ENWPJ #4 Ghul vs Lankhmar Ghul

[JoeGKushner]

You know, I hate it when OGC is crippled for no good reason. What do I mean by a good reason? Let's take the article, Lesser Races of the Wilderlands. While a lot of the races are open content, the names and background aren't.

Now when a name is unique, like Astari, that makes perfect sense. Clark has explained before that he wants to keep the material PI since it was originally so and since it's not his game. With unique stuff, no problem.

What about common stuff like Demi-Giant? Or Ghul?

The Ghul bothers me because they are descripbed as having translucent flesh. Now I could be wrong, but I'm positive that the Lankhmar (i.e. Fritz Liber) came up with that name and concept a long time ago. Anyone help me out here?

PI the truly unique stuff, let the common stuff out as OGC.

 

[RangerWickett]

A lot of publishers just generally state that proper names and such are product identity. It's certainly simpler than having to say all proper names except X and X, and all titles except Y and Y are product identity. It might be a bit frustrating, but it's hardly 'crippling' the Open Gaming License. I'm sure you could ask Clark and he'd have little problem with you using the word Ghul (or maybe Ghuol or something instead).

I'm actually encouraged that this is about the most serious complaint we see about OGC. I mean, he could easily say everything except the word 'translucent' is OGC, and that'd be silly, but this issue is rather minor, I'd think.

I'll take it as a comment that you're interested in the magazine enough to complain when something in it displeases you. Any other comments?

 

[S'mon]

Leiber called his translucent-fleshed humanoids 'ghouls', a word derived from the Arabic pronunciation 'ghul', referring to ruin-dwelling cannibal spirits. Neither word is the intellectual property of anyone or can be anyone's product identity afaik.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm not really mad. It's just one of those things that makes me wonder "Why?" Ghul, Ghoul, Gohul, and I'm sure about nine other different variants are out there due to the lust the public has for Necromancer books in general (Necromantic Lore, Legacy of the Necromancer, etc.. etc... etc...) To try and PI the word Ghul, especially one with a description that comes out of Nehwon... just seems odd to me.

Ah, memories of the Lankhimar Ghoul in AD&D 1st and 2nd edition...