Question for the Group: Ivrelum Project

[Leopold]

All,

I would like to broach something with the group here. I know that I had spoken on working on the Ivrelum and expanding that into DF setting. I got to wondering about what else that I could do with the Ivrelum and came up with an idea for a sourcebook and an adventure. The sourcebook would entail:

1. details on red harbor (setting)
2. The ivrelum: All NPC's detailed with stat blocks
3. Mud and the Fiend lords with statblocks

So this would net me with more details on the city borrowed from here, True stats on major NPC's and some stats on the fiendlords and their domains.

What i wanted to do was use some of the material here on the DF site (names, places, etc. all OGC material) that we have already established sans the artwork that is not OPEN and build on that and create a sourcebook and subsequent adventure published by Natural D20 press (morrus's D20 company). Since I would be keeping it here in house and doing all the work building on the above I would push ALL of the information that is in the book into OGC and make that part of the DF setting book thereby contributing back to the group with the material that I created and used from here.

so in the end we would have more information than we currently have and finnally drawing more interest in the setting as i plan to use the ivrelum as a 'plug n'play' theives guild that can be based on any realm as long as certain conditions are met (port, mountains, etc.). The DF setting guide will contain snips from the sourcebook, some background info on the ivrelum, and the Stats from the fiendlords.

So what i ask from the group is this:

Do you mind that I use the ivrelum as a product to sell using the OGC material we have on here, expanding on it, and contributing ALL of the work into OGC to be put into the sourcebook?


Questions, comments, and concerns are appreciated and welcome. I would like to allay any fears of "Credit taking" or "PI ripping off" or anything allong those lines, I won't use anything that is copyrighted or artwork already designated as "Don't use for a pay work" (TBM i know which ones aren't for grabs and I have an artist doing some of the work as well). I have already spoke to some people about this and they are very very interested. I want to keep it local to here (ENWorld and NatD20) and expand on this setting as much as possible.

If you would like to work on this with me as well I am accepting those that wish to write under a strict deadline with an outline already prepared. If the group accepts this proposal that I am offering I would be more than happy to see what you can and cannot do and how it will benefit the project.


In the end i do not wish to cause discontinuity, harm, or ill will within this group. We have done allot of work getting all this together and prepared for a release. I just want to take one small snippet (the Ivrelum) and go in a different direction with the OGC material at hand.

 

[RangerWickett]

First of all, and for the record, it's "Natural 20 Press." I swear, that damned logo must be the most confusing thing on this planet.

Second of all, though I'm biased as a member of Nat20, I think it's a great idea. Since it's all either new or OGC material, we should be good from a legal standpoint. It increases awareness, raises some funds for Russ, and for the DF project, and would definitely help flesh out a lot of DF. Also, if it does well, it would provide impetus to perhaps work on other locations and sell sourcebooks for those as well.

The only real problem I could see is that making the whole thing OGC kind of ruins the point of selling it for profit, because people could then just download the OGC material from someone else with few qualms. Probably you should make a few small areas of the book not OGC (things like adventures, maybe a few stats for minor NPCs), and then if the Daemonforge project needs to use anything that's not OGC, it can be arranged with a simple agreement between DF and Nat20.

I'm all for this, but like Leopold, I don't want to offend anyone by going too far. Russ, could you weigh in here, so people know your opinion?

 

[Morrus]

Just to make sure I fully understand what you're proposing:

You're proposing to write new material and sell it; however, that material will be carefully written to be fully compatible with DF without actually using any of the IP?

Sounds doable. You'd need to keep it modular, so that it doesn't actually use any DF material or names, but you could make it abundantly clear that it is fully compatible with DF.

I agree with RW about the OGC thing. It would be better to keep back some of the content and just give the DF people (and only the DF people) carte blanche to use it.

I'd go a step further - a share of the money made could go intoa "DF fund" which could be used to pay artists and other people for the DF project. What do you think?

 

[TheBurnedManAtWork]

"I'd go a step further - a share of the money made could go intoa "DF fund" which could be used to pay artists and other people for the DF project. What do you think?"

That sounds good..

"TBM i know which ones aren't for grabs and I have an artist doing some of the work as well"

The artist is doing work on what?

