EOM: OGC Declaration

[hudarklord]

Can somebody from Natural 20 press respond to this:

Is it possible to produce one's own Elemental Wheels (showing the relationship of elements) for distribution in an OGL product?

You did not OGC the illustrations, and as closed content, normal copyright restrictions apply. The wheel designs may be unique enough to provide them some limited copyright protection, and so I wouldn't want to step on any toes by producing my own versions of those wheels.

Was it Natural 20 Press' intention to PI both the specific implementation of the elemental wheels (i.e., no direct copying of the art included in the product) or the underlying structure/design of the Elemental Wheels themselves?

Thanks,
Lee

 

[Morrus]

They aren't OGC (although all the text is), mainly because it was a nice easy designation to make. If you want to use them, though, we'll be happy to give permission. Just drop one of us an email.

 

[r-kelleg]

AFAIK the elemental weel is not a property of natural D20. it was described by wotc in the elemental planes description.

 

[RangerWickett]

Really? They had planes of biomatter and lava and life? Sounds like an odd case of parallel evolution.

 

[hudarklord]

Really? They had planes of biomatter and lava and life? Sounds like an odd case of parallel evolution.

Biomatter was not an element. Lava/Magma were quasi-elements (i.e., hybrids between two main elements). Life: positive elemental plane.

The Elemental wheel has a few differences from the one from the Manual of the Planes. Perhaps enough that it's an implementation of a similar concept, but it may not be a derivative work. I don't think it is. However, I also don't think it's that novel (except the actual artwork which was used, which was pretty to look at).

However, the OGL doesn't care about novelty so much. And it's protections allow you some protection over any work wrapped in the OGL. It provides you no serious protections unless people Section 15 your product for some other reasons, and then some of its protections for things that aren't normally protectable kick in.

So, it's effectively the case that you could probably, outside the safe harbor of the OGL, recreate lots of the system from base concepts and work things up from there, once you borrow text the OGL kicks in.

Lee

 

[r-kelleg]

and life was called positive energy but it had exactly the same effect.

biomatter and force are the only 2 "new" elements you came with.
But don't worry. your stuff is pretty good anyway

 

[LRathbun]

Where exactly is the OGC designation found in EoM? I feel silly asking but I just can't find it.

Thanks for any help.

 

[RangerWickett]

If you were one of the first few buyers, you might've gotten a copy that didn't have the OGC declared (oversight on my part, since I got it from Duncan our layout guy and forgot to check for it before uploading). Russ caught it a few hours later and he fixed that.

Otherwise, it should be in the first few pages, like on the contents page.

 

[LRathbun]

I must have been one of the first then, because my copy has no OGC declaration. Any chance of getting the important highlights?

 

[Tyrant]

Having scoured EOM for a OGC designation myself I asked Morrus about the matter a while back. He replied that all of it (text) was OGC. Im sure Ive got that email around somewhere, or it might have actually been a post on this board.

Eric Price