I have been updating an old TSR adventure for 2E pathfinder (playtest rules) to DM for my close friends and family. It was in fact my first published adventure that i played and DMed.
This community has been so great to me over all these years and I would like to eventually share my very amateur rewrite of this 1995 classic.
But I don't want to get "in Trouble" because of copy right laws or anything of that nature. It would be free, bare bones, and have many changes/edits.
So is there anyone here with the knowledge of how to approach this. I will be using the original map, same names for most of the villains/locations/NPCs.
Would love some advice and maybe even a link to a guide on how best to upload the file when I am ready for easy download...or maybe just email it personally to anyone interested.
Thank all of you
You can't do that.
Even with changes. Even with giving it away for free.
Neither of those matter. It's still a derivative work, and the rights to make and distribute that adventure still belong to the copyright holder.
And Paizo will not let you post an email address or post a link, or otherwise use their site to distribute that unauthorized copy.
Wizards of the Coast probably owns the copyright at this point. You might try contacting them to see if there's a way you can get permission to rewrite and distribute their adventure.
You can't do that.
Even with changes. Even with giving it away for free.
Neither of those matter. It's still a derivative work, and the rights to make and distribute that adventure still belong to the copyright holder.
And Paizo will not let you post an email address or post a link, or otherwise use their site to distribute that unauthorized copy.
Wizards of the Coast probably owns the copyright at this point. You might try contacting them to see if there's a way you can get permission to rewrite and distribute their adventure.
This is what I was looking for, thank you. It’s not a problem to not post my notes. Plus it’s a play test conversion so it’s really only useful for the next couple months anyways.
Now there is no issue for complete homebrew adventures correct? And what if the homebrew is completely original but uses an already published map? I assume if it’s someone else’s map it would fall under copyright issues?
If it's your own original work, and doesn't use anyone else's Intellectual Property (IP), then you're fine.
Obviously, anything you make up on your own, or that is historic and existed before TSR was founded will be fine(names of Greek, Norse, Hindu, etc gods, monsters like the minotaur, harpies, etc).
But if it's a spell, or god, or monster that was made up for D&D or any other game, you need to be careful. Some things are included under the Open Gaming License (OGL) but you have to follow all the rules of the OGL if you use them.
Some things are still the IP of WotC, ie certain spell names, certain gods, certain monsters. They are NOT available under the OGL, so you have to be careful to know which is which.
You can do something like this. A1 3rd edition conversion
Basically it is a keyed series of stat blocks and skill checks with none of the original text.
You can do something like this. A1 3rd edition conversion
Basically it is a keyed series of stat blocks and skill checks with none of the original text.
That's pretty sweet. Are there any more of these out there?