The Most Insane Hello World you will ever hear in your life.

[David Foxfire]

You are not going to believe what you're about to read. You will not believe that you will have people asking permission to use a program, to support a business, to be someone's customer. It’s something neither one of us would ever consider doing, not in a sane world.

But it’s the Current Year. We’re not in a sane world.

Because of the over the tendency of not just social media to ban people because of political views, but also financial businesses, credit card companies, and even brick and mortar businesses would refuse to do business with someone who doesn’t fit into their narrow views of what is acceptable discourse. You don’t even have to do anything that would be controversial just six months ago. One errant tweet or post—and you don’t have to be the one posting this—and you would be removed from several sites in one swift stroke and possibly regarded as a non-person in what should be a public place where you should be able to use without being harassed, rejected, or blocked from using.

Say what you want with a certain alternative news personality I won’t mention here, what happened to that person started a very chilling precedent. I don’t want to talk about slippery slopes—First they came for blah blah blah then they came for me—but I know history.

Because of this tendency for businesses, charities, and even banks to refuse people who have controversial—it doesn’t need to be extreme, and I am not. Just favoring the First Amendment, arguing points of view that are to the left of Stalin—I’m more of a classical liberal with views that place me in Purple territories. Just saying “God Bless America” is enough to be called a Nazi in some quarters—I have zero confidence that any site or service would want to do business with me. I will not even consider a company that does not want me as a customer. Nobody should.

Therefore, I’d like to tell you what I wish to do, and then ask if you wouldn’t mind me using your business for this:

I am a Player, Dungeon Master, and creator of both campaigns and campaign settings, using Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. I’m even gathering my many home rules and creating a system of variant rules to streamline play. Not only do I want to promote this ‘Swifttail Writing Style’ but to also promote a campaign setting, which will be a setting for both a series of campaigns and several novels, which is inspired by some of the more unsettling trends in modern day politics.

The campaign setting is named Æthercoil and it takes a traditional RPG world (like the Forgotten Realms) and gives it a post-apocalyptic twist: Set after the fall of the modern real world, mankind has regressed back to the dark ages, brought upon by the ultimate result of several real-world far-left political trends who degraded into dystopian territories. Because of this, the modern day, western culture, and America has been forgotten, erased not just in existence but history as well. After this dystopia fell by itself, several factors created rifts in this world to a pair of magical realms that converted this world into a high fantasy Tolkienesque world. What was once the world we live in has become a world of Dungeons & Dragons.

But the Lost Age, as they call it, has not been completely erased from existence. Relics from this forgotten era and civilization, from inventions to locations, to even concepts and abstract ideas, are hidden from the bonfires and sledgehammers of the dystopic rulers. They remain in this setting waiting to be found. In an Æthercoil adventure, the party finds one of these relics, and find out what to do with it. Would they be able to reincorporate it into their reality and improve it, or would they fall into the same pitfalls that troubled those in the Lost Age?

This is what I want to create online, and if it were at all possible, publish for a living. This is what I want to do to make a living. This is what I want to do with Fantasy Grounds. The problem is, would Fantasy Grounds want me to use their program, and would they want my money.

What I don’t know is whatever or not if you want any part of this. I shouldn’t have to ask if you want any business with me. But it's 2018-2019. I have to. In this hyper-politicized world, I do not have confidence as a customer or consumer in any business. I don't know if my bank card won't work for me tomorrow.

If you like to do business with me, please return my mail and say that I can. I’ll jump at signing up the moment I receive your response. If you don’t want me as part of your customers, don’t respond. I will not contact you or bother you again.

If I'm banned from this forum after I posted this, I'll also get a clue and look for another service that would want my business.

I look forward to hearing from you, provided that you’d want to have me. I hope that we can have a profitable relationship for both of us.

[JohnD]

Due to a neurological condition if found that difficult to read. You also lost me at 5e since it isn't my preferred ruleset.

That said... you seem to have passion and enthusiasm that haven't yet been ground beneath someone's jackboot.

You may want to approach SmiteWorks directly, but I am far from an expert in these things.

[damned]

Generally the powers that be do nt read every post on these forums.
As far as publishing material for 5e on Fantasy Grounds you typically need to be an established publisher to do so first.
Or you publish via DMsGuild but the DMsGuild only allows you to publish material that is setting agnostic or set in one of the approved settings.

