the UK Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988 - although lawyers will try to stretch this in court, of course. Exactly what is a derivative work, is a 'question for the courts to decide', as we lawyers say - ie no one really knows until the court pronounces - but it's clear that "a derivative work of work X" does not mean "a work that uses some ideas from work X". As Danny says, any risk incurred by thanking D&D for 'inspiring the campaign that inspired my novel' is vanishingly small.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Why mention your inspirations? Many readers are interested and it could be good marketing for your hobby.

That is solid marketing thought process right there. Hell, the inclusion of liner notes- especially when they talk about their inspirations or tour mates- is one of the reasons I prefer CDs to mp3s.

 

[Dire Bare]

Not legal advice, but a reference for a successful D&D story published in novel form: The Deed of Paksennarion, by Elizabeth Moon.

The first book of this, Sheepfarmer's Daughter, is available in electronic format for free from the Baen Free Library.

I only read the Wikipedia article you linked to, but it seems, based on Moon's own words, that the story is not based on a D&D campaign, but rather Moon overhearing some D&D players discussing how to (poorly) roleplay paladins.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The are books that are based on gaming campaigns, like the Wildcards stories.

 

[trancejeremy]

If someone came out with a Harry Potter storytelling game, would people be able to publish the stories that came out of it?

No, unless you take out all the Harry Potter story elements.

The same here - you can write a novel based on the campaign, but be sure not to use any story elements of a D&D setting.

Raymond Feist's Riftwar books were based on his D&D game, and actually borrowed bits from Tekumel (which was sort of a D&D setting), but apparently no one noticed, at least until much later, and by then no one seem to have cared

So you can get away with it, but now that Hasbro owns the IP, you likely have to be more careful.

 

[S'mon]

If someone came out with a Harry Potter storytelling game, would people be able to publish the stories that came out of it?

No, unless you take out all the Harry Potter story elements.

The main thing would be to remove the names of characters like Harry Potter and Dumbledore. JK Rowling ripped off a vast number of sources for her works; schoolboy boarding school fantasies are not an original or protectable genre - qv A Wizard of Earthsea for a much earlier example. Rowling used a lot of non-protectable 'story elements', and so can anyone else.

"The Da Vinci code" is clearly derivative of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" - but Dan Brown has good lawyers and it was found in court not to infringe HB's copyright, despite explicit references. OTOH in Herbert vs Ravenscroft infringement had been found, on very similar facts. Infringement of copyright through 'non literal copying' is a very grey area. But ideas as such are not protectable; that's why you want to sign a non-disclosure agreement before you present your movie pitch to those Hollywood execs. The ideas in your pitch are as a rule not protectable by copyright, no matter how original. It's only the expression of those ideas in the script or movie that is protected.