Want to produce official FG products, adventures, rulesets?

[ddavison]

One thing I aspire to is to build up the number of readily available rulesets, adventures and accessories. I expect most of these will come from the community, like they do today. There are problems with the current model though. Developers/users desperately want to share their hard work with the community but they are hampered by the unknown of whether or not their work infringes upon anyone else' Intellectual Property. I would like to assist in the process by working directly with the publishers to gain approval for anything which uses their IP or which might infringe upon their IP. If something is cool but uses any of their actual IP, then the publisher needs to have final approval and then receive royalties. If it doesn't require royalties, then we will have received verification from the publisher to that effect. (at least that is the idea)

For anything requiring royalties, the content author can provide it for sale through the FG store where the # of sales can be tracked and the publisher can be guaranteed that they will be paid accurately and on time.

The commission model works out basically like this:

Conversion of full an adventure from a PDF to a fully playable FG module
1. Publisher approves translation
2. Royalty gets paid to Publisher
3. A percentage of sale goes to the developer for the first 12 months it is for sale. We may extend over time if the module undergoes maintenance changes that we request or to keep it current with new functionality.
4. % remaining goes to FG

When I used FG, I often times made FG modules from official adventure modules I bought. This requires a good amount of time to do and at the end of the process you aren't legally able to distribute that content.

People are free to continue distributing rulesets, adventures and accessories that don't infringe upon any publisher's IPs through the forums, wiki or whatever means they want. Some of the stuff out there is kind of border-line though and the people distributing it are assuming any risk with that transaction. I am not here to tell people what they can and can not do. I just want to provide a means where people can know for sure that "yes they can" do something.


** I will list all Publishers who are open to this idea in a future thread. If you have a ruleset for a non-licensed publisher but you would like to share it, I can contact the publisher on your behalf to help secure the same basic arrangement.

[ddavison]

List of Publishers

These publishers have agreed to allow officially licensed materials according to the guidelines posted above. For the most part, any of the publishers we have in our store would be interested in providing additional products available for sale. Inquire to James Holloway ([email protected]) if you would like to become a developer for a new ruleset or products. Please provide information on your experience level with developing content.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Savage Worlds content
Full catalog


Chaosium, Inc.

Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Full Catalog



Metamorphosis Alpha

Ruleset and Core Rulebook Library


Triple Ace Games
www.tripleacegames.com (https://www.tripleacegames.com)

Savage Worlds Content
Full Catalog


Mongoose Publishing (Contracting for individual product lines as they arive)
www.mongoosepublishing.com (https://www.mongoosepublishing.com)

RuneQuest Ruleset (in progress by Colin Richardson)[/COLOR]
Battlefield Evolution
Full catalog


Mindstorm Labs
www.mindstormlabs.com/ (https://www.mindstormlabs.com/)

Alpha Omega: Ruleset and adventures


Alderac Entertainment Group - AEG
https://www.alderac.com (https://www.alderac.com/)

Legend of the Five Rings (upcoming 4th edition)
7th Sea (inquire for details)
The World's Largest Dungeon


Green Ronin

Mutants & Masterminds supplements
True20 ruleset and supplements
Blue Rose
Freeport (Mgrancey working on it - 9/8/2014)
3rd Era
Maps and Map Books not branded as DC or Song of Ice and Fire


Palladium

Rifts
After the Bomb
Aliens Unlimited
Beyond the Supernatural
Dead Reign
Heroes Unlimited
Heroes of the Megaverse
The Mechanoids
Nightbane
Ninjas & Superspies
Palladium Fantasy RPG
Phase World and the Three Galaxies
Powers Unlimited
Splicers
Villains Unlimited


See this thread for additional details on updating existing rulesets:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13678
(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13678)

[nezzir]

I sent an official request to FFG to make a new Warhammer ruleset, however, it is such a large entity and there are so many different companies and properties involved I'm not holding out much hope.

Don't get me wrong, I understand. That's a mighty big request coming from someone they've never heard of :)

If I can get permission, I'd like to recruit a pro team and put together and top shelf ruleset based on the new WFRP.

[ddavison]

I made my first attempt yesterday with FFG. I will keep trying and let you know when I make progress.

If the number of PMs I've received so far are any indication, there are a lot of very nice rulesets sitting out there that haven't been able to be distributed due to lack of permissions from license holders.

[Veldehar]

Any idea what Iron Crown's attitude toward commercial original content modules geared to Rolemaster on FG2 would be? Now that would be fun, I could get into that. Assuming I ever had the time! LOL. I've no idea what sort of rights territory I would be stepping into by designing FG2 modules for their system.

[trevorgall]

I also attempted to contact the writer of a free module published on WOTC that i had converted. The writer got back to me to say it was now owned by wotc. I contacted them,, got a response to say it was being looked at... that was over 2 mnth ago now .. :(

[EugeneZ]

I have a number of Scales of War modules made using Tenian's parser that I would love to publish. I would love to see you reach out to WotC, Doug.

On one hand, they may decline because FG2 is in direct competition with their gametable.

On the other hand, they removed all mention of the game table from their site, so... yeah.

[Valarian]

I've tried with Eden Studios for a Unisystem ruleset with no success as yet. I have had some success with other publishers for community offerings, I'm not sure whether they'd be interested in taking those further (PM sent). There are a couple of publishers I still need to contact as I've only recently done/started a character sheet ruleset for those games.

[Thore_Ironrock]

Not as easy as it looks, is it guys? :-)

If anyone is interested in my attempts to contact publishers, or who might be the best person to speak with at a company (or if I know anyone), just drop me a private message or email.

:)

KWM

[ddavison]

I was asked by Sigurd if I would mind sharing rough estimates on the expected sales metrics for each product. I believe in transparency as much as possible as my preferred method of business, so here is a little something on that topic that I thought the community would like to know.

I am still playing around with gathering statistics for each game system myself. There have been roughly 10K customers to date for FG products and many of them have purchased several licenses and products. The number is growing more and more each month (on average), but we have a long way to go. As an example, Paizo had 50K people download and beta test their new Pathfinder rules. They haven't released how many people actually purchased the rules once they were complete but I did see several references to them selling out of product. Someone recently told me what the ENWorld subscriber base was and I think it was more than 35K. WOTC in their last article about suits against people who illegally distributed their material estimated about 6 million active gamers worldwide who play D&D 4E. Other game systems are a little harder to target but there are some sizable niche markets out there.

For FG, a good module to date sells anywhere from fifty to several hundred copies. Most sales occur within a month or two of release but the good products typically continue to have trickle sales as more people continue to "find" Fantasy Grounds and discover the related products. I plan to start doing email blasts and RSS feeds for specific rulesets to let people know as soon as there is a new adventure module available for a ruleset they already own. I also plan to start marketing campaigns for each major game system that is out there. We have a long way to go to increase market penetration.

My hope is to secure as many licensed product lines as possible so that people don't have to spend a year or so trying to get permission from publishers to distribute product -- or worse, never receive permission to share content or provide it for sale to the community. I believe people will ultimately build systems to support whatever game system they personally want to play -- no matter how large the target audience might eventually be. For some systems, it might prove to be financially viable and for others it will be more for personal satisfaction and for the love of the game.

[Sigurd]

Thanks so much for the info. That is about a million times more communication than I ever expected from the old company.

Its a pleasure to see you at the head :)


S

[sondermann]

I'd love to convert some Deadlands Reloaded products to Fantasy Grounds. I could have Coffin Rock finished in a couple of days (I'm working on converting Deadlands Classic material to FGII at the moment).

edit: If you are interested in a sample of my work, I have already converted 'The Eye of Kilquato' (a free SW adventure).

[ddavison]

Any idea what Iron Crown's attitude toward commercial original content modules geared to Rolemaster on FG2 would be? Now that would be fun, I could get into that. Assuming I ever had the time! LOL. I've no idea what sort of rights territory I would be stepping into by designing FG2 modules for their system.

I will try to find an answer to this for you and post it back here. I'm trying to pitch that basic concept to each of the licensed publishers.

[ddavison]

I'd love to convert some Deadlands Reloaded products to Fantasy Grounds. I could have Coffin Rock finished in a couple of days (I'm working on converting Deadlands Classic material to FGII at the moment).

edit: If you are interested in a sample of my work, I have already converted 'The Eye of Kilquato' (a free SW adventure).

The Deadlands Reloaded ruleset (or maybe extension) is one of those on my personal short list. I haven't played Deadlands since it got moved over the Savage Worlds, so I've been reading through both rulebooks/settings prior to starting that endeavor. Getting a flood of good adventure modules for it afterward would be very welcome.

[osarusan]

It'd be a dream come true to have a Pathfinder ruleset and one for Warhammer Fantasy Battles... I don't know how likely that is though.

[ddavison]

It'd be a dream come true to have a Pathfinder ruleset and one for Warhammer Fantasy Battles... I don't know how likely that is though.

I agree. I have developed the ruleset for Pathfinder (without the library modules 100% complete yet) and they are currently reviewing it. My discussions with them so far are promising. Feel free to post on their forums about how much you'd like to see that and maybe it will help seal the deal. ;)

[ddavison]

Any idea what Iron Crown's attitude toward commercial original content modules geared to Rolemaster on FG2 would be? Now that would be fun, I could get into that. Assuming I ever had the time! LOL. I've no idea what sort of rights territory I would be stepping into by designing FG2 modules for their system.

I heard back from ICE and they are very much wanting to do this. I need to send them an updated contract but it should work according to the proposed breakdown.

[sondermann]

Would it be possible to use old (Classic) Deadlands materials? I'm thinking about creating a token pack(s) from the old Cardboard Heroes sets.

[Rook]

I sent an official request to FFG to make a new Warhammer ruleset, however, it is such a large entity and there are so many different companies and properties involved I'm not holding out much hope.

Don't get me wrong, I understand. That's a mighty big request coming from someone they've never heard of :)

If I can get permission, I'd like to recruit a pro team and put together and top shelf ruleset based on the new WFRP.

Blood for the blood god and a beer for Nezzir!

You truly are my idol :)

[ddavison]

Would it be possible to use old (Classic) Deadlands materials? I'm thinking about creating a token pack(s) from the old Cardboard Heroes sets.


I believe it is all copywritten by the same people, so probably. What does the copyright on the old stuff say? If so I can verify with PEG, but I doubt there would be a problem.

[Thore_Ironrock]

I believe it is all copywritten by the same people, so probably. What does the copyright on the old stuff say? If so I can verify with PEG, but I doubt there would be a problem.

Actually, that may not be the case. Remember that the older Deadlands material was written with Matt Forbeck being at PEG, and the fallout that caused PEG to change to GWG may have put some of that material in a "weird" copyright state. I've seen this many times over the years with publishers, so I would double-check this with Shane to make sure. In addition, remember that original Deadlands is not SWEXP, and conversion might conflict with something PEG is doing, and so on.

As a general rule is is always best to double-check with the publisher to make sure material is OK to convert, since copyrights can get very complicated in this industry. You really don't want to waste time converting a property only to find out it is a joint property or subsequent (2nd) use requires paying a fees to a holder, etc, etc.

Older companies like PEG, Chaosium, and ICE are perfect examples of companies that have gone through ownership changes or re-alignment and might have strange copyright issues with legacy products.

KWM

[ddavison]

Would it be possible to use old (Classic) Deadlands materials? I'm thinking about creating a token pack(s) from the old Cardboard Heroes sets.

PEG still owns all the rights to those and they are okay with those properties being converted over. Send me your contact info on a PM and I'll draft the contract you can proceed under.

[Veldehar]

I heard back from ICE and they are very much wanting to do this. I need to send them an updated contract but it should work according to the proposed breakdown.

Sweet! Happily for me I am a for the love of the game rather than for the love of money kind of guy, LOL.

[AJCarrington]

Are there any plans to update the Castles and Crusades ruleset to the current paper release/edition?

Thanks in advance,

AJC

[[email protected]]

This looks like such a promising opportunity!
WardCo. is very interested in seeing this done for Metamorphosis Alpha :)

Craig J. Brain

[ddavison]

Are there any plans to update the Castles and Crusades ruleset to the current paper release/edition?

Thanks in advance,

AJC

The C&C ruleset was done before I took over it, obviously, but I've been informed that it is up to date except for maybe 1 page worth of text -- mostly related to barbarians. Are you aware of any other issues?

