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One answer, of course, is that they may have received permission to do so. Certainly I've been approached for permission to refer to material of mine by name, so it does happen. Beyond that, every publisher has to figure out for themselves what is acceptable under the license. One of the nice things about it is that in most cases breaches have been handled with notifications and chances to make corrections, but that doesn't mean that's how they'll always be handled.
But while I can quote the license and give you my take on it, I'm not legally qualified to give an opinion about someone else's take on it when that differs from my own.
Hmm. Okie Dokie. Just wanted to clarify a bit since I got pointed to that book just the other day, and I noticed it mentioned how to use the alternate magic system in several d20 systems by name, only some of which were green ronin owned.
Thanks for the advice guys.
~DH
One answer, of course, is that they may have received permission to do so. Certainly I've been approached for permission to refer to material of mine by name, so it does happen. Beyond that, every publisher has to figure out for themselves what is acceptable under the license. One of the nice things about it is that in most cases breaches have been handled with notifications and chances to make corrections, but that doesn't mean that's how they'll always be handled.
But while I can quote the license and give you my take on it, I'm not legally qualified to give an opinion about someone else's take on it when that differs from my own.
Hmm. Okie Dokie. Just wanted to clarify a bit since I got pointed to that book just the other day, and I noticed it mentioned how to use the alternate magic system in several d20 systems by name, only some of which were green ronin owned.
Thanks for the advice guys.
~DH
For example in our upcoming 101 Renegade Class Feats book, which has new feats from 14 classes from other publishers I wanted to be able to mention the book, the authors name and the name of the company that produced that book so I contacted each and every publisher or in the case of SGG had a previous independent agreement to mention this information. Thankfully every single publisher agreed to let me do so, which will help make the book awesome
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For example in our upcoming 101 Renegade Class Feats book, which has new feats from 14 classes from other publishers I wanted to be able to mention the book, the authors name and the name of the company that produced that book so I contacted each and every publisher or in the case of SGG had a previous independent agreement to mention this information. Thankfully every single publisher agreed to let me do so, which will help make the book awesome.
Hypothetical Example:
So, if say, I make a new setting book, and include SGG's Templar, or a stripped down version of it (because this world has no paladins, but has templars, or something), and provide my own archetypes for it and alt class abilities and whatnot, and I'd like to point the customer in the direction of SGG to either get more options for the templar, or get some more of their other classes (and list a few of them) which are also quite good, I just need to contact SGG and get an OK?That doesn't sound too difficult.
Its not a big "It can't be done" then, it's just a "Go ask and get permission", yes?
yes, but remember that they can say no.
Chris Pramas or Green Ronin Publishing said yes about what I wanted to do with the Corsair, but once said no on an idea I had for Mutants and Masterminds. The publisher has every right not to want to associate his products with a product he has no control or influence over.
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yes, but remember that they can say no.
Chris Pramas or Green Ronin Publishing said yes about what I wanted to do with the Corsair, but once said no on an idea I had for Mutants and Masterminds. The publisher has every right not to want to associate his products with a product he has no control or influence over.
That makes sense. Good to know.
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That makes sense. Good to know.yes, but remember that they can say no.
Chris Pramas or Green Ronin Publishing said yes about what I wanted to do with the Corsair, but once said no on an idea I had for Mutants and Masterminds. The publisher has every right not to want to associate his products with a product he has no control or influence over.
In fact one of the stated reasons the OGL is structured the way it is was to allow products to be created with shared rules content, without forcing everyone to share the intellectual properties of the non-rules material. For example, S&S did an EverQuest d20 game with the OGL. The rules are open content. The proper names and histories of everything EQ related is not.
Certainly someone could ask SOE and S&S for permission to reference an EQRPG book by name. The OGL specifically allows such side agreements. (In this particular case I'm willing to bet the answer would be no, but that would be up to then rights holders.)
3pp who deal with the OGL are often much more open to such mentions. As rite has said, they've gotten permission from us which we don't require them to re-check every time they put out a book, as we have a working relationship and have built a goodly level of trust.
If someone wanted to mention the Templar book or me as the author they just need to check with me. In have yet to turn down such a request. :)
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3pp who deal with the OGL are often much more open to such mentions. As rite has said, they've gotten permission from us which we don't require them to re-check every time they put out a book, as we have a working relationship and have built a goodly level of trust.
If someone wanted to mention the Templar book or me as the author they just need to check with me. In have yet to turn down such a request. :)
Makes sense. Thanks Owen.
What are you thinking of doing DarkHolme? It's generally a better idea to try freelancing for another publisher, until you get the hang of it.
I think JBE is always looking for people, as is OpenDesign for KQ. Or you can just do some free work.
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What are you thinking of doing DarkHolme? It's generally a better idea to try freelancing for another publisher, until you get the hang of it.
I think JBE is always looking for people, as is OpenDesign for KQ. Or you can just do some free work.
