I have been putting together details for my own D&D campaign for nearly a year, and recently found out about DM's Guild, which got me excited at the prospect of eventually publishing my work, but am slightly confused by the limitations.
What does "Setting" refer to? the rules are that you can't use DM's guild to publish something in your own setting - does this refer to the "high fantasy" setting of D&D (IE can't publish a western shooter rpg with no magic), or is it the place in which the publication is set, IE cannot create an entire country with its distinct landmarks (which would prevent me from bringing the world I've been building into the mix)?
Please can someone who's more experienced in this give me a summary (or send me to one) which tells me what I can and cannot create?
Ah, ok ,so provided that I create my campaign world as a sub-world in an existing WotC world it's allowed? I can include details of the "world" map, locations of settlements, and all that jazz?
Well, I was inclined towards selling my work rather than giving it away, that's the appeal of using DM'sguild. Are you just implying that you won't get much money, or are you saying that I can't legally publish if I have my own country described in the rules?
Or you can just take a world and make it your own.
Maybe you want to play a campaign where the sword coast was overrun by an undead army and the major cities are now mostly in Icewind Dale and Chult with a huge wasteland in between.
just focus on this statement " that (i) is generic enough to be used in a permitted setting without effort ". As long as you can say your world can be dropped into the Forgotten Realms (or other allowed setting), you can publish on DMSGuild. There's still plenty of Toril that hasn't been explored - nothing stopping you from saying your stuff is out there somewhere unless you've created an entire planet with its own gods and planes. You'd definitely have problems if your world has no magic, all elves are zombies, or something else that directly conflicts with the existing settings.
those restrictions don't apply to RPGVault, but then you have other restrictions such as not being able to use DMGuild art, or creatures/names copyrighted by WotC...you'd have to make sure you're strictly complying with the OGL and limiting your D&D stuff to what's in the SRD.
Or you can just take a world and make it your own.
Maybe you want to play a campaign where the sword coast was overrun by an undead army and the major cities are now mostly in Icewind Dale and Chult with a huge wasteland in between.
sure he could do this, but then he's violating the golden rule of packing out what you pack in...permanently changing an existing landscape pretty much guarantees no one else is going to buy it as it just won't fit in with anything else they're doing. you have to keep compatibility in mind unless you're purely doing this for yourself...and if that's the case there's no point in publishing it.
Or you can just take a world and make it your own.
Maybe you want to play a campaign where the sword coast was overrun by an undead army and the major cities are now mostly in Icewind Dale and Chult with a huge wasteland in between.
sure he could do this, but then he's violating the golden rule of packing out what you pack in...permanently changing an existing landscape pretty much guarantees no one else is going to buy it as it just won't fit in with anything else they're doing. you have to keep compatibility in mind unless you're purely doing this for yourself...and if that's the case there's no point in publishing it.
I have literally never ran into this problem and I have done this exact thing at least 3 different times.....
Is there some kind of evidence or paper you are quoting this rule from?
I have literally never ran into this problem and I have done this exact thing at least 3 different times.....
Is there some kind of evidence or paper you are quoting this rule from?
its just an opinion. ...same as the Replace your Divots section of the Forgotten Realms Style Guide. key word is 'guide' imo, its not a rule (just my golden rule - which i particularly like).
Replace Your Divots Stories should leave the Forgotten Realms as they found them. (Pack it in. Pack it out.) Stories set in the Forgotten Realms should not definitively destroy or irrevocably change locations, people, gods, planes, races as a whole, or other established elements of the setting or brand without special dispensation. That doesn’t mean that stories can’t have high stakes with important things in jeopardy. Players of a D&D game have the option of failure or of causing the death or destruction of important elements of the IP, but there must always be the option of things being restored to order.
I have literally never ran into this problem and I have done this exact thing at least 3 different times.....
