In case it passed anyone by, HERE it is.
What I must do:
Turn in a Statement of Acceptance.
Keep up to date about the state of the license.
Keep SRD material inviolate.
Keep up to date about the state of the SRD.
Have the 4th Edition compatible logo present on the back page and with the legal text on the lower third of the page. For electronic products on the last page.
Include the legal text within the first three pages.
Include the short form legal text on any advertisement.
If I convert products from OGL to 4th Edition I have to stop publishing the (Wizards) OGL version altogether along with its entire line.
Keep it clean and nice.
Keep to the law.
Provide wizards with copies, should they ask.
What I can do:
Start publishing from October 1st 2008 - It doesn't establish which timezone this means.
Use the 4th Ed compatibility logo in advertising.
Market products before October 1st.
I can convert products from OGL to 4th Edition.
Can reference the Corebooks, but not by page.
Can use the D&D map symbols.
Can create new rules and extensions to existing rules.
What I can't do:
Publish before October 1st 2008.
Ignore the Statement of Acceptance (which wasn't needed for OGL products but was, sort of, for d20 products before).
Publish under older versions of the license.
Change any of the references/definitions/reprints in the SRD.
Change the size of the compatibility logo.
Use any trademarked stuff.
Put material on a website, even a password locked, pay-up website.
Incorporate miniatures.
Describe character creation.
Describe applying experience.
Use the term 'core' in application to a book.
Refer to the visual look of the corebooks.
Reprint non SRD material.
Republish in other products, if they're not licensed themselves.
Republish the SRD as a stand-alone as a whole.
Republish the definition of the SRD references.
Use Wizards images or derivatives thereof.
I can't convert 4th Edition material to OGL or publish both at the same time.
Nothing violent, gory or sexy, or illegal, or that promotes or disparages a minority or a political situation.
Can't publish the blank stat block from the SRD.
Can't republish stat blocks from the core books.
4th Edition GSL
Preamble:
You accept this license for your 4th Edition products by turning in the Statement of Acceptance. Once you do that it kicks in after a fortnight even if you haven't heard back from Wizards.
Section One:
To reiterate your ability to produce products kicks in two weeks after Wizards recieves the Statement of Acceptance. If things change that are on the Statement of Acceptance you have to let Wizards know within two weeks of that change. If you don't let Wizards know about changes they can terminate the license. Despite all of this you can't publish ANYTHING until October 1st 2008.
Section Two:
Wizards can change the license at any time and it's up to you to find out about it and to comply. They may release general notices about changes but you won't get any specific warning.
Section Three:
The license only applies to Hardcover/Softcover print books and single e-book format (PDF) books and anything that isn't specifically excluded.
Section Four:
So long as you play by the rules of this contract you can print and sell things allowed by this contract.
Subsection One:
You can reprint terms, tables and templates from the SRD. You can't change any of these references though, though you can add to them. Wizards can change the SRD at any time and you have to go along with it.
Subsection Two:
There's a logo you can use. This logo has to be on the lower left of the back of the product and in the lower left third of the page where you print the licensing information. Electronic products should instead have it on the last page. You can use it in adverts etc, but it still needs to be lower left.
Section Five:
Requirements and limitations.
Subsection One:
You can't use Wizard's trademarked stuff, outside of what's allowed by the license.
Subsection Two:
Within the first three pages you must include the legal text.
Subsection Three:
Advertising must include this shorter legal text.
Subsection Four:
You can't publish anything before October 1st, though you can market products before October 1st.
Subsection Five:
This license is NOT extended to: (a) include web sites, interactive products, miniatures, or character creators. It does not allow for: (b) describe a process for creating a character or applying the effects of experience to a character. It may not: (c) use the terms “Core Rules” or “Core Rulebook” or variations thereof on its cover or title, in self-reference or in advertising or marketing thereof. It cannot: (d) refer to any artwork, imagery or other depiction contained in a Core Rulebook. It must not: (e) reprint any material contained in a Core Rulebook except as explicitly provided in the SRD. And it cannot later be: (f) be incorporated into another product that is itself not a Licensed Product (such as, by way of example only, a magazine or book compilation).
Subsection Six:
You can't republish the SRD as a whole, or the definitions of SRD references.
Subsection Seven:
All artwork remains property of Wizards and can't be republished. Derivatives are included.
Section Six:
Interaction with the OGL
Subsection One:
You can convert your old OGL products to 4th Edition products. You can't convert 4th Edition products to OGL products. If you convert an OGL product to 4th Edition you must stop publishing it altogether and remove it from sale and the same for every other product in that line (as defined by Wizards). Even if you terminate your license agreement this remains in force.
Subsection Two:
You can't turn 4th Edition material into OGL material.
Subsection Three:
Wizards can terminate your license as regards converted material at any point after the new material is published.
Section Seven:
Quality & Standards
Products have to conform to 'Community standards' of decency and appropriateness, as determined by Wizards. No graphic violence or gore. No sexual situations, sexual abuse, porn, 'gratuitous' nudity, sexual activity. No nasty portrayal of minorities, nor any promotion thereof. Nothing unlawful.
Section Eight:
Outside of the remit of the license, you're responsible for any publications meeting any other laws.
Section Nine:
Wizards can request review copies of material and these must be provided.
