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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 5762640" data-attributes="member: 463">Yup.&nbsp; There are certainly people in the industry who could do it safely; the guy who runs Kenzer (David Kenzer?) comes to mind - ie someone who is both a games designer and an IP lawyer.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />But it's much more of a challenge than previous retro-clones IMO, you can't just take the d20 SRD and tweak it to look more like older editions.&nbsp; You have to strip down the 4e mechanics to their absolute basics and rebuild from the ground up without referring to any non-SRD text.&nbsp; You can then use SRD fluff, eg your description of Duergar needs to come from the SRD: <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dwarf.htm" target="_blank">Dwarf :: d20srd.org</a> - and you can't copy/paste the 4e MM2 stat block; I wouldn't use the new fluff about beard spines etc either.I think Class Powers are a particular issue, they seem designed to make separating 'game mechanics' from 'copyrightable expression' extremely difficult.&nbsp; To be safe I think you'd really need to create brand-new classes with new powers, though I think they could utilise the underlying 4e mechanical structure, eg the AEDU power distribution.In the end, you would have a game that used 4e mechanics, but might not actually feel all that much like 4e.&nbsp; Of course, you do not need to create a 4e clone to legally create &amp; distribute 4e-compatible RPG material, that just needs a basic knowledge of trade mark law.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 5762640, member: 463"] Yup. There are certainly people in the industry who could do it safely; the guy who runs Kenzer (David Kenzer?) comes to mind - ie someone who is both a games designer and an IP lawyer. :D But it's much more of a challenge than previous retro-clones IMO, you can't just take the d20 SRD and tweak it to look more like older editions. You have to strip down the 4e mechanics to their absolute basics and rebuild from the ground up without referring to any non-SRD text. You can then use SRD fluff, eg your description of Duergar needs to come from the SRD: [url=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dwarf.htm]Dwarf :: d20srd.org[/url] - and you can't copy/paste the 4e MM2 stat block; I wouldn't use the new fluff about beard spines etc either. I think Class Powers are a particular issue, they seem designed to make separating 'game mechanics' from 'copyrightable expression' [B]extremely[/B] difficult. To be safe I think you'd really need to create brand-new classes with new powers, though I think they could utilise the underlying 4e mechanical structure, eg the AEDU power distribution. In the end, you would have a game that used 4e mechanics, but might not actually feel all that much like 4e. Of course, you do not need to create a 4e clone to legally create & distribute 4e-compatible RPG material, that just needs a basic knowledge of trade mark law. [/QUOTE]

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