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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 4572470" data-attributes="member: 30001">What random guy are you talking about and why did you italicize this? And what grasp, exactly, are you talking about that's relevant to this? My question (not a grasp, in case that's not clear) is why non-WotC/TSR companies haven't done more with the Outer Planes in the style of DnD, since in most cases the names of the planes and gods and stuff are mythological. The question is relevant because someone earlier (perhaps you) questioned why I thought WotC was in the best position to develop these ideas.  Necromancer claims that the concept of the City of Brass tied to the elemental plane of fire and fire creatures called Efreeti is that it's based on folklore? You don't have to be a lawyer to read the Arabian Nights. I'm assuming when you say Clark you mean one of the owners of the company, but otherwise I'm not aware of what statements he's made that shed light on this. RJK's adventure that you're referring to did not deal directly with the City of Brass - it was a lead up to it. I don't see how TSRs claim relates to NGs claim (not that I was aware of a claim by NG that this idea was unique) and why one would validate the other. TSRs "claim" would be based on showing that there is no such concept/envisioning of the City of Brass that existed prior to DnD. NG would have a harder time making that claim. Gygax and/or RJK I'm pretty sure were the originators of the City of Brass as it exists in DnD. Why you think this would have any bearing on TSRs claim I'm not sure, IIRC TSR/WoTC owns most of the IP that the two created in those days.  In any case, my hazy understanding of this as a random guy on the internet, is that most of the IP issues have to be challenged in court by the interested parties, they don't police themselves. That means it's possible, from what I've seen, that a hobbyist person releasing a text document to the public domain can fly under the radar, while a larger company making a more significant investment cannot count on doing this. My general feeling is that if you published a module with some farm-boy with a glowing sword and a pair of robots following him around on a desert planet, you'd get sued - even if you could show that the individual elements were not unique. My guess (admittedly a guess, but not completely unsubstantiated) was that a TSR-style treatment of the Nine Hells, for example, was not done by prior companies because of the IP issues. If you have any statements to support or refute this, or even reasoning that connects some of these dots (other than naming people that own RPG companies) I'd be interested to hear it. EDIT:  BTW - RJKs CIty of Brass is a Kenzer product published under their Hackmaster line.  The history of the development of this product, as I understand, involved Necromancer at one point before RJK went seperate ways.  AFAICT this product and the convention module you mention have very little to do with each other.</blockquote>

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