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Worlds and settings without rights


Trifletraxor

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Could also do a Gullivers Travel source book np or how about Baron Munchausen? Anyone know what your ride cannonball skill starts at?

And as for the West how about a fantasy wild west with the Likes of Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink and Pecos Bill are around.

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Fantasy.

King Arthur, Robin Hood, Roland.

Pretty much all of earth legnedary and mythical heroes and setting (Atlantis?) are fair game. But most works by 20th century authors is under copywrite.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Journey to the West

Are the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in the Public Domain now?

Captain Nemo and MArtian Invasions never go out of style.

Jules Verne's works are definitely public domain, as he died in 1905, and his last work looks to have been published in 1910. It looks like the majority of H.G. Wells works are public domain, though a lot aren't. Still it looks like the best known H.G. Wells works are all public domain.

Captain Nemo and the Martian Invasion are both in "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 2", so who knows issues there could be with including both in the same book.

Where things get really tricky are with settings such as those based on "Edgar Rice Burroughs" works. While many of his works are in the public domain, you can bet you'll have ERB's family lawyers and the Di$ney lawyers on you so fast it will make your head spin if you do something based on them. I believe this is do to Trademarks rather than copywrites.

One interesting approach to the issue of Campaign Settings / Worlds with copywrites and Trademarks, is this. Pick a genre, find a group of like minded people, and hash something out, and put it under a "Creative Commons" type license. Of course then you just might have someone like Di$ney come along and be able to freely make a movie that makes them tons of money without having to pay any royalties.

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Many people over the years have wanted to do ERB's Barsoom roleplaying. ERB Inc. are not interested nowadays unless their cut runs into 6 figures. Even though Burroughs books are all in the public domain now, ERB Inc. hold trademarks on the names of the significant characters i.e. Tarzan®, John Carter of Mars®, etc. For an example of what you can get away with see MARS from Adamant Entertainment.

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The Wind in the Willows -- anthropomorphic animals co-exist (not always comfortably) alongside humans and normal animals in Edwardian England. Beware the hostile denizens of the Wild Wood, which has grown over a ruined Roman city. And the Great God Pan is still active. So you have early 20th Century technology and fantasy.

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I've been re-reading some old (late 1800s) fantasy lately... the stuff by George MacDonald... Lilith & Phantastes... has my brain going... cobbling together a relatively adult fairy-world out of those, and MacDonald's other, stories.

But then, I've been wanting to do a fairy-tale/folklore game for a long while now...

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I've been re-reading some old (late 1800s) fantasy lately... the stuff by George MacDonald... Lilith & Phantastes... has my brain going... cobbling together a relatively adult fairy-world out of those, and MacDonald's other, stories.

But then, I've been wanting to do a fairy-tale/folklore game for a long while now...

Tell us some more about it, I'm guessing it's some sort of fantasy earth, but what flavour is the setting? (silly question, I know...)

SGL.

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

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Journey to the West

Are the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in the Public Domain now?

Captain Nemo and MArtian Invasions never go out of style.

One way to find out is to peruse the Project Gutenberg list.

It scans and makes e-books in vanilla text of works in the public domain. if it is in Gutenberg it is copyright free in the US.

it looks like much of Edgar Rice Burrough's stuff is there.

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Joseph Paul

"Nothing partys like a rental" explains the enduring popularity of prostitution.:eek:

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