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White Wolf Applying License to Indie Games

Posted by Zonk on from the goes-over-like-a-lead-balloon dept.

Enigma23 writes "White Wolf, Inc. has decided to enforce a licensing system upon those who run their games in their World of Darkness. Here is the full text of the license. The Licensing process will force those who have not already joined the Camarilla, White Wolf's official fan club, to pay a yearly $20 fee. They're not going to go after games that don't charge money for the event, but the wording is such that they can legally sue those who don't comply even if they only charge enough money to cover costs. The practical upshot is that technically the WW Stormtroopers could raid your house merely if everyone chips in a few quid for pizza. This is evidently doubly so if anyone in your gaming group is under the age of 18, which is against the membership policy of The Camarilla. There is a further discussion on RPG.net about the various issues involved." The BoingBoing discussion is interesting, as well.

1 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This seems pretty silly by Planesdragon · · Score: 0, Troll

    Meh. Pen and pencil games aren't a huge profit sector.

    Yes, exactly. All the more reason not to even chance it.

    Those are unrelated to what we're talking about, though.

    IIRC, a federal judge found not too long ago that a five-note chord that was unconciously inseted into a song was copyrightable infringement. It's exactly what we're talking about--the courtroom is not a certain place, and being able to stay far away from it is a worthwhile thing, the benefits of the OGL notwithstanding.

    The objective measure is that there are more games on the market and less hard feelings in the four year block between 2001 and now than in the four-year block between 1996 and 2000. The OGL, quite unlike the GPL, did exactly what it set out to do.

    Hardly a "worthless" license.

    As for the compilation issue--it's enough to be raised in court, which means more than likely enough to keep from being summarily dismissed. And considering that those who play pen and paper RPGs find differences ad nauseum between different "systems", I wouldn't put my money on any court saying that they're not distinct.