Scarred Lands: Best Books?

That got changed a while ago I thought. The GSL can still be changed at WotC's whim and the GSL stuff might have to go away, but I thought they dropped the part about agreeing not to ever publish OGL product lines in the last revision.

Since the GSL subforum at ENWorld appears to be empty, please refer to mxyzplk's blog for more information. Also, have a look at section 10 of latest GSL.

In short:
- WotC can update or terminate GSL at any moment.
- In case of non-compliance or termination, licensee is obliged to destroy all licensed assets.
- product lines restriction is gone, though not entirely (and, at WotC whim, can be brought back).

Regards,
Ruemere
 

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Since the GSL subforum at ENWorld appears to be empty, please refer to mxyzplk's blog for more information. Also, have a look at section 10 of latest GSL.

In short:
- WotC can update or terminate GSL at any moment.
- In case of non-compliance or termination, licensee is obliged to destroy all licensed assets.
- product lines restriction is gone, though not entirely (and, at WotC whim, can be brought back).

Regards,
Ruemere

What do you mean by not entirely? The GSL no longer has any reference to the OGL or product lines at all that I see.

10.1 Termination. Wizards may terminate this License and the rights granted hereunder
automatically upon written notice to Licensee or upon posting on its website a termination of the GSL as
applied to all licensees. Licensee may terminate its license hereunder for any reason (other than its own
breach of the terms of this License) by either (a) ceasing all use of Licensed Materials, or (b) delivering to
Wizards an executed “Termination Notice” as presented in the file “Termination.pdf” that is available for
download at http://www.wizards.com/d20 (“Termination Notice”).

. . .

10.3 Effect of Termination. Upon termination for any reason other than a termination
resulting from Licensee’s delivery of a valid Termination Notice, Licensee will immediately cease all use of
the Licensed Materials and will destroy all inventory and marketing materials in Licensee’s possession
bearing the Compatibility Logo. Licensee will remove the Compatibility Logo from all advertising, web sites,
and other materials. Licensee will solely bear all costs related to carrying out this provision (in addition to
any other provision) of the License. Wizards may, in its sole discretion and upon written agreement
between Wizards and Licensee, extend this License for those Licensed Products that otherwise comply with
the terms of this License. Upon termination resulting from Licensee’s delivery of a valid Termination Notice,
Licensee will have six (6) months from the date listed on the Termination Notice (“Termination Date”) to
use (as authorized hereunder) all Licensed Products, and advertisements for Licensed Products, in
Licensee’s possession as of the Termination Date. Licensee may not produce new Licensed Products
(including without limitation, reprints of existing Licensed Products), nor other authorized materials with the
Compatibility Logo after the Termination Date.

The GSL defines Licensed materials in section 4 and it is 4e stuff only, not OGL stuff.

4. License Grant. Subject to Licensee’s compliance with all of the terms and conditions of the
License, Wizards grants Licensee a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicenseable royalty-free,
worldwide license to utilize the following materials (“Licensed Materials”) in Licensed Products, solely in
the manner described herein and subject to the additional requirements, limitations and restrictions set forth
herein and in Section 5:
4.1 4E References. Licensee may reprint the proprietary 4E reference terms, tables, and
templates (each, a “4E Reference”) described in the 4E System Reference Document as presented in the
file “SRD.pdf” that is available for download at http://www.wizards.com/d20 (“SRD”), incorporated herein by
D&D 4E Game System License ©2008, 2009 Wizards of the Coast page 2 of 7
reference. Licensee acknowledges that Wizards has previously defined each 4E Reference. Licensee will
not define, redefine, or alter the definition of any 4E Reference in a Licensed Product. Without limiting the
foregoing, Licensee may create original material that adds to the applicability of a 4E Reference, so long as
this original material complies with the preceding sentence. Licensee will comply with all usage guidelines
set forth in the SRD. Wizards may update or revise the SRD at any time in its sole discretion by posting the
updated SRD on its website page located at http://www.wizards.com/d20. Wizards will indicate on the cover
page of the SRD the date it was last updated. Licensee is responsible for checking the SRD regularly for
changes, and waives any right to receive specific notice of changes.
4.2 Logo. Licensee must print Wizards’ proprietary “compatibility” service mark as
presented in either of the files labeled “GSLLogo.pdf” and “GSLLogoBW.pdf” that are available for download
at http://www.wizards.com/d20 (“Compatibility Logo”) on the lower left quadrant of the back cover of each
Licensed Product and on the lower one-third (1/3) of the page in which the legal text described in Section
5.2 is located, or if a Licensed Product is made available only in an electronic format, the last page, and
sized identically to the Compatibility Logo as shown in the files listed above. Licensee may additionally
utilize the Compatibility Logo in advertisements and marketing materials (including without limitation,
website listings and catalogs) for Licensed Products, provided, that such Compatibility Logo solely appears
in the lower left quadrant of any such advertisement or marketing material; and is sized identically to the
Compatibility Logo as shown in the files listed above.
4.3 Imagery. Except as expressly provided in Section 5.7, Licensee may utilize imagery and
artwork contained in 4E solely to independently create and publish 2-D pictorial derivative works
(“Derivative Imagery”) in a Licensed Product.
 

