Community Use question - Using maps, images, and other content to create an interactive map.

[Lindsay Gillespie Cunningham]

Posting this here since the Community Use forum seems a bit vacant:

So I would like to create a free to use interactive map of the Inner Sea Region that would allow GMs to more easily navigate it. There are a couple out there that I find to be clunky and not very useful, and I have ideas on how I could make something more useful.

I just read through the Community Use policy but am a bit still unclear on if this would be allowed. To be clear, here's what I would like to do, and which published assets I would like to use:

1. A map of the Inner Sea Region with clickable pins for each country/region [utilizing published Paizo map].
2. Clicking a pin would zoom into a country/region map (say Andoran for example) which would include pins for each settlement location and places of interest [utilizing published map of Andoran].
3. Clicking a settlement pin would zoom into a location map (say Almas for example) which would include pins for locations and places of interest (taverns, shops, etc.) [utilizing published map of Almas].
4. Clicking a location pin could bring up information of that location, whether uniquely created or based on a published location.

Is this in any way allowed through the Community Use Policy? Would it make a difference if I made my own versions of these maps? Am I allowed to reference locations found in materials like "Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Andoran - Birthplace of Freedom," and build on them?

Thanks for helping.

[Belafon]

(Flagged for Movement: Even though it isn't very busy the Community Use Forum is where people with the best knowledge would be).

Short answers: Using Paizo maps depends on where it has been published. If it's in the Community Use Package (I know an overall map of the Inner Sea is in there) you can use it, or if it was published on the Paizo blog. But you can't pull out a map of, say, Andoran, from Inner Sea World Guide and use it. Unless that map was published in the blog as well.

CUP wrote:

You may use the contents of the Community Use Package as well as the cover images on Paizo products on the Community Use Approved Products List below.

...
You may use any of the text or artwork published in the Paizo Blog or Web Fiction, with the following exceptions: . . .

For your second question, you CAN make your own maps as long as they look different from the Paizo maps. They can have the same points of interest.

CUP wrote:

You may not use artwork, including maps, that have not been published in the blog, although you may create your own interpretations of material presented in our artwork and maps, provided that your interpretations don't look substantially similar to our materials.

"Substantially similar" is vague (deliberately so), but basically an outside observer should be able to look at your map and the original and immediately identify them as being in two different styles.

You are absolutely allowed to reference and build on locations

CUP wrote:

You may descriptively reference trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts, places, etc.), locations, dialogs, plots, storylines, language, and incidents from products listed in Section 1 of our Community Use Approved Product List below.

As always, be aware that the terms of the Community Use Policy require that whatever you create be absolutely, 100%, free to everyone.