Sunday, July 29, 2012

Is Strength, Dexterity, etc... Open?

I plan to use Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma for my open system and wondering if its Fair use or it is allowed?

3 comments:

faoladh said...

You can't copyright rules, only a specific presentation of them. So, there's no way to prevent the use of the classic six stat names. There are a number of games which use those six stats and are not D&D. Most of those are computer games (such as Nethack), but they weren't challenged. Also, I think that you can find every one of those stat names included in at least one other game.

That said, I am not a lawyer, and so this is not legal advice. It is only a presentation of my understanding.

This article may be of interest.

faoladh said...

Also, if you're going to be using the OGL, then yes, absolutely the six attributes are covered under the terms of that license.

justin aquino said...

Thanks Faoladh
Not OGL,
been working on an open system.
https://sites.google.com/site/openrpgsystem/

its better to say sorry than ask permission. Anyway, i've done some due dilligence on copyright and my system is sufficiently different. Suffice to say, its more of a Case Study Game System then :P