I've been writing down spell/monster/character information on 3x5 cards for as long as I've been playing D&D (1979, yes I'm old), however, my handwriting is horrendous and on occasion I can't even read what I've written.
Recently I took my knowledge of PHP and incorporated it with dynamic PDF creation to create spell cards for use. I've made this little script available on the web and would like to share its use and get some feedback. Please try it out, tell your friends, and let me know what you think.
http://midian.phpnet.us/
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I think it is awesome that you've made this, and even more awesome that you've chosen to share. This is the thing I like best about the hobby - people that create something LIKE sharing their work and labor for the benefit of others.
I haven't printed any up yet, but I think this would be great for spell casting characters, particularly those new to the game (and overworked DMs).
Does it print well directly to a blank 3x5 card? What is the best method for printing that you've found?
I will send your link off to all my gaming friends and see what they make of it.
Thank you.
This link is dead -> http://www.d20.org/
You might want to link it to http://www.d20srd.org/
Other than that, looks nice. Might have to try that someday, it could prove really useful.
Ooops, d20srd.org is where I meant to link it to, thanks for the correction.
It doesn't print to 3x5 cards, I'm using this size now instead since I can fit two spells (flip the paper for the second spell) on a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper
Very nice.
It looks very similar to the cards you can download at http://www.theothergamecompany.com .
I recently shelled out the couple of bucks to download the whole set of spell cards from them, and I've found spell cards really worthwhile!
Manually copying the spell text into their tiny PDF is a bit of a pain though, and entering it into a web form would probably be a lot easier, so I will give this a try when writing up custom spells I don't already have.
Does it really scale only one spell to a sheet of paper, though? I really like ToGC's 9 to a page layout.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Huh - I'm surprised this product exists. A few years back somebody on ENWorld posted a free database of spells that could also print onto note cards. My recollection at that time was that WotC asked that person to quit distributing the database. I can't remember any details beyond that.
Looks nice though!
Huh - I'm surprised this product exists. A few years back somebody on ENWorld posted a free database of spells that could also print onto note cards. My recollection at that time was that WotC asked that person to quit distributing the database. I can't remember any details beyond that.
It exists because it doesn't contain any WotC data. Just a web form, some scripting, and outputs what you entered.
9 to a page is nice to save paper, however, the font sizes would be so small as to be useless to me, as well as so small as to get lost in my sheets of paper. 2 spells to a page works great, and folding them in half gives me a place to put more notes when I want.
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I started producing similiar spell and magic item cards printed on 4X6 card stock, complete with graphics, as a reward for my gaming group. It also helps me keep track of what items or spells were given out or introduced in a campaign.
Just curious, what would keep a person from producing or publishing cards like this as long as they are compliant with the OGL?
I don't think you're allowed to print, publish and then sell OGL material...
Then you could be making your own Players Handbook and selling it to gaming stores, only cheaper...
I think OGL is for personal use only; and it's up to WotC to make money from it.
Or, at least, this would make sense to me if it were so.
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So what about the company that printed The Pocket Grimiore?
It was verbatim the spells from OGL.
I was a big fan of the Spell Cards in 2nd Edition; that is what started me on this project in the first place. I discussed it with the owner of the local game store. He thinks that not only is it a good idea, but other people would buy it. The only problem is that it has is limited appeal (specifically, only RPG D&D gamers would be interested).
My solution: find a way for D&D Minatures to incorporate spell rules into the game (much as Mage Knight). Then they serve dual purpose. Even better, since WoTC is familiar with "collectible card games" make a D&D game version... we'll call it Mage Duel... bring back the rarity of spells (common, uncommon, and rare) and sell them in packs of ten (one guaranteed rare, two or three uncommon, and the rest common). Then they will serve as both an RPG tool and a CCG combined. They can even introduce spell cards for new product (non-OGl, like FR, or Eberron) and use truly unique spell cards as "chase" cards... one in every six packs will have a "ultra rare" gold foil print unique.
Any thoughts?
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Sure you are. That's the whole point of the OGL is to allow companies to publish the contents therof or incorporate them into their own third party works. You can buy a nice pdf version of the complete SRD with bookmarks for around $5.00.
