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Theory :At what point does a person have to cross to no longer be bound by the OGL?
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<blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 6527303" data-attributes="member: 221"><p>Your best guess interpretation was off a bit then. </p><p></p><p>What you must do to use the OGL is firstly, include a copy of the OGL in your book. </p><p></p><p>Secondly, you must delineate, either in the license, or somewhere in the book, which parts of the book are open (this is section 8 of the license). Generally, the easiest way to do this is to say something to the effect of "All mechanics and rules in this book are designated as Open content. Any flavor text not already Open, including personalities, names or descriptions of En-World are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission." Flavor text is most often Closed. Mechanical text is most often Open, but you do need to check the book you are using to make sure which is which, because some publishers are more generous than others. (Again, in Creature Collection for instance, you can use the stats from the Creatures but not the names of said creatures or any of the flavor text; to use these creatures you need to rename them and put some flavor of your own on them.)</p><p></p><p>Finally, when you publish your copy of the OGL, in section 15 you must designate the source material you use. Normally this only requires you to include the section 15 from the books you are using in your section 15. The main exception to this is the Tome of Horrors which requires you to identify the actual creature used. Changes made to the creature, however do not need to be detailed.</p><p></p><p>This means that if I decide to use a monster from the Tome of Horrors, but then add on a template from the Pathfinder Bestiary and another template from Advanced Bestiary, then my section 15 needs to include the right Tome of Horror entry, the section 15 from the Pathfinder Bestiary and the Section 15 from the Advanced Bestiary. When I do mine, I go through and erase any duplicate section 15 info to make it look neat. And all of this makes it sound a lot more complicated then it is. Do it once or twice and you have it down.</p><p></p><p>Now in your case, if you want to use the Tendriculos, but not the actual mechanics, then you need to make sure the name is open. I check the d20pfsrd and see that it is. I write up whatever I want about the tendriculos, but when I do my section 15, I have to include the following: "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams." That's it, and I'm done.</p><p></p><p>The OGL is actually easy to use. And if you want to use it, there are plenty of people who can walk you through your first attempt (which I more or less just did.)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Nevertheless its true. Following the release of the d20 material, the OGL has been used for non d20 material. Again, FATE is OGL and has no obvious d20 material in it. Evil Hat created their own original system and decided to make it Open using the OGL. Anyone, at anytime, may introduce any new text and make said text OGL merely by applying the license to it. Furthermore, you are not actually required, if you use the OGL to make any new material you create OGL. You get to choose which material you create is Open and which is Closed. </p><p></p><p>What you may not do is Close off material that other people have made Open. You also may not place material into the OGL as Open which are in fact owned by someone else. (ie. I cannot take WoD material and use it in an OGL book and thus declare the material now free to use for everone). </p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The original question was based on some faulty assumptions, which were corrected early on. </p><p></p><p>Again, if you are going to the OGL for flavor text, you need to be very careful, because most actual flavor text in OGL books is generally closed content. If you create an OGL book, you are still, in most cases going to have to write your own flavor text. There are exceptions to this, but flavor text is an area where caution should be applied in what you copy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wicht, post: 6527303, member: 221"] Your best guess interpretation was off a bit then. What you must do to use the OGL is firstly, include a copy of the OGL in your book. Secondly, you must delineate, either in the license, or somewhere in the book, which parts of the book are open (this is section 8 of the license). Generally, the easiest way to do this is to say something to the effect of "All mechanics and rules in this book are designated as Open content. Any flavor text not already Open, including personalities, names or descriptions of En-World are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission." Flavor text is most often Closed. Mechanical text is most often Open, but you do need to check the book you are using to make sure which is which, because some publishers are more generous than others. (Again, in Creature Collection for instance, you can use the stats from the Creatures but not the names of said creatures or any of the flavor text; to use these creatures you need to rename them and put some flavor of your own on them.) Finally, when you publish your copy of the OGL, in section 15 you must designate the source material you use. Normally this only requires you to include the section 15 from the books you are using in your section 15. The main exception to this is the Tome of Horrors which requires you to identify the actual creature used. Changes made to the creature, however do not need to be detailed. This means that if I decide to use a monster from the Tome of Horrors, but then add on a template from the Pathfinder Bestiary and another template from Advanced Bestiary, then my section 15 needs to include the right Tome of Horror entry, the section 15 from the Pathfinder Bestiary and the Section 15 from the Advanced Bestiary. When I do mine, I go through and erase any duplicate section 15 info to make it look neat. And all of this makes it sound a lot more complicated then it is. Do it once or twice and you have it down. Now in your case, if you want to use the Tendriculos, but not the actual mechanics, then you need to make sure the name is open. I check the d20pfsrd and see that it is. I write up whatever I want about the tendriculos, but when I do my section 15, I have to include the following: "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier, Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson, Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams." That's it, and I'm done. The OGL is actually easy to use. And if you want to use it, there are plenty of people who can walk you through your first attempt (which I more or less just did.) Nevertheless its true. Following the release of the d20 material, the OGL has been used for non d20 material. Again, FATE is OGL and has no obvious d20 material in it. Evil Hat created their own original system and decided to make it Open using the OGL. Anyone, at anytime, may introduce any new text and make said text OGL merely by applying the license to it. Furthermore, you are not actually required, if you use the OGL to make any new material you create OGL. You get to choose which material you create is Open and which is Closed. What you may not do is Close off material that other people have made Open. You also may not place material into the OGL as Open which are in fact owned by someone else. (ie. I cannot take WoD material and use it in an OGL book and thus declare the material now free to use for everone). The original question was based on some faulty assumptions, which were corrected early on. Again, if you are going to the OGL for flavor text, you need to be very careful, because most actual flavor text in OGL books is generally closed content. If you create an OGL book, you are still, in most cases going to have to write your own flavor text. There are exceptions to this, but flavor text is an area where caution should be applied in what you copy. [/QUOTE]
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