[ddavison]

I added Malhavoc Press to the list and we have a few existing modules that need to be created. The ruleset already exists and will be going up on the store shortly along with a handful of other items licensed from Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press.

** Check the first page often as I will keep editing the 2nd posting here.

[ddavison]

I added Triple Ace Games to the list. We have several experienced developers who have already expressed a desire to work on Hellfrost and other Triple Ace Games products. One of them is currently finishing up Sundered Skies after he finishes up some work on Necessary Evil.

0one Games is also coming on board shortly but they are looking at doing their own conversions. If this changes, I'll put them on the list here.

[ddavison]

Mongoose Publishing is now on the list and is merely awaiting the final contract. This effectively gives the community another 17 game systems that will be available for an official ruleset.

[nezzir]

Still no word from Fantasy Flight on Warhammer?

[ddavison]

Still no word. I will try again next week.

[Valarian]

Any luck with Eden Studios?

[Valarian]

Any luck with Eden Studios?
Looks promising based on the chatter on the Eden forums. Is there anything definite on this?

[ddavison]

Looks promising based on the chatter on the Eden forums. Is there anything definite on this?

There is nothing definite at the moment.

[demonsbane]

There is nothing definite at the moment.

This may sound a bit utopian, but I would love to see some tries regarding Steve Jackson Games (https://www.sjgames.com/) (GURPS (https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/)).

[unerwünscht]

I think a lot of us would like to see an official GURPS set. However my company has tried a few times, and I think a few other companies have tried, and Steve Jacksons Games has never shown any interest.

It should also be pointed out that other games have attempted it in the past, and Steve Jacksons Games is notorious for pulling out. Just look up all the history involving Steve Jackson games and the Fallout series. I'm honestly shocked that the people who made the generic GURPS rulesets for FGII so far have not received cease and desist orders.

[drahkar]

Steve Jackson has always been very... critical, of putting the 'Official' title on something. It takes a lot of effort on all parties to get it done.

That being said, he's always been a firm supporter of user created content and has never stamped on groups doing so. I think its safe to say you'll never see something like that from him unless they started putting and mass distributing copyrighted content.

[VenomousFiligree]

Any news on agreeing a contract for Pathfinder?

[VenomousFiligree]

RuneQuest (in progress by Foen)


Will this be the new version, RuneQuest II?

[ddavison]

Any news on agreeing a contract for Pathfinder?


I have been assured that is is high on their list, but with holidays and end of year stuff mounting up there has not been time to fully review it yet.

[VenomousFiligree]

I have been assured that is is high on their list, but with holidays and end of year stuff mounting up there has not been time to fully review it yet.
Looks promising then! :)

[ddavison]

I updated the status of several of these. The first several should be going through the review process now and hopefully hitting the stores shortly.

I also updated the 2nd post to say that PDFs will need to be purchased by developers initially. For proven developers, these will be provide by SmiteWorks to facilitate the conversion. A proven developer is one who has successfully provided a conversion which gets approved by the Publisher.

[ddavison]

There are a few more in final review stages now. In addition, Foen has decided to step back from development for the time being and maybe permanently. He graciously offered his current beta version of BRP for someone else to finish up and was willing to grant the entire commission to the new developer. If you are interested in picking this up, please PM me and fill me in on why you think you would be best suited to complete this project.

Thanks.

[ddavison]

I might be making some progress with some unnamed, but very large game company. Hopefully we can make this a very merry X-mas for all.

[Rook]

Still no word from Fantasy Flight on Warhammer?


Any word on this DD..????

[ddavison]

Still none. I have been working to get in touch with them but still no luck getting through. I have a couple others I am working on at the moment too and they seem likely to accept.

[unerwünscht]

Well.... just so you know Doug, Some of the official White Wolf writers work for my 'other' sites, and if you ever need doors opened let me know. :)

[VenomousFiligree]

Can Margaret Weis Productions (https://www.margaretweis.com/wp/) be contacted? I would love to see the work being done by LilCthulhu (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=82228#post82228) being made commercially available.

[ddavison]

I just got off the phone with Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing, and she assures me she is very interested in doing business with SmiteWorks and that I'm at the top of her list. This is an important decision for Paizo on how they would like to work with digital gaming in general, how they can establish the necessary quality controls and review process and what the exact details of the contract will be. They have been very successful, and one of the drawbacks of that is that they get incredibly busy trying to continue that success. We will talk again after the holidays to see if we can get this ball rolling.

Nothing is final until its final... but I am confident we'll see lots of Pathfinder products available within Fantasy Grounds next year.

[tenkar]

This sounds like a win-win-win (Smiteworks, Paizo and all of us).

Looking forward to it.

[Leonal]

Thanks for the update on Pathfinder!

Really looking forward to this. :)

[Illrigger]

Sweet news indeed. Being able to plug-and-play Paizo's adventure paths into FGII would add tremendous value to both companies, methinks.

As for the "very large company", I wonder if a certain gaming company has finally realized the futility of trying to sell a subscription based tabletop that they can't even seem to get developed, and has come to their senses and returned to licensing one that already works perfectly? We can dream, can't we?

[ddavison]

I have updated the list to show AEG (which is still in the early discussions.) I mostly wanted to throw that on the list to start looking for eager developers and contributors. They have plenty of other products that they might be interested in allowing conversions for, but these are the ones we have specifically discussed at this point. They recommended The World's Largest Dungeon -- but thought we might break it into a series of separate modules. The nice thing about that one is that it almost exclusively uses the monsters from the SRD for the encounters. The full module is 840 pages with 1600 encounters. WOW!!! Even with being able to drag and drop the creatures and splitting into 10 or so separate modules, it will be a fairly big undertaking.

I have also added more product details for Malhavoc Press and updated the status of several conversions.

[Valarian]

Stargate SG-1 could be interesting ... a d20 conversion.

[Illrigger]

Wow, Ptolus and WLD - those are seriously large undertakings - undertakings that will have my $$$ the moment they are available if they are up to snuff. The trick with WLD is to include player maps without the secret doors in. All of the maps out there have those wonderful giant blue glowing circles that are impossible to mask well without giving away where the doors are.

[ddavison]

That's a good point. I will see if they have layered versions of the maps where we can hide those. (crosses fingers)

[Valarian]

Rokugan and Legend of the Five Rings could be popular conversions

[Hye Jedi]

I just got off the phone with Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing, and she assures me she is very interested in doing business with SmiteWorks and that I'm at the top of her list. This is an important decision for Paizo on how they would like to work with digital gaming in general, how they can establish the necessary quality controls and review process and what the exact details of the contract will be. They have been very successful, and one of the drawbacks of that is that they get incredibly busy trying to continue that success. We will talk again after the holidays to see if we can get this ball rolling.

Nothing is final until its final... but I am confident we'll see lots of Pathfinder products available within Fantasy Grounds next year.
YOU WOULD MAKE MY 2010... and many others out there I'm sure if this came to pass. With WotC failing on their Gametable, this could be Paizo's opportunity to further grab marketshare from D&D 4th edition. Don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing any product to fail, as I play 4th Ed myself, but honestly, with busy schedules and the wax and wane of local gamers I need a tool that lets me play when I want to. As I don't see any chance of D&D 4th Ed or SW Saga having an official relationship, I would be VERY happy with Pathfinder allowing fully translated content to FG. I wish you much success in these negotiations come next year!

[The Dark Wizard]

YOU WOULD MAKE MY 2010... and many others out there I'm sure if this came to pass. With WotC failing on their Gametable, this could be Paizo's opportunity to further grab marketshare from D&D 4th edition. Don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing any product to fail, as I play 4th Ed myself, but honestly, with busy schedules and the wax and wane of local gamers I need a tool that lets me play when I want to. As I don't see any chance of D&D 4th Ed or SW Saga having an official relationship, I would be VERY happy with Pathfinder allowing fully translated content to FG. I wish you much success in these negotiations come next year!

I could not have said it better my self :D!

Good luck with pathfinder! I would totally buy it immediately.

[Rook]

Any word yet (however-small) from FFG concerning Warhammer?

[ddavison]

Still nothing from FFG. I will be away for most of the upcoming holidays, but I will try to contact them again mid-January.

We have a lot of other initiatives on the plate at the moment and a lot of them we can't disclose quite yet. I am looking forward to a fun and exciting 2010.

[cpbs]

I have looked for a while all over the website but I can not seem to find anything pertain selling adventures through the store that are under the d20 OGL. So if you can answer, what is the pricing/royalties for selling original d20 adventures under the OGL in the Fantasy Ground store? Ive noticed you listed the need for more people to develop more original adventures for d20 in you're list. So all in all I am looking for what the pricing scale would be to publish original d20 OGL.

Thanks
Chris

[drahkar]

He works those out individually. My recommendation would be to either email or Private Message Doug with your interest and I know that he'll get back to you as quickly as he can, minding holidays. :)

[Andugus]

I have looked for a while all over the website but I can not seem to find anything pertain selling adventures through the store that are under the d20 OGL.
Chris I am not sure how the royalties will work out but there are tons of d20/OGL/3.5 products. They are located under the "Other" area of the store.

D20 products:

The Complete d20 Modern SRD Ruleset for Fantasy Grounds (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=DGA054) SmiteWorks USA, LLC Ruleset
The Missing Harvesters (PDF Included) (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=WHM-KS02P) White Haired Man Adventure $10.00 Add to basket (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=WHM-KS02P)
Well Met in Kith'takharos (PDF Included) (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=WHM-KS01P) White Haired Man Adventure $10.00 Add to basket (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=WHM-KS01P)
Kith'takharos Campaign Setting (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=WHM-KS00) White Haired Man Campaign Setting $3.50
The Complete SRD for Fantasy Grounds (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=DGA044) SmiteWorks USA, LLC Rulebook $6.50 Add to basket
(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=DGA044)
(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=DGA044)Arms and Armor v3.5 for Fantasy Grounds (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=DGA052) SmiteWorks USA, LLC Supplement $6.00 Add to basket
(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=DGA052)
(https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=DGA052)Complete Minions for Fantasy Grounds (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=DGA051) Add to basket (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/index.xcp?action=add&id=DGA051)SmiteWorks USA, LLC Supplement $6.00Doug may be better able to discuss the percentages and royalties part. I'd also like to see a tab for OGL/3.5 formerly known as D20 products.

[cpbs]

Thanks for the replies, Ive sent him a PM and I'll see where it goes from there.

Thanks

[Brenn]

Though it is, in my estimation, a small niche you might want to talk to Greg Stolze (https://www.gregstolze.com/reign/) and by association Arc Dream (https://www.arcdream.com/home.php). Greg's Ransom model is not exactly in sync with what you are doing, but in the case of Reign, the core stuff is still not Ransom. The good thing about the way that is set up is all of his supplements are in the public domain now. Arc Dream has recently adopted something similar with Kickstarter.

Basic ORE is public domain and can be found a Project Nemesis (https://www.nemesis-system.com/). I'm working on an ORE ruleset, but my lack of time and skills, have made it a long and drawn out process- if someone else wanted to do this I would gladly surrender everything I've done- if not I'll keep on plugging away. The system is fundamentally different than anything out there that I've played. It comes closest to Storyteller out of any of them and it's not that close under the hood.

[Rook]

Any response from FFG?



Still nothing from FFG. I will be away for most of the upcoming holidays, but I will try to contact them again mid-January.

We have a lot of other initiatives on the plate at the moment and a lot of them we can't disclose quite yet. I am looking forward to a fun and exciting 2010.

[ddavison]

Scrying Eye Games are now on the list of Publishers allowing officially approved conversions. The items on the list are the products they have currently provided to us, but they have other products available as well.

I still have not heard back from FFG on my inquiries.

[Rienen]

Any response from FFG?

I've been hitting my contacts up at FFG, but I initially heard "I'll pass this along to xxx... " and now haven't heard anything. I'll keep (gently) pushing every couple weeks.

[Jarina]

I'm curious if you have heard anything back from Lisa at Paizo?

[ddavison]

I will post anything concrete on that here as soon as I am able.

[ddavison]

The Slipstream setting has just been posted for sale on the store. Modules and accessories for this have now been added to the list. Please note that there is an extension that adds rocketships to the Savage Worlds ruleset.

[demonsbane]

I think a lot of us would like to see an official GURPS set. However my company has tried a few times, and I think a few other companies have tried, and Steve Jacksons Games has never shown any interest.

