Oh, the joys of the OGL (Unearthed Arcana)

[MerricB]

G'day people!

I've just been scanning part of Unearthed Arcana to distribute to my players. I'm being particularly legal about it and attaching the OGL and everything.

However, one of the Product Identity claims nearly tripped me up - all Proper Names are claimed by WotC as product identity. So, there are examples that use proper names! I've just been merrily substituting meaningless names for their meaningless names...

Actually, there was a reference to Sigil that really had to be deleted. And a mind flayer.

But, a six-page PDF is now ready to send to my players, with the variant rules I deem good for the low-magic swashbuckling game one of my players wants to run: Urban Ranger, Defense Bonus, Action Points, Reputation, Contacts. They also get a free copy of the OGL version 1.0a! Aren't I nice!

(Hopefully these rules will make the players want more and to get UA as well, but we'll see!)

Cheers!

 

[Snoweel]

Just curious, but is the OGL necessary if you don't intend to make any money from your handout?

 

[Yair]

Just curious, but is the OGL necessary if you don't intend to make any money from your handout?

Legally, yes.
Unless, perhaps, you are not publishing it. In that case I think it can fall under 'fair use'. Publication does include putting it in an interenet site. I'm not sure if it includes putting it in a site that requires a password to enter or download.
IANAL (I am not a lawyer), this is just how I understand it.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Actually, I'm doing something similar for my group. I'm writing up my version of racial paragon classes, most of which are just those in UA -- though some are modified to fit my world.

I've added a line in sec. 15 for the modified product, of course, to keep it legal.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Wow, that's a lot of effort to go to just for a document to be used within your own group.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Wow, that's a lot of effort to go to just for a document to be used within your own group.

It's not bad, if you have a scanner or type quickly.

Only two people in the group have UA right now, so it would be a pain for them no matter what. Since I have (minor) changes to make to the classes, and I want to add others, it's worth the time for me.

 

[Olive]

So... this PDF of yours...

Any chance of taking a look?

 

[MerricB]

So... this PDF of yours...

Any chance of taking a look?

Not at the moment, I'm afraid. I'm going to keep it for the use of my campaign only until a couple of months have gone by.

Cheers!

 

[CRGreathouse]

So... this PDF of yours...

Any chance of taking a look?

If you'll email me I'll send you what I have. It's modified somewhat (as mentioned), but I doubt you'd notice. (I changed the text on half-racial paragons; UA has a half-elven paragon, while I just give half-elves access to both the elf and human paragon classes.)

It's an *ugly* PDF, though. It's just text, with very little formatting.

 

[Ranger REG]

Just curious, but is the OGL necessary if you don't intend to make any money from your handout?

It doesn't matter whether you're making money or not. Distribution is the legal keyword. If you buy one product from a publisher and start to mass-copy it and distribute the copies for free, then the publisher will have loss money because many customers would prefer the free copy of their product, however it is unauthorized and illegal. In this way, you're taking away potential revenue.

It will then force the publisher to spend more money to combat against photocopying and scanning. That means in order to replace those money they have to raise the price of their product.