Re: Legality and WotC help with 3rdEd SJ

They're not in the SRD, at all. You can't use Mind Flayers in your  
product unless you can get direct, written permission from WotC (or  
you happen to have been publishing your product before the SRD came  
out and made this issue).

I don't think it has anything to do with the Lovecraft estate, since,  
while Mind Flayers are certainly Cthulhu-esque, I don't remember them  
actually appearing in a Lovecraft story. They may have been inspired  
by Lovecraft's Spawn of Cthulhu, or possibly by Niven's Thrint. But  
they're WotC's intellectual property, not Lovecrafts, and WotC  
doesn't want us touching them for third-party books. Same with  
Aboleth, Beholders, and Yuan-ti, I believe.

--Raf

On May 10, 2006, at 8:58 AM, Dreamer wrote:

> Why are there issues about Mind Flayers?
>
> They appear in the 3rdEd MM, which also says they are
> alternatively called illithids.
>
> Did the estate of H.P. Lovecraft get upset, or something?  Or
> Chaosium?