I want to write several stories, some scifi of which I have no concern inregards to trade mark, I may be inspired by many things but are things I have seen many times before and can rest easy and write my scifi and publish it without being worried about violating someones trademark.
Now for my High Fantasy stories however... I want to set them in a setting that can be seen as loosely based on 3.5 edition D&D mechanics, I know various webcomics seem to have no problem referencing them in most part with some exceptions usually in the form of changing the name of various highly visible spells (Bigsby vs Bugsbys ).
I even know that using certain races don't violate trademark as DrowTales seemed to have no problem using "Dark Elves/Drow" and TSR themselves use Hobbits themselves albeit with the name changed to amusingly to something else Tolkien had also coined!
Its implied in my research on the subject that anything in the SRD can be used in works of fiction, though I'm not sure if this is the case.
Is there a site I can read that can explain what concepts I can use and what I cannot and the reasoning behind such?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Nice it seems Wizard has a site that might help explain some of this.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Darnit, its only guidelines on how to submit stuff for their worlds not nessasarily on whats okay for making your own independent stuff.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
Isn't there enough D&D already? Why not make up your own rules?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Why reinvent the wheel? To me how Magic in 3.5 D&D works is how I had always for years expected and wished magic to work since my earliest days of reading fiction and constantly reading novels that came up with different ways of doing stuff kept adding disappointment until AHOY! Dragons of Autumn Twilight and Raistlin blowing me away.
Most of how D&D works isn't pertinent to writing fiction but some very important aspects of it however would be important for my endeavors, Vancian Magic, True Dragons, and what kind of Elves can I use and do I have to change the names of every spell mentioned to avoid copyright restrictions?
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Elves you can call whatever you like. Vancian magic has no copyrights. I'm not sure what you mean by 'true' dragons, but there's no copyrights on big, scaly, flame-breathing creatures. You might get into a touch of trouble if their breath weapon is colour-coded to their scales, though. But spell names are definitely copyrighted and I believe those rights are enforced.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
yeah color coded dragons I was wondering about, but as long as the concept of say Dragons capable of spell casting and different ones can have different breaths as long as it doesn't cater to Chromatic/Metallic archetypes I guess I'm fine.
So I guess if one has a dragon with black scales that breaths fire no harm? Or maybe rearrange it so theres Maybe 3 races of dragons, High Dragons can use magic and change their breath at will, War Dragons who can only use 2 or so breaths and Mage Dragons who can only use one breath but are magic user paragons?
I'ld really like to use spells from the PHB and Spell Compendium but if the names are enforced is what they do enforced? Or would I have to change their names and modify their effects a wee bit?
Back to Vancian magic, there's no copyrights on systematized magic but is there copyrights on the more typical D&D portrayals of it? As in need to rest after using up your spell allotment for the day, have to memorize spells from spells books etc on the lines on how its described in the Players Hand Book?
Posted by just_me (Member # 3302) on :
IANAL but if it's stuff in the SRD and/or covered under the Open Gaming License you're probably safe to use it...
So you probably can't use "Bigby's Crushing Hand", but you can use the identical SRD version of "Crushing Hand".
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Oh, Blayne. *crushing sadness*
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Oh, Blayne. *crushing sadness*
Please elaborate.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :