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21
ICE News and Discussion / Re: ICE needs an SRD for thier systems.
« Last post by B Hanson on March 25, 2024, 12:50:18 PM »
What in the world is an SRD?

I believe it's the abbreviation for Surinamese Dollars....but it could also be a system reference document that provides guidelines for publishing material under a Open Game License. Given the context here I'm going to go with the second option.
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ICE News and Discussion / Re: ICE needs an SRD for thier systems.
« Last post by cdcooley on March 25, 2024, 10:58:15 AM »
What in the world is an SRD?
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HARP / Re: HARP Community Content Program?
« Last post by craig on March 25, 2024, 03:59:34 AM »
You don't actually need a license to create content for ANY game.

WOTC suckered everyone with their OGL nonsense, convincing people that they needed a license to do things that copyright law already allowed them to do - allowed by design, not some accident or loophole.

Worse than that, their OGL "granted" the right to do just some of the things that anyone is free to do whilst requiring them to give up other rights that they have.  Corporations do evil stuff like that all the time, relying on the fact that most people are ignorant enough to believe them or too scared to challenge them.  Many people (and companies) believe and repeat these lies until it becomes accepted "truth" that everyone believes even though it's completely false.

There's a good argument that this license isn't valid because it offers no consideration for the things it requires people to give up.

Anyway, you can create and publish pretty much whatever you want - adventures, PC/NPC galleries, rules supplements, rule interpretations, commentaries, etc, as long as you:

  • don't copy text or images direct from rule books or source books etc
  • don't use another company's logos or branding or "trade dress" without permission
  • don't falsely claim to be the owner of any trademarks that aren't yours
  • don't falsely claim to have any official or authorised connection with the actual owners of those trademarks

In short, don't infringe copyright and don't pretend to be someone you're not - remember that trademarks exist to protect consumers from bogus products, not to give ownership of parts of our language to companies.

Game rules, the "mechanics" of a game, can not be copyrighted or patented.

Rule definitions (i.e. the actual text in the rulebooks) may be copyrighted and usually are - it's a bit of a grey area, legally, but it basically requires the text to be sufficiently novel or creative, which is pretty easy, a very low bar to pass.   If in doubt, it's safest to assume that the verbatim text of any rule is copyrighted.  So, in general, you can't just copy-paste rules from someone else's work into your work without permission.  You can, however, write your own definitions (and here's another area where "sufficiently creative" comes in - if it's impossible to describe/define a rule without using the same or substantially the same words as the original rule, then the original is NOT sufficiently creative to be worthy of copyright protection - it's not creative, it's merely descriptive).

Individual words or phrases or acronyms/abbreviations (like "HP", "AC", "Str", "hit points", or "armor class") can not be copyrighted. They're just not creative enough.  Hasbro/WOTC would have you believe otherwise, but they're a corporation and therefore habitual liars who routinely indulge in anti-competitive and anti-consumer activities - it's what corporations do.

This is why all those "retro clones" of early D&D and other games are completely legal - they've kept the same basic "mechanics" of the rules but have rewritten the rule definitions in their own words, perhaps modifying them slightly - like ascending AC rather than descending, or adding new-fangled notions like "critical hits" or "advantage"/"disadvantage".

It's also why Pathfinder exists even though it's based on D&D 3rd edition (this is slightly complicated by the fact that the Paizo originally licensed D&D - but they were able to switch their focus onto their own "totally different" clone game called Pathfinder after the license was revoked).

It's why there's a bunch of games with mechanics that are basically the same as Runequest/BRP/Call of Cthulhu. It's why BlackyTheBlackball has a bunch of games (e.g "Blood, Guts, and Glory" and "Darker Dungeons") with rules similar to a hybrid of D&D and Rolemaster.  It's why "Against the Darkmaster" exists (although that doesn't really borrow too heavily from MERP or RM mechanics - similar concepts, different implementation).

