Underwater Combat Rules

[doktorstick]

I'm sure someone knows the answer to this off-hand, but are the underwater combat rules suggested by Skip Williams copyrighted? OGL? Just "out there" with no rights?

Obviously you can't use the web as a general guideline, but you can find them posted here and there. Presumably it is OK to be published, or they are in violation of a copyright.

Thanks.
/ds

 

[CBS Brian]

The underwater combat rules created by Skip Williams were printed in DRAGON magazine, making them CGC (Closed Game Content). No one can (legally) make use of them in any publication without the prior consent of Wizards of the Coast.

Kind of sucks, but them's the rules.

 

[MEG Hal]

We have a underwater book we are working on for a May 03 release, and rules will be OGC!

 

[Ashy]

Atlas Games has some open source rules for underwater combat. If you like, I can email the pdf to you!

 

[Ashy]

Just thought I would upload it here! If any of the folks at Atlas do not want it posted here, just let me know and I will snatch it down PRONTO!

Enjoy!

 

[RangerWickett]

Asgard issue 7 has underwater combat rules, included in its "Swimsuits of the Multiverse" article.

 

[Cougar]

There is also some in the excellent Seafarer's Handbook.

 

[JohnNephew]

Just thought I would upload it here! If any of the folks at Atlas do not want it posted here, just let me know and I will snatch it down PRONTO!

The underwater rules in The Tide of Years are OGC, and we're 100% A-OK with people distributing them far and wide. ;-)

Michelle notes that they're primarily just extrapolated from the main d20 rules (though I recall that she worked in some modifications based on playtests, with streamlining -- the basic game rules for things like swimming get tedious quickly if you're doing a lot underwater, especially combat, as happens in ToY). She recommends the further developments that Fantasy Flight added in the Seafarer's Handbook.

(Isn't Open Gaming great? Michelle took the stuff in the SRD and adapted it to work better in her adventure. Fantasy Flight took Michelle's work and further developed it for a wider variety of situations. I believe a number of other publishers have used it too -- so why game with the closed-content version out of Dragon, when there's an Open standard that everyone else is using? )

 

[Lizard]

The underwater rules in The Tide of Years are OGC, and we're 100% A-OK with people distributing them far and wide. ;-)

Michelle notes that they're primarily just extrapolated from the main d20 rules (though I recall that she worked in some modifications based on playtests, with streamlining -- the basic game rules for things like swimming get tedious quickly if you're doing a lot underwater, especially combat, as happens in ToY). She recommends the further developments that Fantasy Flight added in the Seafarer's Handbook.

Glad to hear it! Whenever I use someone else's OGC, I keep worrying they're going to look at what I've done to their rules and scream in horror...

 

[Aeolius]

We have a underwater book we are working on for a May 03 release, and rules will be OGC!

Just in time to tie in with Pixar's Finding Nemo