Is there some kind of evidence or paper you are quoting this rule from?
its just an opinion. ...but same as the Replace your Divots section of the Forgotten Realms Style Guide. key word is 'guide' imo, its not a rule.
Replace Your Divots Stories should leave the Forgotten Realms as they found them. (Pack it in. Pack it out.) Stories set in the Forgotten Realms should not definitively destroy or irrevocably change locations, people, gods, planes, races as a whole, or other established elements of the setting or brand without special dispensation. That doesn’t mean that stories can’t have high stakes with important things in jeopardy. Players of a D&D game have the option of failure or of causing the death or destruction of important elements of the IP, but there must always be the option of things being restored to order.
Uh yeah thats a "no" from me dawg....
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
I think the key thing is that the content you publish shouldn't railroad people into causing lasting or permanent damage - the permanent effects should be from the players not the content - so if a bunch of players roleplaying as accountants did nothing for 20 levels, then they would have no effect on the state of the world, and the content should allow that to happen. If the players are all scouts who leave everything as they found it, then the world remains undamaged. If they decide to cause a landslide to destroy a famous city, then fine, but the content shouldn't be "A landslide has destroyed these famous cities". That's the content leaving the world in a bad state, not the players, and now no adventures which start in that city can be run in this campaign.
I appreciate your advice guys, I've decided to start small with one of my one-shot ideas, putting it in a decent format and then working out if it's allowed to be published!
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
I don't disagree, but that's not what i'm [ineffectively] trying to say. in the scenario i was responding to where waterdeep or some other city is jam packed full of undead and surrounded by a desert, you'd be going into it fresh...and the odds are your party's characters (since you're a 3rd party DM buying this) is going to come out the other side at level 20 is remarkably low. Other than hard-cover books....how many unofficial 3rd party campaigns have you purchased that you take your group to level 20? i'm sure there's plenty of examples, but for me personally, its 0. In other words, if you take an existing world and rip it apart and rearrange it (or start with your own shiny new world that just doesn't fit somewhere else)..you're significantly reducing your potential market. On DMSGuild, adventures are low in popularity (with plenty of exceptions of course) and heavy in abundance for a target audience of 1 person at the table - you're gimping both legs with this approach....still all in my opinion.
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
don't disagree, but that's not (ineffectively) what i'm trying to say. in the scenario i was responding to, you'd be going into it fresh...and the odds are your party's characters (since you're a 3rd party DM buying this) is going to come out the other side at level 20 is remarkably low. Other than hard-cover books....how many unofficial 3rd party campaigns have you purchased that you take a group to level 20? i'm sure there's plenty of examples, but for me personally, its 0.
Oh sure but you don't create a setting with a level 10 max.
You create a campaign with a max in mind but a setting in this case would be different.
Like Eberron is a setting with literal level 20 NPCs in the world but you might plan to have a campaign set in Eberron that is only anticipated to go to 15.
All in all its like starting an Eberron campaign during the Last War with the Mourning not have happened...it would be a fresh take on the setting and you are adopting most of the lore but a change that gives you a different perspective.
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
don't disagree, but that's not (ineffectively) what i'm trying to say. in the scenario i was responding to, you'd be going into it fresh...and the odds are your party's characters (since you're a 3rd party DM buying this) is going to come out the other side at level 20 is remarkably low. Other than hard-cover books....how many unofficial 3rd party campaigns have you purchased that you take a group to level 20? i'm sure there's plenty of examples, but for me personally, its 0.
Oh sure but you don't create a setting with a level 10 max.
You create a campaign with a max in mind but a setting in this case would be different.
Like Eberron is a setting with literal level 20 NPCs in the world but you might plan to have a campaign set in Eberron that is only anticipated to go to 15.
All in all its like starting an Eberron campaign during the Last War with the Mourning not have happened...it would be a fresh take on the setting and you are adopting most of the lore but a change that gives you a different perspective.