Its probably easier your way, you're right, but I kindof want to dive in.
I wrote an article for KQ a while back. Wolfgang didnt end up using it, but he said that it was good, it just didnt make the cut that month. He asked if I wanted to put it up on their site instead. I didnt take him up on the offer, but maybe I'll use the article for something later on, or refine it a bit and submit it again.
I have an idea for a class+archetype+some extra options. I kindof want to try my hand at the whole package. A bit like the "Genius Guide to" series. I started it like a week and a half ago.
* Writing, Layout, Graphics, Illustrating, and Game-Designing, and then just have a friend of mine help with editing.
But when Its done I'm going to want to pass it off to someone just to make sure I followed the OGL and Pathfinder Compatibility License correctly as well.
Maybe I'll try my hand writing something for some of the other guys after, but I think for my first thing I do I want to put out a 10-20 page pdf, thats basically all me, and see how well I can do, as sort of a foray into RPG design. I've been doing it near constantly as a hobby for like 10 years, so I want to give it a shot.
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* As for free work, I've done quite a bit, and not just in my home campaigns.
There are some PDFs I did that are on ENWorld, a couple monsters I've converted to PF and put up here (yeah, conversions aren't original, but still), and some other stuff too.
I'm not new to designing d20 stuff, but I'm new to actually publishing it.
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Silver Crescent Publishing
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I know as a small publisher I've put a good amount of effort into finding an artist for high quality cover art for a relatively low price (as from previous posts we all know the general price range we're looking at). Silver Crescent prides itself in using all custom art in our products. But we also focus on print products with PDFs being secondary. For thos of you familiar with Silver Crescent Publishing, if there is anything in particular you would like to see from us, by all means let us know! For those not so familiar, you can take a look through the store here, at drivethrurpg or our own website for art prints and books and such, and THEN tell us what you want to see.
If none of our products are on your "must by" list or among those you would recommend, we'd love to hear what it would take for us to get there.
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I actually hadnt heard of you until just now.
You campaign setting looks neat though.
Is your stuff at RPGnow too?
I also noticed some of your stuff has no reviews. Since I can't look through a whole pdf before I buy it like I do with a dead-tree copy, I tend to rely on detailed reviews before I buyu pdfs, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Something to keep in mind.
The art looks pretty good from the brief look I had at it though.
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I think I might pick up the campaign setting in a little while, because it does sound quite interesting.
As for advice, it seems that all of your products are tied to that setting. For more utility, I would suggest maybe some products usable to someone who is not using your setting, some setting-free products.
~DH
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Silver Crescent Publishing
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Is your stuff at RPGnow too?
Our PDF products are on drivethrurpg here. Some with additional reviews, and thank you for the compliments on the artwork. That's one of the things we take a lot of pride in.
We also have print copies available at our own website for those who might be interested.
Lastly, while the adventures we have published thus far are written for use with the Realms of Twilight setting, with very few tweaks they can be made to fit into any setting that uses the Pathfinder rule set.
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Some with additional reviews, and thank you for the compliments on the artwork. That's one of the things we take a lot of pride in.
Sorry; yes, I saw it there.
I was trying to say that being listed on both sites increases the odds of people finding your products, and that having additional reviews gives people a better idea of what they're buying before they pay for it, both increasing the chances of sales.
I mentioned I hadnt hear of you before; I almost never look at dtrpg, but I check rpgnow every couple days.
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Just thought this discussion might be of interest:
As we speak, the Legendary Games Design Team is talking about good ways to support the Beginner's Box with Legendary encounters and short adventures. I think that would be fun.
You'll need to consider that the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License says: "You may not reference any Paizo products that are not listed in Exhibit B" and the Beginner Box is not listed in Exhibit B.
This is deliberate. To be frank, we don't want to encourage our audience to split themselves into Core Rulebook players and Beginner Box players; we want to encourage most Beginner Box players to eventually move on to the Core Rulebook so that they can fully interact with our existing community, play in the Pathfinder Society, and expand their game with the hundreds of PFRPG products that are already out there.
Our own support for the Beginner Box will generally include stuff designed to ease the transition to the Core Rulebook; for example, the free Beginner Box GM Kit we're about to release has a section on how to use published low-level Pathfinder RPG adventures with the Beginner Box.
While all of that is true, all they really need to do is not reference parts of the rules that aren't also included in the Beginner's Box. I'm certain it will be easy enough to write short modules for levels 1-3 or so that are easily compatible with both the Beginner's Box and the Core rules. Then they just have to say "suitable for any beginning player of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game." Or something similar. Clark's a smart lawyer, I'm sure he'll figure it out.
Oh, I'm aware... and I didn't say he couldn't do it; I just noted that he needed to consider that point.
You are right, if the box doesnt go on the approved list of product references that may be very very tricky to do--it may be impossible. But I am sure going to think about it.
Here's the link to the thread: Modules in the style of Beginner Box