Hello, I am lawyer with a PSA: almost everyone is wrong about the OGL and SRD. Clearing up confusion.

[Garthanos]

If they build it as a toolkit that happens to be able to replicate 5E that might work. But just renaming things probably won’t.

Ideas are not copyrightable nor are methods...
If you say things a different way that is not a copyright infringement .

What Does Copyright Protect? (FAQ) | U.S. Copyright Office

Answers to frequently asked questions about what is protected by copyright.

www.copyright.gov

How do I copyright a name, title, slogan, or logo?
Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks. Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov or see Circular 33, for further information. However, copyright protection may be available for logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship. In some circumstances, an artistic logo may also be protected as a trademark.

How do I protect my idea?
Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, systems, or methods of doing something. You may express your ideas in writing or drawings and claim copyright in your description, but be aware that copyright will not protect the idea itself as revealed in your written or artistic work.

 

[mamba]

Ideas are not copyrightable nor are methods...
If you say things a different way that is not a copyright infringement .

What Does Copyright Protect? (FAQ) | U.S. Copyright Office

Answers to frequently asked questions about what is protected by copyright.

www.copyright.gov

yes, but the border between mechanic and story element is rather fluid. The stronger your mechanics actually drive the game, the less likely someone can copy them. In D&D that is not particularly strong, but Torchbearer might already be a few steps over that border.

D&D can probably also make a pretty good case when you essentially just copy it instead of just having a few things in common. There is a reason why Kobold Press removed the statement about being 5e compatible from their RPG announcement....

 

[Garthanos]

yes, but the border between mechanic and story element is rather fluid.

That is not the distinction in question you cannot copyright a method or idea just a particular expression of it. Express a mechanic (or a story for that matter) differently and it is no longer subject to copyright full stop.

I was reacting to this.

"If they build it as a toolkit that happens to be able to replicate 5E that might work. But just renaming things probably won’t."

D&D can probably also make a pretty good case when you essentially just copy it instead of just having a few things in common.

But yes if you copy it you are definitionally infringing copyright.

 

[overgeeked]

That is not the distinction in question you cannot copyright a method or idea just a particular expression of it. Express it differently and it is no longer subject to copyright full stop.

Like recipes. You cannot copyright a list of ingredients but you can copyright the description of the steps used to make the recipe. Copy the list of ingredients and write your own version of the steps and you’re fine.

 

[mamba]

That is not the distinction in question you cannot copyright a method or idea just a particular expression of it.

agreed, but the idea is a fraction of a mechanic. 'Roll a d20 to resolve combat' is an idea. Once you do it the same way as D&D, with advantage / disadvantage, you might already be past the idea part of this. Once you add even more of the D&D rules to it you get closer and closer to that threshold, if you are not over it already.

So I am not sure how that framework is supposed to work in replicating 5e. Do you still have (the same) 6 attributes, what are their ranges and uses, do you have the same spells (same range, same level, same damage, ...) ?

 

[Garthanos]

Like recipes. You cannot copyright a list of ingredients but you can copyright the description of the steps used to make the recipe. Copy the list of ingredients and write your own version of the steps and you’re fine.

Indeed and those steps can produce the exact same results and sometimes even a simple phrase can remain the same without infringing copyright .

 

[overgeeked]

Indeed and those steps can produce the exact same results and sometimes even a simple phrase can remain the same without infringing copyright .

So applying that to RPGs, including the math, the actual formulae on how to replicate the charts would open things up to use and replication. Presenting the mechanical pieces as distinct, fluffless units of mechanics would make them more portable and less likely to infringe.

 

[robconley]

The EFF has weighed in.

Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators

The company that owns Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is planning to revoke the open license that has, since the year 2000, applied to a wide range of unofficial, commercial products that build on the mechanics of the game.

www.eff.org

 

[kjdavies]

The EFF has weighed in.

Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators

The company that owns Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is planning to revoke the open license that has, since the year 2000, applied to a wide range of unofficial, commercial products that build on the mechanics of the game.

www.eff.org

Beat me to it. An interesting take on things.

 

[Siltoneous]

The EFF has weighed in.

Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators

The company that owns Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is planning to revoke the open license that has, since the year 2000, applied to a wide range of unofficial, commercial products that build on the mechanics of the game.

www.eff.org

Thank you. Wow... they laid it on the line didn't they?

The OGL does not say that it is irrevocable, unfortunately. It’s possible that Wizards of the Coast made other promises or statements that will let the beneficiaries of the license argue that they can’t revoke it, but on its face it seems that they can.

Nice big shot across the bow of those in the "Promissory Estoppel" boat. But then again (and IIRC), the esteemed minds here have consistently said it'll take a lawsuit to figure it all out.