I think there's some disconnect from the OP's question and some of the advice offered. The OP is asking specifically about creating content for distribution on DMsGuild, specifically the guidance "Under the DMs Guild program, you can publish D&D material that has no setting or uses the Forgotten Realms, Ravensloft, Eberron or Ravnica settings."
Now I don't spend a lot of time on GMsGuild, but from my perusals of its catalog, I don't think dropping a whole new country, let a lone a continent into FR, Eberron etc. fits into this guidance. Those of you who "do this a lot" on the "world changing" approach, feel free to provide product links on GMsGuild that do this.
It seems to me the two most successful types of products on GMsGuild come in two forms: tools for characters (spells, magic items, etc) and works that supplement existing hardcover campaigns (lots of additional encounters or storylines referencing RotFM, DitA, etc. I don't see, though I'm not looking hard, any "world shaping or impacting" events (like, say a spell plague) outside of WotC reprints from prior editions.
So to go back and agree with another poster, DMsGuild probably isn't the best marketplace if you want to deliver your campaign world to the community (if it's not set in FR, Ravnesloft, Eb, etc). Marketplaces that support OGL content are best for that, though that does put some restrictions on what WotC content you can use. If your world is set in those official WotC game world and you're thinking DMsGuild I think the adventure arc to best follow would be "disruption" to "restoration." You can have some sort of world shaking event, but by the end of the module the PCs work has restored the setting to it's "regular order" (look at the hardcover adventures, Elturel is restored to its proper geography, Icewind Dale gets to experience seasons again, Tiamat fails).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
don't disagree, but that's not (ineffectively) what i'm trying to say. in the scenario i was responding to, you'd be going into it fresh...and the odds are your party's characters (since you're a 3rd party DM buying this) is going to come out the other side at level 20 is remarkably low. Other than hard-cover books....how many unofficial 3rd party campaigns have you purchased that you take a group to level 20? i'm sure there's plenty of examples, but for me personally, its 0.
Oh sure but you don't create a setting with a level 10 max.
You create a campaign with a max in mind but a setting in this case would be different.
Like Eberron is a setting with literal level 20 NPCs in the world but you might plan to have a campaign set in Eberron that is only anticipated to go to 15.
All in all its like starting an Eberron campaign during the Last War with the Mourning not have happened...it would be a fresh take on the setting and you are adopting most of the lore but a change that gives you a different perspective.
I think there's some disconnect from the OP's question and some of the advice offered. The OP is asking specifically about creating content for distribution on DMsGuild, specifically the guidance "Under the DMs Guild program, you can publish D&D material that has no setting or uses the Forgotten Realms, Ravensloft, Eberron or Ravnica settings."
Now I don't spend a lot of time on GMsGuild, but from my perusals of its catalog, I don't think dropping a whole new country, let a lone a continent into FR, Eberron etc. fits into this guidance. Those of you who "do this a lot" on the "world changing" approach, feel free to provide product links on GMsGuild that do this.
It seems to me the two most successful types of products on GMsGuild come in two forms: tools for characters (spells, magic items, etc) and works that supplement existing hardcover campaigns (lots of additional encounters or storylines referencing RotFM, DitA, etc. I don't see, though I'm not looking hard, any "world shaping or impacting" events (like, say a spell plague) outside of WotC reprints from prior editions.
So to go back and agree with another poster, DMsGuild probably isn't the best marketplace if you want to deliver your campaign world to the community (if it's not set in FR, Ravnesloft, Eb, etc). Marketplaces that support OGL content are best for that, though that does put some restrictions on what WotC content you can use. If your world is set in those official WotC game world and you're thinking DMsGuild I think the adventure arc to best follow would be "disruption" to "restoration." You can have some sort of world shaking event, but by the end of the module the PCs work has restored the setting to it's "regular order" (look at the hardcover adventures, Elturel is restored to its proper geography, Icewind Dale gets to experience seasons again, Tiamat fails).
Fair... Would it be ok to do so tho? Or is there licensing agreements that forbid it?
