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D&D and Open Source

Discussion in 'Playground' started by drowling, Jun 5, 2005.

  1. drowling Gems: 4/31
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    Remove all ads!
    I know this has been asked before, but I still wonder. Given that the commercial developers are unlikely to give anyone another Baldur's Gate 2 or anything even remotely similar, why doesn't the Open Source community write something instead? I just looked through sourceforge.net again, trying to find a D&D game that I could play and - guess what - didn't find any. I did find a lot of character generators and DM assistants, but not a game your could immerse yourself in.

    The question is - why not? Licensing aside, out of the thousands of open source developers out there people would be able to create something, right? Let me know what your thoughts on this are.

    drowling
     
    drowling, Jun 5, 2005
    #1
  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    [​IMG] Because you can't use any known locations, as the names are trademarked and copyrighted. And considering how many people are still modding (BG2 primarily), there's not really much point... there are literally hundreds of mods available.
     
    Taluntain, Jun 5, 2005
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  3. Morgoth

    Morgoth La lune ne garde aucune rancune Veteran

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    But Taluntain, is it legal to create a profitless game with the D&D rulesset, based in another new world?
     
    Morgoth, Jun 6, 2005
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  4. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    It's legal to do it via the d20 licence, the almost "open source" part of D&D.
     
    Taluntain, Jun 6, 2005
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  5. drowling Gems: 4/31
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    I don't think modding alone is sufficient. Don't we all want new things? Modding BG2 means being limited to BG2 storyline and 2nd ed. D&D (which for some is a good thing). As for the licensing issues - developers can simply create a world of their own, rather than using FR or Greyhawk or whatnot.
     
    drowling, Jun 6, 2005
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  6. Evil Dad Gems: 15/31
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    isnt this what NWN was created for? u already have a very good AD&D3 game engine that can be very highly customized - all you need to do is create a world around it.

    as Tal said, the problem with creating a new BG (or similar) whether open source or not, is the licensing issues ... not so much from bioware, etc, but also from WOTC as most of Forgotten Realms is copyrighted so you would have to be real careful with what you were creating.

    if you use the BG2 engine to create a new game, you would have other huge licensing issues as i dont believe any of BG2 is strictly open source.

    imho ... use the tools with NWN to create the game you want as this is exactly what it was created for
     
    Evil Dad, Jun 7, 2005
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  7. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    drowling, there are many mods which change the games extensively, and there are even some total conversions for BG2, which present a totally different story and environment.

    And there are mods out for more (A)D&D games than BG2, though most of them are for BG2, yes.

    Bard is correct... this is exactly where NWN shines. There are thousands of fan-made modules available, each one of them different. And you can make your own as well.

    Of course, using licensed names and such in NWN modules is equally illegal, but as long as the modules are free, it's not an issue in most cases. I know WoTC hasn't been giving anyone any problems over the usage of their other campaigns (as well as FR) in modules, though technically they could have. But I guess they realized early on that that would be a severe blow to the NWN community, so it's tolerated.
     
    Taluntain, Jun 7, 2005
    #7
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