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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mythmere1" data-source="post: 4528683" data-attributes="member: 26563">Because I'm a lawyer, I'm more restricted in the advice I can give than P&P is, but here are my $0.02:1) You could use Swords & Wizardry or OSRIC for the base: I'd recommend OSRIC because it already has the high-detail approach of 2e and has more of the classes, etc.  In either case, if you're doing a full game based on OSRIC, you need Stuart's approval to avoid restrictions in the OSRIC open license which are there to prevent altered copies circulating as the original.  With S&W, as long as you're not sharing the S&W trademark, that's not the case, but as I mentioned it would take a LOT more duplicative labor to bring the S&W text up to 2e.2) Keep in mind that although there are several retro-clones out there, there's not open season on the original books; they're still copyrighted, and copyright law has to be borne in mind.  You can rewrite the descriptions of numerically-based rules, but you can't use distinctive names - moreover, tabular formats can be copyrightable so be careful about how you present tabular data.3) It may appear that everyone wants a perfected edition, and probably they do.  But each of these people has a different vision of how to perfect the game.  Each will complain loudly when your game diverges.  It is best to keep strictly to the rules you're cloning, with the only deviations being for legal reasons.  Even the legally-caused diversions will be a source of considerable complaint.  A "retro-clone" has a certain credibility if it's done faithfully.  An attempt to improve the game loses that credibility.  The first steps toward retro-cloning, C&C and BFRPG, were "improvement" games because we hadn't really thought up the idea and method for doing a retro-clone.  Those two games both have pretty good followings because they came early into a "market" where they were new.  Later attempts to fix OOP games have fallen pretty flat as these later attempts are competing, as it were, with retro-clones being perceived as the real thing.  Swords & Wizardry (0e), Labyrinth Lord (Moldvay Basic) and of course OSRIC (1e) have all pretty much taken dominant status because they've got pre-prepared audiences - you don't have to teach, explain, or persuade like you would with a "fixed" edition.  I only released Swords & Wizardry in the last 3-4 months, and even though its got the smallest base audience of the three big clones it has had tens of thousands of downloads.  OSRIC had fifty thousand plus downloads in its first week.  You're just not going to see that with something that's got any element of being "my personal improved version of ..."4) I would definitely dual stat the AC like I did in Swords & Wizardry.  You'll gain compatibility with both C&C and BFRPG, not to mention that many modern gamers simply have no interest in playing a descending-AC game.  Many people will write off the whole effort based on this.  I wish we had done this with OSRIC - I think it's my only regret about the OSRIC text.</blockquote>

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