It could work like the What If line of marvel comics.
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
don't disagree, but that's not (ineffectively) what i'm trying to say. in the scenario i was responding to, you'd be going into it fresh...and the odds are your party's characters (since you're a 3rd party DM buying this) is going to come out the other side at level 20 is remarkably low. Other than hard-cover books....how many unofficial 3rd party campaigns have you purchased that you take a group to level 20? i'm sure there's plenty of examples, but for me personally, its 0.
Oh sure but you don't create a setting with a level 10 max.
You create a campaign with a max in mind but a setting in this case would be different.
Like Eberron is a setting with literal level 20 NPCs in the world but you might plan to have a campaign set in Eberron that is only anticipated to go to 15.
All in all its like starting an Eberron campaign during the Last War with the Mourning not have happened...it would be a fresh take on the setting and you are adopting most of the lore but a change that gives you a different perspective.
I think there's some disconnect from the OP's question and some of the advice offered. The OP is asking specifically about creating content for distribution on DMsGuild, specifically the guidance "Under the DMs Guild program, you can publish D&D material that has no setting or uses the Forgotten Realms, Ravensloft, Eberron or Ravnica settings."
Now I don't spend a lot of time on GMsGuild, but from my perusals of its catalog, I don't think dropping a whole new country, let a lone a continent into FR, Eberron etc. fits into this guidance. Those of you who "do this a lot" on the "world changing" approach, feel free to provide product links on GMsGuild that do this.
It seems to me the two most successful types of products on GMsGuild come in two forms: tools for characters (spells, magic items, etc) and works that supplement existing hardcover campaigns (lots of additional encounters or storylines referencing RotFM, DitA, etc. I don't see, though I'm not looking hard, any "world shaping or impacting" events (like, say a spell plague) outside of WotC reprints from prior editions.
So to go back and agree with another poster, DMsGuild probably isn't the best marketplace if you want to deliver your campaign world to the community (if it's not set in FR, Ravnesloft, Eb, etc). Marketplaces that support OGL content are best for that, though that does put some restrictions on what WotC content you can use. If your world is set in those official WotC game world and you're thinking DMsGuild I think the adventure arc to best follow would be "disruption" to "restoration." You can have some sort of world shaking event, but by the end of the module the PCs work has restored the setting to it's "regular order" (look at the hardcover adventures, Elturel is restored to its proper geography, Icewind Dale gets to experience seasons again, Tiamat fails).
Fair... Would it be ok to do so tho? Or is there licensing agreements that forbid it?
It could work like the What If line of marvel comics.
It's a good question, and really with one of the possible endings of Rime of the Frostmaiden ... without going spoiler let's just just possibilities have been perpetrated. That said, perusing Forgotten Realms' best sellers on DMsGuild, I don't see such "world shaking" adventures. Again, most of them seem to be supplementing tentpole hardback adventure releases and lore with tools writings (even after you get past the tide of works published by people who've had publications credits with WotC over the years.
So "redefining the Realms" by dropping a whole new continent in it as a end run to introduce an original campaign world, I have a feeling won't pass a sniff test. At the end of the day no one has an inalienable right to DMsGuild, so I imagine its oversight has pretty broad discretion when it comes to pulling it.
As mentioned, if you want to put original work out there not bound to WotC IP, DriveThruRPG is probably a better bet.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I have a similar question. I have been developing (for quite some time) a version of Toril that is a possible future of it, where the Devils won the Blood War and the world was fast-forwarded by 1000 years. A lot has changed, so much so that even though it is not technically a new world, it is very, very different from its original source-setting.
Would I be allowed to publish a "worldbook" for this version of Toril on DMs Guild, or would I have to publish it using the SRD, removing all aspects of the world that are owned by WotC? Any thoughts?
