(DaemonEye) Psionics Handbook Companion

[Strutinan]

My bad, I thought that it would be automatically updated. I should have realized tht it would have to be done by hand. I can only claim extreem sleep deprivation for the mistake

Anyways, any idea when the Psionics Companion will be up, or what else i have to yank to make it compliant?

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

My bad, I thought that it would be automatically updated. I should have realized tht it would have to be done by hand. I can only claim extreem sleep deprivation for the mistake

Anyways, any idea when the Psionics Companion will be up, or what else i have to yank to make it compliant?

I don't own it, so I can't give you particulars. However, the first thing I'd suggest is you download the psionics sections from the OGF SRD and check against your PsiHB; if you have something taken from the latter but it isn't in the former, you've got to remove it. Basically, the best thing for you to do is educate yourself on how the license works, go over EVERYTHING in your product to make sure it complies, and then make sure your OGL is done properly. Considering the problems you've had, you might want to pay someone with a number of d20 credentials under their belt to go over the work for those same reasons.

 

[rpghost]

Anyways, any idea when the Psionics Companion will be up, or what else i have to yank to make it compliant?

It is not our Job nor do we have the time to explain to you what YOU must do to make it compliant. This is exactly why your product is not top priority right now and might take a day or two to get back online... point is, I have no real reason to believe that the update IS compliant as your total lack of understanding of the license is bound to show. It's not something I feel like spending my staff resources to find out right now. Maybe you can share a copy with the people here who have bought it and they can tell you. I'm not in the business of telling people what to change or do with their products, nor am I a lawyer to say wether you're standing on good ground now or not. Nor am I WOTC to give you a green light to sell this new product...

I guess what I'm saying is, that if you get a 3rd party to tell me it's ok, I would get it back online very quickly. Else, you're going to have to wait till we have some time to look it over. The Xmas season is keeping our stores very busy.

James

 

[Strutinan]

WHEW! I think I'm OGL-safe...FINALLY! Now all I have to do is the impossible: get somebody from WotC to review it and tell RPGNow.com it is ok.

Yeah, right, when snowballs have pool parties in hell.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Spake Strutinan:

WHEW! I think I'm OGL-safe...FINALLY! Now all I have to do is the impossible: get somebody from WotC to review it and tell RPGNow.com it is ok.

You don't need to send it to WOTC for approval, you need to read understand, and follow the d20 licence. WOTC has a great deal of work to do on their own products, and taking time to examine other folks stuff costs them time and money, no corporation is happy about parting with either to no profit.

Reading the SRD is a good beginning, if it is in there you are safe. If its not in there, but not in the core rulebooks, (which is to say original material, not just the same information re-written) your safe. Getting a lawyer to explain the licence is also a good idea, heck, the licence is simple enough that a law student could probably do a good job.

http://opengamingfoundation.org/ Has some useful information.

On EN World try: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33037
which has a useful series of links to various FAQs.

Asking for the opinions of some of the good folk on this forum might also be a useful tactic. (Don't just send it to them, ask first.) Getting the okay from some of the more experienced d20 folks is probably good enough for RPG Now. (Though that is not really for me to say.) Just be nice about it.

I think part of your problem on this forum is that when people were giving you advice you appeared to blow them off, either contradicting what they said, or ignoring them. In many cases what you were contradicting was information they had gained through hard experience. When people who have been through the mill offer advice on how to avoid the gears its a good idea to listen. (The folks at PCGen for example actually recieved one of WOTCs warnings to not use non-ogl stuff.) The gaming industry as a whole is very small, folks know each other and, well, grump to each other on a fairly regular basis.

Please remember when WOTC challenges its not just because they are being mean or arbitrary, the nature of IP law is such that if you do not defend your IP you can lose it. Good luck getting your stuff, ummm, OGuLated.

The Auld Grump, after a hard week at work there is nothing so relaxing as killing off your Players' characters...

 

[Ghostwind]

Grump has summed it up fairly well. Wotc will never give you approval for your project because they will not take the time to even read it. They have far more urgent priorities than reading submissions from new "wannabe" publishers (no offense) that have demonstrated they do not understand the very license that allows third party work. They would not even take the time to read something from an established 3rd party publisher unless it had to do with a licensing agreement or product identity use. That's just how it is.

If you are serious about the publishing game, then heed the advice given to you numerous times here: get a lawyer who is knowledgable in IP law. Your lawyer should be the one who reads over your work and approves it. It's not Wotc's responsiblity to make sure you are OGL compliant, nor is it the responsibility of anyone on these boards (publisher or not). If you aren't working directly from the SRD then the odds are very likely that you have material that is not compliant. It's that simple. Several publishers here have gone out of their way early on to try to help you out with constructive criticism and suggestions and up until recently, you've rebutted their words with your own excuses and interpretations of the license.

It could very well be that some of those publishers would be considerate enough to look over your document and point out any problem areas. Hellhound, philreed and Steven Conan Trustrum all have an outstanding grasp of the license and have helped others in the past when asked politely. There are plenty of other folks here who understand the license and have weighed in on this thread that may be willing to help also. If you can get some of those folks to give a stamp of approval, then perhaps RPGNow will allow the book to be listed again. If you plan on waiting for approval from Wotc, then you're wasting your time and RPGNow's server space. Try working with the community and listening to their suggestions and you will end up with a better product in the long run rather than one that sells a few copies at most before disappearing in the annals of obscurity as a footnote.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Hellhound offered you help in another thread, and you turned him down.

Why don't you email him again? He may still be in a good mood. Do it fast - xmas is coming, and I'm sure he's got family, friends, celebrating, etc that he'd rather take care of first.

 

[rpghost]

What I have told this Publisher is that I need either WOTC to tell us that the product is now complient. This is because we have recieved an official letter form WOTC asking for it to be taken down. I also told him if they don't respond by the new year, I'd take the word of 2 other publishers who tell me it is now in compliance.

In short, the burden is on him to make sure he's complient and then get someone to agree that he is. After such a lack of effort and disasterous first/second attempt I have no faith in the publisher himself saying it's now compliant.

All I seem to get out of this publisher is whinny emails about how he's ruined and everyone is out to get him. Blah. It's all his own fault and no one has any duty what so ever to tell him what's wrong with his product.

James
http://www.RPGNow.com

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I'd offer my assistance, but considering the scope of the project it wouldn't be for free. It sounds like the book needs a full edit, and that's fairly time consuming, especially considering the already proven lack of understanding of the OGL and d20 STL - I'd doubt anything could be taken for granted, meaning the book would likely have to be taken apart entirely and rebuilt from stage 1.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'd offer my assistance, but considering the scope of the project it wouldn't be for free. It sounds like the book needs a full edit, and that's fairly time consuming, especially considering the already proven lack of understanding of the OGL and d20 STL - I'd doubt anything could be taken for granted, meaning the book would likely have to be taken apart entirely and rebuilt from stage 1.

And I would call that optimistic. I don't know if I'd want to be involved with such a project, even for pay.

I only saw the demo and it just looked like the PsiHB typed in again. Someone mentioned that it has some form of credit for Bruce Cordell's If Thoughts Could Kill. Has anyone informed him about this?