> I'll have to strike out on my own, but just what I can use is the
question.
I'm not a lawyer either, and for various reasons I can't give you any kind
of legal advice. Here's what I can tell you in general. Things that are in
the public domain (that is, owned by nobody) are fair game. Pretty much
anything from ancient stories, myths and fabels is in the public domain.
The "specific expression" of a thing is often copyright in the modern era.
The specific expression includes the written description, any art work, a
proper name, etc. "Orc" and/or "Ork" is a public domain term. The specific
expression of orcs in the Games Workshop Warhammer games is not; meaning
that you can't make an orc look like a GW orc, or talk like a GW orc, or
have the odd biology of a GW orc without their permission.
Now, some companies and individuals take a pretty broad position on what is
and is not a specific expression of a given idea, and there is no 100%
guaranteed way to know beforehand that someone, somewhere isn't going to
object to your use of a given idea. You'll just have to publish your stuff
as creatively as possible and then be prepared to deal with the fallout if
any occurs.
If you want to use the Open Gaming License, you can make use of the contents
of the System Reference Document which is an Open Game and contains most of
the contents of the core 3e books. You can read more about this idea at
www.wizards.com/d20 and www.opengamingfoundation.org.
None of the Forgotten Realms (or any of TSR/WotC's other settings) is
available for your use.
Ryan
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