Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

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RangerBoo said:
Oh god, I hope people do to Wizard's what jaded gamers did to Warcraft 3: ReFucked. If if don't know after Blizzard told fans that anything fans make is property that belongs to Blizzard and that they will be able to freely use fan content without any permission from the mod authors, modders began to make anti-Semitic and racist mods for ReFucked and told Blizzard that the racist and anti-Semitic content belongs to Blizzard as per their OGL.
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Modern problems, you know the rest....
 
Why anyone would bother creating original content that can be expropriated/blackholed on a whim thanks to twelve psychos on twitter reeeeeeing is D&Dbeyond me. They had such a good thing going and this might be a lesson in destroying a brand overnight if I didn't think the average person doesn't know shit/care about any of this and will gobble up the slop from their favourite paid off influencers to line up and purchase the New Thing™.

But something I'm still not clear about and maybe you autists can help a fellow retard out here: what's stopping people from just (continuing) making shit and calling it for "use with your favourite compatible generic fantasy tabletop game" without worrying about any of these licenses? Or is this the angle I'm fucking up with regard to online retailers and them not playing ball with anyone who doesn't have the mark of the beast on them as well?

Also, if 5e.tools bites the dust I'll be pissed but luckily I've got everything backed up anyway. I have no clue how those guys have managed to keep existing considering they have everything.
 
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Brain Problems said:
But something I'm still not clear about and maybe you autists can help a fellow retard out here: what's stopping people from just (continuing) making shit and calling it for "use with your favourite compatible generic fantasy tabletop game" without worrying about any of these licenses? Or is this the angle I'm fucking up with regard to online retailers and them not playing ball with anyone who doesn't have the mark of the beast on them as well?
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The question is how much OGL you used, and how safe you want to be.

The OGL was released with no exit provisions for wizards, or any real way for them to void the agreement as long as you stuck to only SRD content, and it was open to anyone so there is no way to "serve" term change notices. In a very real sense, you could keep publishing SRD 1 through 5.0 content and tell wizards to suck your dick and be in the legal right.
HOWEVER you'd have to be up all night, every night, wondering if today was the day you were getting taken to court. Every time you talk to someone about OGL, it could be Wizards trying to bait you into a compromising statement. You would have to rigorously watch everything you said. If taken to court, all things being equal you'd win, and if you get the right sort of judge they might even dismiss the case outright, but lawsuits are a headache and Wizards Legal (being they will lose in court) has a vested interest in making the process as long and painful as they can to get you to settle & make you an example of why others should just cave now. You can get legal fees refunded, and try to counter sue for damages, but you are never getting the hours they took from you back.

So its not just being in the right, its being so far in the right that the judge will throw the lawsuit out before its even filed, where any lawyer that tried to carry it forward would risk disbarment for gross legal malpractice.
Most people, especially since they do this as little more than a hobby, would value safety; the work to excise the SRD is easier to do than deal with e-discovery and whatever other documents wizards legal wants. They'd rather be safe.

The other question is how much of the SRD you used.
If you copied entire sections of a SRD whole cloth, you are in a legally precarious place. That is, while the OGL provisions likely hold up in court, any reasonable judge is going to let Wizards try to make their case, they have at least a chance. Spells and Monsters are the usual culprits here. Even if they are fairly generic things that you are copy & Pasting, if you just C&P that is their work product you're fucking with.

If you just paraphrased portions of the SRD, or even reworded them, you're probably OK as long as you didn't use any words that Wizards would have a claim on. Even if its something fairly D&D specific - like if you define Armor Class - you are fine as long as its not claimed IP and is using different words, even if those words ostensibly say the same thing.


Example: OSE has reformatted, reworded, and edited the SRD 1e, and has always referred to its origins as "compatible with content made for the original edition of the worlds most popular roleplaying game". If wizards tried to step to them, they'd be thrown out of court so hard it'd hurt any other cases they have pending.

Contrast with Basic Fantasy, which copied rules, items, spells, and monsters right from the 3.5 SRD with minimal alterations and sometimes none at all. If they went to court the OGL should hold, but they'd have to take the trial all the way through.
Because of this, the BF creator is going so far as for their OGL-free edition, to consider renaming the 6 stats just so Wizards has zero hold on them.

And then compare with Pathfinder 1e, which uses huge amounts of the spirit of the 3.5 SRD but made enough changes and alterations that between those and the zero-exit conditions of the OGL they wouldn't see court.
I'm not sure how that would affect the Paizo's 5e-compatible content.

anti SJW said:
So WOTC said they will make a recorded video statement om the new OGL today at 3PM EST. Looks like someone leaked the summary.

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I'd take with a grain of salt, but that makes sense. I guess we'll see in a couple minutes how accurate that was.
 
