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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4853550" data-attributes="member: 80487">John, I think you may be conflating the technical (and applicable) meaning of "rules" with colloquial usage that refers to a specific text.It is a rule in the former sense that a first-level character hits AC X by rolling (20-X) or greater on 1d20. That is a procedure, easily expressed mathematically; a set of data produced by applying it is not copyright.On the other hand, some old D&D tables giving factors for (e.g.) character classes by level exhibit "funky" variations the removal of which is among the reasons some people consider later designs "better". They cannot be reduced to a simple rule other than "see the table". In such cases, the tables are clearly "creative literary or artistic expression" and cannot legally be duplicated. Thus, we find differences when comparing corresponding tables in simulacra with those in old D&D editions.There's not much of a leg on which to stand in claiming that the tables are similar in concept, because the concept does not belong to anyone -- and there are in any case only so many ways to present such a matrix!The intent of the law is very clearly NOT to prevent anyone from copying the rules of a game. Indeed, it seems to me that it should be legally possible to duplicate even many such odd rules as mentioned above by presenting them in a sufficiently different literary or visual (or whatever) form. In not doing so, the creators of simulacra are being scrupulous in the extreme, hedging their bets in light of the "chilling effect" that frivolous lawsuits have had.</blockquote>

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