I don't remember what the issue was back in the day about the spell cards. It was before the SRD was finalized and nobody really understood what exactly was going to be allowed and what was not. My recollection of the late 90's early 00's is that people were still suspicious of WotC after the way TSR handled its IP rights (which is to say aggressively). The issue might have been the database underlying the cards - I believe that certain electronic rights to the SRD are not included in the OGL. I was very much on the periphery of the discussion because it mostly happened during a hiatus from ENWorld.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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My solution: find a way for D&D Minatures to incorporate spell rules into the game (much as Mage Knight). Then they serve dual purpose. Even better, since WoTC is familiar with "collectible card games" make a D&D game version... we'll call it Mage Duel... bring back the rarity of spells (common, uncommon, and rare) and sell them in packs of ten (one guaranteed rare, two or three uncommon, and the rest common). Then they will serve as both an RPG tool and a CCG combined. They can even introduce spell cards for new product (non-OGl, like FR, or Eberron) and use truly unique spell cards as "chase" cards... one in every six packs will have a "ultra rare" gold foil print unique.
I think you would have to take a careful look at the OGL. I believe the license it grants does not extend oustide P&P rpg materials. I'm fairly certain that video games are excluded, and am reasonably sure minature games are as well. Not sure about CCG's, but I'd be surprised. Of course, now that I say that, I seem to remember a D&D CCG based on the SRD that came out in 00. They included a free card in each issue. Not sure if that was an unique license (such as the one Paizo publishes under) or the OGL.
Sure you are. That's the whole point of the OGL is to allow companies to publish the contents therof or incorporate them into their own third party works. You can buy a nice pdf version of the complete SRD with bookmarks for around $5.00.
Really? I had no idea...
I always assumed the OGL was made to give players easy access to D&D stuff, not allow other people to make money off of it.
Ah well. You learn every day :)
I think you would have to take a careful look at the OGL. I believe the license it grants does not extend oustide P&P rpg materials. I'm fairly certain that video games are excluded, and am reasonably sure minature games are as well. Not sure about CCG's, but I'd be surprised. Of course, now that I say that, I seem to remember a D&D CCG based on the SRD that came out in 00. They included a free card in each issue. Not sure if that was an unique license (such as the one Paizo publishes under) or the OGL.
From what I understand (not a lawyer, but I've been following the discussions on industry lists and thoroughly reading the licenses since they were just drafts) - the OGL itself has no restrictions for video games, miniatures, CCG, etc. I think the only hitches that have come up is two technical hurdles with video games, but not an outright ban.*
The d20 License however (which lets you stick the pretty little logo on your product) is a different matter entirely and is much stricter. Last I recall, there is no mention of CCGs, but it does state that you cannot include the logo on miniatures (or maybe it was just prepainted plastic ones? I forget, it was kinda silly that way somehow) and you cannot include the logo on "interactive electronic games" as they specifically define them.
So you can do OGL miniatures, CCGs, and video games, but you can't necessarily stick the little d20 logo on them. And, yes, the OGL was created specifically for other publishers to use (with a side benefit of being useful to regular fans as well).
-Ken
* If you really care, if I recall the technical hurdles with video games complying with the OGL deal with the clause that all open content must be easily readable (if it's buried in computer code it's not necessarily "readable") and that the content has to be free from other licenses (so there's some weird meshing between the OGL and the license for the code generated by tools like Visual Studio or something). Neither is a show stopper, but tricky issues to navigate properly.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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From what I understand (not a lawyer, but I've been following the discussions on industry lists and thoroughly reading the licenses since they were just drafts) - the OGL itself has no restrictions for video games, miniatures, CCG, etc. I think the only hitches that have come up is two technical hurdles with video games, but not an outright ban.*
Interesting. I admit that I hadn't seen anything expressly in the license about minatures or video games, but I thought I had heard instances where WotC had leaned on producers of those items or otherwise disapproved of such activities. I figured there was just some technical twist in licensing law they were relying upon (I am a lawyer, but don't do licensing). It's entirely possible I'm making the whole thing up, I'm relying mostly on various snippets I've read rather than an actual analysis of the license(s).
