Now on to my problem: I respect Wizards of the Coast and what they've done with D&D but what I wanna know is will I get into some legal hoopla somewhere in the near future if I go through and publish the Graphic Novel\? The story will be based on the themes and the rules of the game, though its history and mythology will be something I'll be making up ( plus some additional house rules I've added to mix it up a bit ). There will be a lot of stuff familiar to old gamers as well as new stuff I'll be throwing in. So what I wanna know is, can I go through with the graphic novel or would I need permission if its gonna be based on the table top game?
I'm new to this legal copyright thing and before I go talk to a lawyer I wanna hear opinions first. Thanks for reading, but its better if people gave me their opinions.
Thank you all and God bless!
In another person's post here, they are making a school project that will be available in the library, however, that project is (I believe) not actually being published. So all he should have to do is cite sources to stay away from claims of plagiarism.
With your project on the other hand you plan on publishing it, so that is a whole different ball game. Again, I tell you I am not an expert on the topic. I am fairly certain, however, that if you publish a book based on Dungeons & Dragons, that you will have to look into copy right laws about all of this. Honestly, I think the outcome is going to be that you will have to come to some sort of agreement with Wizards of the Coast. They would definitely want a cut, because Hasbro owns them and Hasbro is a corp like any other. Not to mention that if you are being published for the first time, the publishing company would also want a lot of money from any sales you made as well. It would probably take you quite a bit of time and money to do.... how far are you willing to go with this?
One thing you might want to think about doing is NOT referencing D&D at all, at least not blatantly through the comic... but there can be some fine lines regarding all of that.
Maybe you could think about breaking this project down into a free blog, where every week you have the comics up. Then if you get successful with it, you might find an easier path to publishing an entire comic.
Its up to you.... hope my advice is helpful.
That was quite an eye opener. Living in a small pond like Cebu here in the Philippines ( where comics are scarcely published ) I don't get a lot of ideas on the subject. I'll take your advise into consideration and weigh my options.I'm considering not referencing D&D at all instead. There's enough "house rules" in this Universe to make it stand on its own. I love the game and it's certainly an influence to my writing and artwork, but I'll use it as a jumping-off point instead and create an entirely new universe all-together.
Again thanks for the advise and for assisting this beleaguered ( and impoverished ) artist