newbie here...Star Wars d20 ruleset?

[Danthl]

I am a newbie to FG. A bunch of my buddies and I want to play Star Wars d20. Does anyone know of a ruleset out there for it?

Thanks!

[Nokameeno]

A few folks have been playing SW but there is no official ruleset out for the setting. Most out have been compiled by users with the savy to design the sheets and do the XML.

[Doswelk]

Of course the main problem that unless you just want a character sheet, you cannot legally acquire a SW ruleset unless you create it yourself....

Unlike D20 it is not OGL so is subject to copyright....

[Danthl]

That's what I am looking for is a user created ruleset. I know that there isn't an official rleset out.

[richvalle]

That's what I am looking for is a user created ruleset. I know that there isn't an official rleset out.

What he means is, it is ok to create the rule set yourself but not ok to share it with others without the d20 SW licence holder saying 'ok'.

rv

[Elf]

And we all know how Lucas has maintained tight control over that licence... I happen to know (as anyone he played Living Force knows) that every adventure had to pass the official representative of Lucas (I think he worked for Lucas' company but I am not sure) even though it was an all volunteer campaign.

[Honduras]

I take it there is no "pirate" forum out there to create and share rulesets circumventing those silly copyrights is there?

[Stuart]

I take it there is no "pirate" forum out there to create and share rulesets circumventing those silly copyrights is there?

I've posted elsewhere on this - no, there are no "pirate forums" and the whole issue of "copyright" has generated numerous and lengthy exchanges with a pretty unanimous agreement from the FG community that "piracy" will kill a product that we all enjoy.

Please refrain from this sort of post, it merely convinces publishers not to support us and thus there are only a handful of rulesets in play.

[Drazulfel]

So - if the ruleset contains a fully functional Star Wars D20 character sheet with all of the necessary design and XML modifications, but all non-OGL reference material is removed, can it be shared?

[Honduras]

So - if the ruleset contains a fully functional Star Wars D20 character sheet with all of the necessary design and XML modifications, but all non-OGL reference material is removed, can it be shared?

I'd say yes, because you can download star wars character sheets readily from the internet legally and free. Correct me if this is a wrong assumption.

[Drazulfel]

If that's the case and there are folks in need, I have created just such a ruleset. Functioning character sheet and a facelift, but no non-OGL reference material:

https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5287/interestsstarwarsja3.jpg

[kalmarjan]

All should be well as long as a link is not posted to the ruleset.

Sandeman

[Malovech]

If that's the case and there are folks in need, I have created just such a ruleset. Functioning character sheet and a facelift, but no non-OGL reference material:

https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5287/interestsstarwarsja3.jpg

Drazulfel how do I get this off you!

[Drazulfel]

Well - since I have wife, children, and a home to protect, I actually took the time and effort to consult an attorney. I was strongly advised NOT to share these files. Even though nobody is making any profit off of this, the point is that it's an item that Lucasfilm Inc. COULD be making a profit off of, but won't. I don't want anything to come back and bite me in the butt later.

Sorry, friends. :-(

[Archmage]

Wow, there is some serious paranoia going on here. They say piracy kills a product, but it seems obvious that copyright is what's preventing the enjoyment of a product in this case.

Just PM the guy and get an email address, then email the ruleset to him. Lucas is not going to care. Georgy boy can not read your email. It would only cost them money to pursue legal action beyond a cease and desist order. That lawyer you consulted only said what he said to protect his own a$$ in case you went publishing this thing all over the web.

[Elf]

I would tend to agree with Archmage... As long as you removed all non-OGL and shared the ruleset with your players, you should be OK.

The non-OGL stuff is the key, if it has proprietary stuff and it does get noticed you have a potential problem but you will likely just get the cease and desist. I do not think that the character sheet itself would cause any problems, but I am not a lawyer.

And if you wanted to be really sure you could always send an e-mail to LucasArts and ask... Who knows they may even pay you to develop a rule set.

[Kasamui]

https://img337.imageshack.us/img337/3299/tnswd20rulesetdh9.th.jpg (https://img337.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tnswd20rulesetdh9.jpg)

That's what I've made.

