Making a Digital Game Board - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Making a Digital Game Board

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
andor00
Mar 01, 2009 3:57:32 So I am programming a Game Board Visualizer to tide me over until the official one is released.

It will be somewhat similar to Maptools but will be:
1. User friendly (Figuring out maptools makes me cry).
2. Made Specifically for 4th edition.
3. Unfortunately not online.

Its main purpose is to be displayed using a projector or big tv.

So my question is, if I put the finished product for everyone to download free online, would it be legal to have a donate button for people to lend their support? Would I have to stay away from dnd specific terminology if I did so?
#2
i_can_see_forever
Mar 01, 2009 10:08:15 WotC can't stop anyone from making a grid-based fantasy map generator. I definitely wouldn't mention D&D in any of the tools or documentation, but if you could code an app that just happened to work well for creating D&D maps, I don't see how anyone who opposed you would have a legal leg to stand on.

Not a lawyer, but that's my two cents.
#3
Ziana
Mar 01, 2009 10:19:47 Look into using the GPL or a Creative Commons license.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

http://creativecommons.org/

As the above poster indicates, just don't use any D&D specific information. Generic terms and concepts are not protected by copyright: "dungeon", "trap", "corridor", "monster", etc.
#4
inkblot
Mar 01, 2009 16:18:58 http://shatteredshield.net/dnd/help.htm

One of the friends I play D&D with already created a program which meets all your criteria (including not being online). If you like how it looks from the help files, I'll bug him to put the latest version online so you can download it. It was made using VB.net.
#5
andor00
Mar 01, 2009 19:30:59 That program looks neat and I wouldn't mind looking at it.

I still plan on making my own program because itll be nice to have one that I can easily modify to fit my needs.

So speaking of, what features would everyone like to see in a digital game board. My current plans include:

1. Painting different premade terrain tiles onto the the board.
2. Placing a second layer of objects overlaying the terrain(chairs, boxes, alters)
3. Placing fog-of-war over areas to be revealed at will.
4. Placing tokens (player and monster) ranging from 1x1 to 4x4 on the board and it will keep track of each's hit points and surges.
5. Being able to move these tokens around and attack and heal them.

Minor Feaures: Range calculaor, Lighting effects, difficult terrain markers, walls, doors, saving and loading of board status

So what else would be good?
#6
rambaldi
Mar 02, 2009 1:51:28 Quite a big deal for 4e DnD and I am sure other games as well but status indicators on the monsters so it is easy to tell who has been marked/curesed etc.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 andor00 Mar 01, 2009 3:57:32	So I am programming a Game Board Visualizer to tide me over until the official one is released. It will be somewhat similar to Maptools but will be: 1. User friendly (Figuring out maptools makes me cry). 2. Made Specifically for 4th edition. 3. Unfortunately not online. Its main purpose is to be displayed using a projector or big tv. So my question is, if I put the finished product for everyone to download free online, would it be legal to have a donate button for people to lend their support? Would I have to stay away from dnd specific terminology if I did so?
#2 i_can_see_forever Mar 01, 2009 10:08:15	WotC can't stop anyone from making a grid-based fantasy map generator. I definitely wouldn't mention D&D in any of the tools or documentation, but if you could code an app that just happened to work well for creating D&D maps, I don't see how anyone who opposed you would have a legal leg to stand on. Not a lawyer, but that's my two cents.
#3 Ziana Mar 01, 2009 10:19:47	Look into using the GPL or a Creative Commons license. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html http://creativecommons.org/ As the above poster indicates, just don't use any D&D specific information. Generic terms and concepts are not protected by copyright: "dungeon", "trap", "corridor", "monster", etc.
#4 inkblot Mar 01, 2009 16:18:58	http://shatteredshield.net/dnd/help.htm One of the friends I play D&D with already created a program which meets all your criteria (including not being online). If you like how it looks from the help files, I'll bug him to put the latest version online so you can download it. It was made using VB.net.
#5 andor00 Mar 01, 2009 19:30:59	That program looks neat and I wouldn't mind looking at it. I still plan on making my own program because itll be nice to have one that I can easily modify to fit my needs. So speaking of, what features would everyone like to see in a digital game board. My current plans include: 1. Painting different premade terrain tiles onto the the board. 2. Placing a second layer of objects overlaying the terrain(chairs, boxes, alters) 3. Placing fog-of-war over areas to be revealed at will. 4. Placing tokens (player and monster) ranging from 1x1 to 4x4 on the board and it will keep track of each's hit points and surges. 5. Being able to move these tokens around and attack and heal them. Minor Feaures: Range calculaor, Lighting effects, difficult terrain markers, walls, doors, saving and loading of board status So what else would be good?
#6 rambaldi Mar 02, 2009 1:51:28	Quite a big deal for 4e DnD and I am sure other games as well but status indicators on the monsters so it is easy to tell who has been marked/curesed etc.