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<blockquote data-quote="Grantypants" data-source="post: 8473171" data-attributes="member: 6917406">Kind of. Under US Intellectual Property law, &quot;systems&quot; (including game mechanics) are not protected by copyright, but the specific wording of those mechanics can be. So you could publish a book with an original dice pool mechanic, and the text of your book would be under copyright, but someone else could still write their own book and incorporate your dice pool system, as long as they phrased your system in their own words. And if there is not another way to explain your rule, other people can use your original wording, even though your book remains under copyright.No. <s>The OGL is specific to Wizards of the Coast and D&amp;D.</s> Edit: Turns out I was wrong. The OGL was written by Wizards of the Coast for D&amp;D but has been used by other publishers for games not based on D&amp;D. However, Cortex is not one of them. That said, there are other considerations besides what the law says. If Fandom sues you for violating this license, sure, you might eventually win the case, but you still have to spend months or even years going to court and paying for your lawyers. That's money and time you won't get back, even if the court rules in your favor. If you have that kind of free time and cash to burn, good for you, but nobody making third party supplements for Cortex games is making enough money from them to make fighting this sort of case worthwhile.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grantypants, post: 8473171, member: 6917406"] Kind of. Under US Intellectual Property law, "systems" (including game mechanics) are not protected by copyright, but the specific wording of those mechanics can be. So you could publish a book with an original dice pool mechanic, and the text of your book would be under copyright, but someone else could still write their own book and incorporate your dice pool system, as long as they phrased your system in their own words. And if there is not another way to explain your rule, other people can use your original wording, even though your book remains under copyright. No. [S]The OGL is specific to Wizards of the Coast and D&D.[/S][I] Edit: Turns out I was wrong. The OGL was written by Wizards of the Coast for D&D but has been used by other publishers for games not based on D&D. However, Cortex is not one of them. [/I] That said, there are other considerations besides what the law says. If Fandom sues you for violating this license, sure, you might eventually win the case, but you still have to spend months or even years going to court and paying for your lawyers. That's money and time you won't get back, even if the court rules in your favor. If you have that kind of free time and cash to burn, good for you, but nobody making third party supplements for Cortex games is making enough money from them to make fighting this sort of case worthwhile. [/QUOTE]

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