Fan Based Community Content...

[ShotGun Jolly]

Hey all..

This one is for the Staff. If you are not a SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds staffer I ask that you do not try to answer my question, but feel free to comment.

Is there official guidelines for posting fan made content? I have had this topic pop up a few times before, and each time its slightly different or sounds halved informed.
I want to make sure that I do things right, I want to be an active contributing member to be able to share the things I make with people who are unable to make them, but would enjoy them.

I know I can make anything for myself and cant share those. But what about the ones I want to share?

A few years back, I made a vassal mod for one of my favorite games made by Steve Jackson Games, they had a policy for fan based content which I followed to the letter and I never once had a problem. I was hoping to be directed towards something similar here?

Anyways, I have a list of questions but I wont say them here, as I am not sure if this is the proper place to discuss those. So if one of the official staff could send me a PM I could ask those questions there.

Thanks for the listening.

[ddavison]

You can email us at [email protected] with your specific questions. That address hits both John and my accounts. It's a pretty open ended question and so the answer is mostly, it depends.

[LordEntrails]

I do agree with Shotgun that it would be good to have a general guideline, perhaps in the Wiki or elsewhere we could refer to. I think I know the answers, or at least what I'm comfortable with, but I think it would benefit us all and especially help new comers step into contributing.

[Zhern]

Agreed. Most RPG publishers have a style guide for contributors to follow. It would be very useful to have something similar for the community Fantasy Grounds content.

[LordEntrails]

Agreed. Most RPG publishers have a style guide for contributors to follow. It would be very useful to have something similar for the community Fantasy Grounds content.
I think a style guide is a bit different than a content guide (i.e. what is allowable in terms of IP and such).

IMO, the community is quite capable of producing style guides, and I don't think I would want SW taking time away from FGU or other efforts to put them together. For instance, there is the Adventure Creation (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?33538-Adventure-Module-Creation-Best-Practices) guide that seems to be pretty well accepted. People could put ones together for other types of modules too.

[Zhern]

Yes, it is different. I was using it as an example but also as something that would be beneficial too. I should have clarified. Yes, a content guide that outlines legalities would be most helpful, but if there were a style guide for creating FG content then it might also be useful, and would likely help newer people (like myself) who want to develop custom content to stick to a well defined pattern.