BTW, you can use any trademarks as you please without any need for circumlocution  or grovelling (like all those sycophantic clowns who think that saying stuff like "the world's most popular game" instead of just saying D&D is some kind of magic ritual that is a) necessary, and b) will save them from imaginary legal problems) - as long as you don't falsely claim to own or be affiliated with those trademarks.

It is, however, generally considered wise to include a disclaimer explicitly disavowing any official connection with trademarks in or near the title page of your work.  Something simple like "This is an unofficial supplement for XYZ" and/or "Trademarks used within this work belong to their respective owners. No association or affiliation with those owners is intended" works.  If you want, you can list the trademarks you use with their actual owners along with the disclaimer.  As long as you make it clear that you're not falsely claiming ownership or official use of a trademark or affiliation with the owner, it'll be fine.  The point is to avoid any perception of consumer fraud.



So, you don't need a license to create unofficial content for a game.  This is true whether you publish it or not, and whether you sell it or give it away. You have the right to do these things because copyright law, trademark law, and patent law says you have these rights.

You might still want a license for other reasons - mostly marketing.  There are benefits to being able to use official logos and branding, to being able to claim your work is an officially licensed/authorised product.

So far, no incarnation of ICE has ever shown any interest in offering such a license or creating the kind of "Community Content Program" that you want.  It has been asked for several times over the years, with no result.



One last thing: just because you have the legal right to create and publish unofficial works for games doesn't mean that some giant corporation won't abuse their wealth and sue you until you're bankrupt.   I doubt ICE would do so and AFAIK WOTC hasn't so far - I suspect WOTC don't want to risk it coming to court and setting a precedent (because they would definitely lose if they tried suing anyone with sufficiently deep pockets or motivation to persist)....they're happy enough that most people are too scared to do anything they disapprove of.

Also worth noting: some platforms may choose to act as if the OGL and other bogus claims of corporations are true and legally valid.  This is mostly because they don't want to get in an expensive court case AND because they're corporations too, so they also benefit from the lies about copyright, patents, trademarks etc.  You have the right to create and publish your work, but they're under no obligation to carry it if they don't want to.
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Due to the server that a long time friend and supporter of Rolemaster had previously hosted ChannelCities.com on being shut down a few years ago, much of the setting was no longer easily available on the internet.  But I started to slowly import it into the World Anvil system for easy web access at: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/channel-cities-and-world-of-Arnth-adsmalley

Planning to link the ChannelCities.com url to the World Anvil site, once enough of it is up there (and if there is enough interest from fans/GM's using the setting) to justify the cost of upgrading to the next World Anvil subscription level that allows such linking. 

Please take a look at what has been uploaded so far and let me know what you think. 

Note that stats for many of the NPC's and additional floor plans/maps for locations and "adventure" details are available to those who register to access such information. 

