hix

Allegiance on a percentile scale between Humanity and The Beast. Rotschreck/holy fear is SAN.

The print version is up. If you bought the pdf, you get the book at cost.

Now you're arguing against the output, which is a different beast than arguing against the training. "You shouldn't take someone else's work and draw over it and expect to survive a copyright challenge" Artists have survived copyright challenges doing exactly this (pic related). It helps if you're a millionaire artist like Robert Prince and can afford good lawyers. I still don't think you could call my cover, or the images that comprise it, a derivative work, without an original to compare it to and claim derivation. So we're left with the training issue, Chaosium's original claim. Which is indexing, AI tools grew out of the same programming as google's search engine. We're now not talking about generation, we're talking about how the machine learned and whether that is fair use. I'll refer again to the EFF article, in particular this quote.

@Jeff Thank you for an honest and well considered reply. " The end user of the program has cut up the works of others, reassembled them, and is passing it off an unauthorised derivative work" This is exactly the misconception I am addressing. GAI do not do this. They do not combine previously existing work, they learn from it, and the amount learned from any potentially copyrighted work is clearly de minimis. But maybe that doesn't count since it's not a person. Let me get specific about my own workflow on the cover for Smoke and Aces, and I'll leave it to the audience to make up their own mind. While the amount of effort involved does not determine copyright status, this will illustrate the fact that my cover is a transformative work, and that ai tools can be used well. -Plan out each figure for gen, choose a style (comic book, strong outlines, white background) -gen each prompt dozens of times looking for something that has some motion and movement in it -edit each image in photoshop to remove ai slop, ensure consistent style, and make everything make visual sense. These are minor edits like removing an extra finger, a weird squiggle on a face, closing a line to change the color of an eye, and so on. -adjust the color of each image using photoshop to add bold color and visual appeal, add the branding and the text -use layout software to collage all these images, cropping and editing along the way

"... infringer has the burden of proving their use was a fair use ... " OK, this is a worthwhile distinction. Youtube is notorious for allowing copyright claimants to go wild. "see the images" That wouldn't prove anything. We'd need to see the workflow to judge, as well as examine the dataset and any presets it might have been using. It is entirely possible to use img2img processing to change the color of the cover of RQ:RiG. I could then put it out and completely violate copyright. I could also do this with Photoshop. This is a user issue, not a tech issue. To be fair, the ruling was about output, and Chaosium's argument is about the training. I won't argue that point, as EFF does a much better job in the first article i linked, and they are actually qualified to discuss it on that level.

@g33k You just Fumbled your Idea roll. I dropped articles from disinterested parties and legal decisions, you're going to have to do better than "trust me bro, it's self evident, check out this pic of the joker behind a paywall"

@g33k Fair use is not granted. It is up to a claimant to prove that something is not fair use. These attempts have all failed. This is not a wild west undecided issue. Adobe and Microsoft make generative tools, but I assume Chaosium's conviction is not so strong as to ban the use of these company's products. https://www.computerworld.com/article/3709691/artists-lose-first-copyright-battle-in-the-fight-against-ai-generated-images.html The decision https://copyrightlately.com/pdfviewer/andersen-v-stability-ai-order-on-motion-to-dismiss/?auto_viewer=true#page=&zoom=auto&pagemode=none Also, your NYT article is behind a paywall, got something that everyone can see?

@soltakss Fair use does not require the consent of the creator. The articles posted make an incredibly good case that ai learning is Fair Use, which is its current legal status.

The exclusion of such material is based on the idea that AI art "steals" or "uses" work from human illustrators. This is an untenable idea based on a common misconception, but don't take my word for it. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a group of people that specialize in the intersection of computer science, copyright law, and artistic material. Generative models do not trace. They do not compile images to average them. They do not "use" reference images, they literally learn from them and use that learning to create something new. This is the most exciting advance in artistic technology since the invention of digital composition, and creators in the BRP Design Challenge should be able to use it. Please reconsider your position, as it is based on faulty reasoning and incomplete understanding of the technology involved. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/how-we-think-about-copyright-and-ai-art-0 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/ai-art-generators-and-online-image-market https://www.eff.org/document/eff-two-pager-ai

Way to demonstrate good faith guys.

That FAQ could have been completed without calling those who use generative tools plagiarists. Especially without any proof. Photoshop has generative tools now.

Probably 2 or 3 sessions if you use all the content in book. If you're running it as a one shot, skip the Legwork phase and optional encounters and you should be able to knock it out in 3-4 hours. Depends on how much planning the group does, how much you want to roleplay the assassins, and whether your team decides to just kill everyone or use their Soft Spots to play them against each other.

Thanks a lot, have fun. BRP is so easy to write for now, it's great. I really only see a couple entries for it on dtrpg, but that category is so flooded with "system agnostic" supplements by people who don't know what Basic Roleplaying means that it's easy to miss stuff.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/475139/Smoke-and-Aces-BRP-Edition PDF is up on drivethru. Get ready for a good old shoot em up.

Thanks for this, never would have caught it. I'm sending you a free pdf of one of my other books for your proofreading duties, cheers.

The last print version's cover has a graphical glitch. I've uploaded a new cover on dt and waiting for printer approval, if you're unhappy with your version send me a DM, and I'll make it right.

When a club DJ witnesses a mob hit, he decides to testify. The mob puts a price on his head, and he turns to group of skilled mercenaries to extract him from a Vegas penthouse and get him out of town alive. FBI agents and assassins race to the Strip to claim the prize, can your team get there first? Set in the real world and the current day. Grab the vibe of the action comedies of the 1990s and 2000s and let loose a hail of bullets on competing crews, characterized by Soft Spots, Special Abilities, and Weaknesses.

@Nozbat Thanks for the kind words. I worked to make sure there would be plenty of usable content whether you use the Earth setting or not. Have fun, and don't miss the recommended media including counterculture films, death metal, pagan rock, and historical novels. The full-size preview is now working on dtrpg.

Loudun Burning, a new #ttrpg scenario is available on dtrpg. The nuns of Loudun abbey are possessed. https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/472423/Loudun-Burning?affiliate_id=1633875 Contains ORC licensed rules for exorcism, possession, and roleplaying demons. Powered by Basic Roleplaying. Inspired by historical events.

Yeah, it's already been fixed in the version sent to dtrpg. Thanks.

Coming out on drivethrurpg next week. A horror scenario where demons are not just monsters to kill. Use the rich history of the Loudon possessions and the materials in this book to scare the DEVIL out of your table. Contains ORC licensed rules for exorcism and demon possession.

Adventure segment? Does that mean this is only part of it, and I have to buy more? Don't confuse people, your objective here is to communicate what you are offering, not to impress or be original.

Scenario gets the message across fine. Adventure works too. No reason to reinvent the wheel.

Seems to me there's too much background noise on the character sheet, especially if printed out. A b&w version would be nice.

If you copy the image out of the BRP UGE pdf, you'll get a higher res than from the website. I seriously doubt anybody is going to get mad about the size/color, but it would be nice to have a vector and get an answer.