I've been working on some homebrew for my players, a mountainous valley that can serve as the setting of an entire campaign or get dropped into any existing world as a location. It includes geography, original towns/locations, important families (all original), and local politics. If I published it on DM's Guild as a 5e setting, and then later wanted to write a short story or create a video game in my valley (taking out all D&D mechanics/monsters and only using my original characters) would I be able to do that?
Firstly, DMs Guild doesn't allow for publishing settings - it is exclusively for publishing things to drop into settings. So you'll need to use the OGL to publish a setting.
Presently, the OGL we are using (despite all the OGL issues right now, it's still active) means that your content is yours, and their content is theirs. If you want to make a video game in your setting then you need to make certain that you only use your own monsters and everything else, even the stuff you may not think about like races, classes, etc. are WotC IP and by using them in a video game you could cause yourself problems!
long as you keep it separate, I believe it would be fine (It would be no different from if you made the game first and then made an OGL setting for using the game world in D&D!)
1. homebrew setting. You can't publish your own settings on DMSGuild, but you can publish setting agnostic material - a lot of authors satisfy that requirement by doing whatever setting they want and just saying something like 'my town of Bigcliff can be set in Faerun', or something super generic like that. There's nothing stopping you from making up your own town and people names and publishing it on DMSGuild.
2. Publishing anywhere else after DMSGuild, regardless of setting issues. Once you publish it on DMSGuild, all of that IP (minus art and maps) is locked to DMSGuild effectively forever. You are agreeing to never publish it anywhere else. The stuff you created is still your IP, but its now locked to that one distribution channel until well after your death. If you create a wizard name JoeSnuffy and use him in a DMSGuild pub...you have agreed to never write about him anywhere else...ever.
Yeah pay attention to Heathsmith's comment #2. It seems conventional wisdom and guidance among creators that if you want to do anything with a creation after putting it on DMsGuild, you shouldn't be putting it on DMsGuild.
Maybe Heatsmith or sometone else can comment, but I think DriveThruRPG (which is sort of the "engine" for DMsGuild) may be a better venue. Of course the problem there is that you're limited to the SRD so have limited access to 5e in comparison to what DMsGuild grants you.
As for homebrew settings. Yes, the Faerun trick is used a lot, the SCAG pretty much invites you to do so declaring that whole continents can appear and disappear on Toreil so it's easy to say your stuff shows up there. Another setting agnostic trick is creating a side bar giving the DM inspiration as to how your material may fit into a variety of official worlds.
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Hello!
I've been working on some homebrew for my players, a mountainous valley that can serve as the setting of an entire campaign or get dropped into any existing world as a location. It includes geography, original towns/locations, important families (all original), and local politics. If I published it on DM's Guild as a 5e setting, and then later wanted to write a short story or create a video game in my valley (taking out all D&D mechanics/monsters and only using my original characters) would I be able to do that?
Thanks for the help!
Firstly, DMs Guild doesn't allow for publishing settings - it is exclusively for publishing things to drop into settings. So you'll need to use the OGL to publish a setting.
Presently, the OGL we are using (despite all the OGL issues right now, it's still active) means that your content is yours, and their content is theirs. If you want to make a video game in your setting then you need to make certain that you only use your own monsters and everything else, even the stuff you may not think about like races, classes, etc. are WotC IP and by using them in a video game you could cause yourself problems!
long as you keep it separate, I believe it would be fine (It would be no different from if you made the game first and then made an OGL setting for using the game world in D&D!)
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Two separate issues:
1. homebrew setting. You can't publish your own settings on DMSGuild, but you can publish setting agnostic material - a lot of authors satisfy that requirement by doing whatever setting they want and just saying something like 'my town of Bigcliff can be set in Faerun', or something super generic like that. There's nothing stopping you from making up your own town and people names and publishing it on DMSGuild.
2. Publishing anywhere else after DMSGuild, regardless of setting issues. Once you publish it on DMSGuild, all of that IP (minus art and maps) is locked to DMSGuild effectively forever. You are agreeing to never publish it anywhere else. The stuff you created is still your IP, but its now locked to that one distribution channel until well after your death. If you create a wizard name JoeSnuffy and use him in a DMSGuild pub...you have agreed to never write about him anywhere else...ever.
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Yeah pay attention to Heathsmith's comment #2. It seems conventional wisdom and guidance among creators that if you want to do anything with a creation after putting it on DMsGuild, you shouldn't be putting it on DMsGuild.
Maybe Heatsmith or sometone else can comment, but I think DriveThruRPG (which is sort of the "engine" for DMsGuild) may be a better venue. Of course the problem there is that you're limited to the SRD so have limited access to 5e in comparison to what DMsGuild grants you.
As for homebrew settings. Yes, the Faerun trick is used a lot, the SCAG pretty much invites you to do so declaring that whole continents can appear and disappear on Toreil so it's easy to say your stuff shows up there. Another setting agnostic trick is creating a side bar giving the DM inspiration as to how your material may fit into a variety of official worlds.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.