It should also be pointed out that other games have attempted it in the past, and Steve Jacksons Games is notorious for pulling out. Just look up all the history involving Steve Jackson games and the Fallout series. I'm honestly shocked that the people who made the generic GURPS rulesets for FGII so far have not received cease and desist orders. (bold letters are mine)

Yes, I know a little about that.

However the Fantasy Grounds II GURPS ruleset (https://www.spyke.me/) was made the due care regarding intellectual property and with all due permissions. Its creator was very correct working on that.

I would like to know any official Steve Jackson Games posture on the initiative of this thread.

[Spyke]

However the Fantasy Grounds II GURPS ruleset (https://www.spyke.me/) was made the due care regarding intellectual property and with all due permissions. Its creator was very correct working on that.
Even within the terms of the SJG Online Policy (https://www.sjgames.com/general/online_policy.html) I could probably add more functionality to the ruleset: for example I could include lists of traits and skills, and have the character sheets automatically calculate points, etc., since fan-made character generators are permitted.

However, this would add a lot of complexity, and at the moment I've preferred to write an external solution to allow users of the official SJG GURPS character generator to port their characters across to the ruleset. That provides far more power than I could hope to code into the ruleset itself.

I'd also welcome any moves Doug wants to make to try to agree permission for an official ruleset with SJG.

Spyke

[sdompy]

I can produce official FG products, adventures, rulesets for the french communauty (Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu,Savages World, Mongoose...)

But i don't know if i need to contact the french distributor.

For example, for Call of Cthulhu, in France, it's "Sans Detour company" which translate and sell the Call of Cthulhu's products or for the oldest products it was "Jeux Descartes"...

[Veldehar]

I have been working on the structure to some RMC adventures and in doing so found a little document over at the ICE website which deals out some of their "requirements" for if you are going to officially "write for ICE".

One major component, which is missing in the FG2 RMC (at least I haven't found it) is all the Character Stats for races of beings from Creatures and Treasures. I have gone ahead and slapped in all the data for these races, which are official guidelines when creating NPC's or allowing optional PC races. I have included this in my Character book rather than monster book and left out repetitive races, but it could be filled out very quickly and stuck into creatures and treasures. This at least would save Stuart or someone else the time of inputting this data.

Additionally, I have included 6 Professions (Champion, Elemental Warrior and Venturer from the Combat Companion and the Priest, Mage and Mentat from Express Additions). Naturally, all of their spell lists and other pertinent info are included. I've also included several new races from Express Additions that ICE considers official. Also, I've included the "Revised Ranger" from Express Additions which is to replace the old Ranger in official products.

What I end up with is a RMC Ruleset expanded to encompass the official ICE writer's rules for modules, which might be very handy for anyone looking to develop modules for ICE and FG2, but also very useful to the average GM. The trouble here is that the information is pulled from several resources, Combat Companion as well as several Express Additions.

I doubt ICE would like to hand this out as a free add-on (except the initial race table which I believe was left out of the RMC ruleset), as the info comes from around $20 in PDF docs.

So the question is, can they be convinced to market it as a ruleset addition for "official module development" or some such thing? As this gets into copyrighted material I couldn't simply develop a module and have that info in there... but I would really like to utilize these options and hopefully be able to commercially market and distribute adventure modules.

Unfortunately, Bruce over at ICE doesn't answer all his emails from wackos like myself, LOL.

Veldehar

[Regil]

I have one small question. Regadring the maps that come with the adventures, are we alowed to make modifications to them. In turn making a GM map and PC map. I don't see why we would not be able to, but I'm just covering my 6.

Thanks
Regil

[ddavison]

I have one small question. Regadring the maps that come with the adventures, are we alowed to make modifications to them. In turn making a GM map and PC map. I don't see why we would not be able to, but I'm just covering my 6.

Thanks
Regil

Yes, we have a little room for creative license and in how we organize the product. The publisher has ultimate authority over the final product but the publishers we have worked with so far have been okay with this.

[Elvedui]

I have been working on the structure to some RMC adventures and in doing so found a little document over at the ICE website which deals out some of their "requirements" for if you are going to officially "write for ICE".

One major component, which is missing in the FG2 RMC (at least I haven't found it) is all the Character Stats for races of beings from Creatures and Treasures. I have gone ahead and slapped in all the data for these races, which are official guidelines when creating NPC's or allowing optional PC races. I have included this in my Character book rather than monster book and left out repetitive races, but it could be filled out very quickly and stuck into creatures and treasures. This at least would save Stuart or someone else the time of inputting this data.

Additionally, I have included 6 Professions (Champion, Elemental Warrior and Venturer from the Combat Companion and the Priest, Mage and Mentat from Express Additions). Naturally, all of their spell lists and other pertinent info are included. I've also included several new races from Express Additions that ICE considers official. Also, I've included the "Revised Ranger" from Express Additions which is to replace the old Ranger in official products.

What I end up with is a RMC Ruleset expanded to encompass the official ICE writer's rules for modules, which might be very handy for anyone looking to develop modules for ICE and FG2, but also very useful to the average GM. The trouble here is that the information is pulled from several resources, Combat Companion as well as several Express Additions.

I doubt ICE would like to hand this out as a free add-on (except the initial race table which I believe was left out of the RMC ruleset), as the info comes from around $20 in PDF docs.

So the question is, can they be convinced to market it as a ruleset addition for "official module development" or some such thing? As this gets into copyrighted material I couldn't simply develop a module and have that info in there... but I would really like to utilize these options and hopefully be able to commercially market and distribute adventure modules.

Unfortunately, Bruce over at ICE doesn't answer all his emails from wackos like myself, LOL.

Veldehar


I have had contact with them in the past and these additions would be welcome additions to the RMC community. I think a small add on to the ruleset would be an easy sell or even a module that adds this functionality would be ideal. I guess a more detailed list would be useful. I would like to see the RMC I things included as well and a little additional functionality added. Let me know if you would like me to try to get contact.

[Veldehar]

I have had contact with them in the past and these additions would be welcome additions to the RMC community. I think a small add on to the ruleset would be an easy sell or even a module that adds this functionality would be ideal. I guess a more detailed list would be useful. I would like to see the RMC I things included as well and a little additional functionality added. Let me know if you would like me to try to get contact.

I've drag and drop items down also, but I've mostly used it for custom items. I am tempted to turn the basic equipment lists into drag and drop items, but that takes time away from other things I am developing. I've also added a feature to items that allows the GM to enter a price multiplier, to calculate haggling and other factors, as well as a spot for keeping track of damage to items... and the strength of weapons and armor to the price charts. That sort of stuff.

The rights to Rolemaster Companion I, I think, are owned by another company. That was always one of the most used companions in my campaigns, so slapping that into FG2 would be cool. I even started a conversion of the new Rome for the heck of it, but bogged down as I slipped back into other projects.

As far as contact goes, I believe Doug is waiting on a replay back from them on the topic.

Veldehar

[gmkieran]

Saw someone post about the possibility of contacting Margaret Weiss Productions, but never saw any reply. Seconding the motion to bring them on-board if we can; I'd love to see a conversion of their Serenity ruleset.

[zWolf]

This is great! I really like the idea, some day... once upon a time, I'll want to get involved with this somehow... till then, I'll just be one of the contributing members that helps by purchasing content.

zWolf

[ddavison]

I updated the list with a few new completed conversion dates. You can look for the ones from March 2010, including some more Daring Tales of Adventure, Daring Tales of Chivalry, Sundered Skies and Sundered Skies Figure Flats.

[phantomwhale]

Does anyone know the situation with the Runequest module development ? I see that Foen has completed his work on the BRP module, and from what I recall he was also involved in the Call of Cthulhu module, but also see that he is no longer planning to work on Runequest.

Is this still true ? If so, might there be scope for other developers to move this forward ? I guess my current reservations about taking on such a task is my of the BRP work probably intersects with this project, so it would be a lot more effort for me to begin any work on it, compared to Foen simply expanding on the BRP work he has done.

I'm pretty pleased with the Runequest II ruleset so far as a GM, and would love to be able to bring this into the Fantasy Grounds space.

[ddavison]

Foen was planning on doing the BRP-based systems as extensions to BRP, I believe, but he wanted to take a hiatus from building rulesets for a while. If you have the technical capacity and diligence to build a large extension, then we would welcome you as a volunteer for Runequest. I don't want to speak for Foen, but I would guess that he would be willing to answer a question or two from time to time just as long as it doesn't end up with him doing a large share of the work. Otherwise, he would probably just finish it himself.

The BRP ruleset is complete and fully tested and just waiting on final approval from the publisher, Chaosium.

[phantomwhale]

I think I have the skills and diligence to take on some large scale Fantasy Grounds coding, and have been intending to reserve some time toward a new coding or digital content task for a while. The fact you've covered the legal side of this makes it sound like a promising project.

But that said, it's probably best to wait until I have a copy of the BRP ruleset to make a good guess at what level of extension is required for the new Runequest rules, and also for Mongoose to release the PDF copy of the rulebook to import the information from (I currently have a hard copy). Best not to bit off more than I can chew, and it's already clear this won't be a small task by any means.

Foen, any input (or dire warnings) you can offer would be highly welcomed too !

Regards,
Ben (phantomwhale)

[ddavison]

The status of the BRP ruleset was updated and a few items were added for those wanting to produce official BRP products and extensions based on it.

-Doug

[TheMetal1]

Just a couple of questions

What is the status of the Paizo and the Pathfinder Ruleset? I know Lone Wolf Studio has something for them for their character creation software - Hero Lab. The thing is that that info can be imported to d20 Pro, so I wonder if that is where a delay if any is coming in?

Anyone doing anything with Twilight 2000/2013 or anything with the OSR stuff like Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Mutant Future, etc. on an official basis?

[ddavison]

I posted to another thread about the Pathfinder ruleset but it should probably go here as well. Paizo has informed us that not having native Mac support is a deal breaker for allowing us to carry their products. They don't believe that running via Wine is adequate to remedy the situation, although they did say that their lawyers were working out a way for us to support Pathfinder in a limited sense. Needless to say, I am disappointed with the news and I hope they will reconsider -- or we will come across some easy way to port things over to Mac.

[TheMetal1]

Thanks D. That's too bad about Paizo and Pathfinder. I do wonder if they'd allow distribution of their Game Mastery Stuff like their Game Mats, Paper-Minis, Gamer Mastery Cards, potentially could be used in the same way Gaming Token Packs or the Oone's maps.

[Rook]

<DING> ... "Bring out your dead" ... <DING>

Any reply what-so-ever from Fantasy Flight concerning Warhammer 3e?

[tdewitt274]

Thanks D. That's too bad about Paizo and Pathfinder. I do wonder if they'd allow distribution of their Game Mastery Stuff like their Game Mats, Paper-Minis, Gamer Mastery Cards, potentially could be used in the same way Gaming Token Packs or the Oone's maps.

Unfortunately, the subscribers to these lines don't even get a PDF of them. It would be nice to have the Maps, Mats and Cards. A Harrow deck and the Critical Hit/Miss would also be nice!

The Paper minis are actually done by one of users on the boards. So those may be a possibility.

[cpbs]

With the new release of the BRP from Chaosium, are you looking for any type of new adventures for the BRP, that is not already made by Chaosium, to be sold in the store?

[Talen]

With the Green Ronin announcement of the upcoming DC Universe line for Mutants and Masterminds, is there any hope of an official M&M tie-in with FG? I understand there may be too many complications to include the DCU piece, but given M&M has a relationship with the hero lab software, I was hoping they might be open to the idea of partnering with the FG folks on some general level...

....ever hopeful....

[ddavison]

We would be open to partnering on some things. Our first couple attempts to contact someone at Green Ronin haven't produced fruit but we will keep trying from time to time.

-Doug

[Rienen]

Speaking of which, did Fantasy Flight ever get back to you?

[suntzu777]

Doug , i have put fg2 into a 'bottle" , this seams to run very successfully , like a lot of the mac games which were pc only have been put into mac bottles which are basically just tweaked wine , i have attached a screen shot for you to see

maybe this will help you with the pathfinder problem

Rob

[ddavison]

That is great SunTzu. If you wouldn't mind, please send a detailed step by step to [email protected] and maybe I can forward that over to Paizo to try.

