Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 krozzy Mar 17, 2011 16:39:42	Hey guys, me and a buddy are starting our own company! The first product I am working on is a DM assistant for both d&d 3.5 and 4e. It is a powerful program that requires only a few mouse-clicks for randomly generated information to assist DMs in creating merchants, events, and encounters. I'm not sure what I am legally allowed to do, but i have a good idea. Here is a list of features. 1. Random merchant with a list of items for sale with prices. Simply clicking on the item pulls up information related to it. Options include Item level and Wealth of the merchant 2. Generate a random combat encounter that lists monsters invloved. Simply clicking on the monster will pull up information related to it. 3. Random event. Includes suggested skill checks and DCs, along with suggested awards or consequences 4. Item and moster Index. Any thoughts or comments? I figure as long as you still need the Core Rulebooks to play, I shouldn't be breaching anything. Anyone have experience or knowledge?
#2 Matt_James Mar 18, 2011 11:56:34	You should contact an attorney. Geting legal advice on the forums is not ideal. Best of luck in your venture. It sounds like you have some neat ideas.
#3 bone_naga Mar 18, 2011 18:32:02	It sounds like you should be able to pull it off, but then again I'm not a lawyer. I would definitely stay away from anything that's pretty much copied out of the books. You might be ok with an encounter generator that lists monsters, but if you are including the entire stat block you'll run into problems. If you are doing this as a free program for the community, I would say just tread lightly and go for it, and if you get a C&D back off or remove the offensive features. However, if you are starting your own company it sounds like this is for profit. If you are charging for a program, you aren't going to want to have to go in and remove features or sink a lot of time and money and then have to stop selling the program entirely, so in that case I would go and get some legal advice. To keep the legal fees down, I would have a complete plan in place before you go. You want to be able to walk in, lay out all the features of the program, what is taken from the books and what is referenced, let them spend an hour or so researching IP law, and get a straight answer. If you go in with a half-written plan and they have to keep asking questions and you keep changing the planned features, then you'll waste a lot of money.