(I know all the arguing happened on the other list, but this is better
suited here.)
I wrote up the following to be a "how to" to writing. Feel free to take
it, use it, and beat it up: this is all in public domain as far as I care.
(I'll see if I can get some meatier examples out later.)
Doug's rules for writing with the OGL.
If you are going to use the OGL, you need to understand it. Feel free
to pass out any part of this message to your creative staff; if you
alter it, please share your alterations with me. I promise not to be
angry if you twist my words around, as long as you take my name off them
when you do.
These rules apply if you are writing for your own amusement, if you are
writing under a freelance contract for someone else, or if you are
slaving away until sunrise to get your game company off the ground.
Real writers follow the rules of grammar, spelling, and
punctuation--compared to those, these rules are nothing.
Rules for Writing:
There are two rules that you absolutely must be aware of if you are
going to write with the OGL: You need to think about them once you start
doing the gritty writing, but you can and should completely ignore them
when you're doing the initial prewrites and outlining.
The first rule is the most important: Keep a tab on every place that you
put OGC in. If you reference a game rule, give a stat, or
quote/paraphrase/re-write someone else's description, mark it as "Open"
however you can. (if you word processor has a "highlight" or "comment"
feature, you might want to use that. If you want to improve speed, bind
a shortcut key to the "insert comment" command.) Put a note in to let
you know where it came from. The average work should be littered with
tags and highlights in some places, and completely empty in others.
This is a good thing.
The second rule isn't important to most writers, but publishers (which
includes writers who self-publish) live and die by it. Make a list of
every "hook" that makes your work unique and valuable. If you've got a
killer plot, scribble down the story. If you've got an amazing graphic
style, figure out a name (or a one-sentence description) of it. If
you've got NPCs, characters, or places that you want to hold onto, add
them to the pot. Keep this list separate from the actual text--your
publisher will need it later.
Rules for Publishing:
If you're publishing a work with the OGL--that is, you're the person who
holds the copyright on it, who's name graces the tag line, and who will
get hailed with snooty e-mails from fans who pour over the work as much
as you ever will--then you've got your own set of rules to follow.
Once your writer hands you the work, take a look at all of the
highlighted sections. These are the parts that have someone else's IP
in them. You can choose to either go over these parts with a fine-tooth
comb and close everything you can, or you can play it safe, save your
lawyer-money, and figure out the best way to mark all the parts that are
yellow as Open Game Content, while still keeping enough closed to make
your product worth more than its OGC-extract.
There are two general ways to mark Open Game Content. Either you're
broad ("all text in this work is Open Game Content") or you're specific
("all text in italics are Open Game Content." "All text duplicated in
Appendix 1 is Open Game Content.") Broad is easier and safer, while
specific lets you have "third choice" content, that is neither Product
Identity nor Open Game Content. Figure out whatever element you
want--just make sure that all the text that you've got highlighted is
marked clearly enough that you could grab a random person in a
bookstore, hand them twenty dollars, and get them to tell you what is
Open Game Content and what isn't.
Don't worry about Product Identity when you're marking Open Game
Content; PI trumps OGC.
Once the OGC is all marked, open up the list of "possible Product
Identity" that your writer gave you. Pick the parts that you agree are
worth paying a lawyer to defend in court, and put them in a list. Place
every item into one of the following categories:
* product and product line names
* logos and identifying marks including trade dress
* artifacts
* creatures
* character;
* stories
* storylines
* plots
* thematic elements
* dialogue
* incidents
* language
* artwork
* symbols
* designs
* depictions
* likenesses
* formats
* poses
* concepts
* themes
* graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations;
* names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments,
personalities, teams, personas, likenesses, or special abilities;
* places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or
supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs;
* Trademarks or Registered Trademarks
Don't worry if you aren't using every item: you shouldn't be. Delete
the categories that you aren't using, hand the list to your lawyer (or
whoever writes your legalese), and tell them to Identify those items in
the clearest lawyer-speak they can. (I can't give advice on how to do
that; I'm not a lawyer.)
Once you've got your OGC marked and your PI designated, hand the OGC to
your lawyer to check. Just like with any other work, you MUST make sure
that everything that you would get called on for plagiarism for without
the OGL is clearly marked as Open Game Content--and you need to list the
books you derive from in Section 15 of the OGL, just like a Bibliography
in a scholarly work.
Blanket Statements and Thirty Days
In any legal deal, just like with a will, there is a desire to make sure
that all bases are covered. To ensure that they're identifying
everything, some publishers have put lines like "Everything derivative
is Open Game Content" or "everything that isn't derivative is Product
Identity." While no one has a right to decry the motivation behind
these statements, I am saying right now that it's wrong.
Blanket statements like those are ambiguous (thus making it hard to
identify what's what), and that's bad. Ambiguity might be a violation
of OGL. While you must "Clearly Identify ALL of the OGC.", you also
must "CLEARLY IDENTIFY all of the OGC." (Section 8.) Just as bad, an
ambiguous statement makes it hard for others to use your OGC--and, thus,
cuts off the free advertising that forced copying of your Section 15 is.
Much better than these kind of statements is a referral clause: have
your legal-speaker put a line like the following in your product's legal
page:
"All Identifications of Open Game Content and Product Identity in this
work are superceded by any errata of _Doug's Product_ at
http://www.castlesteelstone.com/dougsproducterratta.html "
Make sure there's a file there--even if it's just a "there is no errata
for this product." This way, you've got a very clear and cheaply
modifiable way to cover your own mistakes--and a great way to get people
to visit your site.
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