D20/OGL spells in a C&C Module, anyone?

[dr_venture]

I'm porting over some material from D20 sources, and some of it includes references to D20 spells that do not have counterparts in the C&C Player's Handbook. Since I've already imported all of the D20 stuff into XML, I'm thinking that I'll put all of the D20 spells into their own module in draggable Fantasy Grounds spell format... i.e., so you can drag them straight onto a character sheet or into modules. This has me wondering:

1) Has anybody done this already, or is there a simple way of just tweaking the existing FG 3.5 files to work with C&C? Assuming that's legally okie-dokie, of course.

2) If I port all that over, is anyone else here interested? If so, where would I put it for folks. Again, seeing as this is all OGL stuff, it should be fair game (no pun intended) to redistribute with requisite legal notices, no?

[Sorcerer]

starting firstly with the legal issues.

I think it is safe to say that if you legally own the d20 spell modules and the C&C ruleset, what you do in your own home (and game) is up to you.

However, if you are thinking of redistributing them then my understanding is that this would not be allowed.

Despite the fact the modules are released under an OGL license, they are still copyrighted materials which may not be (re)distributed (free or for profit), without the say so of the rights holder - in the case of d20 modules for FG that would be smiteworks.

If you do create anything, which you believe would be of value to the community, I would contact Doug Davison and see what he has to say on the matter. I'm sure he will be happy to clarify the legal position.

From the Technical standpoint, what you want to do is relatively easy.

The C&C ruleset was actually developed from the original d20 ruleset, and as far as I know the spell format has not been changed much, if at all since then.

If you rename the d20spell.mod or 3.5Espells.mod as a zip file and then open it as a normal archive
you will see a definition.xml file inside. This file tells FG which ruleset the mod is designed to be used with.

you can open it with notepad.

inside you will see the line

<ruleset>d20</ruleset> in the case of d20spells.mod or

<ruleset>foundation</ruleset> in the case of the 3.5Espells.mod.

changing this to read <ruleset>Castles and Crusades</ruleset> will result in them being recoginzed by the C&C
ruleset, they should display perfectly in the library and all drag and drop features should function the same as
with C&C spells.

Obviously some spell descriptions will not be correct according to C&C rules, the text will have to be edited as required directly in the
client.xml files inside the mods.

Hope that Helps.

[dr_venture]

That helps a lot - thanks! First off, I definitely don't want to step on any legal toes, especially from the point of view that game companies already have enough trouble making a buck without people like me making their lives more difficult. I'll definitely make sure that it's ok before posting anything.

I think I'm getting my game terms mixed up - and I'm not sure what to call everything. I'm not looking to redistribute anything that came with C&C (which, now that you mention it, I remember is based on OGL material).

The stuff I'm working from is a bunch of Word files (named "SpellListI.rtf," "SpellsA-B.rtf," etc.) from WotC that have the rules broken down to rather flavorless generic chunks... but all of the 3.5/D20 spells are there, rather than just the subset that is in C&C). C&C has a smaller subset of those spells, and in mapping the fields from 3.5 to C&C, I've found a few of the fields to have been discarded or otherwise incorporated into C&C in a different format. For instance, the "Focus", "School" (not a concept used in C&C), and "Material Component" fields (amongst a few others) don't map between to C&C. I guess that the discrepancies in spell format and the actual choice of spells are due to C&C aiming for a simpler game, more like old school AD&D.

Anyway, I'll try the edit you suggested (much easier than my way!) and point Doug at this thread and see if he approves.

Thanks, Sorcerer!

[dr_venture]

One thing that might make you guys/Smiteworks happy is to leave out all of the OGL spells which are in the C&C ruleset, or better just link to them for reference. That way the spells are all referenced in one place if you want the extra D20 stuff, but the module would not contain any material, OGL or otherwise, that ships with C&C for FG.

[Sorcerer]

C&C from Troll lord games is itself released under an OGL, so its not just the spells.

I am not part of smiteworks, so I don't know the details, but I assume part of the agreement for producing a ruleset, was that it would be accompanied by the players handbook in its entirety, which of course includes all their spells.

In any case, although the spells are similar, the rules are not the same so many spell descriptions would not be accurate if there were only one module of spells.

[dr_venture]

I sent Doug an email about it - it's up to him, of course. If it works out to post it, then maybe folks will find it useful and build the FG C&C community a bit. If not, I'll still find it useful.

Still loving the 2.0 ruleset - just fantastic!

[Sorcerer]

Glad you like it .. it aged me years putting it together

apart from bug fixes I'm going to give rulesets a rest for a few months while I recover :)