Ryan, the clarifications are appreciated by all. And it reminds me to ask a
couple questions.
> > In addition, all material derived wholly from
> > the D20 SRD and/or the Third Edition Dungeons and
> > Dragons� Player's Handbook, Dungeons Master's Guide
> > and/or Monster Manual, all of which are published by
> > Wizards of the Coast�
>
> This is not permitted under the terms of the OGL.
>
> It's indicating compatibility and/or coadaptabilty with our trademarks,
and
> when we release the SRD, we'll probably note that our trademarks are
Product
> Identity to help ease this kind of confusion.
A list of trademarks would be a very valuable addition to the OGF site. I'm
sure this is planned already, but I can't seem to find it yet. Or maybe a
link to a URL of a trademark uber-list that might lurk somewhere in the
bowels of the WotC site already? (I'm checking the PH and DMG, and the
trademark claims are remarkably scanty: D&D, the WotC logo, the d20 logo,
characters, character names, and distinctive likenesses. It does not
appear, actually, to claim "Player's Handbook" or "Dungeon Master's Guide"
or even, old-TSR-style, the term "Dungeon Master" as TMs.)
In "Three Days to Kill," we pretty well avoided monsters (except the utterly
generic orcs) unless they were brand-spankin'-new (the Wicker Man, etc.,
that Tynes made up). We set out to play it safe and limit ourselves to
things in the PH, taking a cue from the language of the draft D20 license.
However, as I'm working on "Thieves in the Forest," I am at this point using
some critters that I assume will be in the Monster Manual or were in the
2000 survival kit. Now the ogre is pretty generic, and I could change the
chrome (alter the hit dice, whatever) with ease; on the other hand, I was
thinking of cutting the owlbear anyhow, but will that be made open in the
SRD?
Similarly, how about spells? To be honest, we played more fast and loose by
just including character spells straight out of the Player's Handbook
(albeit with spell names only, not descriptions).
On the one hand, we could certainly make all-new stats and power
descriptions (and place them under the OGL) for all the critters we use. On
the other, I think gamers do like a certain level of familiarity. ("Sure,
ghouls paralyze, but elves are immune.") Plus, reducing the utility of the
D&D core rulebooks to OGL developers pretty much runs contrary to the
intention of using the OGL to help drive sales of those books.
Another question that arises: If for the D20 trademark we must (and would
want to) say that our product requires the D&D3 PH, does that mean that we
are free to refer to the contents of the PH (e.g., spell descriptions,
perhaps minus trademarks such as Evard of tentacular fame)? Example:
"Looking in the magical pool grants the character the ability to see the
future in a vague way. This acts like a one-time Divination spell (See
Player's Handbook p. 197)."
Similarly, are references to other D&D core rulebooks allowed? Example:
"For advice on handling divinations, we suggest you review the section in
the Dungeon Master's Guide, p. 95."
References to D&D products could on the one hand be seen as trademark
dilution or a compatibility claim vis a vis those trademarks, since the
titles of all the core rulebooks are of course trademarks. (OK, they're not
at the moment claimed as trademarks on the legal pages, just the D&D name.
So maybe I could say, "See Player's Handbook p. XX" without specifying WHICH
player's handbook,...?) On the other hand, it keeps OGL/D20 writers from
having to,...perhaps not reinvent the wheel, but at least to rephrase it.
And it reminds users of the D20 licensed product to love and cherish those
core rulebooks from WotC, refer to them frequently, and buy them as gifts
for their loved ones, thus furthering the nefarious corporate goals of WotC.
;-)
Hmm.
Sometimes I do worry that the whole D20 publishing thing is running a bit
ahead of itself vis a vis all the crucial details--details which have a
subtle impact on broad business strategy as well as individual works in
progress. (Heck if I'm going to announce our monster book until we've got a
Monster Manual in hand, for example; and questions of reference to existing
works and subtler matters of product identity also need to be sewn up before
I can confidently schedule our magic item collection.) But at this point,
I'm babbling, and need to get the heck out of the office for the night.
-John Nephew
President, Atlas Games
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