Author Topic: Questions/concerns about posting setting information  (Read 4514 times)

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Offline pyrotech

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Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:59:19 PM »
Hey all,

I've worked on a campaign guide for my Bughunters 2155 game.  It takes the old TSR Bughunters setting and pushes it about 20 years in the future of the published work.  I have considered posting it here, but have a couple concerns that have stopped me so far.

1) My campaign guide contains some exerts of both the original out of print Bughunters book and the Tintamar setting for flavor and informational purposes.  These exerts are not my work, but conveniently fill in many questions players have about the setting.  Not including them seems to leave a big hole. 

2) My setting includes a splinter religion of a reformed religion of a currently practiced religion.  And while this splinter religion is to the current religion as Satanism is to Catholisism - I'm concerned it may offend some current members of that church.  And that church is known to be litigious.

I can modify my setting document to "generic" out both the Tintamar organizations and the naughty religion fanatics - but that is a lot of work that isn't necessary for my home game and would only be useful for posting purposes.   And that is time that could be spent on desperately needed editing of the document.

I was just wondering what the rules were, and how much work I would need to do to be able to reasonably post it here.
-Pyrotech

Offline markc

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2011, 06:51:43 PM »
1) As for the copyright question; since it is a TSR/WotC product you should ask them what fair use is on there product. Fair Use is generally what you can post on the web or distribute freely, IIRC. The same goes for the Tintamar info and I would contact Nicholas H.M. Caldwell as to if you info is Fair Use or not.


2) As per the religion I cannot help you there and you should contact them about your request. If you say it is only for a RPG they might be less litigious as it is for fun and fiction but then they may say no also.


 I hope that helps somewhat.
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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2011, 01:47:52 PM »
Hey all,

I've worked on a campaign guide for my Bughunters 2155 game.  It takes the old TSR Bughunters setting and pushes it about 20 years in the future of the published work.  I have considered posting it here, but have a couple concerns that have stopped me so far.

1) My campaign guide contains some exerts of both the original out of print Bughunters book and the Tintamar setting for flavor and informational purposes.  These exerts are not my work, but conveniently fill in many questions players have about the setting.  Not including them seems to leave a big hole.

It depends on how much information has been excerpted in both cases. The TSR/Wizards material would be best done by reference to the original material, i.e. organisation X is as in  Bughunters but with the following changes. Actually that would also be easiest for the Tintamar material.

Quote
2) My setting includes a splinter religion of a reformed religion of a currently practiced religion.  And while this splinter religion is to the current religion as Satanism is to Catholisism - I'm concerned it may offend some current members of that church.  And that church is known to be litigious.

Change the names, change enough other details, remove any reference to the actual practiced religion.

Quote
I can modify my setting document to "generic" out both the Tintamar organizations and the naughty religion fanatics - but that is a lot of work that isn't necessary for my home game and would only be useful for posting purposes.   And that is time that could be spent on desperately needed editing of the document.

I was just wondering what the rules were, and how much work I would need to do to be able to reasonably post it here.

How big is this document?

Best wishes,
Nicholas
Dr Nicholas HM Caldwell
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
Publisher of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Cyradon, HARP & HARP SF, and Cyberspace, with products available from www.drivethrurpg.com
Author: Mentalism Companion, GURPS Age of Napoleon, Construct Companion, College of Magics, HARP SF/HARP SF Xtreme

Offline providence13

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2011, 11:04:53 PM »
You could always start a blog. :)
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2011, 05:06:09 PM »
Well the document as it sits now is a 49 page pdf.  About 5 or 6 of those pages are either pictures or "wasted" space used to divide the document up a bit.  Around 30 or so pages of it are written by me, about two or three are Tintamar organizations or places, and about 8 pages are from the original Bughunters book.  I've got about two additional pages to add now detailing "Jump Flu" as hyperspace sickness is called and recent advancements to the settings FTL drives and communicators. 

I figured the safest thing to do would be to remove, alter, or rewrite the questionable content for the purposes of putting out in the real world.  But as I said that isn't really a value add for my tabletop game, and the document is still pretty rough needing spelling corrections, grammer corrections, readability corrections, layout corrections, and at least two technical details revised.  But I'm starting to feel like fixing it up again, and was wondering where it would make the most sense to spend my time.  Cleaning up the document for easier use in my gaming group, or sanitizing the document for larger distribution.

If I'm lucky and inspired I might just be able to do both before the real world decides to hijack my free time once again.

