It's finally happening - an OGL spell compilation - thoughts from publishers?

[The Sigil]

Netbook material re-use...

The way the Netbook reads is that it is a compilation of those seperate documents. At least thats what it appears they chose to do. Therefore each of those documents exists to be able to be utilized seperately.. even if the only place they exist is on the author's hard drive, and never distributed seperately.

That is precisely the idea. Also remember that if I am the original author of some piece of OGC, *I* can publish it in publication A, then publish it again in publication B without referencing publication A in my Section 15 if I so desire.

By extension, this means that I can provide someone else a copy of specific pieces of my OGC with a "custom Section 15" that references only myself and the SRD (and, if it is indeed a derivative work of another OGC document, the appropriate Section 15 references).

Now.. if the Netbook only included seperate lines in the Section 15 for those authors that specifically requested it.. and you wanted to use something from the Netbook that didn't have a seperate line of its own.. you'd have to use the whole section 15.

Thus far, AFAIK, one Netbook has made an attempt to do this - the Netbook of Creatures has an online version which uses ASP to dynamically "assemble" its OGL (specifically the Section 15) so if you view a single creature, you get a Section 15 entry that references only the SRD and the author of that particular entry... this was specifically done to make it much easier to pull out pieces in a "modular" fashion without bloating your Section 15.

The only one problem with the issue of using the seperate document out of the Netbook.... you definitely will need to contact the author... because there is always the possibility that the particular feat in the netbook is a derivative.. and not exactly as the spell/feat/whatever existed in its original form. And that would be a fun legal twist to deal with if you just tried quoting it from the Netbook and not getting the original from the author.

A good point - but as I mentioned, the issue of "dynamically assembling" the OGL using ASP (or PHP or whatever) solves this to a great degree. When you view the whole Netbook online, all entries' S15 references are "assembled" and you get an unwieldly S15 ... but if you so desire, you can select a single entry and thus get the exact S15 for that piece (only) - which, in the case of derivative works, will also note those in its S15.

IMO, the web - especially with the option of dynamic content - provides a *great* opportunity to make S15's as simple as possible. We've already seen the PDF explosion... will a "dynamic content" subscription plan be next?

Not likely anytime soon, methinks... too many of us are still too used to hard copies and tangible stuff to let this transition occur quickly... but the potential is there.

Also, and this idea has been mentioned in other places, an OGC repository, dynamically assembling S15's would be great for publishers and the community alike - though not likely to happen anytime soon.

Imagine "assembling" your own "Players Handbook" for your campaign world on the web, hand-choosing those pieces of OGC from all the different publishers you want to be included in the book. Once you have all your selections made, the site automatically generates the book and slaps the OGL/Section 15 into place... your players have a custom handbook with perhaps 8 Core Classes, the variant Bard from BoEMII, a list of 18 Prestige Classes (each from a different publisher) with their requirements, weapons from Arms and Armor (Bastion Press), spells from R&R, and so on... all in one unified, 350-page PDF (or HTML if you prefer), ready for printing and, since it's 100% OGC, with the ability to distribute unlimited copies (to your players, for instance) after you download the thing.

In fact, it's not hard to imagine a service like this coming into being with a group that has the right technical know-how, with a service fee of, say, $5 for each 50 pages (or fraction thereof) you assemble (if you make a 60 page book now it costs you ten bucks but your next 40 page book is free)... then add the option to create a hardcopy/print version of your book for another <X> cents per page plus shipping costs...

Wow, that's a great idea... somebody really ought to do that... I'd try it but I have not the time nor resources nor technical know-how... but in my ideal world such a site would exist (and in my dream world, since I came up with the concept, I would be able to assemble into electronic form anything I wanted for free)...

--Spencer "The Sigil" Cooley

 

[Cergorach]

*Tries to put The Sigil back into the Pandora's box he came from*

I've been brainstorming about the same thing, OGL material can be put in a MySQL (or any other db) and PHP can be used to draw from the pool of available OGL material and format it into a pdf (or webpage), you could even give the user the option between different styles...

[don't have enough time to go into detail at the moment, will do this in rhe morning.]

 

[RangerWickett]

Just to add my opinion a little, I'd have no problem with people using OGC material from any book I write, even if they don't tell me first. I'd like it if they did, but I no more think they have to tell me than I think that a DM should email me to get approval to use some of my material in his home game.

Maybe a huge online OGC database, like has been suggested a lot, isn't that bad an idea. To be nice, we'll only use OGC that is at least two years old. Sound fair?

 

[kenjib]

The problem with an online OGC database or repackaging service is the loophole for crippleware embedded in the OGL. For example, you can't use the names of all of the spells in Relics & Rituals. Similarly I believe you can't use descriptions for creatures in the Creature Collections, no? I don't mean to pick on S&SS - it's very common but it was just the first example that came to mind. I imagine many prestige classes also don't release the descriptions because they are tied to the setting. This means that a large amount of the OGC out there is not suitable for redistribution without some content addition. A compiled PDF of a bunch of game stat blocks without explanation and/or missing names does not seem very useful.

Such a project would only reach it's full potential if some kind of standards were established for creating OGC that made it more easy to reprint. Am I off base here?

 

[RangerWickett]

I try to make sure to release whole chapters as OGC, so I can just say "The text in Chapters One, Three, and Four are open gaming content. No art is OGC, and no text in Chapter Two is OGC. The cover sure as heck isn't OGC."

For some people that won't work, but I find it's a nice way to do things. All rules material should be in its own chapter, and that makes a good division of information.

 

[spacecrime.com]

Speaking as a very minor author, I'd be thrilled to see my open content appearing in Big Books of Spells and the like. Quite aside from the ego-boost of it all, I figure that if the material is properly credited it's a free advertisement for the rest of the product it's taken from.

yours,