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d100rules is coming...


Trifletraxor

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The trollkin isn't dying! He just needs to get his club back!

Just so long as the gross green frog-thing has the upper hand, that's all that matters. :)

So what are the top three improvements d(100)Rules has over RQ2?

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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The illustrations will be copyrighted, but the textual content will be released to the public domain.

I just thought of something: if you literally release the text as public domain, then by definition, the OGL doesn't apply. PD means anybody can use it for anything, without even attributing it to you.

Just something to think about. :)

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I wonder if this would break anything. The bases from which the text is extrapolated (RQ3) are not open contect. It is not possible to patent rulesets, and the text is different so copyright does not apply. But I would not call it "fair use".

Wasn't there any other option for it? Like making it OGL by claiming it is an adaptation of MRQ?

Proud member of the Evil CompetitionTM

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Just so long as the gross green frog-thing has the upper hand, that's all that matters. :)

So what are the top three improvements d(100)Rules has over RQ2?

The main improvements is that the rules are simpler and easier to memorize and that combat works in a faster way. :cool:

I just thought of something: if you literally release the text as public domain, then by definition, the OGL doesn't apply. PD means anybody can use it for anything, without even attributing it to you.

And that's fine by me. ;)

I wonder if this would break anything. The bases from which the text is extrapolated (RQ3) are not open contect. It is not possible to patent rulesets, and the text is different so copyright does not apply. But I would not call it "fair use".

It's written from scratch, not just adapted from RQ3. It has a lot changes from RQ3, CoC, MRQ and BRP. It's more the "feel" of the system that's similar, than the actual rules. So it's not RQ3 light even if RQ3 was one of its ancestors. Many of the rules comes from discussions of houserules on this forum actually, that I've picked up and started using.

Wasn't there any other option for it? Like making it OGL by claiming it is an adaptation of MRQ?

That would be possible, but I prefer the PD over the OGL.

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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The main improvements is that the rules are simpler and easier to memorize and that combat works in a faster way. :cool:

Why so coy? (I'm all set to buy-in-bulk and hand them out my mates, but I'm not going to do that without knowing...)

Improvement One: It's in print. (But I was really hoping for more than just that).

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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Why so coy? (I'm all set to buy-in-bulk and hand them out my mates, but I'm not going to do that without knowing...)

Improvement One: It's in print. (But I was really hoping for more than just that).

Well, that's just it. It's not in print yet, and will probably not be ready for external playtesting before the start of 2010. But then you can join the d100rules playtest subforum and see for yourself! :thumb:

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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I wonder if this would break anything. The bases from which the text is extrapolated (RQ3) are not open contect. It is not possible to patent rulesets, and the text is different so copyright does not apply. But I would not call it "fair use".

Wasn't there any other option for it? Like making it OGL by claiming it is an adaptation of MRQ?

"Fair Use" is a defense against what otherwise would be copyright violation. As this text doesn't quote or copy RQ, it doesn't apply at all. And as you note,you can't patent or copyright game rules, only their specific artistic expression. Thus, no legal justification is needed at all. In fact, claiming one could itself put you on dangerous legal ground.

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"Fair Use" is a defense against what otherwise would be copyright violation. As this text doesn't quote or copy RQ, it doesn't apply at all. And as you note,you can't patent or copyright game rules, only their specific artistic expression. Thus, no legal justification is needed at all. In fact, claiming one could itself put you on dangerous legal ground.

Actually, you can patent game rules. They're considered an invention. Check out US patent number 6,017,034 which is a patent relating to collectible card games. Fortunately, most rpg publishers have not pursued patents for their games, meaning all you have to deal with is copyright (and you can't copyright game rules, just their artistic expression). Apparently, there's so much in-breeding of ideas in RPGs that it would be fairly hard to patent most conventional RPG "technology" now.

And I am not a lawyer, so take all that accordingly.

Edited by 400_years
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How about the Creative Commons license, or a BSD style license?

Or GPL, but you won't be able to compile in or link to non-GPL code. :D

I like the creative commons license, since it lets users know up front what exactly where they stand.

