LordEntrails
Hero
True, but I didn't think I said otherwise
(Or actually said anything about private use, just about 'distribution', though I did not specify public distribution). But, never hurts to make sure such things are as clear as possible.
7 Things To Remember About Copyright Before You Distribute That Cool Thing You Made!
(Or actually said anything about private use, just about 'distribution', though I did not specify public distribution). But, never hurts to make sure such things are as clear as possible.
prosfilaes
Adventurer
What do you mean by "allowed"? It is not in general legal to make copies or derivative works of something without a clear exception. Most companies are strongly against you photocopying a work for each of your friends, for example. They can't stop you unless they know about it, but there's nothing special about "public" distribution. Creation of an adventure and distribution to friends is unlikely to set off a company, but it might, if they were sticklers about copyright, or if there were something about it that annoyed them, like being in not the RPG or edition they currently sell, or being offensive to them in some way.
wingsandsword
Legend
What I find frustrating is when fans seem to care more about technicalities and legalities of obviously non-commercial fan projects.
I first registered for ENWorld almost 17 years ago, because I'd written an extensive and thorough conversion of the Dark*Matter setting from Alternity into d20 Modern. I'd converted just about every game-mechanical element from every Dark*Matter book, created/adapted character classes to fit the setting, and had sunk hundreds of hours over months of work into making that project.
I had been using it in my home d20 Modern game and my players had loved it. ENWorld at the time (don't know if it still does) had a library section devoted to fan conversions of older-edition materials to 3e and d20 Modern (as the current editions of the time).
I downloaded the template that ENWorld had for posting conversions, entered everything into the templates and framework provided, and put it up, hoping for feedback about my conversion efforts, and hopefully some appreciation of my hard work.
Instead the thread about it being posted was pretty much entirely people nitpicking the legal details of the project, and it was genuinely disheartening and discouraging because nobody even commented on the quality of the conversion itself. . .they only cared to talk about legal technicalities of the project.
A "hey, this is good work, I really like it, but for it to be legal to post here you need to change this and this and reword this" would have been a lot better welcome to the site rather than a snapping critique of the legalities with no feedback on the actual content.
It certainly dissuaded me from ever posting any other conversions or fan projects here and instead finding other ways of distributing them to my fellow fans.
I first registered for ENWorld almost 17 years ago, because I'd written an extensive and thorough conversion of the Dark*Matter setting from Alternity into d20 Modern. I'd converted just about every game-mechanical element from every Dark*Matter book, created/adapted character classes to fit the setting, and had sunk hundreds of hours over months of work into making that project.
I had been using it in my home d20 Modern game and my players had loved it. ENWorld at the time (don't know if it still does) had a library section devoted to fan conversions of older-edition materials to 3e and d20 Modern (as the current editions of the time).
I downloaded the template that ENWorld had for posting conversions, entered everything into the templates and framework provided, and put it up, hoping for feedback about my conversion efforts, and hopefully some appreciation of my hard work.
Instead the thread about it being posted was pretty much entirely people nitpicking the legal details of the project, and it was genuinely disheartening and discouraging because nobody even commented on the quality of the conversion itself. . .they only cared to talk about legal technicalities of the project.
A "hey, this is good work, I really like it, but for it to be legal to post here you need to change this and this and reword this" would have been a lot better welcome to the site rather than a snapping critique of the legalities with no feedback on the actual content.
It certainly dissuaded me from ever posting any other conversions or fan projects here and instead finding other ways of distributing them to my fellow fans.
tomBitonti
Adventurer
Isn't the intended use of, say, a Monster Manual, or a Campaign Guide, at least in part, as a reference for fan created adventures for personal use? (The question seemed to be about designing an adventure, rather than about duplicating printed text.)
Be Safe, Be Well,
Tom Bitonti
prosfilaes
Adventurer
Sorry, I was reading into the public distribution more. Yes, a personally created adventure for personal use would probably be legally fine, even if the company did actually decide to sue you for it. But a privately distributed adventure could still be ruled illegal by a court if the company decided to push the issue.
This is a critique of the community, and I’m sorry that’s your experience here. You certainly sound upset 17 years later. As the leader of this particular community, what would you like me to do about this?
That’s literally the point of an RPG. I can’t imagine a company suing you for playing their game.
prosfilaes
Adventurer
If the rights fell into the hands of a copyright troll or a Satanic Panic group, I can see it. Even with an RPG company, if they take the line that their adventures are everything and that anyone making their own adventures are stealing from their pocket, or some author or estate is fine with people playing adventure versions of the canon, but not with people making up their own stories in the setting, it seems not impossible.
Or it could be personal; you made Gary Jackson the main villain in the adventure you ran at BigCon, and now Hard8 Enterprises is suing you for everything they can think of, including copyright infringement. Gary Gygax got sued by TSR, and part of that suit was basically "making a fantasy RPG is a infringement on D&D" because they could make that claim.
It's not likely that someone would take it to court, but that doesn't mean we can't ask what would happen if a company did.
LordEntrails
Hero
Is that really what you think this thread is about? Or should drift to?
prosfilaes
Adventurer
The first post in this thread said "It does not matter whether or not you make a profit from it." If the question is simply "will they sue you?", it makes quite a difference.
Similar Threads
