Whose "property" are the PCs?

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Like I said earlier - I think that, despite what the DM did with one of my characters after the game was done, I'd be honored. It's cool to have your character (or your character as depicted by the DM - however you want to think about it) be remebered - no matter how it's done (at least, that's how I feel about my characters).

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I think it still matters even if you don't make any money off it because it is still "published." Previously published work (even if not for profit) would mess with anyone else's chance to make money off of it later. (This includes the internet and all those places where you can get stories/poems/etc published but you don't actually make any money...grrr )

This makes me curious...

Do all you DMs get permission to write your story hours? Or did you just announce that you were doing it?

If your DM decided to write a story hour and didn't tell you, cute, would you be offended?

 

[The_Universe]

I think it still matters even if you don't make any money off it because it is still "published." Previously published work (even if not for profit) would mess with anyone else's chance to make money off of it later. (This includes the internet and all those places where you can get stories/poems/etc published but you don't actually make any money...grrr )

Well then we do have an interesting basis for discussion. I've written something that *does* involve a character you've played, and posted it to the net for nothing. I didn't change any major part of your history, but I did insert events that your character participated in between the old campaign and the most recent iteration. As with Nuclear Wookiee, I don't think I altered your characterization in any major way, but I didn't ask you before I did it, either.

Did I do wrong?

 

[HellHound]

I run short-term campaigns in a long-term setting.

Characters do -NOT- fade into the background once they are out of the story arc. They remain part of the game world, and I do with them as I will, as long as it feels consistent for the character -and- the setting. The campaign is twice as memorable if the players can encounter, hear about, work against or work with the characters from their prior story arcs.

Then again, it is accepted that the players will quite likely NEVER get a chance to play the old characters again once a new game has started, and that *I* am the owner of the campaign setting, mutable as it may be.

Only one player ever complained about this, and he no longer games with us. Effectively, if you don't want your character reappearing in my campaign setting, make sure he's REALLY dead before the campaign ends.

Or don't play.

 

[greywulf]

This is one of those "copyright" and "ownership" questions that make me sick to the stomach. There's too much of it in the Real World (TM) without it entering my leisure time too.

It's a game, not a legal battle dammit. Politeness is Rule Zero. If you want to use the player's PC as an NPC, it's polite to ask. That's it. Period.

 

[NuclearWookiee]

I think it still matters even if you don't make any money off it because it is still "published." Previously published work (even if not for profit) would mess with anyone else's chance to make money off of it later. (This includes the internet and all those places where you can get stories/poems/etc published but you don't actually make any money...grrr )

Yeah, that's a good point...

 

[NuclearWookiee]

I run short-term campaigns in a long-term setting.

Characters do -NOT- fade into the background once they are out of the story arc. They remain part of the game world, and I do with them as I will, as long as it feels consistent for the character -and- the setting. The campaign is twice as memorable if the players can encounter, hear about, work against or work with the characters from their prior story arcs.

Then again, it is accepted that the players will quite likely NEVER get a chance to play the old characters again once a new game has started, and that *I* am the owner of the campaign setting, mutable as it may be.

Only one player ever complained about this, and he no longer games with us. Effectively, if you don't want your character reappearing in my campaign setting, make sure he's REALLY dead before the campaign ends.

Or don't play.

This sounds like a very cool way to run a game! I think though, that if I were to begin playing this game it would be with the foreknowledge that the character was destined to not always be my own. But then, it's much easier to give up control of a character that you've only had for 5 levels as opposed to one that you've taken all the way from 1 to 20.

 

[Henry]

My opinion? All whether it's public or private use. In private use I don't care where he gets used, and neither should the player, because it's in truth meaningless. In public use, the originator of a concept has ownership in an ethical sense, and if he's put it in print somewhere as original to him, he's got private use, to0.

 

[werk]

DM's property.

 

[NewLifeForm]

I am in the same mind set as Hellhound...(Longish)

All the players who have ever played in my "main" homebrew universe are aware that all of the D&D campaigns I run, unless otherwise specified, take place there. This means that every character was, is or will be in existance in that universe. This holds true for my Star Wars universe, my Star Trek universe, etc.

At the same time, every player owns all rights to their own PCs. So how do I reconcile this? Simple...each campaign may or may not be a parallel universe of every other campaign. I do not explicitly say so, but there is an unwritten understanding that this is so.

The first campaign I ever ran that included my wife was run this way. Events in the campaigns past were actually stories from the very first major campaign I ever ran. I haven't seen or heard from the guys who were in that original campaign for anywhere between 10 and 20 years. Their characters were legends, and most of them were still alive.

In a subsequent campaign, my wife played the daughter of her first character, an elf. Long lived, most of the original characters the mother PC was friends with were dead. Their children and grandchildren were around though.

If I met one of the players from my first campaign tomorrow, and I told him what I've just told you, and he said, "My character wouldn't have said/done/been/wanted/etc. that", I would say he was absolutely right. The character's existance and history in my current campaign would remain unchanged however. If we sat down to play together, I would adjust the history of the world to reflect his wishes for his character. If on the following day I ran a campaign with my wife and her group, history would be restored to what they knew.

NewLifeForm