Sharing Modules?

[Answulf]

So I am under the impression that because of copyright laws, for the most part it is illegal to share modules with other GMs - is that correct?

Under what circumstances can you share them? This community really needs a better way to share content.

[grimm182]

To add on to that question, if certain sites like WOTC offer free downloads of modules, cant these (converted to FG) be hosted on this site or another as long as it retains a not for sale/profit use?

[ddavison]

As far as I know, the not-for-profit aspect doesn't greatly impact whether or not it infringes upon someone else's copyright to redistribute something. There are lots of debates about what is specifically allowed or disallowed but only one thing can truly guarantee you won't be sued by someone at that is getting their explicit permission for the use of their intellectual property. Even then, there is never a 100% guarantee.

You might have legal precedence on your side, but defending those rights in court can still be costly. It is best to get permission and save that permission for your own records. Most companies will file a cease and desist first if they believe they have been infringed upon, but I wouldn't count on that as protection.

From my understanding of IP and copyrights:

You...

can NOT copyright game mechanics
CAN copyright descriptive items like settings and adventure modules that tell a story
can NOT prevent the sale of compatible products


So in short, you can freely share any modules you create yourself with your own narrative text and descriptions, images, etc, even if it relies upon a certain game system. The licenses that we have acquired with some publishers allow us to produce conversions of their existing works, which you would not normally be able to do and also allows us to produce modules which reference and build upon their descriptive narratives, use their protected names, etc. This last item is a somewhat gray area that may be redundant to rights you already own but we feel it is safer to proceed under a license.

It is also my understanding that changes to copyright laws over the years have also been retroactive. As an example, changes to copyright made the manufacturer's of the Muppets DVD have to re-master them without a slew of songs before they were allowed to continue selling them.

On top of that, as a company stance, we want to keep the publishers happy and we will happily pay a royalty to them if it means we will be able to continue making conversions of their official products with their full support. Expanding the library of available products and reference material for FG will be a big bonus to all users and a win-win for all parties involved.

Not to get overly philosophical on you, but I was introduced to the Rotarian four-way test for business ethics and I really like it. For them, any business dealing should address the four tests below:


Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build good will and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

[Andalf]

Hi... my D&D group is currently looking for a virtual tabletop, since we started out as students, and now everyone lives in a different city. FG being one of the obvious choices, we tried the demo and are quite pleased.

When we stopped, we were in the middle of "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil". Now, I've seen that there actually are quite a few groups playing that particular adventure on FG.

So now I wonder. We could do all the porting for our adventure by ourselves. But out there is probably someone who already did just that... and probably he was better at it than we'll ever be.

And, that adventure is not for sale on FG. At least I couldn't find it.

So would it be okay if somebody were to provide us with a FG-Campaign for that adventure? I don't see us stealing anything, since we bought the adventure book.

[ddavison]

We do not currently have a license to provide this module for sale, although we are actively pursuing a license. It can be a little time consuming entering it all into FG, but it can still go pretty quickly if you plan to use the module in printed format next to your laptop/computer as you play. In that regard, you would only need to scan in any maps and key in boxed text and NPC stats. If you had a PDF version of the module or an OCR'd version you could copy and paste most of it. For performance, I would recommend keeping the map file sizes as small as possible.

Additionally, you only really need to input enough stuff in advance to cover you for the next session. I wouldn't bother doing more than the 1st or 2nd level of the temple until they've actually reached that point in the adventure for instance.

[Andalf]

Thanks for the quick answer. =)

Since we are somewhere in the middle (since I'm not the GM, I don't know how much is still ahead), there'll be quite a few maps to convert and NPCs to create for the first session. But I guess after that, it'll be just like you said.

[Tenian]

If you're actually making a module of it and doing it in stages (i.e. you do the first floor one month, the second floor the next). It is important to note that building the module will invalidate (and remove) any grids/masks you already had laid out.

Thus if the party could potentially go back and forth between two areas and it's important to keep something masked off (a secret tunnel for example), each time you rebuild the module, you'll have to remask it.

[ddavison]

That assumes that you will export the data to a module each time. You can also build everything directly into your campaign as you progress and then remove them from the campaign when it is no longer needed. If you don't intend to re-use it later, like with another group, the campaign method is probably the most straight forward.

[Griogre]

I like to update adventure modules pretty much continuously even after the players have started the module. I also sometimes am only a session or two ahead of the players. Data input is no fun so I usually do a little as possible unless I’m doing a commercial release. Like Tenian said this can be a problem with maps and masks because re-exporting a map after you started using it causes that information to lost.

What I do is just copy the module maps from the adventure module into the base campaign and run off the maps there. That way regardless of how much I update the module, the maps I'm actually running the game on never lose their updates. When I finish that adventure I just delete the maps from the main campaign. Should the players want to go back to the adventure and I need the maps I just open the module maps. Doing it this way allows you the flexibility of updating the module as much as you want while not losing map data or cluttering up our main campaign with old adventures – plus if you want to you can always load old module if the party goes back for some reason.

If you plan to use VOIP, it should be emphasized that to run a FG game easily you only need the maps and monsters - you can read the adventure descriptions from a module by the keyboard or your notes – just like in a face to face game.

[HDresden]

I gotta agree. I'm running a game right now. And entering the powers and stuff is a pain. But you only really need to do it for creatures/traps Maps & Tokens. Have each player do and maintain their own and you should be golden. I plan out sections of my game in I have several maps of places they could end up going. And same with creatures I tend to run theme arcs though so like right now my group is dealing with goblins.. They probably well for 2-3 levels. So I pretty much got most of the goblin templates down, and then I just copy the creature and scale up or down. That only leaves me the named folks or elite solo's to really work with. So really with traps /Creatures I have about 15 base. And most of them scaled at different levels (which is only like 3-4 adjustments).

I actually found map tools much harder for prepping then this, however you can do a hell of a lot more with maps in map tools. The extra work I had to do for prepping Just made FG seem easier to me.