I like the Creative Commons licenses too, they're really a great addition to the other licenses. But I think PD will work well for me, at least for the text only version. :)

"Fair Use" is a defense against what otherwise would be copyright violation. As this text doesn't quote or copy RQ, it doesn't apply at all. And as you note,you can't patent or copyright game rules, only their specific artistic expression.

And most of the rules are not identical to any found in RQ3, BRP or MRQ. Probably many of them that the old-school BRP gamers won't like at all. We'll see. :rolleyes:

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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Actually, you can patent game rules. They're considered an invention. Check out US patent number 6,017,034 which is a patent relating to collectible card games. Fortunately, most rpg publishers have not pursued patents for their games, meaning all you have to deal with is copyright (and you can't copyright game rules, just their artistic expression). Apparently, there's so much in-breeding of ideas in RPGs that it would be fairly hard to patent most conventional RPG "technology" now.

And I am not a lawyer, so take all that accordingly.

Interesting. But as you say, few patents have been obtained for games. You're definitely covered on the copyright part:

Games

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Over here we had that kind of court case not so long ago, with one role-

playing games company accusing another one of plagiarism of parts of

their game's background setting and rules mechanics.

The court refused to handle the case because it considered most of both

games to be "common content" of roleplaying games in general that did not

have the "creative depth" necessary to become protected under our laws.

As far as I know, the company that started the case then tried to convin-

ce the court to deal with the case, but failed to prove that their game was

something truly unique, and the story somehow ended out of court - both

of the games in question are still available.

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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And most of the rules are not identical to any found in RQ3, BRP or MRQ. Probably many of them that the old-school BRP gamers won't like at all. We'll see. :rolleyes:

C'mon then - let's see! Which ones?

Britain has been infiltrated by soviet agents to the highest levels. They control the BBC, the main political party leaderships, NHS & local council executives, much of the police, most newspapers and the utility companies. Of course the EU is theirs, through-and-through. And they are among us - a pervasive evil, like Stasi.

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Actually, you can patent game rules. They're considered an invention. Check out US patent number 6,017,034 which is a patent relating to collectible card games. Fortunately, most rpg publishers have not pursued patents for their games, meaning all you have to deal with is copyright (and you can't copyright game rules, just their artistic expression). Apparently, there's so much in-breeding of ideas in RPGs that it would be fairly hard to patent most conventional RPG "technology" now.

And I am not a lawyer, so take all that accordingly.

The only place (AFAIK) that one can patent the rules of games is the U.S. In Europe patent legislation explicitly disallows patents on algorithms, rules for games and business methods, etc.

Peter Brink

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I don't know about the law in the EU (and I don't really know about the law in the US, not being a lawyer), but at one point you could also apparently get a patent on a game in England. Here's the patent for Cluedo. Whether that's still possible or how common that was in other European countries is not something I can say.

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I don't know about the law in the EU (and I don't really know about the law in the US, not being a lawyer), but at one point you could also apparently get a patent on a game in England. Here's the patent for Cluedo. Whether that's still possible or how common that was in other European countries is not something I can say.

Yes, before the 1977 patent act you could. But now you don't. Off Topic of course, but for the interested: since 1973 it is possible to register a EC wide patent and the European Patents Convention from 1973 includes a ban on patents of:

Art. 52.

... © schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers; ...

[see: European Patent Organisation (EPO): Patents, Convention, 05/10/1973 (10/12/1998) for a HTML version of the entire text.]

Which is why you, today, wouldn't have any success trying to patent the rules of a game in Europe.

Btw, I do realize this is particular discussion might seem a bit boring and nit-picking (besides being off-topic). But, unfortunately, there's quite a bit of misunderstandings and myths regarding the IPR 's of games circulating on the net, and I just wanted to debunk one of them. Sorry if I came across as over-bearing.

Peter Brink

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C'mon then - let's see! Which ones?

Well, f.ex. SIZ is gone, which I know is a stat that many people like.

Instead there will be height and weight tables, where the roll will be modified by STR and race. HP = 1/2 STR + 1/2 CON.

It's a way to avoid the freakish SIZ 5 dwarf at 35 kg, but with a STR of 20. :cool:

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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