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My suggestion was one for WoTC or Paizo Publishing; a way to make a product that would serve dual purpose for RPG and Miniatures play. If they want to drop the ball, that's up to them.
As to the rest...
If I am reading this (and the SRD) correctly, I can publish my version of Spell Cards, as long as they do not extend past OGL spells. This is particularly good news to me since I have already finished the design work. Anyone interested?
The Other Game Company spell cards are great. I use them every session. The only annoying thing is that they can only produce them for the SRD spells only. Anything outside of that (i.e. Spell Compendium) I have to type up myself.
As far as I'm aware there is nothing illegal in what they are doing.
As for someone coming up with a knock-off of the PHB, they could do that but they couldn't include any of the art or any of the fluff text, making it a poor imitation of the PHB.
Olaf the Stout
The Other Game Company spell cards are great. I use them every session. The only annoying thing is that they can only produce them for the SRD spells only. Anything outside of that (i.e. Spell Compendium) I have to type up myself.
And that's another reason I made my spell cards. Type in ANY spell from ANY book you own and you have a spell card for it.
I am assuming that the "Dungeons and Dragons" logo is protected by copyright. Does a product based off of the OGl have to include a copy? And is the D20 logo also copyrighted or considered OGL?
Not to go too far off on the tangent, but #1 - read the licenses yourself before using them.
#2 - Read them again and get professional help if you don't understand anything.Sorry, had to get that out of the way. But, to answer your questions - the D&D logo is copyrighted (technically trademarked, I believe). Bottom line - you can't use it and WotC will be very unhappy if you do. (Kenzer has a special deal to use it.)
If you release something using open content, you must include the OGL (the OGL itself states this, refer to #1 and #2 above). ;)
The d20 logo is also trademarked, but you can use it if you follow the d20 System Trademark License.
Full copies of the OGL and d20 STL can both be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
Back to the topic, I really love the Other Game Company's cards as well, and think they released a blank template you can type into, but I would be interested in seeing what else people have come up with.
Back to the topic, I really love the Other Game Company's cards as well, and think they released a blank template you can type into, but I would be interested in seeing what else people have come up with.
They did release a blank PDF for download. It's not bad, but kind of a pain to work with because the text boxes are tiny. You can zoom in a lot, but then you have to scroll a lot...I was using their free blank one, copying in the text from the D20 SRD site until I got fed up with all the work it took to do so for every magic user's spell list, and bought the real version.
I'll be trying out Midian's card though, for my custom spells, and spells that aren't in the SRD.
Sorry, had to get that out of the way. But, to answer your questions - the D&D logo is copyrighted (technically trademarked, I believe). Bottom line - you can't use it and WotC will be very unhappy if you do. (Kenzer has a special deal to use it.)
The spell cards don't use any logo or any content of WotC. YOU type in what information you want to show on the card, and all it does is format the card and output a PDF of what you typed in.
This avoids worrying about content and licenses.
Back to the topic, I really love the Other Game Company's cards as well, and think they released a blank template you can type into, but I would be interested in seeing what else people have come up with.They did release a blank PDF for download. It's not bad, but kind of a pain to work with because the text boxes are tiny. You can zoom in a lot, but then you have to scroll a lot...I was using their free blank one, copying in the text from the D20 SRD site until I got fed up with all the work it took to do so for every magic user's spell list, and bought the real version.
I'll be trying out Midian's card though, for my custom spells, and spells that aren't in the SRD.
The blank PDF is still good for doing cards for non-SRD spells. There's no other way that you are going to get a spell card for it otherwise. Sure it's a bit of work but I find that my group doesn't use too many non-SRD spells and once you've done it once you can print out as many copies as you want. It is even better now that they released a version that allows you to save what you have entered into the fields, even if you only have Adobe Reader.
Olaf the Stout
Way to go midian! The only problem I am having is with the casting time text box. It cuts off at "standard actio". Is there a simple way to change how many characters are allowed? Thanks again though, these will be very nice for my game!
Sorry about that. Not sure how that field got restricted, but it's fixed now.