robertsconley
Hero
Moon-Lancer said:
While I am not a lawyer I have written (and coded) works that were published.
The idea of copyright is that only you, as the author, has the right to authorize copies of your work made. A work is defined as the physical product you made i.e. the text. Note not the idea that what patents are for.
The OGL is permission granted by the author to copy a given work. Without this permission you are not allowed to copy a work and give it to another person. There are "fair use" exceptions but they are for the purpose of reviewing or commenting on the work. Since you are making a product to sell that won't apply.
Wizard of the Coast doesn't give a OGL license on their expansion books. There are exception like Unearthed Arcana but that about it other than the SRD.
Since the work and not the idea can be copyrighted you can write your own swashbuckler or advanced warrior or arcana stats as long as they are not copies of what wizards written. How close something has to be to be considered a copy is something you need a lawyer for. I do know changing a word or two or a title of the text doesn't cut it. Make your own DEX related Swashbuckler's [Agility, Rhythm, etc] (use a Thesaurus)
You might hear that games rules are not copyrightable. This is true except that the text explaining the rule is copyrightable. So if you can explain the rule in a different way you might be good, but then there might be enough for the author to sue you and even if he loses you still looking at the hassle a lawsuit entails.
The best case is to use only what in the SRD and have been made explicitly OGL. There are plenty of OGL swashbuckler related books you can use. Or just make something original.
