Posting here since my product was never going to be for DM's Guild.
I'm building an alternate 5e system. Or at least I was. It's now at the point where it's barely recognisable as 5e. In fact, it would be a stretch to call it 5e at all. Nothing from 5e would be compatible with it. It is as different from 5e as 1e is to Pathfinder. Pretty much the only recognisable thing is some basics like the six ability scores, hit points, hit dice and the d20 for resolution. And even they work in fundamentally different ways to how they do in 5e. Or any edition of D&D.
Part of my problem is, however, that it started as an alternate 5e system that was meant to be compatible. Because of this, I used the SRD as a template while writing it so there's a very recognisable structure to the organisation of the system. I can pretty easily rewrite everything (and have rewritten most things already anyway) so that it's not a copy-paste, but the format of it, like the sections and some of the ordering of chapters and within the chapters themselves, is somewhat similar.
Aside from reorganising everything just for the sake of it, at what point does my system no longer have to abide by the OGL and simply becomes an independent system? How different do I have to be?
I realise that I need a lawyer for this but I'd like to get my work to a ballpark level before spending money on a copyright lawyer to look it over so knowing where that line is and how to make sure I'm safely over it before then would be very helpful.
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
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Posting here since my product was never going to be for DM's Guild.
I'm building an alternate 5e system. Or at least I was. It's now at the point where it's barely recognisable as 5e. In fact, it would be a stretch to call it 5e at all. Nothing from 5e would be compatible with it. It is as different from 5e as 1e is to Pathfinder. Pretty much the only recognisable thing is some basics like the six ability scores, hit points, hit dice and the d20 for resolution. And even they work in fundamentally different ways to how they do in 5e. Or any edition of D&D.
Part of my problem is, however, that it started as an alternate 5e system that was meant to be compatible. Because of this, I used the SRD as a template while writing it so there's a very recognisable structure to the organisation of the system. I can pretty easily rewrite everything (and have rewritten most things already anyway) so that it's not a copy-paste, but the format of it, like the sections and some of the ordering of chapters and within the chapters themselves, is somewhat similar.
Aside from reorganising everything just for the sake of it, at what point does my system no longer have to abide by the OGL and simply becomes an independent system? How different do I have to be?
I realise that I need a lawyer for this but I'd like to get my work to a ballpark level before spending money on a copyright lawyer to look it over so knowing where that line is and how to make sure I'm safely over it before then would be very helpful.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.