One thing I've been wondering, ever since I noticed Aboleth seemed to get renamed as things like Devil-Fish or something more Lovecraftian when they get turned into minis... and I assumed it's because Aboleth technically belong to WotC... is whether there's any problem with anyone using things like... say... Tieflings, Aasimar, Dark Creepers, Owlbears, etc in novels instead of adventures and game supplements.
Obviously, you've got something sorted out, but what's the deal? Is it a non-issue, or do all the tiefs get renamed devil-bloods and the drow as dark elves or surt-alfar or something?
One thing I've been wondering, ever since I noticed Aboleth seemed to get renamed as things like Devil-Fish or something more Lovecraftian when they get turned into minis... and I assumed it's because Aboleth technically belong to WotC... is whether there's any problem with anyone using things like... say... Tieflings, Aasimar, Dark Creepers, Owlbears, etc in novels instead of adventures and game supplements.
Obviously, you've got something sorted out, but what's the deal? Is it a non-issue, or do all the tiefs get renamed devil-bloods and the drow as dark elves or surt-alfar or something?
I don't think aboleth is copyright, devilfish is a paizo monster from one of the APs, I think its in Edge of Anarchy. It's a nasty squid monster.
It's a narrow line to walk, certainly. In most cases, I believe names created by TSR (now WotC) such as tiefling, aasimar, bullete, etc. need to be renamed in non-OGL works. In the Pathfinder's Journal fiction, these names can be used, since they appear in OGL books, but there's no open game license in the novels line or the web fiction, so they need to use different titles for stuff. As it is, the word "tiefling" doesn't appear anywhere in Prince of Wolves that I can remember, instead replaced with "hellspawn." I'm not really sure where the line gets drawn, either, since drow come from myth, but black-skinned subterranean elves called drow are a Gygax creation. I'm sure Paizo knows how to proceed without risking lawsuit. Perhaps we can deduce where the boundary of legal use is after more books are out...