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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beleriphon" data-source="post: 7802481" data-attributes="member: 27847">He's working on the basis that the blocks of text that represent the fictional creatures in a presentable way aren't able to be copyrighted as 1) they are the "only" way to present the information in a useful format (they aren't, I can think of at least three other ways to present the same information), and 2) stat blocks are purely mechanical functions and operations rather than creative expressions of the mechanics and thus do not fall under copyright.He extends this to spell names Fireball can't be copyrighted by itself. Fireball, with the attendant information about how to use said thing in game however does fall under copyright. So if I was writing a novel about wizards and they use Fireball, WotC can't sue me. If however, my wizard casts Fireball using bat poop, sulphur and the other components described in the spell WotC probably has a good case to win a copyright suit.At a certain point you can't copyright even the description of the rules, at least at their most basic level. So I can write game with the basic operation of: Roll at d20 and add your modifiers. At its heart D&D works that way, WotC probably has sentence in multiple PHBs that matches that almost exactly. However it is a operative process rather than a creative description of how to complete that process. What becomes part of copyright is the entire block of text surrounding that sentence that describes why we roll, what a d20 actually is, and other stuff.Frylock is conflating something as straightforward as "Roll at d20 and add your modifiers" with the stat block for an orc, or a Cyclops, or a Mummy Lord. His complaint about the OGL might work in absence of the SRD, but he's forgetting that the SRD is Open Game Content, the whole damn thing. So, sure the mechanics don't work for copyright, but I'm pretty sure a 600 page document that WotC is basically saying "hey here's a big old copy of our game, except for a few bits we don't want to share, feel free to copy the whole thing as much as you want, hell go ahead and sell it, just make sure to slap the OGL on the end" is consideration from them, and in exchange you're giving up and possible fair use copyright claims you have in exchange for using the OGL and WotC OGC content.</blockquote>

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