Gerall’s Blog

Succinctly put, the Grognard’s First Lesson is: “Once I know the system, you cannot take it away from me.”

Maths, no matter how complex, are not subject to copyright. Ergo, gaming systems (which are, at their core, extended maths which ride random number generators) cannot be placed under a copyright. This has been the way of things for a long while.

This is also why Wizards of the Coast placed all their d20 rules into a handy System Reference Document (hereafter referred to as an ‘SRD’).  They knew people were going to use their rules to settle other worlds than theirs, and they did us the courtesy of providing the basic rules in a handy, easy to pirate download format.

Settings are another matter entirely!

Greyhawk, Middle Earth, the Forgotten Realms, Hyboria (where Conan hangs his scabbard), Melniboné (two dross clacks if you can tell me which fictional hero is from this place!). These are fictional worlds. Settings for games are subject to copyright. This is where Wizards of the Coast banked on grey area. They claim that you can download the SRD to your heart’s content, but you had to reference their three core rulebooks if you did. Conveniently, the character advancement mechanics were intrinsically tied to the “world” they were producing along with the game. You must own the books, or create your own mechanics for levelling if you didn’t.

This bit of legalese ended up selling millions of books. I say bully for them!

Mongoose publishing has created a variant of the RuneQuest rules to support modern Gloranthan gaming under the maths-can’t-be-copywrited banner. They’re legally entitled, and have an entire line of gaming books where they’ve filed the serial numbers off of an earlier work by Chaosium (the original RQ), published an SRD, and obtained license from the setting’s author to produce books for Glorantha again.

This is all legal, and not completely immoral if they did it when Chaosium couldn’t or didn’t want to do it themselves. Again, bully for them!

However, Mongoose has decided to push into that grey area. As a publisher, they have obtained license to produce material for Traveller. The setting is owned by its creator, Marc Miller of Far Future Enterprises. Mongoose’s Traveller material consists, at the time of writing, of a core rules book (with it’s own SRD), and a single setting book (The Spinward Marches) which root it to the canonical Traveller universe.

How are they pushing into grey? By claiming that all fan-produced material for the setting must be policed. No money may change hands… So, essentially, this means that there are Traveller fan-sites (some of whom have been on the Internet longer than Mongoose has been a company) being sent Cease and Desist letters if they have a PayPal donation button.

Draconian? I think so. Am I over-reacting? You tell me.

However, this leads us to the Grognard’s Second Lesson: “Once I have gamed there, the world is mine.”

Most table-top RPGs are played in a not-for-profit capacity. We do this as a hobby because we enjoy it. If you start pushing our fan-created works off of the Internet, odds are good you will find the property will flag or falter. Why try and smother people who are directing media attention toward your licensed property?

Given harsh enough conditions, people will take their books and go home. Worse yet, they might end up playing a game you don’t publish because they feel the need to guard themselves against your potentially litigious wrath.

Mongoose - I cast a disproving gaze your way. There’s got to be a better way of ensuring you get your due out of the licensing fees.

Tags: Gaming //