How much can I share the rules?

[Christopher Weeks]

If I'm sitting at a table, explaining to people how to play Universalis, that's obviously cool.

What about a virtual table on the internet?  It seems like it's probably still clearly cool in a chat where the explanation could easily be captured by the players and used to play without buying the game, but that's not the sole purpose.  But is it kosher to post a web page with a rules summary so that I can bring more people into a game?

I'm thinking that the law allows that -- that the system of play isn't protected IP, only the words you used to write it up.  But is it also cool with you, Ralph?

Chris

[Valamir]

Honestly, while I certainly don't like the idea of telling a fan of the game no to something designed to bring in more fans, my gut tells me that that's going a little too far.  Ultimately, Uni is a game that, once you learn, you really don't ever need to refer to the rules again.  A website available to the general public that posted enough rules to know how to play would be essentially giving the game away for free.

I don't have any trouble with sharing the rules summary available on my site for download.  And I certainly don't have any trouble with explanations of play on chat etc.  I'd love to see more transcripts of actual play sessions out there, and to the extent that they illustrate select mechanics in action...fabulous.

But to simply post enough rules to play the game for free...I'd rather you didn't.

[Mike Holmes]

As Ralph mentioned, if you haven't already, check out some of the downloads on this page:
http://universalis.actionroll.com/Resources.html

Probably has all you need to get people up and running in very short order.

Mike