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<If this is in the wrong section please move it.>
I have a general question, as some friends and I want to start making some material that will eventually go up for sale (PDFs for now but print books is the dream), and I just wanted to make 100% clear that I understand how the OGL works.
The way I read it anything that is listed as OGL is fair game for inclusion as long as it is properly acreddited in the OGL document at the end of the work, is this correct?
My other question (using another popular thread on this forum as an example) is about conversions. For example, if someone was going to convert something to Pathfinder how much would have to be changed and how much of the original couild be left in to make it viable under the OGL (legally, not ruleswise).
To take D20 Modern as the example, a lot of people have talked about doing unofficial conversions to the Pathfinder ruleset. Everything in the book is OGL (if memory serves, I don't have the book on me), so besides the actual mechanical conversions how much of the original could be included without violating the OGL if someone wanted to sell it as a product?
Thanks in advance, it's my dream to get into this industry (even in a very small unofficial capacity), and I would prefer to do it without getting my butt sued off.
1. Use of OGL content is fine as long as you credit the Section 15 properly. There's many guides on how to do this task.
2. Converting ANYTHING to Pathfinder that is not OGL is out. Period. Old TSR modules? No. Old 3E WOTC modules? No. Anything that is not OGL can not be converted as is.
The caveat to 2 is that you can take an old module, let's say G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Make a new pathfinder module "Palace of the Hill Lords" and have some of the same monsters, layouts, treasure, bad guys (but not their Names as that gets a bit too close to copyright), what have you and then publish it. No problem there as it's new work that's a derivative of another work. This all can be averted if you get permission from the publisher in the form of a legal letter signed and sealed. At that point the sky is the limit and most publishers in this genre are happy to allow access to their IP if the work is solid, well thought out, and done by their standards. Then again you could get some total wackjob who's possessive over everything under the sun and get nowhere. That's the business.
3. Anything in D20 Modern SRD is OGL. You can take that all that content and put it in a book and sell it as long as the Section 15 is accurate.
Your best bet if you really want to get into this business, and it's a labour of love trust me, is to go out and read the OGL guidelines, blogs by other publishers, and see how they handled it.
3. Anything in D20 Modern SRD is OGL.My emphasis. Common advice is to put the book away, forget you ever read it and work from the SRD. Do not work from "if memory serves".
Exactly. Use only the reference documents and nothing else.