Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 2419258" data-attributes="member: 7240">So, you believe that a movie producer could not win a suit against a group of three kids who created and narrated an alternate storyline about his characters but you believe that I could win a lawsuit against my former gaming group for narrating, without my consent, an alternative storyline about places and people I created? What is the difference? The US courts may be crazy but I don't think there is any danger of them ruling that conversations in a gaming group constitute publication, regardless of the letter of the law you point to. There are few unfettered absolutes in law.And the creation of a D&D character is a hybrid process, a dialogue between player and GM with a bunch of random chance thrown in too.You are assuming that what makes these things unique, special and interesting is just their names -- that there are no exciting and original ideas contained in the culture, history and theology my GM built. That these things are just tired dusty archetypes whose only original component is their name. I think you need to step back from looking at the legal aspect of this and start asking yourself what is right for our hobby. Do we want a hobby where ideas flow freely or a secretive and jealous culture?I guess my solution would be not to game with people who would freak out, possibly to the point of threatening me with legal action, about their need to control a character they don't even play anymore to the detriment of an interesting situation or plot twist in my campaign. I've had GMs take my old characters and have things happen to them after I stop playing them. It would never occur to me to ask to be consulted; all that would do is limit the GM's ability to come up with something creative that could surprise us.And my point is: don't hang out with people who need to be consulted about how a character they don't even play anymore will affect future event in a campaign. If my GM comes up with something cool that has befallen a guy's character or that the character has done since he stopped being played, the last thing I would want is to game with a player who goes into a pout saying, "It's not fair... I don't wanna become undead."</blockquote>

Verification