Thus you would need a different distribution/publication avenue and that will require an agreement with SmiteWorks - so do as JohnD suggests and contact the business by email.

Good luck.

[David Foxfire]

My apologize if what I said in the original post sounded a bit hard to read. (Autism will do that to a person) But you're right, I have a passion and a fear that some jackboot would stomp it. If you have problems understanding what I said, I apologize.

I'm not asking for SmiteWorks to help me publish anything. (I have plenty of other venues to do that) I'd just want to use Fantasy Grounds to use as a Virtual Tabletop to work with for my games, as an alternative to Roll20. I know that Fantasy Grounds are a lot more customer friendly than Roll20, but I'm paranoid over the jackboot.

Thank you very much for not banning me right off the start.

[damned]

So... this is a place to discuss Fantasy Grounds and gaming on Fantasy Grounds.
Providing your posts and discussions are mostly about that and not so much about the political environments in which we live or where we are headed I dont see an issue.
The world is not censorship free but you are given some latitude here.
Most of us are here to read and learn and share about Fantasy Grounds and related. If your content mostly fits that mold then you should be fine.

[CrawlingChaox]

This wasn't the most insane by a long shot, just the most overly dramatic one. I'm not stepping into the territory of whether you needed to be so long-winded or not: honestly, some people will agree with you, others won't, and it's ok. But the truth of the matter is that if you plan to do gaming stuff, 90% of what you wrote is just extra. And it feels (to me, at least) that you're mostly trying to bait someone into considering your views problematic and banning you, so that you can get some confirmation (and the satisfaction that naturally comes with it).

I'm not blaming you for this: it's how our brains tend to work. But in this case it felt really transparent, and no one likes to be taken for a fool.

Here is my advice, if you're willing to take it: if you have a product, have it stand on its own. People will figure out whether the social/cultural climate is bad or not on their own, if something arises that requires that judgement from them. Another pointer: no good business will partner with a complete stranger with nothing to show, and it has nothing (or very little) to do with politics. I don't expect my modules to be sold on Fantasy Grounds' web store, as good as they might be, because it's not the level they operate on.

Now, can you make your own modules and distribute them the way you see fit? Absolutely. I don't know the specifics, but a variety of creators have been offering FG conversions of their modules on storefronts such as the DM's Guild. You can always use the official avenues of inquiry (and no, the forum is not the best one) to ask about that, and you'll probably be fine.

Your project sounds a lot like a videogame that made some noise last year, and again: game content can be political, it can be controversial, it can be whatever you want it to be. It's up to you to find an audience, and to produce something good that will draw people to it. If you're only riding controversy, people will notice pretty fast.

Make your product and make it as good as you can. Complaining about censorship preemptively will take you nowhere.

[Valarian]

The campaign setting is named Æthercoil and it takes a traditional RPG world (like the Forgotten Realms) and gives it a post-apocalyptic twist: Set after the fall of the modern real world, mankind has regressed back to the dark ages, brought upon by the ultimate result of several real-world far-left political trends who degraded into dystopian territories. Because of this, the modern day, western culture, and America has been forgotten, erased not just in existence but history as well. After this dystopia fell by itself, several factors created rifts in this world to a pair of magical realms that converted this world into a high fantasy Tolkienesque world. What was once the world we live in has become a world of Dungeons & Dragons.

But the Lost Age, as they call it, has not been completely erased from existence. Relics from this forgotten era and civilization, from inventions to locations, to even concepts and abstract ideas, are hidden from the bonfires and sledgehammers of the dystopic rulers. They remain in this setting waiting to be found. In an Æthercoil adventure, the party finds one of these relics, and find out what to do with it. Would they be able to reincorporate it into their reality and improve it, or would they fall into the same pitfalls that troubled those in the Lost Age?

Your project sounds a lot like a videogame that made some noise last year, and again: game content can be political, it can be controversial, it can be whatever you want it to be. It's up to you to find an audience, and to produce something good that will draw people to it. If you're only riding controversy, people will notice pretty fast.
The setting also sounds a little like Terry Brooks' Shannara setting, in that it's a post-apocalyptic world which now has the fantasy elements. The ruleset isn't for me, as I don't tend to play D&D, but I'm sure that there'd be some market for a setting book. As people mention above, perhaps look at the DM Guild or DriveThruRPG for self-publishing a PDF of a setting book. For a Fantasy Grounds adaptation, I'd suggest contacting the support email address (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/faq.php?faq=miscellaneous#faq_faq_developing).