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I wouldn't sign this shit because refusing to sign it gives you more rights under fair use than "you're only allowed to be woke" license.

Fuck trannies, fuck jannies, and fuck Niggers of the Coast.
 
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Mr.Miyagi said:
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Thanks! That's a long-ass thread, I don't know the game properly, and I didn't have the time to read the full thing. It is a classic case. You can see where he reaches out a little because he doesn't want to be mean, and they are already pushing for the next five things. If he doesn't put a stop to it, they will be making him add fat black queer women with nose rings to the cover art in a week. If he kicks them to the curb, he will be another old white male transphobe who needs to be removed from the hobby. The wisest action for him would probably be to make vague positive statements, then do jack shit until they lose interest and wander off.
 
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anti SJW said:
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So they canceled the statement they were going to make. Not a good look.
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My take: Shit is even worse than they thought.
They were going to try a Baghdad Bob style "We'll effectively own everything you make: here's why that's a good thing and you're over reacting (reason #3 will make you smile)" reassurance statement to buy time to let paid shills lay the ground work to ram this through.
They are now appreciating just how badly what they are attempting is pissing everyone off, and that Wizards needs fans a lot more than Fans need Wizards.
 
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Yes. I use Dungeon Alchemist, which is available on Steam. You can just pick what sort of room you want it to make and select a grid and it'll create the room and furnish it, and you can then export the result for virtual tabletop use with walls and lighting pre-set. It's a little derpy sometimes in how it chooses to furnish a room, so you may need to do some manual tweaking here and there, but overall I'm really happy with it for cranking out decent-looking maps with low effort.
 
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The Ugly One said:
Coming from Mearls & team talking about the mistakes they made playtesting 4e & 3rd edition, and how they changed it for 5e and were more thorough.
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Mike Mearls & team were full of shit. The playtesting for 5E was fucking terrible, arguably worse than 3E's playtesting. The 5E playtesting at the end got to "wash my balls, peasant" levels of ignoring reports.

Worse, they didn't want any data for above 9th level. Reports of problems were largely ignored, and eventually they ran with it even after playtesting showed massive problems.

The only worse playtest was the d20 Future final testing where it was pointed out there was some misspellings and pictures mislabeled and they went to print with it anyway.
 
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Cpt. Stud Beefpile said:
I hope this drives Wizards straight into Chapter 7.

On another topic:

Can someone recommend a good digital DnD map creator? My hand-drawing skills have always been ass.
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We can hope, but it won't. Wizards is owned by Hasbro, Wizards isn't even in Hasbro's top 10 divisions. The best outcome is corporate orders a house cleaning.


For mapping:
Over land or battle maps?

for battlemaps, even in person I've move to just running digital maps. I use MapTool as my VTTand create my maps in-program with a collection of textures and assets. Its a little limited in what you can pull off, but it does everything you need it to do.

For overland, I haven't really found anything ideal. I've used OtherWorld and Wonderdraft.
OtherWorld is more adjustable (and is in beta) but the results lack polish, Wonderdraft has the filters, effects, and assets that make the end result look a little better but I had to fight with the interface a lot more.
I've also got a license for ProFantasy's suite of stuff, but haven't tried it yet.
 
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robobobo said:
Yes. I use Dungeon Alchemist, which is available on Steam. You can just pick what sort of room you want it to make and select a grid and it'll create the room and furnish it, and you can then export the result for virtual tabletop use with walls and lighting pre-set. It's a little derpy sometimes in how it chooses to furnish a room, so you may need to do some manual tweaking here and there, but overall I'm really happy with it for cranking out decent-looking maps with low effort.
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I've seen them; Do they have a "hand drawn" option for the graphics? I'm not usually big on 3-D renders, though I appreciate they aren't doing the plasticy Poser ones you'd see on Dunjinni forums.
 
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Cpt. Stud Beefpile said:
Can someone recommend a good digital DnD map creator? My hand-drawing skills have always been ass.
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I'll be honest.

I use the roll20 map creator because I'm lazy.

I have owned the Profantasy stuff since you had to get a money order in Bongland Pounds and mail it off and get floppies back (Currently have 3.0 sets) but I've never been any good with them.

I own Fantasy Grounds but I don't know how to use the map creator (or even if there is one).

If you're lazy like me, a ten spot or so and you can pick up a nice map pack and do some good work.

Roll20 has issues with them being a little pozzed, but I've never run into too much problems because I run older systems and the danger hairs flock to the newest and best.

I've even been able to run Rifts making ruins and shit, even using elevation markers and the like to run wide scale combats between robot power armors.

But if you're looking for one to use in a different tabletop, I have no clue.
 
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