D&D 5E Would an OGL allow me to create and sell adventures?

[Sacrosanct]

No. Nothing like that. There is no bullette stat block or anything else in the OGL. The OGL is about a page long, and worth reading rather than guessing at.

Er...I meant in the SRD.

 

[Morrus]

To save myself a bunch of digging I'll just ask: I know 4e isn't included in the OGL, but what about 0e-1e-2e? Or is it strictly limited to 3e/d20?

Lan-"one of these days I'd like to put out some 1e-based adventures"-efan

Nothing is in the OGL.

The SRD you can read. You can see everything that's in it. Much easier than listing what's not in it!

http://opengamingcontent.com/revised-v-3-5-system-reference-document/

 

[RangerWickett]

To save myself a bunch of digging I'll just ask: I know 4e isn't included in the OGL, but what about 0e-1e-2e? Or is it strictly limited to 3e/d20?

Lan-"one of these days I'd like to put out some 1e-based adventures"-efan

Short answer, no. Also see Russ's post on the difference between SRD and OGL.

Longer answer, people have released products that are 'retroclones' of older games. I'm not that familiar with them, but theoretically you could look at how they did it and follow their lead. I'm not sure if they used the OGL or not. It's certainly possible to legally publish adventures that are compatible with older editions of the game, though you might have to jump through some hoops, like never naming what the game is.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Retroclones go from a different place than the OGL and the SRD.

The idea behind most retroclones (and most of the "unofficial" 5e products) is this: copyright doesn't protect game mechanics. It also doesn't protect a lot of TTRPG concepts by the simple nature of them being drawn from myth and fiction. What constitutes a game mechanic vs. a fictional element in an RPG is not something that's been litigated very heavily, so it's legally touchy territory. Part of the purpose of the OGL and the SRD is to make a "safe harbor" where it was transparent that tinkering was OK -- so that folks without law expertise and a lack of risk aversion could make D&D-compatible products.

The OGL and the SRD are fairly safe bets, but they're 3e-only at the moment. Most retroclones traffic in more thorny territory.

If 5e gets the OGL treatment, depending on what is released as OGC, it will likely allow you to create and sell adventures with stat blocks for the critters. But as we've seen with the unofficial stuff, folks don't *necessarily* bother to wait for OGL to do something similar.

 

[aramis erak]

Side question: Does this mean that the person who created the 5th Ed. conversion of Ravenloft broke copyright law and could potentially face legal action (although I don't see that as likely)?

I feel a little dopey to be asking this, to be honest, because I am familiar with some broad strokes of copyright law, and you're absolutely right that you can't print someone else's book and then give it away for free, because you are still breaking their copyright. But I suppose I (apparently mistakenly) thought that using certain concepts of a work, but not the full work itself, and making a conversion document and giving it out for free would be on the legal side of the copyright line, due to fair use.

And with any project I do, I am not interesting in breaking copyright or stealing someone else's legally owned work, to make that clear.

Can't tell without reading it if it violates copyright, but it almost certainly violates the Ravenloft trademark...

IANAL - but I have a deep seated interest in IP matters.

The real crux is that a lot of what people think are Copyright suits aren't... they are usually Trademark suits or combined Trademark and Copyright. Now, there also is a certain subset of copyright violations that are actually criminal law rather than civil.

Before you use any IP that is not yours, you should consult a lawyer specializing in Intellectual Property Law. That includes Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents (all of which have federal protections) or Trade Secrets (which have US standing on a state by state basis - and not in all states). It's complex, convoluted, and mostly by precedent, rather than blackletter law.

Even in dealing with open licenses, it's not a bad idea to check with an IP lawyer.