Section Ten:
Property Rights.
Subsection One:
You recognise all Wizard's rights and IP and stake no claim to any of them.
Subsection Two:
Third party IP remains the property of that third party.
Subsection Three:
You'll take action as directed to help protect Wizards IP.
Subsection Four:
You agree to take responsibility - and costs - of any damage incurred to Wizards by your actions/products.
Section Eleven:
Termination.
Subsection One:
Wizards will tell you in writing if you're terminated. The GSL as a whole can be terminated by a posting to the website.
Subsection Two:
Sections 6 and 10-21 all survive the termination of the license and you must remain compliant with them.
Subsection Three:
On termination publication must cease of ALL licensed products and may no longer use the compatibility logo anywhere. Wizards may make special provisions.
Subsection Four:
If you don't comply with the license Wizards can take you to court and you agree that you'll pay for everything involved.
Section Twelve:
Representations. The licensee agrees that:
1. They're the sole author of the licensed material, if there's any third parties they've secured all the necessary rights etc.
2. They have the necessary authority to enter into this agreement.
3. There's no conflict with prior agreements.
4. No licensed product infringes on other laws.
5. No libellous or invaisive content.
6. That they'll comply with any government stipulations in the execution of the license.
Section Thirteen:
Wizards makes no guarantees and isn't beholden to you for any problems you might have while using the license.
Section Fourteen:
If Wizards comes under fire over a product you take the rap and provide any and all assistance.
Section Fifteen:
Wizards and the Licensee are separate entities.
Section Sixteen:
You can't assign this license, or any part thereof.
Section Seventeen:
Just because Wizards doesn't appear to enforce some part of the license doesn't mean it can't or won't in the future.
Section Eighteen:
Wizards can publish material that covers the same ground or competes with licensed materials.
Section Nineteen:
US and Washington State law are applicable to this license. Right to jury trial is waived. Any actions against Wizards or the license must be brought to this venue.
Section Twenty:
If any part of the license is rendered invalid by a court the remainder remains in force.
Section Twenty-One:
This license represents the whole of the agreement between the parties, it supercedes any previous agreements and can only be altered by Wizards.
What this all means for Postmortem Studios
ACTUAL Line
The Actual line couldn't be done under the 4th Edition license since it depends on the redefinition of existing classes to make them fit better and depict what they profess to be better. We could create alternate core classes that better reflect what they're supposed to be but the restriction on naming terminology and the necessity to terminate the entire line presents problems. Creating a new line called REAL wouldn't fool anyone and since the license says it's Wizard's say so on what constitutes the same line or not it wouldn't matter how much effort I put into differentiating them from each other if they didn't buy it. One way out might be to provide an 'Alternative Basic Classes' book, with alternative versions of all the core classes, and perhaps a couple of extra ones. These would have to be given new names though, EG: Hospitaller, Soldier, Templar, Warden, Scoundrel, Infernalist, Captain and Mage (And Berserker and Martial Artist).
Bloodsucker: The Angst
Bloodsucker falls afoul of the 'decency' clause, since it rips the piss out of goth/emo subculture and includes themes of sex and drugs. So this will have to continue to be published under the OGL.
Feast of Crows
Publishing a 4th Edition version of this would mean ceasing the sale of the OGL version. This is one of my strongest OGL/3rd Edition products so it is the best candidate for a revision to 4th Edition. To do so I'd fold it all together, Army Books and Main Books but I really dislike the lack of ability to continue to support the old edition. Nonetheless I think this will likely be my first/main foray into 4th Edition territory in order to test the waters.
Cloak of Steel
Thanks to the publication of the French version, Mantel D'Acer, I am no longer free to convert this to 4th Edition, though 4th Edition's mechanics may have been a better fit for the frenetic, anime style thematics of Cloak of Steel. I think the second edition is more likely to be developed either for Xpress (my house system) or for Mongoose RuneQuest, or both. There WILL be a new edition late 2008-2009.
Live System
Doing a 'fix' on the 4th Edition system as a whole simply isn't possible under the new license, so converting it to a classless, levelless version simply can't be done.
New Products
The main things that can be done with 4th Edition are setting books and adventure books.
I am hesitant to release setting books because the license restricts me from also/later publishing under the OGL. While this only applies to the Wizards OGL and wouldn't apply to, for example, the RuneQuest _logo_ license, the RuneQuest logo license is too restrictive to release a full and complete game and the open version used the Wizards OGL - which is what the GSL supercedes.
In my experience, adventures never sell that well and I don't like writing particularly structured adventures. I can do it, and I believe I can do it well - as people will hopefully find out when Cross City Race finally graces Dungeon Magazine - but they're not, normally, a fantastic amount of fun to write or to play, since they're hedged in and too structured.
One way might be to compound the two in a gazeteer type structure. A line of adventures taking characters from beginners to near-godhood travelling around a world describing it and expanding on it as one goes, with side quests and sub missions all along the way.
Class expansions are possible, so a series of toolkit books for the various classes might be a possibility, the threat is though that Wizards will release something similar/identical and demand that you stop publishing it, if, for example one did something on colour wizards replicating the various schools in new power selection tables that might bone you further down the line.
Lots to think about.
Tags: Postmortem Grim GSL 4th D&D