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I think "maybe." RotFM sort of blows up whatever possible timelines may exist for Toril. That, and I did see this in SCAG recently: A passage in a sourcebook isn't necessarily the best way to extrapolate the limited of WotC tolerance for using the Forgotten Realms brand in GMs Guild, but it seems to open the door to lands beyond the Faerun continent which can only have the most tenuous connection to the official setting.
Of course what you're doing is offering a speculative future to Toril as opposed to different geography. Again, I don't know how well it would fly, and when it comes down to it WotC can do whatever they want as far as taking GMsGuild content down.
As far as choosing GMsGuisld vs SRD, it's all dependent on how dependent your worldbook is on FR as a precedent setting. More brass tacts, do you want the FR brand to hook your audience or do you think the world is viable without it? If it's the former, your subject to whatever strictures DMsGuild may have regarding far flung interpretations/derivation of FR. It'd probably be best to dialogue with someone actually prolific on DMsGuild for mentorship. A lot of creatives these days keep social media presences and my gut feel is the GMsGuild world is more on the supportive community side being largely fan work.
I think the best thing to do to determine a work's viability on DMsGuild is to see what sells. Of products related to FR, it seems what works best are products associated with the "tentpole" published adventures that come out that are written by people involved in the development of said publication. After that you have more recognized writers giving more content for a project with which they were involved in. Then you have everyone else.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The obelisks from RotFM were actually an important to this world, as a last resource to Vecna if things go south for him. The geography of the world would stay more or less the same, so it would be recognizable as a future Toril while still being different.
I think the world would be viable without FR as its clear basis, but it would be difficult to word the information on it in such a way that didn't break any copyright laws, which is why I currently think that DMs Guild would be the best/easiest route to go down.
I will try to reach out with someone more familiar with DMs Guild. Thanks again for the advice.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
I have been putting together details for my own D&D campaign for nearly a year, and recently found out about DM's Guild, which got me excited at the prospect of eventually publishing my work, but am slightly confused by the limitations.
What does "Setting" refer to? the rules are that you can't use DM's guild to publish something in your own setting - does this refer to the "high fantasy" setting of D&D (IE can't publish a western shooter rpg with no magic), or is it the place in which the publication is set, IE cannot create an entire country with its distinct landmarks (which would prevent me from bringing the world I've been building into the mix)?
Please can someone who's more experienced in this give me a summary (or send me to one) which tells me what I can and cannot create?
Thanks in advance!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
Ah, ok ,so provided that I create my campaign world as a sub-world in an existing WotC world it's allowed? I can include details of the "world" map, locations of settlements, and all that jazz?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
Well, I was inclined towards selling my work rather than giving it away, that's the appeal of using DM'sguild. Are you just implying that you won't get much money, or are you saying that I can't legally publish if I have my own country described in the rules?
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
Or you can just take a world and make it your own.
Maybe you want to play a campaign where the sword coast was overrun by an undead army and the major cities are now mostly in Icewind Dale and Chult with a huge wasteland in between.
just focus on this statement " that (i) is generic enough to be used in a permitted setting without effort ". As long as you can say your world can be dropped into the Forgotten Realms (or other allowed setting), you can publish on DMSGuild. There's still plenty of Toril that hasn't been explored - nothing stopping you from saying your stuff is out there somewhere unless you've created an entire planet with its own gods and planes. You'd definitely have problems if your world has no magic, all elves are zombies, or something else that directly conflicts with the existing settings.
those restrictions don't apply to RPGVault, but then you have other restrictions such as not being able to use DMGuild art, or creatures/names copyrighted by WotC...you'd have to make sure you're strictly complying with the OGL and limiting your D&D stuff to what's in the SRD.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
sure he could do this, but then he's violating the golden rule of packing out what you pack in...permanently changing an existing landscape pretty much guarantees no one else is going to buy it as it just won't fit in with anything else they're doing. you have to keep compatibility in mind unless you're purely doing this for yourself...and if that's the case there's no point in publishing it.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
I have literally never ran into this problem and I have done this exact thing at least 3 different times.....