On another front, I am looking for developers/freelancers for the following two rulesets:

- Savage Suzerain
- Metamorphosis Alpha

I need people who have the experience and technical ability to complete a ruleset and who have the time to devote to completing one.

[ddavison]

I split out the finished products to a new thread because it was getting cluttered. I also added some Expeditious Retreat Press (D20/OGL) and some other products in bold that I would like to focus some attention on.

[ddavison]

I am currently looking for a new developer for the Deadlands setting and extension. Ping me if you are interested.

[Hye Jedi]

Doug , i have put fg2 into a 'bottle" , this seams to run very successfully , like a lot of the mac games which were pc only have been put into mac bottles which are basically just tweaked wine , i have attached a screen shot for you to see

maybe this will help you with the pathfinder problem

Rob I just read that Hero Labs is now the official Character Creation tool for Pathfinder RPG. Interesting to note that it doesn't run natively on the Mac. Wasn't this the prereq for a deal with FGII. Just seems inconsistent given the info I've heard thus far about what they are looking for in electronic tools partners.

I'm not bagging, just curious. I have DDi for D&D and I'll likely buy Hero Labs for my Pathfinder playing.

[Leonal]

Lone Wolf has stated that they are working on a native Mac client, so maybe that helped seal the deal.

[Steel_Wind]

I would point out that Hero Builder creates a file in XML format on export.

Create an importer for FG2 that imports this XML file and exports in FG2 format and Bob's your uncle.

[Hye Jedi]

I would point out that Hero Builder creates a file in XML format on export.

Create an importer for FG2 that imports this XML file and exports in FG2 format and Bob's your uncle.
Thanks for the insight...in fact I've recently downloaded the Hero Lab demo and am checking it out.

Also I just finished listening to Pathfinder podcast #3 and enjoyed the brief prelude discussion you all were having regarding various VTT applications available today. Although I actually like to play in person, in fact I've played several times with your fellow host Azmyth here in the Bay Area, my work/family life doesn't always support that luxury. So in those cases, I have to turn to VTTs to get some game time. Fantasy Grounds is obviously my tool of choice as I think it is the most professionally developed product out there today. I don't mind paying a little for a product that does so much.

[Valarian]

Same here. As someone with young children and little time, VTTs are the only way I get to game at the moment. When the kids get a little older, I might be able to get back to attending a club somewhere, but not for a few years yet.

[Rienen]

Huh... well, from what Paizo is SAYING, they're open to a non-exclusive license.

https://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderRPG/general/fantasyGroundsPathfinderRPGSupport&page=2#77

[drahkar]

I think one of the things that needs to be made clear to people about the power of FG2 is in the fact that its truly a software framework. A vast amount of the features you use in an interface are coded within the Lua environment. This makes it possible to add your own features using things like extensions or just working on your own rulesets. You want a feature that doesn't currently exist? You can actually work on adding it instead of hoping that the developers will.

Granted this doesn't cover things like VOIP and similar items, but when it comes to game mechanics and VTT features, there is a considerable amount that you can do to it.

[Razor1971]

I'm interested in doing the conversion of Reality Blurs Realm of Cthulu for Savage Worlds. Would like to know if you'd had any previous dealings with this company before trying to reach out to them.

[VenomousFiligree]

I'm interested in doing the conversion of Reality Blurs Realm of Cthulu for Savage Worlds. Would like to know if you'd had any previous dealings with this company before trying to reach out to them.
I started doing this when rulesets were handled by Digital Adventures, communication with Reality Blurs were poor at best, so it never got finished.

[jbear]

Doug , i have put fg2 into a 'bottle" , this seams to run very successfully , like a lot of the mac games which were pc only have been put into mac bottles which are basically just tweaked wine , i have attached a screen shot for you to see

maybe this will help you with the pathfinder problem

Rob
Hi there! How do you do this?

Is there a thread about this somewhere that you could point me too. I'm about to start a game with my wife and her sister. Both are Mac users. So this would be pretty handy information.

Cheers!
J

[Zeus]

I'm not aware of a guide per se, however there are a few threads with useful information.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6803 and
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12643

A quick search on 'wine' will reveal quite a few more. Was there something specific you were after? The install is straightforward enough.

Here's a quick install guide using Crossover Mac Standard v9.0.1 (assumes you have already downloaded CrossOver and the FGII setup exe.

1) Install CrossOver on your Mac (follow the prompts).
2) Once installed, Open CrossOver.app from your Applications folder
3) Once opened, from the CrossOver Menubar select Configure->Install Software.
4) The CrossOver Software Installer form/window will now open. In the list of all applications (at the top) scroll all the way to the bottom and select Unsupported Applications->Other Application
5) Click the Select button on the right hand side of the 'Select an Installer' frame
6) Double Click the 'Choose Installer File' option
7) Navigate to and select the FGII setup executable.
8) Next Click the Edit button on the right hand side of the 'Will install into a new winxp bottle 'Other Application' frame
9) Now either select an existing Compatible bottle or create a new one (note the name you can label it with). Also note that you can choose most Windows OS for the Bottle type, I tend to use the latest Windows 7 but XP and Vista will both work.
10) That's it, click Install and wait for the FGII Setup dialog to appear.

From here on in you just follow the normal setup for FGII with the exception you need to check the checkbox for Linux & Mac compatibility. Apply your license code and your good to go.

Once completed, you can start FGII in a vareity of ways:

i) Using the CrossOver Programs Menu
ii) From the Finder (<user>/Applications/CrossOver or <user>/Library/Application Support/CrossOver/Bottles)
iii) From the command line using the command 'wine'

TIP: For middle button mouse support on a new Apple Magic Mouse, do a search on Google for 'MagicPrefs OSX'. :)

[VenomousFiligree]

I'm interested in doing the conversion of Reality Blurs Realm of Cthulu for Savage Worlds. Would like to know if you'd had any previous dealings with this company before trying to reach out to them.
I started doing this when rulesets were handled by Digital Adventures, communication with Reality Blurs were poor at best, so it never got finished.
Checking my modules I have a finished Players Section, ie up to and including page 34.

[Jericho]

Please excuse me for interjecting and excuse if I'm being technically ignorant, referring to Valarians MGT ruleset, it should be fairly easy for someone to port the code from the CT ruleset into the combat tracker to add some functionality to for MGT, the same 3 stats are used for damage and the basic mechanics used in the two systems are very similar. I doubt very much modification would be needed.

The MGT SRD is available here:

https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/travdevpack.zip

It should give an idea of the relatively minor differences between CT and MGT.

Edit: A personalities section wouldn't be to difficult as well.

MGT has been referred to as CT 2.0

[Jericho]

Sorry, a better way of describing what I intended to say is that the Classic Traveller ruleset would require very little modification to adapt it to Mongoose Traveller, the rule systems are very similar.

My apologies I'm very tired today.

[ddavison]

Jericho, we are still looking for a user to carry the torch with the Traveller ruleset if you are interested.

---

I also finally got around to updating the list of product left to be converted and the released products so far for 2010 YTD. We have over 50 new add-on products delivered so far this year and many more in the works. Many of these add-ons are provided by members of the community.

[StuartW]

To be fair, the CT ruleset is OGL, so a commercial MGT ruleset couldn't claim too much code as proprietary if based on it. That said, much of a commercial product's IP lies in the accompanying reference material, which would be completely different (not least because CT has no reference material!).

Stuart

[Valarian]

I'd started doing a ruleset for MGT but had to stop due to work pressures. These are now lighter and I could put some time in to this again, though not enough to produce a full ruleset from scratch. Probably two to four hours a week currently. Personally, I'd like to see all ruleset code as OGL, including the commercial ones - with proper acknowledgements.

[VenomousFiligree]

To be fair, the CT ruleset is OGL, so a commercial MGT ruleset couldn't claim too much code as proprietary if based on it. That said, much of a commercial product's IP lies in the accompanying reference material, which would be completely different (not least because CT has no reference material!).

Stuart

I'd started doing a ruleset for MGT but had to stop due to work pressures. These are now lighter and I could put some time in to this again, though not enough to produce a full ruleset from scratch. Probably two to four hours a week currently. Personally, I'd like to see all ruleset code as OGL, including the commercial ones - with proper acknowledgements.

So could Mongoose Traveller be a free ruleset and SRD module and then have modules produced for all the books that can be sold?

[Valarian]

I wouldn't have a problem with that but I don't know the arrangement with Mongoose. I know I'd find it easier to incorporate what I have, character sheet and personality screens with Foen's work than try and delve in to the combat tracker. It's changed a lot since I last looked at that part of FGII and I know it'll be a struggle. Also, the time I do have available would be best spent on translating the published material in to modules for use with the ruleset. Work is still busy with two major project in my area, and another to start in November (hopefully one of the others will be completed by then).

[VenomousFiligree]

I can't code rulesets, but I can do modules. I have a smallish Savage Worlds project to do and I'm also working on The Laundry. After the Savage Worlds project I'd be willing to do some Traveller modules alongside The Laundry.

[ddavison]

I'm not opposed to releasing part of this under the OGL -- after all, our contract with Mongoose references the OGL and compliance with it. I am also okay with having multiple people chip in to provide a complete ruleset + library modules as well. My primary concern is that the final product is complete and up to or better than the standards set with past rulesets, that all developers contributing to the project receive the proper acknowledgement and compensation and that the Publisher receives full royalties for allowing us to produce work under our license.

I can divide out developer percentages however we need if there are several of you willing to take it back on and complete it.

[VenomousFiligree]

If Valarian or Stuart doesn't want to take Lead, I'm willing to offer my services. Producing full blown rulesets is beyond me, however I can tweak existing ones. Modules aren't a problem at all.

I'm no longer liable to disappear for long lengths of time, in fact for the next 6 months I'm working away from home, so Sunday night to Thursday I have nothing to do but sit in front of my shiny new iMac! :)

[unerwünscht]

I'm soooooo confused right now, there is already a Traveler Ruleset floating around out there. Unless you are looking for someone to do the Library Modules.

[VenomousFiligree]

That's the Classic Traveller ruleset, what's needed is a Mongoose Traveller ruleset, they're slightly different. Foen/StuartW made the CT one as OGL, Valarian started the MT one as a commercial product. Doug still wants a MT ruleset along with the associated modules.

[jcdf]

Creating a FG product or adventure would be more of a collaborative effort I would imagine. Where abouts would you find a partner? Is there anyone here that is working on new products right now?

[VenomousFiligree]

I'm converting a small Savage Worlds line for commercial release and also The Laundry for my own use.

[jcdf]

I'm converting a small Savage Worlds line for commercial release and also The Laundry for my own use.

So this small Savage Worlds line is a conversion of adventures made by others then. How goes that then?

Whats the Laundry?

[VenomousFiligree]

So this small Savage Worlds line is a conversion of adventures made by others then. How goes that then?Yes, its a small setting book and some adventures, I'm about a third of the way through the setting book.


Whats the Laundry?
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13024
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12721

[jcdf]

So you do conversions of paper adventures to fantasy grounds campaigns.

It is a good idea to convert the Laundry to the BRP because there is a severe shortage of good.... any adventures for BRP. The only one I can find is In Search of the Trollslayer (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=CHA2022FG2) And I purchased the ruleset. :(
How much longer until completion?

Have you ever created an adventure of your own or do you just do conversions?

[VenomousFiligree]

Yes I convert pdf adventures and settings. I have created my own adventures, however as the systems/settings I use don't have an OGL it's not easy (if at all possible) to publish them.

The Laundry isn't an adventure as such (althoughit includes three) it is a complete setting using a slightly modified BRP system.

[jcdf]

Yes I convert pdf adventures and settings. I have created my own adventures, however as the systems/settings I use don't have an OGL it's not easy (if at all possible) to publish them.

The Laundry isn't an adventure as such (althoughit includes three) it is a complete setting using a slightly modified BRP system.

Have you placed your custom adventures somewhere, where they can be downloaded?

Could you not modify your adventures around an existing OGL?

[VenomousFiligree]

Have you placed your custom adventures somewhere, where they can be downloaded?
No, because i wouldn't have permission to do that.


Could you not modify your adventures around an existing OGL?
I could, it's just finding the time.

[ddavison]

A contact from Daring Entertainment just contacted us and said they received a pitch about carrying conversions of their products for Fantasy Grounds. They are interested in pursuing this, but I would like to find out who initiated this contact. Please PM me or send me an email with the details -- such as whether or not you've started any conversion work, your proposed timeline, etc.

