Legal Ramifications

[TheBulge]

My apologies as I'm sure this is a repeat post, but I don't even know what to search under.  Did my first P&P RPG last year and immediately began working on a new game working within the D20 system.  It started out as just something to offer my friends that I couldn't find currently in D20, and I would like to offer it to other people now.

My question is what are the legal boundaries I need to work within in order to stay out of trouble.  Someone mentioned an open game license, but I'm not sure what that means.

Is there anywhere I can go to figure out pretty plainly what I can modify, what I have to keep, etc, in order to stay within legal boundaries? 

If I go this far, I would probably self-publish through .pdf's at first, if that helps at all.

Again, sorry for what I'm sure is a repeat, but I wasn't coming up with anything through any of my searches.  I don't mind doing research myself, but I would love a shove in the right direction, so to speak.

Thanks again.
~B

[jrs]

Hi Bulge,

If you haven't already, you should check out The Wizards of the Coast website on the d20 system.  It has information on the d20 system license and OGL. 

If you are interested in early discussions at The Forge, I recommend reading Tav's Open Licenses and Indie Games.  It's over a year old, but it's still valuable.  Some other discussions can be found at these links:  Questions about OGL and the Official D20 License, OGL, subscriptions, and other things in one weird package, and OGL question.

Julie

[TheBulge]

Great, thanks.  This is a perfect start.

~B

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Welcome to the Forge, B! I hope your stay will be long and mutually fruitful.

[TheBulge]

Me too.  This legal bullsh*t is a bit bothersome/tiresome/tedious, but I should have this module finished in about a month, and the art to go along with it shortly thereafter.  I figure I'll finish it how I like and then figure out how to publish it and under what guidelines later. 

[ukgpublishing]

Me too.  This legal bullsh*t is a bit bothersome/tiresome/tedious, but I should have this module finished in about a month, and the art to go along with it shortly thereafter.  I figure I'll finish it how I like and then figure out how to publish it and under what guidelines later. 

Working within the OGL or d20 License isn't too bad, the bit to really look at carefully is the Section 15, you would be surprised at how many publishers get that wrong.

If you want any help or advise on those aspects feel free to post, hell you could even post your Section 15 up for critique.

Good Luck

John Milner
UKG Publishing