THUNDERBALL RALLY (d20 70s Racing)

[Erik Mona]

JPL,

Don't think for a moment I haven't strongly considered that genre. It's a strong contender for a game some time in 2003.

--Erik

 

[Ivan]

OGC and Poly

Funny, I'm on the other side of the fence - I didn't bother with Dungeon until the Pulp rules came out, and now I'm a subscriber. Thunderball Rally is something I'll probably run once over a case of beer with my group, and these kind of one-two shot games are just fine by me.

As to the OGC, I guess my question for Eric is this: I understand the position of not releasing the stuff now that you've explained it, and I really appreciate that!

But if we want to post adopted / abbreviated rules which expand a Polyhedron game to our own personal website, is that acceptable? I'm not looking for a guarantee or anything, I figure if the lawyers come out to play I'll take everything down - I guess what I want to know is, by posting house rules for my Pulp campaign to my homepage, am I screwing Polyhedron out of their rent payments?

Thanks for any ideas / responses! Keep the one-shots coming, I've enjoyed all of them immensely.

 

[Erik Mona]

My totally ininformed "I am not a lawyer" response is that you could probably put your own stuff based on the games on your site, so long as the material conforms to the standard WotC Web policy.

--Erik

 

[Piratecat]

Erik, Thunderball Rally was the best damn thing about that Dungeon issue! Holy cow, was I impressed. Nice work.

 

[Lord_AO]

Erik,

As i'm fed up with D&D (after playing it for of 15 years) and fantasy in general (18), i have to say

I LOVE YOUR STUFF
(articles that is)

as I'm in my Try out Times of my Roleplaying Life (my motto always was 'stick to yer system') your works comes on the really righty moment. (I do have a special link to Dungeans and Dragons mags though, even my faithfull players noticed this).

Too bad I ave to wait THAT LONG before wizards delivers to the gamestores in the Netherlands. Really scandalous, but I donnot want to rant over that here.



However, how about a D20 Sumo Contest Game?


(no mater what MORE OF THIS AWFULL NICE NONSENSE)

 

[Ivan]

Not a lawyer?

My totally ininformed "I am not a lawyer" response is that you could probably put your own stuff based on the games on your site, so long as the material conforms to the standard WotC Web policy.

--Erik

That's cool, and I understand you're not a lawyer.

Thanks very much, Erik.

 

[Voneth]

I will continue to check it out, but to be very honest, without it being OGC it's usefulness to me is incredibly limited, as I don't foresee using 99% of the material shown in a home game.

Ces't la vie for now, I guess.

I don't understand this concept.

How can the OGC limit what you do at home? Last time I checked, the OGC home police where the first ones canned by the last layoff.
I think Pallidum is still hiring though.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

I don't understand this concept.
How can the OGC limit what you do at home? Last time I checked, the OGC home police where the first ones canned by the last layoff.
I think Pallidum is still hiring though.

You misunderstand me. What I do or not do in a home campaign has little to do with whatever is put out by any company or magazine. I do take what I like and discard the rest, as one should.
My comment about OGC stems from the very simple fact that without the material being released in Polyhedron being OGC, I have little use for it. My home games have little or no use for the rules presented so far. However, as a designer, some of the stuff presented has been pretty cool. Since none of it is OGC, I cannot use it in developing further material, therefore it is useless to me. A good read, true, one full of great ideas, but ultimately that is all it is. At least until the material in Polyhedron begins to be released as OGC, and I think we all know the chances of that happening.
I think Erik is doing a great job, and I do enjoy reading every new issue of Polyhedron (I wouldn't buy it otherwise), but it is somewhat frustrating that it is a dead-end alley as far as the development and evolution of d20 is concerned.
Which is why I still think we need a dedicated and professional-grade d20/OGC magazine. I know Campaign is out again, I've yet to get the new issue to see what has been done, though I'm told that it is good, probably the one to fill the niche I see still void.

Hope that explains it better.

 

[corndemon]

The rules also contain a preview of the d20 Modern vehicle rules, which contain some interesting surprises of their own.

How compatible are these rules with the vehicle chase and combat rules from AEG's Spycraft? I'm a big fan of the Smoky & The Bandit / Cannonball Run type films and am interested in seeing that genre depicted in Poly, but I've also been pretty impressed with Spycraft and see no need for Wizards to reinvent the wheel here.

 

[corndemon]

My totally ininformed "I am not a lawyer" response is that you could probably put your own stuff based on the games on your site, so long as the material conforms to the standard WotC Web policy.

--Erik

In other words, don't publish the original article verbatim on your site, don't make owning that issue of Poly unecessary, and give a visible, clear referall on site, such as "This material requires the use of the "Thunderball Rally" mini game (2002 Wizards of the Coast Inc) as published in Polyhedron magazine issue number whatever"

That, according to Wizards most recent web policy (which mainly dealt with conversions to 3e/d20 of older D&D material, but easily extends to derivative work like what you proposed IMO, though like Erik, I'm not a lawyer) should keep you safe from a C&D letter and / or lawsuit if you want to publish Thunderball Rally scenarios or rules expansions.