Using Someone's Elses Rules

[Drew]

Ok, I need a little clarification here. Let's say that you stumble upon a rule, such as a variant jump skill, that you wanted to use in a work you were creating.

If the particular variant rule wasn't open content, would it be possible to rewrite it and make it open content myself? I mean, isn't the idea that you cannot really copyright a rules concept? As long as the description, text, etc. is completely my own?

What if the rules in question are a variant means of handling something other than a skill, such as a disease, poison, or initiative?

Finally, bear in mind that the "work" I'm creating is a very small, not-for-profit website.

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

If the rule is derivative of d20, it is Open. Full stop.

 

[CRGreathouse]

If the rule is derivative of d20, it is Open. Full stop.

Well, not if it was published without the OGL, in which case it's just infringement (unless you walk the tricky line of game mechanics as uncopywrightable).

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Well, not if it was published without the OGL, in which case it's just infringement (unless you walk the tricky line of game mechanics as uncopywrightable).

So, for example, as much as many people like the WP/VP system from Star Wars and Spycraft, you can't use it, because it's not yet in the SRD, and those games weren't really published with the OGL. ...Even if you renamed it Health and Endurance, instead of Wounds and Vitality... Correct?

 

[Corinth]

Yep.