SO trademark the setting names and various unique nouns. Copyright the
setting text and release a campaign world book.
By trademarking the terms, people will be unable to use them freely. Sure
they could make a derivative work the mimics the setting, but it could never
be marketed as such.
The entire point of the OGL and D20 is to facilitate others increasing the
sales of the PHB. Any company that is creating a wholly new ruleset should
have a similar goal and anyone using the D20 system needs to understand what
exactly they're getting into. You MUST use copyrights and trademarks to
protect yourself. The leaks are not as bad as some suggest as long as you
dot all your i's and cross all your t's.
It is no different then a wholly closed system in that respect.
Korath wrote:
> <<
> It's not the entire game system that I want to lock down, just the
> setting/adventure material. If I create an original setting, I don't
> want others appropriating it as their own and publishing material for
> it. As a game designer, I would like access to a public game system;
> that is what I gain. People who use that public game system gain
> additional material that is compatible with their game system. I think
> everyone gains.
>
> I think that is also the intention of the OGL, but because rules and
> setting material blend together in any substantial roleplaying work, the
> OGL stands in the way of locking down the setting. This will present a
> problem to people who want to closely control the setting material for
> games they release under the OGL.
> >>
>
> I'm in this position where I'm creating a setting that I want work with
> D20. The most important reason to lock down the setting, though I'd be
> interested in having fan material based on the setting, is to have
> creative control. If I define something for my world, and then someone
> comes along, and adds something that contradicts (from my perspective),
> something in the setting, I wouldn't want to have them use the setting
> without atleast making sure the material fits.
>
> If the setting was open, anyone could publish something for the setting,
> and I could have little say in the matter. Then when prospective
> players take material (even contradicting material) they find the
> contradictions, and then blame the setting creator rightly or not for
> the contradictions ;-)
>
> Imagine if WotC's Forgotten Realms was made an open setting. You have
> WotC releasing material, then you have other small publishers that don't
> like what WotC is doing with the setting, then decide to publish
> alternate material. Of course, this alternate material isn't quite
> marked as separate from WotC stuff (after all it's FR), so when buyers
> buy this FR material, they may not even notice a different publishers
> logo on the product, rather than the WotC logo (though they may notice a
> difference in style, and printing). Then you have people complaining,
> because all this FR material contradicts each other, and then somewhere
> along the line, things get sorted out, and it is established that there
> are really two settings using the Forgotten Realms name.
>
> Okay, this is very unlikely, but illustrates what can happen if IP is
> made open. Anyone can use it, and change things if they don't like
> pre-existing information.
>
> --
> Korath,
> http://www.korath.com
> "He was already dead, he died a year ago, the moment he touched her.
> They're all dead, they just don't know it." --Eric Draven, The Crow
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> For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
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