Semantics versus legal issues

Arkhaden,

I am not a lawyer, and certainly no expert in international copyright law. With that said, here's what I understand:

Game mechanics cannot be copyright, but text can. When you copy the names of things from one game to another, that's where the risk is, but jargon or common words are ok.

What I do know is the current d20 License. The way this works is that you can build your game using the base mechanics of d20, but must leave out character creation and advancement. In return, you get to use the d20 logo. This is a brief summary, but basically accurate.

What many publishers do, when they want to make a game that is like D&D, but differs in some way so that they wish to put character creation and advancement in, is use the Open Game License (OGL.) This license has a lot of confusion around it, and grants you no specific rights to use anything from D&D. It instead grants others rights to reuse your work under the same license, but that's unimportant. Functionally, it has become the stamp that says "This is like D&D."

You do not have to use either of these to make your game. If you are concerns that your text uses copyrighted text, I would consult a local lawyer.

Good luck and welcome to the Forge! If you want to start a thread about your game and what makes it interesting or fun to you, I would love to read it.