Is there some kind of evidence or paper you are quoting this rule from?
its just an opinion. ...same as the Replace your Divots section of the Forgotten Realms Style Guide. key word is 'guide' imo, its not a rule (just my golden rule - which i particularly like).
Replace Your Divots
Stories should leave the Forgotten Realms as they found them. (Pack it in. Pack it out.) Stories set in the Forgotten Realms should not definitively destroy or irrevocably change locations, people, gods, planes, races as a whole, or other established elements of the setting or brand without special dispensation. That doesn’t mean that stories can’t have high stakes with important things in jeopardy. Players of a D&D game have the option of failure or of causing the death or destruction of important elements of the IP, but there must always be the option of things being restored to order.
i'll change my statement of 'no one else' to 'I'
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
Uh yeah thats a "no" from me dawg....
You spend 20 levels in a setting but leave no lasting impact? Thats...advice I guess.
I think the key thing is that the content you publish shouldn't railroad people into causing lasting or permanent damage - the permanent effects should be from the players not the content - so if a bunch of players roleplaying as accountants did nothing for 20 levels, then they would have no effect on the state of the world, and the content should allow that to happen. If the players are all scouts who leave everything as they found it, then the world remains undamaged. If they decide to cause a landslide to destroy a famous city, then fine, but the content shouldn't be "A landslide has destroyed these famous cities". That's the content leaving the world in a bad state, not the players, and now no adventures which start in that city can be run in this campaign.
I appreciate your advice guys, I've decided to start small with one of my one-shot ideas, putting it in a decent format and then working out if it's allowed to be published!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread - latest release; the Harvest Sprite, a playable Jack-o-Lantern Race!
Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: The College of Fisticuffs Bard!
I also dabble in art on here (my art thread)
I don't disagree, but that's not what i'm [ineffectively] trying to say. in the scenario i was responding to where waterdeep or some other city is jam packed full of undead and surrounded by a desert, you'd be going into it fresh...and the odds are your party's characters (since you're a 3rd party DM buying this) is going to come out the other side at level 20 is remarkably low. Other than hard-cover books....how many unofficial 3rd party campaigns have you purchased that you take your group to level 20? i'm sure there's plenty of examples, but for me personally, its 0. In other words, if you take an existing world and rip it apart and rearrange it (or start with your own shiny new world that just doesn't fit somewhere else)..you're significantly reducing your potential market. On DMSGuild, adventures are low in popularity (with plenty of exceptions of course) and heavy in abundance for a target audience of 1 person at the table - you're gimping both legs with this approach....still all in my opinion.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
Oh sure but you don't create a setting with a level 10 max.
You create a campaign with a max in mind but a setting in this case would be different.
Like Eberron is a setting with literal level 20 NPCs in the world but you might plan to have a campaign set in Eberron that is only anticipated to go to 15.
All in all its like starting an Eberron campaign during the Last War with the Mourning not have happened...it would be a fresh take on the setting and you are adopting most of the lore but a change that gives you a different perspective.
I think there's some disconnect from the OP's question and some of the advice offered. The OP is asking specifically about creating content for distribution on DMsGuild, specifically the guidance "Under the DMs Guild program, you can publish D&D material that has no setting or uses the Forgotten Realms, Ravensloft, Eberron or Ravnica settings."
Now I don't spend a lot of time on GMsGuild, but from my perusals of its catalog, I don't think dropping a whole new country, let a lone a continent into FR, Eberron etc. fits into this guidance. Those of you who "do this a lot" on the "world changing" approach, feel free to provide product links on GMsGuild that do this.
It seems to me the two most successful types of products on GMsGuild come in two forms: tools for characters (spells, magic items, etc) and works that supplement existing hardcover campaigns (lots of additional encounters or storylines referencing RotFM, DitA, etc. I don't see, though I'm not looking hard, any "world shaping or impacting" events (like, say a spell plague) outside of WotC reprints from prior editions.
