OGL question

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kg8jk
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OGL question

Post by kg8jk »

I was reading the OGL and had a question about the following:

8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Game Content.


How do people do that? In looking over some of the retro clones and BF, I don't notice any indication of the portions that are open game content. If you post the OGL in a product you have published, without doing so, is the whole thing OGC?

Just curious.

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Solomoriah
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Re: OGL question

Post by Solomoriah »

ALL Basic Fantasy Project works DO designate the portions that are OGC. It's in the section titled "Designation of Open Game Content" found before the OGL text in EVERY book.

Basically, we designate all the text, and none of the artwork except for maps and floorplans.
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kg8jk
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Re: OGL question

Post by kg8jk »

Ok, so that means that all the text is open for reuse as long as the user follow the OGL? Just wondering as I am working on a D6 gaming system for my classes but wasn't sure if I needed to include the OGL if I decided to publish it. I guess it would be better to include it than not just to avoid any copyright issues although everything is pretty generic.

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chiisu81
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Re: OGL question

Post by chiisu81 »

Are you basing your game off of OpenD6? Or are you working on a completely from-scratch system?

Including the OGL doesn't automatically make your release open content. As Solo mentioned, you must designate on the OGL page(s) what is Open Content and what is Product Identity. Most retroclones I've seen have this section; the friendly ones will usually have all text, etc. marked open while artwork, layout, etc. is not.
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kg8jk
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Re: OGL question

Post by kg8jk »

It is basically a mix of Open D6 and Cogent but very lite on rules. 4 characteristics, assign ten dice to the four (at least one with each). GM determines difficulty level of an action and the player rolls 3 dice plus one for every die they assigned to that characteristic. any roll 4-6 is a win. Roll the DL or higher and succeed.

I am writing it for language teachers to use in their classrooms. (I'm a Spanish teacher) Most of the game will be roleplaying in the foreign language with die rolls thrown in to add an element of chance. I am hoping to publish it with a company that publishes books specifically for teaching foreign language. Don't think it will be a really big seller or anything but think it could be useful to some teachers. Been doing some test playing with my four year old and planning on using it with my classroom before publishing.

Any help on how to incorporate the OGL would be great.

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Solomoriah
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Re: OGL question

Post by Solomoriah »

If you use Open Game Content (from anyone, not just us), you must use and obey the OGL. There is no choice in the matter.

I'm not familiar with Open D6. Is it an OGL game also?
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kg8jk
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Re: OGL question

Post by kg8jk »

Yes, I did find a nice wiki on their page at https://ogc.rpglibrary.org/index.php?ti ... License.3F

I am starting to get a grasp on it now. I figured I would have to post the OGL. What I was confused about was indicating what was open game content. I thought that meant you had to indicate throughout the work what content you borrowed from other open game systems. Somehow I got the idea that you had to highlight things throughout your text but now I see you can just put it in the OGL at the end. That makes more sense.

My whole project is just to make a system that uses only D6 and is extremely lite so teachers who have never played an rpg can still use it in class. So far the mechanics seem to work well but might need some tweaking to speed the storyline along. Once I get it working the way I want, I am going to present at some foreign language conferences. A lot of teachers use a story telling method to teach and I have always thought some old school table top RPGing would be great fun.

Thanks for the help Chris and thanks for all your work with BF. It is my go to system (even gave away my 3.5 books) and am playing a game on rpol.net with it right now.
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Dimirag
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Re: OGL question

Post by Dimirag »

I may be wrong, but...

If you are working using text directly from Open d6 game then yes, you have to use the OGL, you can mark on the text which parts are not "open" with a (PI) or simply indicate it on the OGL itself.

If you are creating a system from scratch, writing everything by yourself... then I don't think the d6 OGL fits, as none of the material written in the d6 game is being used (your core mechanics seem more like the core of "The Burning Wheel")
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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kg8jk
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Re: OGL question

Post by kg8jk »

I actually changed my system from dice to playing cards to make it easier and faster for teachers to use. Still four characteristics (Strength, Intelligence, Coordination, and Personality). Assign 10 points among the characteristics. Set a difficulty level and then draw the number of cards against that characteristic. Encounters, both the attacker and defender draw, high card wins. It is very simple and rules lite but should work. I will still use the OGL just to be on the up and up and allow others to use it if they like.

Thanks for all the advice.
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chiisu81
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Re: OGL question

Post by chiisu81 »

For your own custom-created system, I might recommend using a Creative Commons license instead. It will be a little more straight-forward to those outside the OSR RPG circle...
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