ARGH!! Darn you, Dragon Magazine!!

mouseferatu said:

Oh, I'm sure you wouldn't. I'm more concerned with public perception than any worry that you folks would think I was plagiarizing.

I don't think you should worry about it. It sounds like your group is mainly going to be used by dm's. DM's are going to read beyond the name and dig into the details.

And dm's should know by now that names often appear in multiple place- especially cross-rpg's.

If it really concerns you, then you could always add a two-line paragraph explaining the situation.

FD
 

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mouseferatu said:
I was planning to use them in a future D20 product. Now I'm going to have to change the name, since many people assume "rip-off" rather than "coincidental parallel name development." And I really liked it, too. :(

Bleah.

If it makes you feel any better, I have discovered that there is definately a finite amount of ideas out there when it comes to D&D. For instance, in Dragon Magazine, there is a new magic item that is basically Metamagic Dust, though it only applies to one of the feats, but I can't remember which. Anyways, it's not important.

Over a year ago, I created metamagic dust for my games, and there I see it pop up. ARGH!!!

Also in Dragon Mag, I see another magic item. It's a bow that can change into a double-sword. I made that 4 months previous. ARGH!!!

In Masters of the Wild, I see the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat, and I had already created a similar feat over a year before that. ARGH!!!

The list goes on and on.

Bascially, it keeps happening, but I really believe it's because there are only so many ideas out there. Oh well. It's kind of a race to the finish line. If you have an idea, get it out there as soon as you can. It's almost a guarantee that someone else will publish nearly the same idea you had, and even if their's sucks compared to yours, you'll probably have to deal with the whole "You copied their idea!" bit. :)

Something else I've noticed; If I'm just sittin' around and come up with an idea for a feat or prestige class, then put it down on "paper" (i.e. my computer), and I find that it's overpowered, it's damn near a guarantee that it'll show up in a Quintessential book. :D

But strangely enough, not a single custom spell I have made has ever shown up in another product. Well, except for that shocking similarity between one of my spells and Greater Creeping Cold. :)
 
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EricNoah said:

Anyone manage to catch who wrote that article, btw? None other than former WotC Master Tools guru and now sometime-Green Ronin scribe Jim Bishop!
No offense, but isn't this the guy who made Fluid develop online tool features for then-MT last summer, with all that minis scanning and monster sound bites? To this day, I still wonder what if they had not done that and continue to work on the tabletop tool features instead.
 

I used to make up Magic: The Gathering cards with friends. Before the Tempest set came out, I made a card called Lotus Petal. Imagine our surprise when it came out in Tempest, and was worded exactly the same as mine!. I wasn't annoyed; I thought it was cool that I was thinking like a developer :)
 

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