It is also important to ensure consistent and professional communication from SmiteWorks whenever contacting a third-party publisher. We want to ultimately carry as many product lines as possible, but we want to make sure that we do it the right way.

Thanks,

-Doug

[kairos]

Hi, Doug:

What's the latest on development of BRP products and the Mongoose Runequest (2?) extension? I was thinking of tackling some of that stuff if it's still open. I'm working on an unofficial Age of Shadow module/extension for BRP ATM -- AoS is built off of OpenQuest which is built off of the MRQ SRD.

Thanks,
K

[phantomwhale]

I can say that I looked into the Runequest II extension to BRP last year, and instead opted to take on the Deadlands extension (due soon). My name might still be against the Runequest module, and I'd like to think I'd might take it on one day, but in truth that would not be for many months (years ?) now that I am developing the Savage Worlds ruleset too, so I think my name should be removed from that project for now.

From my limited exposure to the extension model of FGII (now a much greater understanding) and reviewing the RQ rules vrs the BRP rules, I had concluded that Runequest II would be best developed as a separate ruleset to BRP. Your development experience might differ, of course.

[RosenMcStern]

From my limited exposure to the extension model of FGII (now a much greater understanding) and reviewing the RQ rules vrs the BRP rules, I had concluded that Runequest II would be best developed as a separate ruleset to BRP. Your development experience might differ, of course.

I suspect you might be right, phw. The two games share the same roots, but they are very different beasts.

I am waiting for a reply from Smiteworks (strangely enough, contacting Chaosium seems to be pointless) to plan the release of 3+ BRP modules based on our (officially licensed) products.

[wbcreighton]

That sounds very promising. :)

[Netjera]

I have updated the list to show AEG (which is still in the early discussions.) I mostly wanted to throw that on the list to start looking for eager developers and contributors. They have plenty of other products that they might be interested in allowing conversions for, but these are the ones we have specifically discussed at this point. They recommended The World's Largest Dungeon -- but thought we might break it into a series of separate modules. The nice thing about that one is that it almost exclusively uses the monsters from the SRD for the encounters. The full module is 840 pages with 1600 encounters. WOW!!! Even with being able to drag and drop the creatures and splitting into 10 or so separate modules, it will be a fairly big undertaking.

I have also added more product details for Malhavoc Press and updated the status of several conversions.

I know this thread has been going for a while, and as I'm new, I'm sort of playing catchup, because this is an area of interest for me. I'm currently putting the WLD into my system so I can run player's through it. It's a large undertaking, to say the least. What was the status on discussions, and did anyone pick it up? Thanks!

[Moon Wizard]

You should send an email to us at [email protected], and talk with Doug about the status and possibilities.

Cheers,
JPG

[Netjera]

You should send an email to us at [email protected], and talk with Doug about the status and possibilities.

Cheers,
JPG

Thanks muchly. :)

[Netjera]

I emailed several days ago. Should I be worried that I haven't received a response?

[Moon Wizard]

No, it sometimes takes a few days for Doug to respond, depending on his workload. His day job can get quite busy, but he typically catches up on the weekends when it does.

Regards,
JPG

[Netjera]

No, it sometimes takes a few days for Doug to respond, depending on his workload. His day job can get quite busy, but he typically catches up on the weekends when it does.

Regards,
JPG

Great. :> I won't start worrying that my email got eaten by the Internet yet, then. :D

[Leonal]

While I'm not one for converting things to FG, I'd love for there to be more products for sale. Currently there isn't that much of interest for a Pathfinder GM/Warhammer 40k RPG player like me.

Things I'd like to see in the store:
High quality map packs (e.g. Fantastic Maps by J. Roberts/Rite Publishing)
Frog God Games (https://www.talesofthefroggod.com/index.php) products. (Shorter and longer old school adventures. May require a Smiteworks supported Pathfinder and/or Swords & Wizardry extension/ruleset).
Paizo Pathfinder (https://paizo.com/pathfinder) adventures. (I know there have been talks, but still no results).
Raging Swan Press (https://www.ragingswan.com/) products. (Pathfinder adventures and supplements).

[Netjera]

While I'm not one for converting things to FG, I'd love for there to be more products for sale. Currently there isn't that much of interest for a Pathfinder GM/Warhammer 40k RPG player like me.

Things I'd like to see in the store:
High quality map packs (e.g. Fantastic Maps by J. Roberts/Rite Publishing)
Frog God Games (https://www.talesofthefroggod.com/index.php) products. (Shorter and longer old school adventures. May require a Smiteworks supported Pathfinder and/or Swords & Wizardry extension/ruleset).
Paizo Pathfinder (https://paizo.com/pathfinder) adventures. (I know there have been talks, but still no results).
Raging Swan Press (https://www.ragingswan.com/) products. (Pathfinder adventures and supplements).

I'm disabled, so I have a lot of time on my hands. I'm putting a lot of information into FG for personal/group use, and I'm more than happy to sell or share that stuff, as long as licensing allows. I'd love to help with getting more stuff in the store, if I don't have to mess around with doing all the research about the licensing issues.

I'm very interested in Pathfinder, as my next "project", so there's some possibility there I can help with getting more stuff available for it, if licensing permits. I just need to come up to speed on how to get this information organized properly. I'm pretty fast with entering the data (I type over 70wpm), but tables throw me, and I have no idea how to link stuff to the character sheets, add extra sheets to use for summonings, etc, and so forth.

I'm currently working on getting AEG's World's Largest Dungeon into FG - and am almost done with Region A. I'm just waiting to hear back from Smiteworks about whether there's still interest in the project.

[TheMetal1]

I'm currently working on getting AEG's World's Largest Dungeon into FG - and am almost done with Region A. I'm just waiting to hear back from Smiteworks about whether there's still interest in the project.

Hey, quick question for you. I've heard a lot about WLD and I think it's great that you're working on it for FG. One of the things that was a big issue was the editing. Since you've been plugging away at the data, is really that bad or was it just some minor things?

[Netjera]

Hey, quick question for you. I've heard a lot about WLD and I think it's great that you're working on it for FG. One of the things that was a big issue was the editing. Since you've been plugging away at the data, is really that bad or was it just some minor things?

Honestly - so far - I don't know what all the negative fuss was about. I bought it expecting it to be bad. I figured, even if I didn't use a scrap of the text, having all the maps and encounters, was worth every penny as a resource that I could use in part or total. But aside from a couple of typos, there's been no real issues in Region A. There were two sentences where text was unclear (I think words were accidentally omitted, so that's why a spelling or grammar checker wouldn't have spotted it), and I've noted them. (I put an asterisk, and what I call an "NJNote" to mention that the text is shown in the book exactly as represented, and here is my suggestion for clarifying it, if I have one.)

I think - and this is a guess on my part - that the biggest issue may have come from people not reading the introduction, but expecting to just "jump in". The developers explain a lot of things in the introduction, which you MUST keep in mind in order for the party to have fun.

[Rienen]

I'm currently working on getting AEG's World's Largest Dungeon into FG - and am almost done with Region A. I'm just waiting to hear back from Smiteworks about whether there's still interest in the project.

I'm actually the one who was originally doing this project. My other PC contains Region 0 and Region A. It pretty much fell by the wayside when AEG stopped responding to Doug altogether over a year ago. I ran my group through most of it on the fly without typing it into FG, other than the absolute necessary parts.

[Netjera]

I'm actually the one who was originally doing this project. My other PC contains Region 0 and Region A. It pretty much fell by the wayside when AEG stopped responding to Doug altogether over a year ago. I ran my group through most of it on the fly without typing it into FG, other than the absolute necessary parts.

Are you going to pick it back up if the interest is renewed? I was intending to get the whole thing into FG piece-by-piece anyways.

[Emrak]

Quick question (and summary):

Paizo - isn't allowing their IP onto FG2 because the program won't natively run on a Mac. That's dumb, but whatever. But what is the status of their "unofficial" support for products in FG2? Or was that just BS from Paizo? Or are talks still ongoing?

Green Ronin - I'd like to begin a Dragon Age ruleset at some point (probably only have an hour or two a week to commit, so it'd probably take till December if I was consistent? Or maybe I'm being optimistic. ;)). Has there been any talks with them?

Fantasy Flight - And just to confirm, I assume FFG is still giving the old "don't call us, we'll call you" line?

Thanks

P.S.---FG2 rocks! Only had it for a couple weeks and already don't know how I gamed online without it.

[phantomwhale]

I'm putting my hat in the ring now for this one, and clearing my 2012 schedule down a little :

https://www.thedesignmechanism.com/runequest.php

RQ is back (again) - SQUEEEEEE !!!!

[Hye Roler]

Just to say it again...as it's been a while since my last plea... I want Pathfinder material from Paizo... pleasel! :D:D

[ddavison]

We will both be at Gen Con again this year. Make your voice heard when you stop by the Paizo booth and give them one of our cards from our booth. We could be up and running very quickly for Paizo if they gave us a license to convert their products.

Phantomwhale, I've got you down for RQ. That is great news.

[Invain63]

I'm putting my hat in the ring now for this one, and clearing my 2012 schedule down a little :

https://www.thedesignmechanism.com/runequest.php
RQ is back (again) - SQUEEEEEE !!!!

Yahoo! I am pretty sure that they will be easy to work with, but if you need extra help arm-twisting just let me know. I have some very tenuous connections on the Moon Design side that I would be happy to use. :)

Between Savage Worlds and RQ you will be getting most of my FG business! If someone would do a HeroQuest conversion then all my bases will be covered.

-Kevin McD

[ddavison]

Gen Con 2011 is now over and we had a slew of great meetings and discussions with various publishers. Both Paizo and WoTC were great and spent a good deal of time with us at the show. Nothing to report yet, but it was all positive. Fantasy Flight Games was also positive but they didn't actually demo our software or anything, so I don't see this opening any opportunities here just yet.

In the "nearly a done deal" category, we have Green Ronin, AEG and Palladium. They each saw personal demos and walked away impressed and ready to work with us right away. You can just do so much more in person. This should open up some great product offerings for Mutants & Masterminds, True20, WLD, Legend of the Five Rings RPG, D20 products, Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, A Song of Ice and Fire (maybe), etc. Dragon Age probably wouldn't happen due to extra licensing constraints.

I didn't have an opportunity to meet with the guys that make Outbreak Undead, but they stopped by a few times when I was away and said they definitely wanted to work with us on an FG product. They were right across from our booth, so the fact that were with slammed/busy most of the time probably helped a little. We had a few other up and coming RPG companies that expressed interest as well.

This means I'll be sending out a broad call for developers and content creators here shortly. If you like any of these systems and would like to throw your hat in the ring, give me a shout to ddavison at smiteworks dot com.

[drahkar]

Awesome news, indeed!

[XpressO]

Sounds really cool!

[VenomousFiligree]

Gen Con 2011 is now over and we had a slew of great meetings and discussions with various publishers. Both Paizo and WoTC were great and spent a good deal of time with us at the show. Nothing to report yet, but it was all positive. Fantasy Flight Games was also positive but they didn't actually demo our software or anything, so I don't see this opening any opportunities here just yet.

In the "nearly a done deal" category, we have Green Ronin, AEG and Palladium. They each saw personal demos and walked away impressed and ready to work with us right away. You can just do so much more in person. This should open up some great product offerings for Mutants & Masterminds, True20, WLD, Legend of the Five Rings RPG, D20 products, Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, A Song of Ice and Fire (maybe), etc. Dragon Age probably wouldn't happen due to extra licensing constraints.

I didn't have an opportunity to meet with the guys that make Outbreak Undead, but they stopped by a few times when I was away and said they definitely wanted to work with us on an FG product. They were right across from our booth, so the fact that were with slammed/busy most of the time probably helped a little. We had a few other up and coming RPG companies that expressed interest as well.

This means I'll be sending out a broad call for developers and content creators here shortly. If you like any of these systems and would like to throw your hat in the ring, give me a shout to ddavison at smiteworks dot com.
I think you might have had more response if you'd given this news its own thread!

Good to hear btw :)

[PoisonAlchemist]

Alright, can we get some sort of summary and FAQ on this thread? How about collected into a page on the site?