Thanks for the feedback guys!
-Pyrotech

Offline pyrotech

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2011, 12:25:54 PM »
Well, Ive been able to polish my document up some.  It is still what I would consider fairly rough, but much better than it was.  I've also been able to modify a copy of it to "sanitize" it for public dispersal.  What is the best way to do that?  Would it be best to post it here in the forum as a new topic, should it go to the vault, or would that be something I should submit to TGC to see if it would work for them?  Right now the sanitized version is 39 pages long.  Reformatting and adding a custom cover picture will probably change that length by a page or two either way.

Additionally what is the best way to put a document like this on the forum or in the vault?  I have found the information for TGC submissions, so I know how to do that.

I'm still polishing this document up a bit as I have time, so it will probably be a bit before it is "ready".  But as they say "don't let perfection get in the way of good" and "shoot the engineer and ship the product".

Thanks for your attention and help!
-Pyrotech

Offline intothatdarkness

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2011, 12:43:49 PM »
I've got a couple of things that would fit into this category. One is a Cold War-based espionage setting (an Austrian city) originally designed for a two-party Top Secret campaign, and the other is a full-blown world setting for a RM campaign (history, languages, modified professions to match cultures, and so on). Both are (obviously) pretty big, and I don't know if RM really needs another "world" floating around. But the espionage setting might be of interest to some folks.
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2011, 01:02:51 AM »
Well, the news that the HARP Sci-Fi Xtreme book is almost done has inspired me to try to push out my Bughunters 2155 setting that I've been working on.  It still isn't where I want it to be, but it is probably good enough to see if anyone has any comments on it.

I expect that when Sci-Fi Xtreme comes out I will update it further and include some ship and vehicle stats.  That will give me an excellent excuse to work on a version 2.0 of the document that I can integrate feedback from anyone interested into.

I've already seen countless formatting issues I would like to change, and I suspect it is in dire need of reorganization and probably a massive rewrite.  But as I said before it is time to shoot the engineer and ship the product.

I've submitted the sanitized pdf to the administrators to upload if they see fit.

Let me know if anyone has any comments.

Thanks,

Pyrotech
-Pyrotech

Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2011, 11:16:50 AM »
Unfortunately the file contained a bit more IP than ICE would prefer to host in the vault so the upload was rejected, but we have provided the author with alternatives as to how the file could be shared with the general public without any concerns about ICE's IP.  It is a very nice document with lots of information, and we wish him the best of luck with it.

Email -    Thom@ironcrown.com

Offline pyrotech

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2011, 12:12:19 PM »
No problem, I understand the concerns with this.  It was questionable enough that I started this thread in regards to it.

Thanks for your feedback and efforts.

I'm not sure it is really high enough quality for TGC, but maybe I'll let them tell me that rather than just assume it myself.  Then again, they may share the same IP concerns as well.  Anyway the worst they can tell me is no!

Thanks again,

Pyroteck
-Pyrotech

Offline markc

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2011, 05:28:19 PM »
  Anyway the worst they can tell me is no!

Thanks again,

Pyroteck


 This is my attitude as well. I would clean it up as best you can and then submit it. I would guess no matter what you do there will be some edits and/or changes. They might want you to strip out the rules and just print the fiction/world/universe info or they might want want you to just perform a few minor changes.
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Offline GrumpyOldFart

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2011, 08:57:23 PM »
Quote
I would clean it up as best you can and then submit it. I would guess no matter what you do there will be some edits and/or changes.

They're gonna want whatever they want, but it's always worthwhile to act as your own editor first, at least once. The "idiot check" principle, just cos you wrote it doesn't mean you actually know what it says until you go back and look.

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Offline Thom @ ICE

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2011, 09:01:22 PM »
It is an excellent and well-written document, just simply something that's based upon a setting whose IP is owned by another company and it would be bad form for ICE to store it on our site.  There are other options which can (and hopefully will) be pursued.
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Offline pyrotech

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2012, 11:10:01 AM »
Well I'm pretty happy.

Looks like the first part of this setting conversion/update went out on The Guild Companion this weekend.

Now I need to get busy and finish up the "GM's Guide" portion and submit it as well.

Pyrotech
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Offline markc

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2012, 11:58:23 AM »
Well I'm pretty happy.

Looks like the first part of this setting conversion/update went out on The Guild Companion this weekend.

Now I need to get busy and finish up the "GM's Guide" portion and submit it as well.

Pyrotech


 I saw that, Congrats.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline markc

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Re: Questions/concerns about posting setting information
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2012, 08:39:51 AM »
pyrotech;
 I liked the info of the article and look forward to seeing the next part.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.