There is a thread on the Paizo boards now about converting Scarred Lands to Pathfinder, so it's not like it's a totaly alien concept...
 

There is that feeling of discussion going horribly off-topic. I'll do my best to keep away from further derailing, however, since I feel I owe you some explanation...

What do you mean by not entirely? The GSL no longer has any reference to the OGL or product lines at all that I see.

The GSL defines Licensed materials in section 4 and it is 4e stuff only, not OGL stuff.

This is a legal document. Statement (section 2.) that allows for any kind of change to the license and requires immediate compliance means that current content is temporary. Consequently, aforementioned restriction is not gone. It's simply not in the effect at this moment.
If you ever wondered, why important agreements contain specific clauses as to the extent of possible changes and list of methods ensuring that all involved parties have to approve changes, here you have a valid reason.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on U.S. laws, there may be some default legal protection one can fall back on. As written, current GSL is almost nasty as before. The only difference is that you can publish something with short life span, which is not as straitjacketed as before.
However, you're strongly advised to remember that there is a loaded gun pointed at your back.

Possible worst case scenario: Someone decides that there is a need to clear the market for next edition. GSL is altered so that all competition is obliged to destroy their licensed products. New edition appears, rival products are removed from all shops... There is a precedent for this - termination of d20 STL license, though at that time there was a safe harbor of OGL. There is no safe harbor this time.

Hopefully, this explanation is clear enough to convey my views. If you would like to discuss it further, please take it to private mail.
Also, please do not let my opinion to discourage you from enjoying 4E - it is a fine system, made by great people.

Regards,
Ruemere
 

Back on Topic...

FYI... I got the Termana campaign setting book today. I already like this book more than the Ghelspad book. :cool:

It's very nice. :)

Cheers!

KF
 
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*CASTS "RAISE THREAD"*

I wanted to resurrect this thread to comment that this whole conversation was enormously helpful to me over the last couple of days. Much to my disappointment, I appear to have lost an entire box of Role Playing books somewhere along the way, which contained most of my Scarred Lands materials, including the Ghelspad Setting Book, the Gazetter, Divine and Defeated and others.

The problem was, I couldn't remember WHAT was in there! So this thread was very useful for me in reconstructing what books had been available, reminding me of some that I had forgotten, and helping me track down what I could. It turns out that a lot of these books are easily obtainable for very little money on Amazon.com these days. So I've begun the arduous process of reconstructing my Scarred Lands resources, in the hopes that I may one day get to run a campaign there!
 

I don't like Edge of Infiny at all. It alters Scarred Land base ideas and it doesn't say they are alternate views but just say very wrong things. Also it's one of most boringly written books. Zodiak Planes were pretty cool and some few good ideas exist but if you want to keep mythology as Divane & Defieted and earlier books so, this book is not loyal to those stories at all.

I think this actually contributes why SL failed. They tried to make more general stuff to sell more books like Player's books, took away original ideas by "curing" forsaken elves and other counter-producted things. Strange Lands book was only good product for ages that didn't make me blue in face. Maybe thanks to it being rushed.

Most of newer line books have cool things too, except for few exeptions. If you aren't as original ideas puritist as I am, you might not care for some concept errors (purposeful changes).

Divane & Defeated (not a must unless you dig mythology)/CC1-2 (maybe3) and Relic and Ritual books are all good, though full of rule-um-ums. Hollowfaust is not so great book IMO, it mystifies some things which made some of it's mythology useless to dm, I might just make things up on my own. Interesting culture-book yes. I like Shelzar and Mithril book too (mithril book had missing npc text).

However, many books have editing problems and 3.x rules never where their strong point.

Adventure trio was rather fun to run, though had some stat-block issues and missing text.

Ah and slarecian book, counters against everything said before and kinda ruins mystery, instead of having useful alien artifacts, example dungeons and traps, it has more "how to play slarecian even while you won't as pc"-take. It's lacking those things that would make it useful. Some stealable ideas book, but one of those that annoy me most too. Right next to Edge of Infinity and Faintful and Forsaken. Latest is status que restoration book of elves/dwarfes. Like happened in novels. Which I didn't like.
 

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