Rethinking setting design

[Glade Riven]

I've been working on a Pathfinder-compatable setting for a while, and I'm making decent progress considering that I'm pretty much a team of 1 (plus the group I DM that gets to be guinea pigs). While at the moment it's homebrew, I do intend to do some indie publishing with it. Maybe someday it'll bring in a few bucks, maybe not - but at least it'll be a good portfolio piece for graphic design.

D&D Next/5e has brought about a rethinking of my strategy. Part 1 was alway to release the text for free, and "self-pirate" a low resolution version of any print products. Heck, I run anything I come up with past folks on the forum, here, as is. Any mechanics would continue under OGL. But with a new edition coming out, what I'm now looking at doing is completely separating mechanics from fluff.

If 5e makes things OGL, it makes things easier - but it isn't necessary. I couldn't sell anything involving Wizard's IP, but I could put something on a website with a few suggestions on how to use anything I create with WotC's products (if I'm careful and do it just right). Granted, it makes for free advertising for WotC, but I'm fine with that.

Of course, this could be a terrible, terrible, idea - the full scheme is rather unorthdox as it is, and my knowledge of copyright and trademark law is pretty darn good.​

 

[Mercurius]

I'm not sure what you are asking for here? And I don't know why this could be a "terrible, terrible idea"...are you speaking in terms of possible legal issues? Giving your stuff away for free? What?

 

[Glade Riven]

Sorry, sometimes my late night posting has some coherance issues...

Basically, my strategy for getting the setting involves "self-piracy" as marketing. Any print versions would have a low-resolution version with the fancy artwork avalible for download or torrented. Print versions would be POD. Ebook versions would be put up to an ebook vender or three. If you like it, and you feel like throwing a few bucks my way, there are options.

That strategy hasn't changed. It's crazy and experimental, but if it works - awsome. If it doesn't, not a big deal. Ultimatly, the learning experiance is more valuble than the cash (although cash is nice).

What has changed is making the setting less system-dependent, instead of just having it as a Pathfinder Compatable setting. So a nice fluff-only book with pretty pictures would probably be the first product.

Is there demand for such fluff? Eh, maybe, maybe not.

Legally speaking, I don't see an issue of having suggestions posted online on how to use the product with 4e, or 5e if 5e doesn't have something similar to OGL. I could not make new mechanics for 4e, nor copy out of the books. Essentually, it would be phrased in such a way that things are nice and vague and people would have to purchase WotC products in order to use them with the setting. I know I'm poking the boundaries of Fair Use, but I think I can get away with it.

If not, I'll be getting a DMCA notice. That could get fun, but it's not something that I'm going to let get as far as court.