Only graphics though, Character Sheet and stuff still doesn't work.

I wanted to share it with you, or maybe even find someone to help me with it, but I guess the copyrith thing could make it difficult.

Still, it has some things from the SWd20 Book, because I've removed d20 reference and had to put something insted of it. A Rancor description, Soldier class, Human description. Some feats. If'd remove it from there, would it be legal to share it? What do you think?

[DrDeth]

(Whoops - I'll try to read the entire thread before posting next time)

Because StarWars is a d20 system, you can include anything found in the SRDs.

d20 SRD (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35)
d20 Modern SRD (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd)

Anything other than that, and not specifically marked as Open Gaming Content cannot be used. Also, make sure that the images that you use are either created by you, or not copyrighted.

[Kasamui]

I'm going to finish my SWd20 ruleset in no time. I've already done majority of work. The character sheet will work. Maybe it won't look as good as Fantasy Grounds DnD sheet, but I'm trying to make it nice.

After that... Well. I'll try to remove pictures from rulebooks and SWd20 references, and than I could share it.
Unless it still will be a crime.

Working character sheet contains bits of the rules, which aren't in the SRDs...

Goddamn.



(I always can remove character sheets and replace them with fields for notes. At least you'll have a ruleset that LOOKS like Star Wars. Better than nothing. )

[Valarian]

Your own graphics and the charsheet.xml should be okay to share - unless the graphics are heavily based on the WotC character sheet. Any database XML files will be out as Star Wars d20 is non-OGL. If you mention the trademarks, you'll need a copyright notice on the sheet to protect WotC and LucasFilm copyrights.

As a caveat, I'm not a lawyer and my knowledge of the law is UK based and definitely at the layman level.

[Kasamui]

Riiight.

My knowledge about law is... Uhm. Let's just say I haven't put any ranks into it.



I've removed all reference from the ruleset.

But Star Wars font stays. Star Wars logo... Well. I mean, there's Force, lightsabers and everything - if I'd had to remove it, the sheet would be useless, or at least very strange. "Magic grip"? "Fairy lighting"? "Feats no.1" and "Feats no.2"?

You won't be able to play it if you don't know the rules, and I think that's enough.
Because you can download editable character sheets from the web and play with friends by Skype, AIM, ICQ, Fantasy Grounds or whatever.

...These sheets are legal, right?

O.o

( Okay, thinking about it hurts. I'll just finish the ruleset - maybe nobody'll want it, so there'll be no problem. (I only think about people from this forum, I don't care about every single FG user ) )

[Casamordius]

Hi kasamui!!

we want to start a starwars camapign very soon and would be very very interested in your ruleset (or ruleset sheet or whatever we are allowed to call it ;-) )
Would it be possible to get a copy?

I also think that there might be problems if you copy all that written rules to fg.. maybe there is some problem to use the starwars logo.. and of course there might be trouble if you try to sell it..

but I see no reasonable legal problems just in sharing a character sheet!?

Would be very nice to read from you..

[Kasamui]

Done - You can find a link to it in Armory forum.

[gmillerd]

I'd say yes, because you can download star wars character sheets readily from the internet legally and free. Correct me if this is a wrong assumption.

Character sheet layouts and labeled fields are not something that is going to be unlawful to design and distribute. However you likely cannot make any reference at all while distributing them to any commercial game system without caution. You clearly would want to do the 'star wars is a registered .. of' and your little 'this is for personal use and does not attempt to infringe on the licenses of ... and its licensees'.

You can see this handled in games that go over game conversion methods for example (call of cthulhu & gurps do this a lot) or deal with sourcing their material for a variety of games (the many big book of guns for role-playing games).

As far as being scared of the notes that games have on their own character sheets and hand outs. Those are defiantly their stuff and you cannot publish those sheets in any form. On a good day they might say something similar to "purchaser may duplicate this form for personal use only" (from a GURPS control sheet I had nearby). Most important to note this isn't giving you distribution rights.

Where FG might look crossed eyed at this is when you go for a trifecta with a "this is a character sheet setup for FG that lets you do star wars characters like in the west end games 3rd edition".