NickMiddleton Posted September 27, 2008 Share Posted September 27, 2008 Sorry guys, I've been trying to follow the arguments here and the legalese is labyrinthine... I'm writing a BRP fantasy Monograph. I'd like to use the basic structure of some of the creatures from the MRQ Monsters book to build my own menagerie. Providing I alter them slightly this shouldn't be a problem (?) I'm also wondering if I can transcribe/rename some of the spells from the The Bronze Grimoire. Bottom line is to always ask the people affected. If it's a Monograph for Chaosium, ask about using information from the Bronze Grimoire - my guess is they'll ask you to make sre that no references to any names etc from the Elric saga or other Mike Moorcock fiction are included, but otherwise it will be fine. As for the creatures from the MRQ monsters book, provided again you avoid proper names and directs quotations of descriptive text, converting the stats and abilities across shouldn't be an issue. But to be safe, why not ask on this forum, and possibly via say the RuneQuest mailing list or Yahoo RQ3 Group if anyone has statted the creatures you need for RQIII already? YOu may well find they've already been done in an old Chaosium publication, or that someone has already ported them to RQIII (which is very close to BRP). One of the members of the RQ3 Yahoo group is dead keen on statting monsters / creatures and has already done stuff like manticores etc. Cheers, Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingTriskele Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 So I went ahead and asked Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing and here is his response-- (unfortunately I'm realizing as I write this that RQ Monsters is not OGC) If something is Open Content, yes, you can use it! Quote "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking." ~Albert Einstein~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soltakss Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 RQ Monsters is OGL, at least the version in the SRD is. However, the problem isn't with using OGL RQ, the problem is combining the OGL and Chaoisum's BRP licence. If I wrote anything for BRP and I wanted to use rules from RQM, then I would simply include the rules, the OGL, state explicity which part of the rules come under the OGL and let Chaosium sort the rest out. Quote Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. www.soltakss.com/index.html Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingTriskele Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 RQ Monsters is OGL, at least the version in the SRD is. Are you talking about the monsters in the core rule book or 'Monsters' the separate hardbound book? I have the SRD for both-- every page of the SRD for the core rule book (as far as I can tell) states 'This section is designated as Open Content', while I've found no such statement on any page of the 'RuneQuest Monsters' SRD. Even the front page of the actual text states 'This game product contains no Open Game Content'. A potential bummer. Same thing goes with the RQ Companion. I'd actually hoped to utilize some of the alternative magic systems in the Companion, but as far as I can tell Rune Magic is the only OGC. Worst case scenario-- I make up my own, which could be fun in its own right, though rather more time consuming. I'd hoped to finish this thing by December... Quote "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking." ~Albert Einstein~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soltakss Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Looking at the three SRDs on the Mongoose website, all are distributed with an OGL and none specify which is open content. That means that the whole document is Open Content and freely available. The whole point of an SRD is that it allows people to develop games based on the SRD freely as long as they include the OGL and specify which parts are Open Content and which parts are not. So, you can use anything from the RQ, RQ Companion and RQ Monsters SRDs by including the individual OGLs, or a combination of the three OGLs. The rulebooks themselves are a bit different as they may well not be Open Content. SRDs, however, by their very nature are. It is a shame that the core rules from some of the other supplements haven't been made Open Content. I'd have liked to see a lot of the rules from Pirates and some of the rules from the Gloranthan supplements made Open Content. Quote Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. www.soltakss.com/index.html Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vile Traveller Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 What you have to remember about SRDs is that they basically allow you to re-publish whatever text they contain, word-for-word. They are not intended to be stand-alone systems. You would be better thinking of them at a list of words and phrases which might otherwise be copyrighted. Mongoose are unusal in not stipulating exactly what is or isn't OGL in their SRDs, but that may be because their SRDs seem to be much less comprehensive that the WotC d20 ones, for example. Mongoose seems to simply leave out from the SRD those parts of their rules that they don't want to be OGL. Matt has promised that the additional rulebooks for Traveller will have their own SRDs. I suspect the reason many of Mongoose's supplements haven't been turned into SRDs is because no-one there has the time to do so. Although you may not be able to re-publish entire sections of rules from the actual game books, you can re-write these rules in your own words, providing you don't use copyrighted terms. I personally would object to doing so based on my respect for the publisher and original writers, but in an industry as small as this it's entirely possible that you could get their consent if you asked them first. I see the main purpose of SRDs as a marketing tool, which allows third-party publishers to reach a far wider audience than a first-time writer trying to establish his or her own RPG in the market. As such, there is a certain amount of leeway in how closely you want to follow the actual content of the SRD. Like a hollywood franchise, you might be true to the core system in no more than name, but to get repeat business from other users of that system you probably want to give them something closer to what they expect. I still think the best option is to bash out a formal license between publishers, like the Chaosium license which many of us have now seen, but that depends on the financial viability of your product, and your ability to provide sufficient follow-on product and support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingTriskele Posted October 7, 2008 Author Share Posted October 7, 2008 Thanks. I guess I was (am maybe still am) a little confused about what the SRD of a given system represents and what is the OGC within a given SRD. For example every chapter in the RQ core book's SRD states that it's OGC, while I found no such statement in the Companion or Monsters SRDs (maybe they just forgot?). Dustin from Chaosium just emailed me their license application, and I'll be looking into that. Bottom line is, this project and everything related to it is a major labor of love. I like the idea of going with the Monograph first to see how it's received, and then pursuing a license, not just for this mini-campaign but for the entire world setting. I'm honestly just excited to have the avenues to see this thing come to fruition. I'll contact Matthew at Mongoose again and clarify a few questions. I think I might like to incorporate a few versions of RQ magic systems. Here's a link to an unfinished image for the main campaign setting (which I've copyrighted, because I'm paranoid that way... http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd235/Innerwall/Majinine/Distantfigure03a.jpg Quote "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking." ~Albert Einstein~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickMiddleton Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 The problem is that "SRD" (or even "System Reference Document") is not IIRC defined anywhere in the Open Gaming License - so simply calling a document an SRD doesn't assert anything about its contents. Mongoose should really label ALL their SRD's the way they've labelled the MRQ core, to remove the ambiguity. Or, it may be deliberate, in an attempt to "guide" people towards using the MRQ System Trademark License... Cheers, Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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