1. If you want to work on a ruleset or module, who do you contact?
2. Do you contact them prior to beginning work or after finishing?
3. What formatting considerations are there? (What goes in headings? What needs bullets? Is the DM to use an overall map or a story entry with links?)
4. What is the updated list of developers and the products they have approved?
5. Who is working on what? How far are they? (this goes in the updated developers and products)
6. What process do converted free/OGL products go through?

[ddavison]

I try to update the first and second posts as soon as anything is official. An FAQ is a good idea though.

Here are the short answers though
1. send an email to [email protected] or [email protected]

2. if you already have something, you can send it in for review. If not, then you can ask us if anyone else is already working on it. We don't supply PDFs for unknown developers but once we see the quality and frequency of your work, we'll try to supply PDFs and raw files as much as possible. Any sample work you can provide is beneficial.

3. We don't make any hard and fast rules here because a lot of the content is driven by what is being converted. We like pushpins linked to story elements whenever possible and outlines of story links can easily sit side-by-side with those. Headings and the like are mostly up to the individual developer/content creator.

4. This should be covered on the 2nd post (page 1). For most of our publishers, we have the right to convert any of their products but just listed the primary targets. Email with any specific questions not already covered.

5. Also on the 2nd post -- although the percentage complete is not really tracked.

6. They still get reviewed, but not as stringently. If a product is only partially OGL, then we are open to selling good quality content in the store. We can help set a price we think would work with the community and if it is original content then you actually come in more like a publisher than a developer. You can basically double-dip between royalties and commissions.

[Netjera]

I try to update the first and second posts as soon as anything is official. An FAQ is a good idea though.

Here are the short answers though
1. send an email to [email protected] or [email protected]

2. if you already have something, you can send it in for review. If not, then you can ask us if anyone else is already working on it. We don't supply PDFs for unknown developers but once we see the quality and frequency of your work, we'll try to supply PDFs and raw files as much as possible. Any sample work you can provide is beneficial.

3. We don't make any hard and fast rules here because a lot of the content is driven by what is being converted. We like pushpins linked to story elements whenever possible and outlines of story links can easily sit side-by-side with those. Headings and the like are mostly up to the individual developer/content creator.

4. This should be covered on the 2nd post (page 1). For most of our publishers, we have the right to convert any of their products but just listed the primary targets. Email with any specific questions not already covered.

5. Also on the 2nd post -- although the percentage complete is not really tracked.

6. They still get reviewed, but not as stringently. If a product is only partially OGL, then we are open to selling good quality content in the store. We can help set a price we think would work with the community and if it is original content then you actually come in more like a publisher than a developer. You can basically double-dip between royalties and commissions.

So now that you've talked to AEG do you think we'll be able to move forward with getting a lot of their modules translated over? I already have Bring Them Back Alive completed, and the World's Largest Dungeon started (although someone else said they'd finished it, I think?)

[ddavison]

I've spoken with Shawn at AEG and I'm just waited on the signed contract to arrive in the mail (literally.) I let them know about the module you have complete, so my guess would be that it could be the first official AEG conversion if you wanted. ;)

Send me an email to ddavison at smiteworks . com and I'll review it and then get you set up as a contributing developer.

As for WLD, we have a few people who have started it and are at various stages. My hope is to get better access to the raw text and images needed to help speed the conversion along. First dibs would go to our current devs for this; however, the rest of the AEG product library is still open.

-Doug

[Netjera]

I've spoken with Shawn at AEG and I'm just waited on the signed contract to arrive in the mail (literally.) I let them know about the module you have complete, so my guess would be that it could be the first official AEG conversion if you wanted. ;)

Send me an email to ddavison at smiteworks . com and I'll review it and then get you set up as a contributing developer.

As for WLD, we have a few people who have started it and are at various stages. My hope is to get better access to the raw text and images needed to help speed the conversion along. First dibs would go to our current devs for this; however, the rest of the AEG product library is still open.

-Doug

Email sent, thanks! I'm so excited! I have several more booster packs from them I can do. =D

[TheMetal1]

Just wanted to give a thumbs up on the news about Green Ronin, AEG and Pallidum! Especailly the later. This is awesome news, I wonder if Hero Lab will get Palladium as well. Having that just for Pen and Paper for character creation would be a dream, but with FGII as well that is awesome. Same thing with Green Ronin's M&M.

[ddavison]

Final stages of inking the deal with Green Ronin for everything but the third-party licenses (e.g. not doing Song of Ice and Fire and DC Adventures.) I've asked for some of the basic files for M&M, True 20, 3rd Era and a few others.

[Talen]

Thats great news! Can you divulge the general scope of the agreement....i.e., can we expect rulesets, supplement modules and adventures or will it be limited to character sheets? Too bad on the 3rd party side, but hopefully the base MM will allow you to easily incorporate the DC Universe material. If the rule support is full featured enough, manually importing shouldnt be too much of a chore...especially if Herolabs support is a possibility.

[unerwünscht]

Talen, to help save ddavison a little time.... Character record sheets can not be copyright nor trademarked. So anything the requires permission is something bigger than that. I myself am not prevy to the details of this negotiation, however I can tell you that anything short of a 100% port would not be worth either companies time and resources.

[ddavison]

The M&M stuff will be a 100% port. True20 and 3rd Era may be released as an extension to 3.5E with supporting library and adventure mods or these might be spun off to stand-alone rulesets... this is still being decided internally.

[biomage]

Will the Mutants & Masterminds be 2nd edition, 3rd edition or both?

[kairos]

Phantomwhale, I've got you down for RQ. That is great news.

Now that Mongoose Runequest is LEGEND and some flavor of OGL, are there any plans for it?

[phantomwhale]

Now that Mongoose Runequest is LEGEND and some flavor of OGL, are there any plans for it?

I'm quite keen to take it on, if and when it becomes available.

Have contacted the authors and was rightly told "come back when it's ready". Will need to make a call on how much time I've got available when it's due for release - ruleset development can be a LONG process and commitment.

[StuartW]

Not sure how close it is to standard BRP. If it's close enough, it can be done through an extension to the BRP ruleset without starting from scratch.

Stuart

[phantomwhale]

Not sure how close it is to standard BRP. If it's close enough, it can be done through an extension to the BRP ruleset without starting from scratch.

Stuart

Think that's where I started when I was trying to do MRQ a while back. I think I ended up having to copy and paste at least 50% of the code I was using to adjust it to be RQ specific (sometimes it was just to change a line in a windowclass, but that still needs a full copy and paste).

Whilst the BRP ruleset is one of the best for extension (I've taken loads of useful tips from there and added them to SWEX to try and get it more extensible), the overall extension model is still a little brittle. In the end it seemed a standalone RQ ruleset would probably be more solid.

That all said, this is my memory from "trying to do my first ruleset". 18 months of SWEX have taught me a thing or 1,000, and I haven't seen the LEGEND rules yet, so will probably do another evaluation if and when it comes around.

[StuartW]

A quick glance over the Legend core rulebook and I think I agree. There are enough minor tweaks away from BRP that an extension really wouldn't work: for example it has both Strike Ranks and Combat Actions.

Stuart

[phantomwhale]

I'm quite keen to take it on, if and when it becomes available.

Have contacted the authors and was rightly told "come back when it's ready". Will need to make a call on how much time I've got available when it's due for release - ruleset development can be a LONG process and commitment.

Sorry - got myself confused here - the above comment was regarding the new Runequest - still not written as of yet.

The LEGEND ruleset, which I also just remembered I also own a copy of (late night eBook purchase !) is of course fully released now.

So I guess there are two questions here - firstly, is there any demand / interest in the LEGEND ruleset ? And secondly, do Smiteworks have an agreement with Mongoose publishing (think they might, as I was looking at MRQ a while back, but best to be sure) ?

[ddavison]

We do have a license with Mongoose but it presently only covers Traveller which is stalled out at the moment. They wanted to license things on a case by case basis. I suspect if we had a fairly functional ruleset ready to go, they'd give us a green light.

[Casimir]

I know that I, for one, would be definitely interested in a Legend RQ ruleset. I'd be willing to assist in it's creation or playtesting as well.

[ddavison]

Hit me up at [email protected] with some info on your current skillset and availability and if you're interested in working it solo or as part of a team.

[CampbellR66]

Gen Con 2011 is now over and we had a slew of great meetings and discussions with various publishers. Both Paizo and WoTC were great and spent a good deal of time with us at the show. Nothing to report yet, but it was all positive. Fantasy Flight Games was also positive but they didn't actually demo our software or anything, so I don't see this opening any opportunities here just yet.

In the "nearly a done deal" category, we have Green Ronin, AEG and Palladium. They each saw personal demos and walked away impressed and ready to work with us right away. You can just do so much more in person. This should open up some great product offerings for Mutants & Masterminds, True20, WLD, Legend of the Five Rings RPG, D20 products, Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, A Song of Ice and Fire (maybe), etc. Dragon Age probably wouldn't happen due to extra licensing constraints.

I didn't have an opportunity to meet with the guys that make Outbreak Undead, but they stopped by a few times when I was away and said they definitely wanted to work with us on an FG product. They were right across from our booth, so the fact that were with slammed/busy most of the time probably helped a little. We had a few other up and coming RPG companies that expressed interest as well.

This means I'll be sending out a broad call for developers and content creators here shortly. If you like any of these systems and would like to throw your hat in the ring, give me a shout to ddavison at smiteworks dot com.


Any update on a Ruleset for 'A Song of Ice and Fire' ?

[malvok]

I notice the last post in this thread is about 10 months old, is there any update?

I'm itching to create a ruleset but before I put too much work into it I want to make sure that copyright issues will not stop me from being able to release it. I'd rather release a ruleset for free but I realize that companies want compensation, so if having it released in the shop is the only way to get it out there, then so be it.

My first choice for a ruleset to create would be Spacemaster/Cyberspace from Iron Crown. I've run many pen and paper games of that in the past and I enjoy the system very much.

If that doesn't pan out then the idea of making a Paranoia ruleset intrigues me. I haven't played it since West End games was selling it but I'm sure I could get up to speed quickly.

[ddavison]

There is no problem releasing a fully public ruleset as long as it doesn't violate any copyright issues. We try to secure as many official contracts as we can so that people will be able to build a ruleset containing all of the copy-written material as well. If you are interested in Iron Crown properties, we do have a license with the new owner of this content.

[grimm182]

Tried to email ddavison but page errors out, so I will post here. :)

I am interested in creating Savage Worlds conversions...
I have done quite a few "PDF to FG" conversions for private use, and I am interested in doing more...i find it oddly enjoyable to convert modules to FG.

I can submit samples of my previous conversions if needed.
Thanks for your time.

[grimm182]

Tried to email ddavison but page errors out, so I will post here. :)

I am interested in creating Savage Worlds conversions...
I have done quite a few "PDF to FG" conversions for private use, and I am interested in doing more...i find it oddly enjoyable to convert modules to FG.

I can submit samples of my previous conversions if needed.
Thanks for your time.

[ddavison]

Hey Grimm, please shoot me an email over at [email protected] and we can discuss further.

[Rands]

Just curious about the legal wranglings in the following scenario, and how it would impact on releasing content for FGII:-

1. WoTC own the ruleset for 4e
2. Adamant Entertainment have released adventures for 4e ruleset (www.adamantentertainment.com) eg Scourge of the Rat-men
3. If Adamant gave their consent for their material to be released via FGII, would WoTC consent be required?

4. Same question for Goodman Games / Ivory Goat Press module material

I may have missed something obvious in the first few posts.....

[lachancery]

It depends on what license agreement Adamant has with WotC; it could restrain the type of distribution or the medium/format Adamant can release on. That's something that Doug (at SmiteWorks) would look into before releasing on their site though.

[Emrak]

Paizo products that are 3.5 compatible do not use "D&D" or reference WOTC (presumably to get around having to pay WOTC a royalty) they simply say "compatible with the world's most popular game system" or some such. Is it permissible to do that here for any given game system? Or simply not reference a game system at all?

As long as the adventure is properly categorized in the FG Store (insuring an adventure designed for "Pathfinder" was in the PF section, for instance), it seems like not mentioning a game system--and of course not using copywrited material-- would work just fine.

Just curious.

Thanks!

[ddavison]

I am not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice, but here is my understanding of the subject matter.

