Green Ronin OGL questions

[jgbrowning]

First, thanks for your time reading and responding.

I just picked up the arcane and divine pocket grimoires from green ronin publishing and i noticed a few things i'd like to have clarified if possible.

in the front there is a list of names. Deviln by Malhavoc Press and Anshar, Betine, Neroth by Paradigm Concepts are used with permission as product identiy. Why are these names product identity when they are only used for an OGL spell name? I assume there's something going on here I dont understand.

In the book, i also noticed that Mordenkainen has been replaced with Mord, yet Bigby and Otiluke remain. Again im confused about such occurances and would appreciate clarification.

I'm considering using a few of the PG spells in a product im working on and would like to make sure i dont step on anyone's toes. Politely or legally.

One final question. How can i tell what spells are from what OGL product so I can give the creator their dues? Is there a way of doing this that i dont see, and if not, in the future, could any OGL copilations include a discriptor of where each OGL item came from so i could do such a thing.

thanks so much,

joe b.

 

[arwink]

IANAL, but from what I understand, Devlin etc are product identity because they don't actually have anything to do with the spell mechanics.

Sure, the mechanics of making an arrow or crossbow bolt out of thin air may be OGC, but the elements that say that the spell was created by an assasin named Devlin (hence, Devlin's Barb) is pure product identity.

Simililarly, Mordekenin is a wizard from greyhawk. Altghough the spells he created and contributed to the DnD canon may be OGL, the character and the fact that he is responsible for the creation of these spells is not.

 

[jgbrowning]

OGL

IINAL, but from what I understand, Devlin etc are product identity because they don't actually have anything to do with the spell mechanics.

Sure, the mechanics of making an arrow or crossbow bolt out of thin air may be OGC, but the elements that say that the spell was created by an assasin named Devlin (hence, Devlin's Barb) is pure product identity.

Simililarly, Mordekenin is a wizard from greyhawk. Altghough the spells he created and contributed to the DnD canon may be OGL, the character and the fact that he is responsible for the creation of these spells is not.

The bit about Devlin is only in the title. In the spell description it only mentions "caster" and does not mention anything about Devlin. I know lots of SS stuff has long intros to each spell that is product identity about their scarred lands world but i dont see anything here that is quite like that.

Mordenkainen as well as Bigby are from greyhawk and Bigby's mentioned by name so im still not clear about that aspect of my question.

thanks for your reply, i appreciate it.

joe b.

 

[Nikchick]

First, thanks for your time reading and responding.

I just picked up the arcane and divine pocket grimoires from green ronin publishing and i noticed a few things i'd like to have clarified if possible.

in the front there is a list of names. Deviln by Malhavoc Press and Anshar, Betine, Neroth by Paradigm Concepts are used with permission as product identiy. Why are these names product identity when they are only used for an OGL spell name? I assume there's something going on here I dont understand.

Those names are claimed as product identity by the authors and publishers of the original books, in all the various forms and references that it might take in their products. Devlin is a character, references to Devlin or Devlin's accountrements are references to another company's individual, protected creation if they've claimed it as Product Identity. It is one of the protections afforded to creators under the D20 STL, and we resepcted that.

In the book, i also noticed that Mordenkainen has been replaced with Mord, yet Bigby and Otiluke remain. Again im confused about such occurances and would appreciate clarification.

Mordenkainen appears as "Mord" in the SRD, and so that is what was used.

One final question. How can i tell what spells are from what OGL product so I can give the creator their dues? Is there a way of doing this that i dont see, and if not, in the future, could any OGL copilations include a discriptor of where each OGL item came from so i could do such a thing.

If you're using the Pocket Grimoires as your source of reference, you just need to credit the Pocket Grimoires. We did try to list the contributors individually on the title page of each Grimoire, but as we found when we approached the companies during the process, often times they prefered to be credited as a company rather than as individual contributors. I know what you're getting at with your question, because we asked the same sort of thing when we put the original together: Hey, who wrote this specific spell, or these specific ten spells? Unfortunately, it's not called out in the SRD, and it's often not called out in the original source material from other companies (unless that material is the work of one person alone).

Nicole

 

[jgbrowning]

thanks

thanks for the reply. i should have looked at the SRD first.

thanks again.

joe b.