Note however that the previously released "adventures", such as Dun-Cru and City of Archendurn details will not be completely provided due to already being commercially released status. 
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Rolemaster Software / Re: ERA RMU Skill Categories
« Last post by Doridian on March 24, 2024, 01:45:43 PM »
And for the sake of clarity, RMU core rules speak of categories. In the first paragraphs of Chapter 3.0 it's clearly written:
Quote
Skills are listed according to thematic categories on
Table 3-0a. All skills within a category (except for
Combat Training and Spellcasting) have the same
Development Point cost, category stat bonuses, and
often a shared method of resolution.
So, now I'm simply asking myself how could I have been confused about it? No need to answer, anyway. In Italian we say: let's draw a compassionate veil on it.
Thank you again for your kind patience.  :)
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ICE News and Discussion / ICE needs an SRD for thier systems.
« Last post by Bruce on March 24, 2024, 01:18:16 PM »
This is especially true for RMU and HARP. Having an SRD can help a great deal to get the game out there and into the world more and that helps attract more potential players. There are so many great ideas for game organization and management and they all support SRD's.
I personally use Obsidian.md.
Obsidian.md is a markdown note taking app that has a lot of community support for a variety of RPGs and the systems that get the most push are those with SRD's because people do not want to spend the extra time putting all the core rules and stuff into the format for ready use.
Obsidian.md is free and it some really cool community designed plug ins that help with TTRPGs from campaign management down to running a complete game from within Obsidian.
Having the SRD stuff in a set of files like that which Obsidian.md uses helps to get people interested in a game system.
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Gamers Seeking Gamers / Re: RMU Roll20 Shadowworld 7:30pm Thursdays PST
« Last post by tbigness on March 24, 2024, 11:03:26 AM »
I tried to send a DM in Discord but I am not familiar with finding someone so I did a friend request. :D
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Rolemaster / Re: Players always choose AT 4 or AT 12
« Last post by Cory Magel on March 24, 2024, 02:50:49 AM »
Of course, then you can have some fun with your players and tell them that evil priest about to sacrifice some virgin they've come to save is 'Just wearing AT2' and they run in and find out it's very magical AT2... then after 'looting the body' have to decide if they wear the crappy AT2 but with great magical bonuses...

Like a +30 to DB?
I'd probably make it a harder choice than that just to be mean.  Like, you still get hit a lot, but have critical reduction or something.

Why make it mitigate the AT at all? There's loads of other things it can do. x5 universal PP multiplier. Wearing it counts as having already done one round of spell prep. Spell ranges for the wearer are doubled. Spell durations for the wearer are doubled. RRs against the wearer's spells are made at -20. After all, evil priests generally have plenty of meat shields. Magical robes should be worn for power, not protection.
rdan is trying to lure those casters to the dark side...
29
Rolemaster / Re: Players always choose AT 4 or AT 12
« Last post by MisterK on March 24, 2024, 02:20:41 AM »
If I were running this game I'd make the armor extremely susceptible to wear and tear. So either they spend a considerable amount of time and teasure maintaining their armor or it gradually becomes tattered and falls apart, degrading its armor value over time. Need to introduce some sort of downside to this clearly superior choice.
An obvious downside is that it is a clearly superior choice. As someone else said, 'worth a king's ransom'. People would kill to get it - would kill the character who currently has it, more specifically. Even the best of armours doesn't protect against poison, neutralising traps, and spells.
You might want to give a fair warning : a high-ranking noble learns that the PC owns such a suit of armour, and offers to buy it. They are fairly generous in their offer... but won't take no for an answer, and locals know that.

IMHO, the default rule is: if you give something to a player character as a reward, don't break it afterwards just because you can. Make it a source of conflict while being faithful to the way the setting works.
Or have a honest talk with the player explaining that you made a mistake and the item is too powerful and will need to be toned down.
30
Rolemaster / Re: Players always choose AT 4 or AT 12
« Last post by Werd on March 23, 2024, 03:00:34 PM »
Hi Jdale,
Great response! Thank you.  I did just that.  I allow for skinning of magical beasts. So, everyone has a +50 skinning knife, a few ranks in skinning and then someone usually has leatherworking to a high degree.
This, I believe, allows for the tanning of hides into bolts/raw hides to then allows someone to craft magical beast armor.  They pay an armor smith 20 to 30 gold (which is a kings ransom in my game) to get those suits made.
Because they run around in the wilderness and we do random encounters (yup its a thing in my game that they absolutely love), they run across beasts with AT4 constantly.
So, I have kinda backed myself in a corner with this.  I'm not sure how to gracefully get out of it while not making them feel they wasted development and time with skills and equipment to do exactly what I let them do.
I appreciate your feedback!



If I were running this game I'd make the armor extremely susceptible to wear and tear. So either they spend a considerable amount of time and teasure maintaining their armor or it gradually becomes tattered and falls apart, degrading its armor value over time. Need to introduce some sort of downside to this clearly superior choice.
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