Designing a Setting Using D&D D20 OGL

[Mr. Beef]

Hi everyone,

I hope that I'm posting this in the right place, so if I'm not then mods please move it so I know where I can post for future reference.

Let's say that I wanted to design a setting for the D&D 3.5 using the OGL/SRD (I'm not sure which one I should use) to publish on the Internet.

I have a few questions I hope you all can answer.

1. When making character classes for this setting, I want to give them a bit of flavor specific to my setting by changing the name of the class.Do I have to stick with the name on the Wizards Produced SRD or can I make up my own? For example instead of the Wizard Class, it would be Arcane Magic User. They would still get all their spells from mystic tomes and scrolls; just the name would change

2. Are there any hard and fast rules for designing character classes for my setting other than they have to be balanced? That's one of the things I always have a hard time with is PC Class balance. I make something that looks balanced on paper, but when I give it to someone to try out they immedately find a way to break it.

2.5. Any web sites out there have any rules for designing classes?

3. Say I wanted to make an Artificer Class that is different from the one in Eberron, but still call it an Artificer; could I do that?

That's all I can think of for now. Any help would be appreciated and I know I'll have some in the future.

Thank you,

Mr. Beef

 

[kingpaul]

First, IANAL. If you want legal advice, please consult an attorney.

Let's say that I wanted to design a setting for the D&D 3.5 using the OGL/SRD (I'm not sure which one I should use) to publish on the Internet.

I think you mean OGL or d20 STL. The SRD is a document containing OGC, the other two are licenses that you can publish under.

1. When making character classes for this setting, I want to give them a bit of flavor specific to my setting by changing the name of the class. Do I have to stick with the name on the Wizards Produced SRD or can I make up my own? For example instead of the Wizard Class, it would be Arcane Magic User. They would still get all their spells from mystic tomes and scrolls; just the name would change

You can change the names of classes if you wish. However, my suggestion is that, if you're going to keep all the mechanics the same of the Wizard, keep the name. Your audience will know what a Wizard is.

2. Are there any hard and fast rules for designing character classes for my setting other than they have to be balanced? That's one of the things I always have a hard time with is PC Class balance. I make something that looks balanced on paper, but when I give it to someone to try out they immedately find a way to break it.

I haven't seen any rules for class design.

2.5. Any web sites out there have any rules for designing classes?

Try Monte Cook or Sean Reynolds. I think they've had some "how-to", but I'm not sure.

3. Say I wanted to make an Artificer Class that is different from the one in Eberron, but still call it an Artificer; could I do that?

The term "aritificer" has been around for quite some time. As long as your Artificer class (and I believe there have been other 3rd parties to create a class called an Artificer) doesn't resemble anything like the closed-content one, you should be fine.

 

[Mr. Beef]

First, IANAL. If you want legal advice, please consult an attorney.

I don't want legal advice, if I wanted that I would consult a Lawyer friend of mine that I knew in High School.

I think you mean OGL or d20 STL. The SRD is a document containing OGC, the other two are licenses that you can publish under.

I'll have to look for the OGL STL. I have the SRD in a zip file on my Hard Drive that I got from the Wizards web site.

You can change the names of classes if you wish. However, my suggestion is that, if you're going to keep all the mechanics the same of the Wizard, keep the name. Your audience will know what a Wizard is.

I think I'll just keep the class names instead of trying to trick them up. I'm just going to disregard the ones I don't like. Like the Sorcerer, bad idea putting them in WotC.

Try Monte Cook or Sean Reynolds. I think they've had some "how-to", but I'm not sure.

I went to Monte Cook's site and followed a few links he had on there and found what I was looking for. Thanks for the advice on looking at his site.

The term "aritificer" has been around for quite some time. As long as your Artificer class (and I believe there have been other 3rd parties to create a class called an Artificer) doesn't resemble anything like the closed-content one, you should be fine.

I was thinking more of making it more like a Prestige Class rather than a Class like it is in Eberron.

Thank you for your help kingpaul.

Mr. Beef

 

[SWBaxter]

I'll have to look for the OGL STL.

You can find the OGL here, and the d20 STL here. WOTC's main page for the d20 system (with links to FAQs, as well as those two files) is here.