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D&D Older Editions
Is there any 4e Retro Clones out there?
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6766717" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>As a level 5 Daily Fighter power in a game where the mechanics are almost exactly the same as 4e? hahaha. If you do use those terms you SURELY lose even the fig leaf of the GSL. The OGL might cover 'Fighter' as a class concept well enough to apply generally to a 4e-clone fighter, but you'd never get away with releasing powers with the existing names.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, copyright is only ONE issue. However, the question is whether or not you can express 'Come and Get It' in a way that is different enough from WotC's version to avoid their 'expression' of the rules, and still have the same game in any meaningful way. Beyond that you have Design Patents, Actual Patent Patents, and Trademarks on Design (what you call 'trade dress'). Its a minefield, and 4e makes it especially tricky. If you clone 1e or 2e, mostly those books are tables in functional forms, and blocks of text that can be rewritten, rearranged, and reorganized without much impact, so 'classic' D&D is pretty easy, and 3.x is simple because its unambiguously OGL. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Some of them are certainly business ventures. They still rely on the good graces of WotC to exist in any case, as any legal challenge of any sort to any of them would almost certainly be beyond its publishers to defend. Obviously someone out there might do it, anything can happen.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 6766717, member: 82106"] As a level 5 Daily Fighter power in a game where the mechanics are almost exactly the same as 4e? hahaha. If you do use those terms you SURELY lose even the fig leaf of the GSL. The OGL might cover 'Fighter' as a class concept well enough to apply generally to a 4e-clone fighter, but you'd never get away with releasing powers with the existing names. Well, copyright is only ONE issue. However, the question is whether or not you can express 'Come and Get It' in a way that is different enough from WotC's version to avoid their 'expression' of the rules, and still have the same game in any meaningful way. Beyond that you have Design Patents, Actual Patent Patents, and Trademarks on Design (what you call 'trade dress'). Its a minefield, and 4e makes it especially tricky. If you clone 1e or 2e, mostly those books are tables in functional forms, and blocks of text that can be rewritten, rearranged, and reorganized without much impact, so 'classic' D&D is pretty easy, and 3.x is simple because its unambiguously OGL. Some of them are certainly business ventures. They still rely on the good graces of WotC to exist in any case, as any legal challenge of any sort to any of them would almost certainly be beyond its publishers to defend. Obviously someone out there might do it, anything can happen. [/QUOTE]
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Is there any 4e Retro Clones out there?
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