I would like to create lots of varied adventures for all of the flip-mats I own.
And I would like to share these adventures with others. Doing this well would require including a map, of course.
Tangent... When I was a young boy I would love watching Saturday morning cartoons, especially Transformers and GI Joe. Those shows were little more than half-hour commercials proclaiming "Here are ways to play with our toys! Now ask your parents to buy them." So? The stories were still sufficient for my young mind, and I really did appreciate being fed some ideas for what to do with those toys.
Before I sink too much time into this endeavor I've put up one sample here. I'll remove the image, of course, if Paizo staff requests.
What I did:
(1) I saved the image from this Paizo web page
(2) I used the software Pinta (which is simple yet allows layers) to add the big pink letters.
(3) I also appended the name and URL for the flip-mat to image. Even if someone else saves that image separately from my adventure's web page they will keep that information.
(4) I adjusted the image size so that the grid lines were barely visible. My goal in doing so was to make extra sure that even beside being covered with big pink letters the image would not prompt someone to not purchase the map in print or PDF format.
(5) The adventure text contains a link to where to buy the flip-mat. The map image itself is also a link to where to buy the flip-mat.
Is this okay?
I hope it is. I can't imagine anyone not buying the flip-mat because of my adventure's website. After all, the image is far less generically useful than one already readily available.
In fact, I expect that my publishing a bunch of pre-made adventures for flip-maps would encourage people to buy the flip-mats in just the same way that my childhood Saturday morning cartoons assisted my toy use.
But I'm not an online retailer. I certainly trust that Paizo owns those images and should control how they are publicly used.
Would someone from Paizo please reply, perhaps with one of the following critiques...
(a) Sorry, no go. Remove that image. Don't share that type of thing.
(b) What you did is okay. Any image already on our Paizo website can be "worsened" and shared.
(c) Hey, free advertising! If you wish, we'll even send you the "other" images (such as the back of that Haunted Dungeon flip-mat without the word SAMPLE diagonally across it) so you can better share adventures for those too. Just keep doing those five things to "worsen" the image and direct people to our Paizo website.
Thanks!
Concluding tangent: If you follow the link to my adventure you'll quickly notice it's not a Pathfinder adventure. I've created my own two-person diceless RPG to play with my wife. If someone wanted to convert the adventure to Pathfinder and share it publicly I would not mind at all, especially if they included a link to the original. But please do not use this forum thread to discuss my RPG! We're all here to talk Pathfinder and Paizo.
Because of nature of the request you might want to contact customer.service@paizo.com about their stance in this matter. Boards are less than perfect place of asking for such permission.
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What you are doing falls under the Community Use Policy; the map materials are not Open Game Content and don't fall under the OGL. Search the forum and you will find at least one other thread on the topic of reproduction of maps. The maps are not included as usable items under the CUP and cannot be used in this manner without express permission.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer nor an employee of Paizo. I just read stuff.
Because of nature of the request you might want to contact customer.service@paizo.com about their stance in this matter. Boards are less than perfect place of asking for such permission.
That surprises me. Asking in a forum creates the opportunity to include a "used with permission" phrase in the adventures I write for the maps, with the phrase a link to this forum topic. That would make clear those "five things I did" above. This would clarify the granted permission. It would hint that others wanting to use map images in their own adventures might be able to also receive permission if they similarly "worsened" the images and provided credit in words and links.
(Or it would share in the forum that I did not receive permission, and perhaps a reason why. I do have enough friends in the music industry to know that all sorts of unwanted legal restrictions might rest upon artists as a "price to pay" for having their works distributed. The artists are not allowed to share their works as freely as they desire or themselves believe is best for publicity and business. I hope the RPG industry is not similarly burdened, but have no idea!)
Chief Technical Officer
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What you are doing falls under the Community Use Policy; the map materials are not Open Game Content and don't fall under the OGL. Search the forum and you will find at least one other thread on the topic of reproduction of maps. The maps are not included as usable items under the CUP and cannot be used in this manner without express permission.
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer nor an employee of Paizo. I just read stuff.
Howie23 is correct that we don't allow redistribution of our maps, though "you may create your own interpretations of material presented in our artwork and maps, provided that your interpretations don't look substantially similar to our materials."
Howie23 is correct that we don't allow redistribution of our maps, though "you may create your own interpretations of material presented in our artwork and maps, provided that your interpretations don't look substantially similar to our materials."
Thank you for a prompt reply.
I am tempted to ask if my "worsening" of maps in those five ways is something that "does not look substantially similar to our materials". But I won't. Perhaps the vague reply is intentional.
Certainly they are "substantially similar" visually, since that's the entire point. I could easily use Inkscape to make vector art maps. As samples, here are two of my old ones: a dungeon with a temple and a warped Escher-esque mansion. I could quickly make similar vector art maps with rooms that mimic the flip-mat layouts, which would be just as useful to readers of my website but would not be as good advertising for Paizo. I think the flip-mats are pretty! I like them. That's why I own so many, and want to encourage people to see them and become interested in them.
Yet the practical uses for my altered version and the actual flip-mat are totally different. It would be darn awkward to try to use my "interpretation" for anything but its corresponding adventure. (It would even be slightly awkward to use it with that adventure without also owning the in-print or PDF of the flip-mat. Which is again part of the point!) So if "look substantially similar" is about functionality for humans rather than visible resemblance for tineye than my use is okay.
Since I got a vague reply rather than being told to remove the image, I'll keep it up for now, and devote my time and energy to creating more adventures rather an drawing in Inkscape. I think that's a win for everyone.
The vague reply may have been Vic avoiding becoming a free lawyer service for potential 3PP.
Personally, I think your map is substantially similar to theirs (I'm surprised that's even a question, really).
It sort of seems more polite to take it down without explicit permission rather than forcing them to make a call. (to me anyway).
That's not intended as criticism - I'm sure you're well intentioned. However, part of running a creative business is no doubt keeping control of ones creative content. What happens if they let you use the image and someone downloads it, removes the key and starts producing flip mat competitors?
EDIT: we'll that's all a little redundant then.
I'll be more clear: please remove the image, as it doesn't adhere to our community use policy.
Done!
Thanks for your understanding!
No problem. I knew the project might be unacceptable before I started. Which is why I only made one of those maps!
And thank you for putting up with me prioritizing potentially helpful over maximally polite. ;-)
A few more comments to conclude this topic...
(a) The proper e-mail is licensing@paizo.com, not the customer service one.
(b) This FAQ link describes ways to create and publish products meant to work with the Pathfinder system. Not relevant for my situation, but perhaps useful for other forum readers.
(c) I did send an e-mail to the licensing folk, since although Vic's replies above nicely answered the question "Does this image comply with the Paizo Community Use Policy" I assumed the map did not. I would not need to ask special permission to use the image if it did! In that e-mail I asked, "I'm still ignorant of how my providing free RPG adventures with 'worsened' images already on the Paizo website can do anything but help your business."
Vic wrote a nice e-mail reply, which he said I may share, in which he wrote:
While you might see it as "this is no replacement for the real thing," we would see it as "something with our name on it that's not up to our quality standards."
That makes a lot of sense. As someone who has loved flip-mats for a long time I forgot the value of a good first impression. As someone whose friends play Pathfinder I forget that most people in my city are still potential first-time Paizo customers rather than old fans of Paizo products. Sharing online some grainy low-resolution versions of flip-mats would do more harm than good.
Thanks for the little lesson in marketing!
You could consider writing up a Pathfinder Society adventure. You'll have to work with an editor and follow whatever the guidelines are, but the idea remains, their map and your adventure.
Just follow the guidelines, and you should be set.