There's a quote as follows: "other types of content, like videos and video games, are only possible through the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy or a custom agreement with us."
So, does this mean video games are covered by the fan policy? Would love to know a bit more about this! Thanks.
Why would you think video games are covered by the fan content policy and not "a custom agreement with us?" You're familiar with the upcoming Baldur's Gate game? Do you think that will be available for free or players will have to buy it? If money is changing hands, that video game is clearly being licensed under "a custom agreement with us."
But I'm just some random on the internet and no one should expect anyone here to have any real authority on the policy. The best way to get an answer to this is if you follow the Fan Content Policies last bit of advice. When in doubt ask the people who created the policy and the property you're considering for fan.
Q: How can I contact Wizards of the Coast about my Fan Content?
A: If your Fan Content isn’t covered by this Policy, you’ll need our prior, written approval. If you have any questions or the Fan Content you want to make isn’t covered by this Policy, contact us by logging into the Wizards Help System at https://support.wizards.com. We’ll reply back as soon as we can.
Please understand that if you don’t hear from us, it does not mean we approve of your requested use of Wizards IP; it probably just means your question is covered by the Fan Content Policy.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
To be clear, I was referring to a hypothetical fan game that might be released for free and following the guidelines of the fan policy. That's why I asked about it because they mentioned it in the post and the wording left it a little ambiguous in my opinion. In no way was I talking about commercial games like BG.
and actually I have written to the support page several times asking about exactly this. The reason I continue to ask here however is that the response I am given, even though it says such a thing would be covered, is a canned and copy/pasted response so I was hoping to get a little more clarity or final detail. It's difficult to get a human response through those support tickets, I'd love to be able to run this by a real person and get a hand-typed response that at least appears to have considered my message carefully lol
So again, the policy gives you a point of contact to ask them directly. I could see how one could think a "free fan game" could be created, or a whole bunch of digital tools etc, and I could see some folks would think in agreement, and other folks would think no way. Meanwhile the people who could actually answer the question with actual authority are a ticket request away.
I'm not trying to be hard on you, I'm just saying there's an easy path to an authoritative answer directly in the policy. That's a better avenue than the forum where response will be colored by folks with frankly idealogical takes on what fan content can or can't do as opposed to have any real insight into the policy put into practice.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Ok yeah like I literally just said, I've used their support page to contact them about this several times. I only post here because I noticed there are official staff posts and was hoping to be able to get someone official's attention or at least some other more reliable way to contact a person who can answer authoritatively,
"Official staff" (red font names) rarely post here, and generally limit themselves to the functions of DDB, orange fonts are community based mods.
As it's a ticket system, you may be resetting your query. With something like a "fan video game" I wouldn't expect an answer in short order, even if they have a boilerplate list of go bys. I will say folks who actually work for WotC tend to be more engaged with the community elsewhere on social media channels besides this forum. You might want to poke around the discord.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Get this wrong, and you open yourself up to being sued into oblivion.
If you have any doubt, get an official answer in writing that you can use to defend yourself with. Do not accept anyone else's interpretation (including mine or MidnightPlat's). Do not accept a webforum post, even by a staff member - they can be deleted. Any of those options can get you in trouble because if they're wrong, you could end up without a leg to stand on. They would probably be given in good faith, but that's not enough to protect you, which is the point of the licence.
If you're in doubt, get an email or other permanent written confirmation. If that's taking too long for you or never comes and you proceed, you'll be doing so at your own risk. Incidentally, that's why neither of us are giving you a straight answer - we don't want to get it wrong and get you hurt, or be blamed for it. Contact them if you're in any doubt whatsoever as to whether your work is covered. Or get a lawyer to review the licence for you, if you're reasonably sure it is. Either way, no one posting here should actually respond to your question directly because of the reasons I've stated.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Get this wrong, and you open yourself up to being sued into oblivion.
Umm, that’s a bit much. Far more likely is a strongly worded Cease and Desist letter before anyone is suing anyone. Especially for something free.
But as other posters have said, the forums are not the place for this advice. I can understand why you might think they are, but no one official really comes here. Best is to wait on a response to the support ticket, which can take weeks even for something simple. Second is to hire a lawyer to reach out to them.
Please do not solicit or offer legal advice either implicitly or explicitly. If in doubt about a legal matter, please consult with a legal expert in a professional capacity
There are video games, such as Solasta, that exist under the OGL. I've also made fan-content digital gamebooks, which could be considered video games, under the OGL. In both cases, only SRD material (essentially what's in the Basic Rules) were used for these games and trademarked names were avoided. The release of 5e SRD into the Creative Commons makes this much less legally cumbersome. If you just use what's in the SRD, you're probably fine, but be careful using trademarks and material from outside the SRD. Of course IamNotALawyer and YouShouldSeekLegalAdviseForRealQuestions.
