Ruleset Question(s)

[JonStormbringer]

A group of friends and I are considering making our first ruleset, possibly as a team. We are considering the old TSR game Star Frontiers. This will, most likely, take us a good amount of time as we'll be learning on the fly.

My main question is this: Are there any legal concerns about doing an old TSR product like this? I don't want to put in a bunch of work only to find out we can't release it as a free ruleset. I believe we could create the ruleset for our own use, as long as we didn't distribute, but with that much work we'd want to release it for public consumption. This is more a labor of love than a desire to make any money.


Is it viable to do this within the MoreCore framework? It looks, to me, like this would, at least, be a good starting point?

We also thought about using the Ruleset Wizard, but thought it's a semi-steep investment for something we may only use for one project.

[Moon Wizard]

If you want to just get a couple sheets up and running, and make some custom dice rolls, I would perhaps use MoreCore. MoreCore would end up being an extension on top of the MoreCore ruleset.
If you are going to invest the time in making a full-blown ruleset that can be run independently with it's own roll handling, record sheets and more; I would say to go for a full ruleset build. Especially if you plan to release for sharing.

Depending on the coding expertise in your group, Ruleset Wizard may or may not be needed. The main thing that the Ruleset Wizard would help with potentially is WYSIWYG window layout; but other than that, I find it easier to work in the core code and use examples of similar code.

A couple notes for looking at building a ruleset for a copyrighted system. The mechanics can not be copyrighted, but the data and graphics can be. Therefore, you can create custom sheets for all of the standard records (PCs, NPCs, Items, etc.) as well as support workflows and roll resolutions; but without permission from the publisher, you can't use any graphics from the original material nor provide any data from the books. (such as modules of NPCs, Items; or Adventure modules).

Regards,
JPG

[LordEntrails]

I would encourage you and your friends. I love Star Frontiers and considered doing a ruleset myself for te game. I will say I played in a SF game on FG for a couple of years, we mostly used CoreRPG and just had our charactersheets for it. Though I think MoreCore would give you better sheets tan CoreRG, but not sure.

So in short, don't feel you have to have a custom ruleset before you start playing.

Instead of doing a SF ruleset, I chose to work on one (with a lot of help!) for Frontier Space (which I have publisher permission for using all the content of). I haven't played that system yet, but it looks very promising and it is said that many folks use the ruleset for Star Frontiers games. We will see.

As for copyright etc, As Moon says, games mechanics can not be copyrighted, so you can create a ruleset that handles all the rolls and actions etc. With Star Frontiers you might be able to do more with it than some IPs because WotC has a Fan Content Policy (https://company.wizards.com/en/legal/fancontentpolicy). It would normally allow you to use some IP for non-commercial distribution, but it would never allow you to publish complete rules text etc (though you could probably use trademarked names, but not logos). But, it would probably be safer not to use anything, because if you are not aware, their is a currently a lawsuit between Wizards and a company called TSR Hobbies LLC (often referred to as NuTSR) over a game called "Star Frontiers New Genesis". It's a much more complicated, and frankly disgusting, set of issues than some sort of fan use of IP, but it does mean that at the moment, WotC is pretty sensitive around anything Star Frontiers.

IANAL, but here is my take away and what I had planned on doing/using if I had chosen to make my own SF ruleset: Distribute the ruleset for free. Include the Fan Content disclaimer. Use Star Frontiers in the name, probably with my name, like "LE's Star Frontiers Ruleset". Not use any protected images. Use the SF race and skill names, but not include the text descriptions of anything.

Hopefully all that helps.