Game rules are not protected by U.S. or international copyright laws. Game content, trade dressing, name and trademarks are protected. If you publish under the OGL license, you get additional use of specific content marked as open game license content but with additional restrictions; otherwise, you need to create your own content. It is possible to create compatible material without violating any copyright laws. In order for rights to be upheld, companies must enforce those rights whenever they become aware of a violation -- hence, that is why you see companies occasionally do something like we just saw with the row about Space Marine on Amazon.

Even if you are allowed to do something by law, that doesn't mean it won't be expensive to defend that right against a larger organization with easier access to lawyers. If you stick to the basics about not re-using "content" you should be fine and then you'd just have to make the call yourself as to whether or not you'd want to fight it out or just drop it if you get hit with a cease and desist. If a larger company wanted to come after you for doing what is within your legal right to do, they'd probably suffer more from bad press then they would gain by harassing you.

After saying all that, I don't think there is anything preventing Goodman Games or Adamant from releasing their products for FG without sign-off by Paizo or WoTC -- unless they already have a special agreement with WoTC stating that this is required.

[unerwünscht]

Game rules are not protected by U.S. or international copyright laws. Game content, trade dressing, name and trademarks are protected.

As a game developer and someone who has to work with copyright, trademarks etc. every single day of his life, I would like to point out that there is a small snag to this logic. Game rules mechanics can not be copyright or trademarked, however they can be patented. Now, lucky for you on the subject of Pathfinder rules the patent is owned by WotC and they have provided the OGL to the public.

[Rands]

OK, so are you able to contact Goodman Games and/or Adamant to see are if they are willing to allow to port their work into FG?

I can make enquiries myself, but would probably be better coming from the FG team....

[AstaSyneri]

Another GenCon has gone by - and by now everybody should have come home and rested up a little bit.

Are there any news on the license front? Any modules or conversion dished out to anybody in the community, but not listed on page 1? I'd really love to know what's coming (or possible).

[Valarian]

Is there any word on a Numenera official ruleset? I'm willing to do the coding and library creation on this if someone else can do the art work. My current Numenera ruleset (personal game) is based on the Foundation Core (so would need Joshuha and PhantomWhale to be okay with me using that as a base. Depending on the release cycle for 3.0, the Core RPG ruleset could also be used as a base and the existing code converted. Hopefully, converting the 2.8 base to a 3.0 base won't be too onerous. I can then get on with library modules.

see: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?19493-Numenera-for-my-Sunday-game

[Moon Wizard]

We've reached out to Monte Cook Games, but have not heard back yet. Given their crazy launch success, I'm not surprised.

I would like to move forward with a ruleset either way without the official graphics or material. I'll send you a note.

Cheers,
JPG

[primarch]

We've reached out to Monte Cook Games, but have not heard back yet. Given their crazy launch success, I'm not surprised.

I would like to move forward with a ruleset either way without the official graphics or material. I'll send you a note.

Cheers,
JPG

Hi!

Has any attempt to contact Pelgrane Press been made for a 13th age rule set?

Primarch

[AstaSyneri]

Putting down for TAG's All for One Swashbuckling rules (SW edition). It's going to be an... interesting experience ;-).

[FraustTheSnowman]

New to FG, but curious about some things.

I saw Banewarrens and Night of Dissolution on the list. I'm very interested in doing these. Are they being worked on by someone else? I ask because being so new to the program I'm a long ways out from having either in a publishable condition, so if someone else is working on them chances are they'll be done well before me...and I'll just buy the product :)

Being that things don't sound as though they've officially worked out with Paizo, I imagine a Pathfinder compatible version would not be kosher to make and offer up for sell here? Or would it be something doable through the OGL?

Lastly, I looked around in the store and saw A Mulhavoc adventure listed under Arcana Evolved. Demon God's Fane I believe, which wasn't written for AE, it was written for D&D 3.0 (maybe .5 but either way). If someone did Banewarrens/NoD would they need to likewise be converted to Arcana Evolved?

I lied, this is the last bit...With something like Banewarrens...this would be just a module correct? It wouldn't need to be a whole ruleset?

[Trenloe]

The Banewarrens is already available: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=WW16111FG2

[damned]

reminder - we have 292 people or thereabouts that voted for a Ruleset Builder in the wishlist - so wherever you are all hiding come out and show some love for the new crowd funding project: https://www.verkami.com/projects/7992-ruleset-wizard-for-fantasy-grounds
If every one of the voters was able to tip in $50 we would have the project funded :)

[Arcknight]

This isn't on topic, but related. I'm a game developer and I'm trying to contact Fantasy Grounds to port our original works over to this system... and I'm not finding contact information for the company anywhere on the site.

[ddavison]

You can reach me here:
[email protected]

or here:
[email protected]

-Doug Davison

[ddavison]

I updated the list with some updates to remove items already completed and to add Green Ronin, Rite Publishing, Pelgrane Press and Evil Hat. I reached out to FFG again and they are not interested at this time.

[ddavison]

If anyone would like to work on a conversion for Zeitgest, please let me know by emailing [email protected]. Ideally, the same person would be able to make both a 4E and a Pathfinder compatible version since all but the stats would be changing.

[grimm182]

I could use another project, let me look and see what Savage Worlds (or Sci-Fi) conversions are available when I get home.

One question I did have, there are quite a few gaming resources (vs. adventures) listed, I am wondering what the catch is to converting these as they seem like they would be trivial to do? :) If there is none than that is also an offer!!

[Mgrancey]

Ownership of the product and whether they have a contract with Smiteworks, some require LUA coding and the number of people capable of that is limited as well.

[ddavison]

I could use another project, let me look and see what Savage Worlds (or Sci-Fi) conversions are available when I get home.

One question I did have, there are quite a few gaming resources (vs. adventures) listed, I am wondering what the catch is to converting these as they seem like they would be trivial to do? :) If there is none than that is also an offer!!

Each of these can be a little different. We try to figure out what makes the most sense for each product. Many of these end up with an extension to provide some form of advanced functionality specific to that product. Perhaps there is a new data type that now needs a new screen or a new section for the character sheet. Other times they are simply conversions of the reference material in the books, the images, npcs and lists of abilities. Those sort of products are typically distributed as library modules and each section launches other windows of indexed and searchable items. You can look at the included modules for many of the rulesets to get an idea of what those look like from an XML standpoint. They are normally built exclusively in an external tool and then packaged into a module as opposed to being built within a blank campaign. Sometimes a combination of the two make sense if you prefer building out NPCs and linking story text and images in a campaign first.

[grimm182]

I guess i did a poor job of my explaining my last post. :)

So lets take an example from the list: Savage Worlds Token Packs or the D20 Original Portrait Packs

These seem like projects that could be done in an hour or so. Which makes me think there is something more complex involved than just importing the art at a certain size/format and wrapping up in an extension.

My bigger point would be, if there is nothing to be done programming-wise then these could be knocked off the list rather quickly versus converting adventures which are time consuming.

Hope that makes better sense.

[ddavison]

Portrait packs and token packs are definitely easier to do. It mostly involves pre-processing these to optimize the file sizes and formats for the game system of choice. Where appropriate, you can use the same source images for both portraits and tokens and just render them out to both locations.

[Mgrancey]

Yes and no, depending on how the images are available you might have little to a lot of image editing to do to make them good and how you output them, I like them to have transparencies around the token, so it can take me more time to work on them.

[Disturbedone0777]

There is an abundance of information in this thread that I am chewing through to try to ensure I'm not asking a repeated question but unfortunately I am just not seeing what I'm looking for exactly. I have intentions of purchasing a few of the modules that FG has on it's stores to check out the format and completeness of those designs. I was looking for the requirements that modules have in order to be published by FG's website? Yes I mean selling on the website to other users of the program.

Where do I go to find the requirements that FG would like in order to consider an adventure ready to publish on their website? Is there a standard design or layout that you guys use specifically? I've grown very accustomed to using your module system to break apart my adventures into pieces (Think like Rise of the Runelords is split into 6 parts, I do that with my modules when I write too, for easy moving in and out story points, NPC's, Treasures, and the like) and I suppose I won't see an example till I buy a completed adventure from the site.

As for the actual licensing issues with the products I have questions on those too but I am reading over this entire thread to make sure they haven't already been answered before asking again. Thanks for your help.

[Trenloe]

Where do I go to find the requirements that FG would like in order to consider an adventure ready to publish on their website? Is there a standard design or layout that you guys use specifically
I've been involved with the editing/review of the AdventureAWeek scenario modules before they are sent to SmiteWorks for publishing in the store. It took us while to settle on exactly what we (AdventureAWeek) were looking for in a FG scenario module - BASIC-3 and U1 are good examples, available here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/?search=&sys=-1&pub=22&typ=-1&x=7&y=16&sort=1

The high level stuff we look for is documented here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/images/b/b7/Adventure-a-Week_Module_Creation_Guide.pdf

This is obviously quite specific to 3.5e/Pathfinder, but a lot of the concepts (story layout, links, maps, shortcuts, encounters, etc.) can be applied to most rulesets.

[Disturbedone0777]

Trenloe you are my hero at responding to my inquiries with haste. I shall purchase those as soon as I am able and eye them over. Thank you once again for your help!

[ddavison]

Trenloe is correct. Those are great examples. I allow a certain amount of flexibility and creative license in adventures posted for sale, but the AAW game versions are great examples.

An area that I occasionally see missed by first time adventure builders is with regard to the images used. Make sure to use a compression tool to make these as small and optimized as possible. I first use PhotoShop (or a free but similar tool) to scale the image so that a square on a gridded map is exactly 50 pixels, 100 pixels, etc. This make sure that the FG grid will overlay it perfectly and won't drift off as you approach the edges of the map. After that is done, I make sure the image file is as small as possible. Keep the resolution the same, just shrink it.

Here is a post on a free utility to shrink image sizes.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20303-Please-optimize-your-images-in-your-ruleset-tokens-battlemap-and-such!

[Disturbedone0777]

Appreciate the advise there as well Ddavison. I do still have a ways to go to becoming familiar enough with fantasy grounds to meet all requirements but this at least gave me an idea of where I need to work on things to get ready to write and submit my first adventure to you guys. So as not to clog up the forum with question after question if it is alright by you two I will just PM you if I need future advise or help :)

[ddavison]

Sounds good. I'd also recommend email directly instead of PM. I like having better access to attachments and the like.
[email protected] is normally good enough to reach me.

[AstaSyneri]

Just wondering about a few Savage Worlds settings: I am missing Weird Wars: Rome and Tour of Darkness in the store.

There seems to be a conversion for WW: Rome, or was Mask of Winter's desktop (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?21390-LFP-Weird-Wars-Rome-Savage-World) just for his own benefit?

Tour of Darkness has counters in the store, but not the book itself.

Lastly, is there any contact to the creators of Achtung, Cthulhu! (Modiphius) or High Space (Storyweaver)? They are not on the list yet, but look like interesting settings as well...

Now that I am (finally!) getting the hang of it with All for One, I need to plan ahead ;-).

[Mask_of_winter]

Weird wars Rome and Achtung! Cthulhu are incomplete at this point.

[AstaSyneri]

Weird wars Rome and Achtung! Cthulhu are incomplete at this point.

But you (or somebody else?) are working on them?

[Mask_of_winter]

I've hit a bump in the extension(skin) for Weird Wars Rome so it's on the back burner indefinitely at this point. As for Achtung! Cthulhu, it's someone else's baby, I was helping him but he's now busy working on the Shadowrun 5e ruleset.

[phantomwhale]

As for Achtung! Cthulhu, it's someone else's baby, I was helping him but he's now busy working on the Shadowrun 5e ruleset.

Probably adding in support for all the extra handfuls of d6 the system will need to support...

Shame about Achtung! Cthulhu, that's something I was very passionate about, and stepped back when I saw other's were working on it.

[grimm182]

I am still up for converting any Savage Worlds Adventures/Modules/Resources, if anyone has suggestions. :)
Non-Savage Worlds stuff I could be persuaded on I think...I just dont do code...so no rulesets.

[AstaSyneri]

There is a whole list in the first few posts here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?11156-Want-to-produce-official-FG-products-adventures-rulesets).

I am on the lookout for some juicy settings myself to do after All for One - Régime Diabolique is release (unfortunately Wiggy has updated none of the other AFO material for Savage Worlds - it's all Ubiquity :( ).


I am still up for converting any Savage Worlds Adventures/Modules/Resources, if anyone has suggestions. :)
Non-Savage Worlds stuff I could be persuaded on I think...I just dont do code...so no rulesets.

