Using WotC material outside the SRD in d20 products

[johnsemlak]

My understanding is that it is possible for a d20 publisher to ask WotC for permission to refer to material outside the SRD (a monster from FF or MMII, a spell from T&B, a prestige class from the splattbooks, etc). Is this in fact possible and do many 3rd party publishers do this?

I've often thought doing so would be particularly useful for adventures, which at times seem somewhat constrained by only using material from the SRD.

 

[Henry]

I'll move this to the d20 Publishers forum, where the "people in the know" can answer it.

I know for a fact that it was done on Necromancer Games' Tome of Horrors and Ambient/EN Publishing's Unseen Masters. I also know that Codemonkey Publishing's Data Sets are done under license, and contain intellectual property. I don't think it was done a whole lot more than this, however, because I would imagine there are royalty issues involved.

 

[smetzger]

Nothing stops you from asking.

 

[PatrickLawinger]

My understanding is that it is possible for a d20 publisher to ask WotC for permission to refer to material outside the SRD (a monster from FF or MMII, a spell from T&B, a prestige class from the splattbooks, etc). Is this in fact possible and do many 3rd party publishers do this?

I've often thought doing so would be particularly useful for adventures, which at times seem somewhat constrained by only using material from the SRD.

A number of publishers, even a few very small publishers, have obtained permission to use limited WotC material in some products.

Despite the popular internet theory of the "evil corporate empire," WotC is generally willing to grant permission. All this means is that they exert somewhat tighter control over certain material, trademarks, etc. You (probably) have to include some sort of specific statement to the effect "X used by permission of Wizard's of the Coast" and make it clear that whatever you do use is NOT put into OGC (open gaming content).

If you want to use a monster, prestige class, feats, etc. it is probably going to be approved. Things almost certainly NOT to be approved include specific elements of campaign settings (don't plan to write and adventure for Waterdeep or another major FR/GH/Dark Sun/etc. city), items they are planning to include in an upcoming book. If you are writing something that involves subjects such as blatant sex crimes, heavy drug use, child kidnapping, they probably won't want to be involved either (changes to the d20 license probably preclude that being d20 now anyway).

The very first step is to ask. When you ask, make sure you state exactly what you want to use, what product it is going to be in, why you want to use it, etc. Make absolutely clear that you are not infringing on one of their campaign settings, etc. Expect the request to take a long time to answer, you could get lucky, but don't count on a quick answer. Based on what I have seen, the size of your product or publisher isn't really going to alter your chances, so don't count yourself out for any reason. If you are in a rush to publish something, do without the protected material, you are certainly not going to get "fast" approval.

Patrick

 

[Grinning Loony]

The guy you want to ask is Andrew Smith (Andrew.Smith@wizards.com). I asked for permission to use some monsters once, and he was very helpful and prompt in his reply. Unfortunately, he also told me that WotC wasn't giving out permission to use their monsters. Good luck, though.

-Luke Johnson

 

[Kerrick]

Patrick's right - if you ask nicely and tell them exactly what you plan to use the material for, they're more than willing to work with you. We've used WotC material in several of our books. My partner, who goes by Warlord Ralts on the boards, has a good working relationship with Andy, and he can get a reply from WotC within 48 hours (and usually sooner). As long as you're open and honest about what you're doing with the material, and you're willing to let them look it over and such, they will help you out, in most cases (like Patrick said, you aren't likely to get permission to use setting-specific material and such, but I'd say just about anything else is open game). And yes, you have to put in "Such and so is PI Wizards of the Coast and is used with permission, blah blah blah."

 

[Grazzt]

Unfortunately, he also told me that WotC wasn't giving out permission to use their monsters. Good luck, though.

-Luke Johnson

They must've just changed to this recently then, cause it wasn't that way earlier (this year even, and I dont mean converting monsters for Tome 1 or 2 either . I mean using existing WotC monsters from FF, MM2, or whatever.).

Despite the popular internet theory of the "evil corporate empire," WotC is generally willing to grant permission. All this means is that they exert somewhat tighter control over certain material, trademarks, etc. You (probably) have to include some sort of specific statement to the effect "X used by permission of Wizard's of the Coast" and make it clear that whatever you do use is NOT put into OGC (open gaming content).

And yeah- I agree with what Pat said here. WotC's always been cool...so long as you ask first and clearly state what your intentions are. The "evil corporate empire" thing is popular, but not quite true.

 

[trancejeremy]

In a lot of cases, the monsters in question were in draft versions of the SRD, but later removed. Beholders, Mind Flayers, Yuan Ti. WOTC let products that were being planned get published, but no new ones (or so I've read).

 

[Voadam]

My understanding is that it is possible for a d20 publisher to ask WotC for permission to refer to material outside the SRD (a monster from FF or MMII, a spell from T&B, a prestige class from the splattbooks, etc). Is this in fact possible and do many 3rd party publishers do this?

I've often thought doing so would be particularly useful for adventures, which at times seem somewhat constrained by only using material from the SRD.

Publishers can also use OGC not from the SRD. There has been a lot of feats, classes, spells and monsters made that is OGC outside of the SRD.