>From: "Martin L. Shoemaker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Mind flayers in isolation aren't a problem. If your mind flayers >display > > traits derived from the Monster Manual, then they are a problem. I >think > > it'd be easy to have a mind flayer sitting in a 10x10 room, but if you > > have a group of mind flayers with slaves serving them underground you're > > outside SRD-land. > >While I'm sure you can come up with better examples, this one falls short. >Underground is stated in their description in the SRD. Their alignment is >given as L/E, which Ryan has pointed out is certainly consistent with slave >ownership: > >* "Law" implies honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and >reliability. On the downside, lawfulness can include close-mindedness, >reactionary adherence to tradition, and a lack of adaptability. > >* "Evil" implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others. Some evil >creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if >doing so is convenient. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or >out of duty to some evil deity or master. > ---------------------------------- I'd agree that in many cases plausible mental gymnastics could help you explain how you infer the MM background and even visual description, derived purely from the SRD. Is this really what we want though? For one thing, you'll always be tempted to push it as far as you can (since you ultimately want something compatible with what your players read in the MM), and you could easily cross-over into the grey, where WotC may believe they have a winnable case against you (not that I think they would even want to fight you). For another thing, it sends a bad message to other authors, who perhaps get the impression that "it's all okay", without appreciating the fine line you actually tread, incorporating the experience you have due to being a member of this list, and the occassional blessings from Ryan himself. I personally think that the amount of rationalisation offered here over the last few days, to effectively use MM material, is a sad state of affairs. I still believe that making the artwork and background closed content in the MM is there for WotC's protection of the value of the MM. I further suspect that WotC would otherwise welcome the increased value that would be afforded the MM, if modules could be developed that fully utilize it, without making it redundant. After all, if WotC genuinely wanted to keep certain creatures races as IP for themselves, why publish them in the SRD at all? All that that achieves is to create issues for people that try to publish using those creatures from the SRD. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