[epithet]

Generally the powers that be do nt read every post on these forums.
As far as publishing material for 5e on Fantasy Grounds you typically need to be an established publisher to do so first.
Or you publish via DMsGuild but the DMsGuild only allows you to publish material that is setting agnostic or set in one of the approved settings.

Thus you would need a different distribution/publication avenue and that will require an agreement with SmiteWorks - so do as JohnD suggests and contact the business by email.

Good luck.

Damned is correct in part, but not entirely. It sounds like what you want to do is create a complete setting that works with the D&D 5e ruleset, but doesn't make much use of the more flavorful elements of the D&D IP. You might be better off using the Open-Gaming License (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd), which will give you a lot more latitude and allow you to offer your product in places other than the DMs Guild (like, for example, the Fantasy Grounds store.) On the OGL page of the Wizards of the coast site, they specifically recommend this approach for people who "want to publish my original campaign world using fifth edition rules."

As an example, Sasquatch published an original setting, "Primeval Thule," that uses either the Pathfinder or D&D 5e rule systems (there are different versions) using the OGL, and has made Fantasy Grounds modules of that content available for purchase here on the FG store.

Regarding "banning" you, as far as I have seen there are no tests of ideology here, just don't act like a butt hole. Without regard for any "jackboot" issues, I can assure you that despite lagging a bit in the area of map tools, Fantasy Grounds is overall a vastly superior platform for running your D&D games compared to Roll20. I have used both, and I feel very comfortable with the statement that I would never choose to use Roll20, and only use when I have to (specifically when someone I play with needs a browser-based solution.)

[LordEntrails]

Be aware, the OGL does not grant any rights for publishing using the FG format. The only way you can publish anything in the FG format is to either; 1) publish on the DMsGuild (which also means you otherwise comply with the DMsGuild CCA which prohibits settings other than a few specific allowed settings), or 2) contact SmiteWorks to obtain a license to allow distribution through other channels (such as the FG Store or DriveThruRPG, etc.

[esmdev]

If I were going to do something like this I would:

1) Start with the OGL and develop (on paper) the core rules.
2) Take the core rules I've developed and test the rules.
3) Fix any issues and imbalances with those rules, repeating step 2 as needed.
4) Using the rules, flesh out a small part of the setting.
5) Provide general detail on the larger setting providing room for expansion.
6) Test your setting and make sure it works the way you want it too.
7) Combine everything together and have someone (or better multiple someones) read the final product and provide feedback.
8) Using the feedback re-check your setting and determine if I might want to change it or if I feel that I'm happier as is.
(I find others sometimes point out where my thinking is not consistent with my own thinking. :))
9) Once I complete the final document then I'd consider publishing it on dmsguild.com as a PDF.
10) If enough people are interested in it THEN I would consider working to port it to Fantasy Grounds.

Also at some point you might consider establishing your operation as a legitimate business, consider copyright and trademarks. Art and maps are also something that will likely eventually be needed.

I have a 90 page house rule document on Traveller for my that I've been working on for years. I briefly considered publishing it under TAS but decided against it because it would require several months of rewriting and editing to make it consistent across the whole design and it might far exceed the license. Either way everything should be done on paper (and checked for compliance) long before I could consider migrating anything to FG (for sale).

The point is, there is a ton of work that you would need to consider BEFORE you could even begin to bring it to FG. I'm not trying to be discouraging, but want to try and give a basic view of the complexity of bringing a game or campaign to market.

One other thing might be to simplify your pitch, starting with positive and leaving out the first few paragraphs. Keep focused on the setting to avoid distracting potential readers. There were 6 paragraphs before you got to the point, by the time I got to paragraph 7 I was almost certain that you were trolling, fortunately paragraph 7 and on cleared that up so I decided to add my 2 cents, but it was really a struggle to make it to paragraph 7.

Finally, you might consider checking out the FG FAQ here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/faq.php) for questions about support for commercial projects. Also the DM's Guild has additional information here (https://support.dmsguild.com/hc/en-us/categories/202531048-DMs-Guild-General-Information) that covers other specifics that should be kept in mind, especially what you can publish and under what license.

Hopefully you find this helpful.