So to go back and agree with another poster, DMsGuild probably isn't the best marketplace if you want to deliver your campaign world to the community (if it's not set in FR, Ravnesloft, Eb, etc). Marketplaces that support OGL content are best for that, though that does put some restrictions on what WotC content you can use. If your world is set in those official WotC game world and you're thinking DMsGuild I think the adventure arc to best follow would be "disruption" to "restoration." You can have some sort of world shaking event, but by the end of the module the PCs work has restored the setting to it's "regular order" (look at the hardcover adventures, Elturel is restored to its proper geography, Icewind Dale gets to experience seasons again, Tiamat fails).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Fair... Would it be ok to do so tho? Or is there licensing agreements that forbid it?
It could work like the What If line of marvel comics.
It's a good question, and really with one of the possible endings of Rime of the Frostmaiden ... without going spoiler let's just just possibilities have been perpetrated. That said, perusing Forgotten Realms' best sellers on DMsGuild, I don't see such "world shaking" adventures. Again, most of them seem to be supplementing tentpole hardback adventure releases and lore with tools writings (even after you get past the tide of works published by people who've had publications credits with WotC over the years.
So "redefining the Realms" by dropping a whole new continent in it as a end run to introduce an original campaign world, I have a feeling won't pass a sniff test. At the end of the day no one has an inalienable right to DMsGuild, so I imagine its oversight has pretty broad discretion when it comes to pulling it.
As mentioned, if you want to put original work out there not bound to WotC IP, DriveThruRPG is probably a better bet.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I have a similar question. I have been developing (for quite some time) a version of Toril that is a possible future of it, where the Devils won the Blood War and the world was fast-forwarded by 1000 years. A lot has changed, so much so that even though it is not technically a new world, it is very, very different from its original source-setting.
Would I be allowed to publish a "worldbook" for this version of Toril on DMs Guild, or would I have to publish it using the SRD, removing all aspects of the world that are owned by WotC? Any thoughts?
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I think "maybe." RotFM sort of blows up whatever possible timelines may exist for Toril. That, and I did see this in SCAG recently: A passage in a sourcebook isn't necessarily the best way to extrapolate the limited of WotC tolerance for using the Forgotten Realms brand in GMs Guild, but it seems to open the door to lands beyond the Faerun continent which can only have the most tenuous connection to the official setting.
Of course what you're doing is offering a speculative future to Toril as opposed to different geography. Again, I don't know how well it would fly, and when it comes down to it WotC can do whatever they want as far as taking GMsGuild content down.
As far as choosing GMsGuisld vs SRD, it's all dependent on how dependent your worldbook is on FR as a precedent setting. More brass tacts, do you want the FR brand to hook your audience or do you think the world is viable without it? If it's the former, your subject to whatever strictures DMsGuild may have regarding far flung interpretations/derivation of FR. It'd probably be best to dialogue with someone actually prolific on DMsGuild for mentorship. A lot of creatives these days keep social media presences and my gut feel is the GMsGuild world is more on the supportive community side being largely fan work.
I think the best thing to do to determine a work's viability on DMsGuild is to see what sells. Of products related to FR, it seems what works best are products associated with the "tentpole" published adventures that come out that are written by people involved in the development of said publication. After that you have more recognized writers giving more content for a project with which they were involved in. Then you have everyone else.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thanks for the response.
The obelisks from RotFM were actually an important to this world, as a last resource to Vecna if things go south for him. The geography of the world would stay more or less the same, so it would be recognizable as a future Toril while still being different.
I think the world would be viable without FR as its clear basis, but it would be difficult to word the information on it in such a way that didn't break any copyright laws, which is why I currently think that DMs Guild would be the best/easiest route to go down.
I will try to reach out with someone more familiar with DMs Guild. Thanks again for the advice.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms