Ethics of sharing purchased digital content

[The Firebird]

Anyone know about the legality/ethics of derivatives? E.g., of I write out a set of rules for a character class published in a book, possibly modified for my setting? I assume no good without modifications?

 

[Thomas Shey]

Anyone know about the legality/ethics of derivatives? E.g., of I write out a set of rules for a character class published in a book, possibly modified for my setting? I assume no good without modifications?

Theoretically game mechanics at least, are not subject to copyright (they could be subject to patent but that hasn't come up in the RPG field to my knowledge). The issues that can come up are two-fold:

1. A lot of classes in some games have non-mechanical bits and bobs attached to them, and in fact, sometimes the mechanics make no sense when those are peeled away. This won't apply to the 865th version of a bland sorcerer, of course.

2. If the originator wants to get soggy and try and take you to court, the fact the case won't go anywhere does stop in from being a damn nuisance and potentially cost some money.

As far as the ethics go--game mechanics from one RPG inspiring or being outright copied have been endemic in the hobby right from the start. It'd be a little late in the day to start getting fussy about that now, even if we had a poster for a while who seemed unable to accept that.

 

[Morrus]

Anyone know about the legality/ethics of derivatives? E.g., of I write out a set of rules for a character class published in a book, possibly modified for my setting? I assume no good without modifications?

You mean if you copy and paste a class from D&D and put it in your own book? I’m not clear what you’re asking.

 

[The Firebird]

You mean if you copy and paste a class from D&D and put it in your own book? I’m not clear what you’re asking.

I guess that is one extreme. I was thinking more if you wanted to distribute it to your friends, or to a blog or something. If I take the Wild Magic Sorcerer and post it with no changes, that is clearly no good. But what if I riff on it, and then make a blog post about how it works in my setting, with minor mechanical edits?

 

[Morrus]

I guess that is one extreme. I was thinking more if you wanted to distribute it to your friends, or to a blog or something. If I take the Wild Magic Sorcerer and post it with no changes, that is clearly no good. But what if I riff on it, and then make a blog post about how it works in my setting, with minor mechanical edits?

I mean, if it's your own words, there's no legal issue.

Or you use one of the open licences which is the legal construct designed to let you safely do exactly that.

What you're describing isn't really an issue to anybody. Least of all WotC.

 

[Weiley31]

As DM, I'll allow it.

 

[Emerikol]

In which case there's no need to bring legallity into it in the first place.

Unethical AND illegal are two different assertians overall though. People do unethical things all the time. They also do illegal things but not as often as they do unethical things.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Unethical AND illegal are two different assertians overall though. People do unethical things all the time. They also do illegal things but not as often as they do unethical things.

My point is that the legallity is irrelevant to the topic of this thread.

 

[Emerikol]

My point is that the legallity is irrelevant to the topic of this thread.

I don't agree. There are many people who could give a flying fig if it is unethical. Sadly. Many don't care if it is illegal either as they think they will never get caught. But the latter group is not as big as the former group. My comments are for those people in the middle.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't agree. There are many people who could give a flying fig if it is unethical.

And this thread isn't directed at them. I mean, I'm sorry, but I tend to suggest that the topic of a thread (as compared to offshoots) is defined by the title and the OP.

Sadly. Many don't care if it is illegal either as they think they will never get caught. But the latter group is not as big as the former group. My comments are for those people in the middle.

I don't really mean to be aggressive here, but I still think that's answering a question the thread isn't asking. I mean, thread drift happens, but you should at least be aware that's what you're doing.