[Rogue]

I'd like to inquire about Palladium. Palladium fantasy to be exact, but their rule system is pretty universal across all their games. Is it possible to make a Palladium fantasy ruleset? Has it already been done? If so, where can I find it? I thank you for your time.

[ddavison]

We had a good conversation with someone at Palladium several years back. I think the biggest challenge resulted in the state of the PDFs they had available. Most of their library was not in a clean digital format that would make conversion easy.

[Rogue]

Hmmm, with the new "Digital Age" and all, maybe things have changed. It might be worth talking to them again.

[PopinFRESH]

Hello Doug,

I wanted to ask if there is any consideration of working with Valve on integration of Steam Workshop and their desire to build out a system to allow for paid community created content. I figured this would probably be the best thread to bring this up in since it's all about user created content. As you may be aware Valve garnered a pretty big backlash of immaturity with their attempt to bring this functionality to The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim community with paid mods support for the Skyrim Workshop. I believe that Fantasy Grounds on the other hand would prove to be a great fit for paid content support in the Steam Workshop for a couple reasons. First, I believe that the target audience for Fantasy Grounds tends to be a little more mature in their thought process so as to not have such an emotionally driven response. Secondly, this community seems to be much more appreciative for those who create things that enable or empower their gaming, and are thus more willing to pay for that content.

There would obviously be a little more complexity involved as you would be adding Valve to the revenue share, as well as needing to work with the many publishers to modify their contracts to allow such a system. You would be much better equipped to determine if the draw from Steam support would be worth the effort as you have your sales data from Steam vs direct sales for Fantasy Grounds itself. Another thing to consider is what type of content could be made available via a system like Steam Workshop. This could be a fairly big change with the move over to Unity as there is the potential for things such as 3d miniatures (tokens), map tile objects, etc. There are plenty of people on Steam who do great work with 3d modeling who would probably like to create things such as these even if they didn't plan on playing via Fantasy Grounds. I'll leave it at that as I'm sure you are perfectly capable of researching this and making a sound decision if it's something that might work out. If you do end up talking to Valve regarding this I'd love to get an update on it.

Thanks again for all the work you guys do at SmiteWorks.
-PopinFRESH

REF:
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/workshoppaymentinfofaq/

[Trenloe]

I wanted to ask if there is any consideration of working with Valve on integration of Steam Workshop...
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/-1/558755529425969417/?appid=252690

[PopinFRESH]

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/-1/558755529425969417/?appid=252690

Hey Trenloe,

"...and their desire to build out a system to allow for paid community created content." was more of the question, however, I wasn't aware of the initial work on Steam Workshop support in the first place so thanks for that link! I'll keep an eye on that page for more info.

Thanks again,
-PopinFRESH

[Trenloe]

"...and their desire to build out a system to allow for paid community created content." was more of the question
From my viewpoint this would be changing the current community environment (where 99.9% of community produced material is provided free of charge). I don't want to stop someone getting a bit of beer money for their efforts, but this would be quite a reversal of the general environment we have now.

As soon as someone pays for something they'll expect more. More functionality, more support for issues; and this is the big one: their paid for ruleset/extension/module to be kept up-to-date with future FG releases. The regularity that SmiteWorks releases new FG functionality is quite amazing - unfortunately, this can have the effect of breaking extensions written for previous versions of FG (even minor releases like 3.0.10 to 3.0.11 broke some extensions) and to a lesser extent custom rulesets and modules. A lot of products on Steam rarely get updated so there's little impact or community based content wouldn't be effected significantly by such updates. FG is a different beast entirely...

[damned]

Its a catch 22 - your Star Wars project has clocked in at around 500 hours. It would be nice if people could reward you for that effort (with anything more than upvoting your shiny reputation - go on folks - use that reputation button). On the other hand - you would likely never get recompensed anything that could come close to making it anything other than slave labour. And then as you point out... it needs supporting... so you either do it for "love" or you do it for "peanuts" and hope that the chains dont weigh too heavily...
Id be in favour of it if it brings more rulesets and more quality products to the table.
Also being able to have permanent CoreRPG versions/releases available could help reduce the maintenance effort but that is not something that SW want to do right now. You could package up CoreRPG3010 and bundle it with your ruleset if you didnt want to do he maintenance to keep it up to date etc.

[vikingbrad]

While I can understand the concern with compatibility with extensions and rulesets what I'd like to see is an easier way to obtain & run modules.

Would love to be able to buy a simple 3-4 encounter adventure module as a 1-shot downloadable and installable from Steam. Priced around $5-$10 for one night's entertainment. I'd expect Smiteworks to get a decent portion of that. Probably recommend 5e as system but that probably brings up issues with WOTC.

Once a few more people get familiar with creating modules should be quite a lot of content available from a service like this.

[Trenloe]

Would love to be able to buy a simple 3-4 encounter adventure module as a 1-shot downloadable and installable from Steam. Priced around $5-$10 for one night's entertainment. I'd expect Smiteworks to get a decent portion of that.
There's already modules like this available in that price point as downloadable DLC through Steam or via the update mechanism directly from the FG Store. Look at the AAW games line for Pathfinder (I think there's 9 or 10 available), plenty of scenarios for Savage Worlds various settings, the one-on-one scenarios, Rite Publishing's adventure quarterly, 0one games basic series, etc., etc..

Yeah it would be great to have more - I'm pretty sure SmiteWorks have a bunch awaiting conversion. The usual issue is people spending the time to do a *quality* conversion of products. We need more people to convert scenarios, settings, etc. to Fantasy Grounds.

[vikingbrad]

There's already modules like this available in that price point as downloadable DLC through Steam or via the update mechanism directly from the FG Store. Look at the AAW games line for Pathfinder (I think there's 9 or 10 available), plenty of scenarios for Savage Worlds various settings, the one-on-one scenarios, Rite Publishing's adventure quarterly, 0one games basic series, etc., etc..

Yeah it would be great to have more - I'm pretty sure SmiteWorks have a bunch awaiting conversion. The usual issue is people spending the time to do a *quality* conversion of products. We need more people to convert scenarios, settings, etc. to Fantasy Grounds.

There you go, I didn't even know, thanks.

I'm more interested in the 5E stuff and I guess that will get into murky licensing area. First though will have to learn the system and how to build/convert a module.

[Nylanfs]

Look for the Adventure a week module guide. That's what I'm using for my RttToEE campaign.

[Trenloe]

Look for the Adventure a week module guide. That's what I'm using for my RttToEE campaign.
Available to download from the "Modules" section here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Developer_Guides

[Wolfheart]

I hope someone makes a ruleset based on A Song of Ice and Fire (Green Ronin)! Does anyone know?

[damned]

I hope someone makes a ruleset based on A Song of Ice and Fire (Green Ronin)! Does anyone know?

I dont think there is anything currently in the works...

[kavaliro]

I dont think there is anything currently in the works...

There is. I haven't touched it in a while, but it's something I want bad enough to do it myself. So yeah, it's in the works, sorta, but no promises.

It *almost* can be played with coreRPG, but coreRPG can't do the dice rolls because it doesn't speak standard dice notation. I have an extension which adds the dicerolls, based off Aki's extension. So it's something like /roll6nk [totaldice]B[bonusdice] [description]. That gives you "roll [totaldice] number of six siders but drop the lowest [bonusdice]." It could be cleaned up, but my plan is to include the dice in the ruleset, so I haven't bothered. Maybe I'll pick it back up since there's some interest.

[MadBeardMan]

The second post by Doug needs to be be updated, I've done the Fatal Experiments conversion for CoC and I know that some of the others are done/complete.

Be nice if this was a wiki somewhere, so it's easy to check who's doing what.

[damned]

I have some Tekumel on my RPG book case... somewhere!

[Full Bleed]

Out of curiosity, are there any plans to make custom extensions available for sale/purchase?

[damned]

Hi Full Bleed - what in particular are you after?
Most of the extensions have been released freely as are the community rulesets.
Sometimes someone will even make up an extension that someone else has expressed an interest in.

[ddavison]

Yes, we could do that. It all depends on what the extension does. I could see some people wanting to buy a cool extension that adds a certain functionality. The challenge is always that the developer would have to be very active to maintain compatibility as the base ruleset and engine changes over time. The ruleset devs already do a fair amount of this, but most of the content developers don't need to worry as much about it.

[Full Bleed]

Hi Full Bleed - what in particular are you after?
Well, I suspect that more useful/desirable extensions might be released, maintained, and updated if compensation was involved. And it would, likewise, provide another revenue outlet to FG developers.

It looks like there are people being compensated for custom maps, modules, and token sets... but not extensions.


Most of the extensions have been released freely as are the community rulesets.
Sometimes someone will even make up an extension that someone else has expressed an interest in.
It actually seems like *all* extensions that I have looked at have been released freely... and I haven't seen anything in the store to indicate otherwise. I wondered if there was some technical or policy hurdle at play and could not find anything that explicitly spelled things out one way or another.



Yes, we could do that. It all depends on what the extension does. I could see some people wanting to buy a cool extension that adds a certain functionality. The challenge is always that the developer would have to be very active to maintain compatibility as the base ruleset and engine changes over time. The ruleset devs already do a fair amount of this, but most of the content developers don't need to worry as much about it.
Ok, this is as I suspected.

Out of curiosity, what is ruleset policy regarding engine changes? That is, if an engine change breaks a ruleset what is the obligation/expectation of the ruleset devs? Has this happened yet? Is the end user at the mercy of the ruleset dev's quick response to create compatibility? Or is there some way to continue using a compatible FG version?

[ddavison]

Okay, so we talked about this some more yesterday. The main problem we see with extensions is maintenance and testing. If something is temporarily broken on a free product, it can lead to a bad user experience, but not nearly as bad as if someone paid money for a product that is now broken. There will be an expectation that "if I buy something, it should work." That is as it should be. For that reason, we've decided that it is very unlikely that we would recommend selling extensions in the store.

The better solution might be for developers to contact us and request permission to monetize it and distribute it outside of Fantasy Grounds. This would enable them to locate a "donate" button on a web page where people could contribute to future development.

[Morik]

Anyone working on implementing Exalted 3rd Edition, by any chance?

[tadkil]

Same here. As someone with young children and little time, VTTs are the only way I get to game at the moment. When the kids get a little older, I might be able to get back to attending a club somewhere, but not for a few years yet.

Wait until the age a bit. Kids make great gamers. One of the best moments of my life was when my 8 year old said, "I power attack for full. Bring it Daddy!"

[dulux-oz]

Wait until the age a bit. Kids make great gamers. One of the best moments of my life was when my 8 year old said, "I power attack for full. Bring it Daddy!"

Truth - my daughter (now 23 - yes, I was a "child-groom") is one of the hardest RPGer's out there - and she's used her RPG skills and knowledge both in obtaining her Psychology Degree and in landing a part-time job at EB Games (while still at Uni). Some of the best times we've had is when we've been pitted against each other; me as the GM/BBEG trying to thwart the PCs and her and the others trying to thwart me - fun, fun times.

And it p!sses off my ex-wife that I've got a hobby I can share with my daughter - so BONUS!!!! :P

[Tuatara]

Patiently waiting for my 4yo and 6yo girls to reach the age where I can indoctrinate them into gaming. Muhuhuhahahaha they will have no choice but to be players in my games!

Adventure Time has a good RPG and the Monster Slayers modules are easily put into FG.

[LordEntrails]

6 isn't too young. I think that was the age my son was when I first got him playing 3E Mini's. Had him pick two mini's that he liked, then I told him about the abilities of each and asked him their names and a few questions about their backgrounds. I wrote that all down, then added two mini's for my own PC's so the party was a bit balanced. Then we started playing with simple combats and role playing. I kept track of all the mechanics and focused on fun, i.e. if he rolled close to a hit, then I described it as a hit or miss depending upon what the mood needed to be. Always making sure he was the hero.

He's 14 now, and we play 5E via FG at least once a week with two different groups.

[Callum]

Patiently waiting for my 4yo and 6yo girls to reach the age where I can indoctrinate them into gaming. Muhuhuhahahaha they will have no choice but to be players in my games!

Adventure Time has a good RPG and the Monster Slayers modules are easily put into FG.

I've played Hero Kids (https://herokidsrpg.blogspot.co.uk/) with my 5-year-old, and he seemed to really enjoy it! He asked to play, though...