----- Original Message -----
From: "Rogers Cadenhead" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Open_Gaming] Open Content in Dunandralis
> At 02:56 PM 9/18/00 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >I think
world creation projects have a place in the open gaming movement, but
> >we have _one_ little problem. We need continuity.
>
> The only way to get continuity in an open setting is to register the
> trademark of your version of the setting and allow others to use the
> setting in any way they like, but not to call it the same thing as
> yours by using your trademark. Your official setting would have the
> continuity you like, but you would have to be willing to accept that
> there is some derivative work that was created and published
> separate from this continuity. (The nice thing about an open license
> is that you could make use of some of this material if you found
> that it was consistent with your goals.)
>
> There's no way to get absolute editorial control under an open
> license. But look at how Linus Torvalds has used the Linux trademark
> to advance his goals for the OS, and how people still go to the
> central folks for "official" Linux material.
How to handle an evolving game world is a point of contention even
among professional game designers; it will be interesting to see what
solutions the OG community comes up with.
> The publishers of Death in Freeport have made the setting open, so
> others will be able to set modules in the city. They are even
> encouraging it in the text. However, I think consumers will continue
> to go to Freeport's creators for "canon" material, even if I publish
> a Freeport module of my own.
But if you publish a 200 page beautifully illustrated, hardback
sourcebook on Freeport backed by a steady stream of Freeport
adventures with marketing and distribution help from, say, White Wolf,
then you may just overshadow the original creator's 'cannon' material.
-kenan
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