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View Full Version : If I Were To Make Warhammer 40k D20 Rules...



StoryKeeper
2010-01-15, 11:13 PM
I'd really like to make a little side project of making d20 rules for 40k. Yes, they have Dark Heresy, but the human factions of 40k don't really interest me for the most part, so I'd like to brew my own stuff, especially the xenos stuff. Thing is, GW has been dropping the IP hammer a lot, and I'd hate to get myself or anyone else in trouble.

Would it be legal to show my work here in the homebrew section? I'm not really sure how the legal stuff works out since I don't own Warhammer 40k, but if I didn't include any fluff material outside of the name of the thing being brewed and maybe short descriptions explaining why they have certain class features and such, could Games Workshop drop the IP hammer on me?

imp_fireball
2010-01-16, 02:22 AM
could Games Workshop drop the IP hammer on me?

Yah, probably.

Thing is, we at the forums don't inherently comprehend how lawyers or company executives behave, so y'know.

Better safe then sorry.

Agi Hammerthief
2010-01-16, 05:47 AM
who would know if you PM some of the folks here who advertise in their sig that they will review if asked?


From a legal point of vew they can probbably drop the IP hammer on you as soon as you mention their name in relation with whatever you come up with; unless they have some OGL stuff out you would be working with.

Problem is: If you call it Warhammer, whatever you come up with and put it under this label in the public, they have to be afraid that you will sue them over IP if at any time later they happen come up with something very similar.

Zexion
2010-01-16, 03:14 PM
Technically, the homebrew would be your Intellectual Property, which means that.
Technically, you are not using their idea (it's not a tabletop RPG), and if you put the following disclaimer beneath the compilation of you work, nothing would go wrong:

This set of d20 rules are allowed under the Freedom Of Information Act. I do not own the rights to Warhammer, nor do I pretend to.
This set of d20 rules are MY intellectual property, however, as stated above, Warhammer is not. This information will not be sold, bought, or used commercially. To use this information, you must agree to acknowledge ME (StoryKeeper) and agree to not use this information commercially.

OR you could just go ahead... but make up different names for things (still show the pictures, though).
Also, if anything, this might boost Warhammer miniature sales, because nobody wants to use a elven ranger figure for their armageddon exosuit, right? So they might buy, and... you get the idea.

StoryKeeper
2010-01-16, 04:05 PM
Hmm. If I wanted to be on teh safe side, I could just call them generic "space elves" then, and give them racial classes such as Totem Warrior: Screaming Washer Woman, and Diving Bird, and Pyro Serpent, and so on?

Zexion
2010-01-16, 05:20 PM
That would be the safest route.