> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of John Kim > Sent: Monday, January 14, 2002 9:45 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [Ogf-l] If Thoughts Could Kill - Illithid reference > violation? > > > "Advances by class" means -- I hate to state the obvious -- that a > > monster advances by gaining class levels. Find one bit of wording > > in the SRD -- without reference to the illustrations andp descriptions > > in the MM -- that indicates anything more than that. > > So what you are saying is that it is utterly impossible for > anyone to notice any patterns without being given explicit instructions: > "This has a pattern that says...". > > Let's say I give to you the list of (A1,B1,C1,D1,E1,...). > I am absolutely not giving you any rules to determine what the > next item on the list is. Now, if you can guess what the next item > on this list is, you have clearly broken into my computer and > looked at my full version of the list, thus stealing my > intellectual property and opening yourself to a lawsuit by me. > > That seems to be what you are saying, right?
Not quite. Distribute the elements of that list among dozens to a hundred or more pages of other text. Distribute according to a set of non-arbitrary rules, but rules which require mastery of a fairly abstract discipline to comprehend. Also distribute the elements A2, D2, R2, Z2, and Q2 according to what may be the same rules; but only if you understand yet more of the obscure discipline AND can reference a source book for that discipline can you be sure these are distributed according to the same rules. Now if you give a reasonable person -- by definition, NOT a person with mastery of the abstract discipline -- a subset of those rules and ask him to determine what the next element should be for that subset, he can easily determine what that element should be. That seems to be what you are saying, right? Martin L. Shoemaker Martin L. Shoemaker Consulting, Software Design and UML Training [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.MartinLShoemaker.com http://www.UMLBootCamp.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