Hi, had a quick question about this in case anyone knew or could point me towards someone who might be able to clarify. In this post here:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1410-ogls-srds-one-d-d
There's a quote as follows: "other types of content, like videos and video games, are only possible through the Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy or a custom agreement with us."
So, does this mean video games are covered by the fan policy? Would love to know a bit more about this! Thanks.
Why would you think video games are covered by the fan content policy and not "a custom agreement with us?" You're familiar with the upcoming Baldur's Gate game? Do you think that will be available for free or players will have to buy it? If money is changing hands, that video game is clearly being licensed under "a custom agreement with us."
But I'm just some random on the internet and no one should expect anyone here to have any real authority on the policy. The best way to get an answer to this is if you follow the Fan Content Policies last bit of advice. When in doubt ask the people who created the policy and the property you're considering for fan.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
To be clear, I was referring to a hypothetical fan game that might be released for free and following the guidelines of the fan policy. That's why I asked about it because they mentioned it in the post and the wording left it a little ambiguous in my opinion. In no way was I talking about commercial games like BG.
and actually I have written to the support page several times asking about exactly this. The reason I continue to ask here however is that the response I am given, even though it says such a thing would be covered, is a canned and copy/pasted response so I was hoping to get a little more clarity or final detail. It's difficult to get a human response through those support tickets, I'd love to be able to run this by a real person and get a hand-typed response that at least appears to have considered my message carefully lol
So again, the policy gives you a point of contact to ask them directly. I could see how one could think a "free fan game" could be created, or a whole bunch of digital tools etc, and I could see some folks would think in agreement, and other folks would think no way. Meanwhile the people who could actually answer the question with actual authority are a ticket request away.
I'm not trying to be hard on you, I'm just saying there's an easy path to an authoritative answer directly in the policy. That's a better avenue than the forum where response will be colored by folks with frankly idealogical takes on what fan content can or can't do as opposed to have any real insight into the policy put into practice.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Ok yeah like I literally just said, I've used their support page to contact them about this several times. I only post here because I noticed there are official staff posts and was hoping to be able to get someone official's attention or at least some other more reliable way to contact a person who can answer authoritatively,
"Official staff" (red font names) rarely post here, and generally limit themselves to the functions of DDB, orange fonts are community based mods.
As it's a ticket system, you may be resetting your query. With something like a "fan video game" I wouldn't expect an answer in short order, even if they have a boilerplate list of go bys. I will say folks who actually work for WotC tend to be more engaged with the community elsewhere on social media channels besides this forum. You might want to poke around the discord.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'll be blunt:
Get this wrong, and you open yourself up to being sued into oblivion.
If you have any doubt, get an official answer in writing that you can use to defend yourself with. Do not accept anyone else's interpretation (including mine or MidnightPlat's). Do not accept a webforum post, even by a staff member - they can be deleted. Any of those options can get you in trouble because if they're wrong, you could end up without a leg to stand on. They would probably be given in good faith, but that's not enough to protect you, which is the point of the licence.
If you're in doubt, get an email or other permanent written confirmation. If that's taking too long for you or never comes and you proceed, you'll be doing so at your own risk. Incidentally, that's why neither of us are giving you a straight answer - we don't want to get it wrong and get you hurt, or be blamed for it. Contact them if you're in any doubt whatsoever as to whether your work is covered. Or get a lawyer to review the licence for you, if you're reasonably sure it is. Either way, no one posting here should actually respond to your question directly because of the reasons I've stated.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Umm, that’s a bit much. Far more likely is a strongly worded Cease and Desist letter before anyone is suing anyone. Especially for something free.
But as other posters have said, the forums are not the place for this advice. I can understand why you might think they are, but no one official really comes here.
Best is to wait on a response to the support ticket, which can take weeks even for something simple. Second is to hire a lawyer to reach out to them.
Please do not solicit or offer legal advice either implicitly or explicitly. If in doubt about a legal matter, please consult with a legal expert in a professional capacity
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
There are video games, such as Solasta, that exist under the OGL. I've also made fan-content digital gamebooks, which could be considered video games, under the OGL. In both cases, only SRD material (essentially what's in the Basic Rules) were used for these games and trademarked names were avoided. The release of 5e SRD into the Creative Commons makes this much less legally cumbersome. If you just use what's in the SRD, you're probably fine, but be careful using trademarks and material from outside the SRD. Of course IamNotALawyer and YouShouldSeekLegalAdviseForRealQuestions.
https://sayeth.itch.io/