I'm writing an adventure set in the Nine Hells for DMs Guild and I want to know if I can provide the rules for Infernal War Machines from Descent into Avernus in my DMs Guild Product, in case the people wanting to run my game don't have that adventure module.
The content creator's FAQ on DM's guild has this to say:
Can I copy any information from the 5E core rulebooks in my DMs Guild title? You can include information like summary stat blocks of monsters from the Monster Manual in your adventure. Similarly, you can include spell effects and other useful information as needed to make running your adventure an easy and streamlined experience. Please note that sometimes it’s just as easy to refer the Dungeon Master to the Monster Manual or other core rulebook instead. In short, avoid copying large sections of Wizards titles. Stick to summary information needed and not easily referenced.
"other useful information as needed to make running your adventure an easy and streamlined experience" here fits the bill, but I'm unsure if Avernus is counted as a "core" book?
In addition, this FAQ calls out the Monster Manual specifically as a source you can replicate small parts of for your product, but also goes on to say you should avoid replicating large sections of Wizards titles, which infers that you can grab little bits of multiple books to replicate in your adventure for ease of DM use.
Does anyone have experience or knowledge of what will be considered legal to use in my DMs Guild adventure? I'm looking to pull some monsters from across Volo's, Mordenkainen's, the Monster Manual, and the war machines from Descent into Avernus.
My instinct is that you can print the stat block for a war machine the players might face, but not all the rules for war machine combat. (A simplified, few-sentence version might be better.) I'm not familiar with those rules myself, though, so I'm not sure.
You’re fine to include monster stats - in the event you do run afoul, they would pull it down and lock the pub - but you just need to clean it up for the offense and send them the new version to review and they unlock it so you can reupload. Not a big deal unless you’re blatantly being an idiot.
I'm writing an adventure set in the Nine Hells for DMs Guild and I want to know if I can provide the rules for Infernal War Machines from Descent into Avernus in my DMs Guild Product, in case the people wanting to run my game don't have that adventure module.
The content creator's FAQ on DM's guild has this to say:
Can I copy any information from the 5E core rulebooks in my DMs Guild title?
You can include information like summary stat blocks of monsters from the Monster Manual in your adventure. Similarly, you can include spell effects and other useful information as needed to make running your adventure an easy and streamlined experience. Please note that sometimes it’s just as easy to refer the Dungeon Master to the Monster Manual or other core rulebook instead.
In short, avoid copying large sections of Wizards titles. Stick to summary information needed and not easily referenced.
"other useful information as needed to make running your adventure an easy and streamlined experience" here fits the bill, but I'm unsure if Avernus is counted as a "core" book?
In addition, this FAQ calls out the Monster Manual specifically as a source you can replicate small parts of for your product, but also goes on to say you should avoid replicating large sections of Wizards titles, which infers that you can grab little bits of multiple books to replicate in your adventure for ease of DM use.
Does anyone have experience or knowledge of what will be considered legal to use in my DMs Guild adventure? I'm looking to pull some monsters from across Volo's, Mordenkainen's, the Monster Manual, and the war machines from Descent into Avernus.
My instinct is that you can print the stat block for a war machine the players might face, but not all the rules for war machine combat. (A simplified, few-sentence version might be better.) I'm not familiar with those rules myself, though, so I'm not sure.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
WotC published the 5e System Reference Document to specifically answer questions just like this one. I don’t know the actual answer to that specific question, but I do know the answer can be found here: (https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd).
I hope that helps.
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You’re fine to include monster stats - in the event you do run afoul, they would pull it down and lock the pub - but you just need to clean it up for the offense and send them the new version to review and they unlock it so you can reupload. Not a big deal unless you’re blatantly being an idiot.
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