"The sourcebook would entail:"

"1. details on red harbor (setting)"

Grey Ones conception, you should contact him on info.

"2. The ivrelum: All NPC's detailed with stat blocks"

The same here.

"3. Mud and the Fiend lords with statblocks"

Mud was ???? Why would you need stats for all the other fiendlords at this point? Better to concentrate on people...

 

[Leopold]

So far so good folks. Here is what i thought of.


Making the whole book OGC is not what i meant...making the Fiendlords, Red Harbor, and the PrC's OGC is what is probably best. The NPC's are coming from my stash of Evil PC's/NPC's as well as stocking the town full of old PC's from various games that I have played in the many years. Makes those NON-OGC and specific to the book. The DF sourcebook will NOT detail those and be vague on the Ivrelum in general, in this way ensuring that the purchase of said material will correlate to the DF setting.

Unless we say that only the DF people can use this material, but what about DF in general is any of the material OGC/OGL? Wouldn't I have to include an OGL in the material and state what it is and isn't? How do we state what is and what isn't? Can we just say that only a few things are OGL? I have seen it done but i think we can settle what is OGL/OGC/PI/IP later. giving the DF people Carte Blance access is fine up to a point as what's the point in the sourcebook if they can dl the material for free here?


This sourcebook will be as Plug n'play as possible, meaning ANY DM from ANY setting can drop this into any world requiring only a few changes, but using this WITH DF is recommeneded and can be found at this website <insert website addy here>.

Slush fund for DF? I could see that, I just don't want to funnel all the proceeds that the book would make out of my penniless pockets and into the DF fund . A percentage would be nice to help pay for artists to draw up pictures for the main setting book as well as other things should the need arise.

NOTE: I do plan on doing a complete adventure later after the book has been published, this again would tie into the sourcebook and require it for play. How would this work?

Morrus: I would have to use the DF names for:

Red Harbor
Mud
Ivrelum
Fiendlords names (all 5 of them)

beyond that I don't belive i need any of them. The process i am proposing will flesh out red harbor more than it already is right now (which is substantial) but I would be borrowing some what from that to make this possible. Give the DM the details on the city as well as the guild and they wouldn't need much beyond that to full impliment the Ivrelum into their campaign.



TBM@Work: I thought you had sent me the pictures and a request to take down said artists if the site (ENWorld) went for profit. Was that you?

The fiendlord stats as well as MUD tie into the whole Ivrelum idea I set out to the group many months ago. I have shown RW an outline and a chapter by chapter synopsis of said work. I can post it here if you would like to see what it is about. I would prefer email to keep it under wraps (gotta squash the competition!)

Grey One: I await your approval on this as the town and Ivrelum were your idea but your blessing would be very much appreciated.

 

[TheBurnedManAtWork]

Dont pull a Troy Denning....

 

[Leopold]

Dont pull a Troy Denning....

who's troy denning and what did he do? I saw he wrote a bunch of Forgotten realm books but is that all?

Oh and before it is put out i would take the few folk that are still working on these files and conference them in and make sure that it is all in the spirit of the ivrelum and DF.

 

[The Burned Man]

"who's troy denning and what did he do?"

He wrote the Prism Pentad (for Dark Sun) in which he basically altered the entire setting (killing of major characters etc)....

...then again he was one of the originators of the setting...

 

[Leopold]

"who's troy denning and what did he do?"

He wrote the Prism Pentad (for Dark Sun) in which he basically altered the entire setting (killing of major characters etc)....

...then again he was one of the originators of the setting...

this is a sourcebook first and foremost. The adventure will show the PC's the inside of the Ivrelum HQ as well as attacking the major NPC's. Whether they live or die is up to the PC's. It's not core nor will it be factual. The world will go on as if they were there.

 

[Imperialus]

I was never in this for money. In fact one of the big reasons I started was because I was too damn poor to pay for a campaign setting and I wanted to see a professional quality setting out there that can be downloaded for free.

If you want to run with your own ideas though, go ahead. Only problem I might have with it is if it wasn't actually you who came up with the inital ideas for Red Harbor and the Irivelum, I can't remember who did it orriginally.