Re: WOTC pulls plug on Dragon & Dungeon mag

David Shepheard wrote:
>>>
>>> My system of choice is GURPS, and I'm sure that it shouldn't be too 
>>> hard
>>> to do GURPS Spelljammer.  I've been incorporating many parts of SJ into
>>> my GURPS campaigns for years, though I'll admit I haven't tried to do a
>>> full conversion yet.  If anyone's interested I'll post what I have
>>> converted.
>
> I'm not sure, but I don't think that you can legally convert 
> Spelljammer to GURPS as Wizards of the Coast own the copyright. 
> Spelljammer is still being sold (ironically by Paizo - the Dragon and 
> Dungeon publisher) and conversions of SJ to GURPS might be seen to hit 
> WotC profits and wake up their lawyers. Their (WotC's) Conversion 
> Agreement allows you to publish 3e conversions, but doesn't let you do 
> anything outside of D&D. However, Beyond the Moons has a slightly 
> different legal position to normal fans and might be able to use your 
> stuff.

I meant that comment for people who a) already own Spelljammer (as I 
do), and b) said that they've gotten annoyed with D&D.  One person in 
particular said he was so peeved that he was looking at giving up D&D, 
something I did years ago due to my dislike of class based systems and 
the D&D game mechanics in general (3.5 fixed some problems, but it still 
isn't all that great from my POV).

I got started in roleplaying with the red box D&D set, eventually moved 
on and bought the 1st edition AD&D, the second edition AD&D, dozens of 
settings books, etc.  I just plain don't like class based systems 
though, and when I discovered the world beyond D&D I wound up liking it 
better, GURPS especially. 

But before that, I fell in love with Spelljammer.  Its a fantastic idea; 
even though I think that TSR screwed it up by making it the dumping 
ground for all the cheesy grade B movie knockoff monster and idea they 
could come up with (not to mention the stupid, mindnumbingly repeated, 
and patently silly phrase "the groundlings have no interest in 
Spelljamming").  Great concept, lousy execution, and rooted in a game 
system I found I no longer liked very much.  Like all DM's I scrapped 
the stuff I didn't like, changed around the things I thought were wrong, 
and my group and I enjoyed the result tremendously.  Great stuff, I 
still love Spelljammer.

So, rather than abandoning my legally purchased stuff, stuff that I'd 
tracked down with a fair degree of difficulty back pre-internet, I 
adapted the SJ rules to the (IMO) superior game mechanics of GURPS.  
Infringing on copyright is not my intention, and while I'm not a lawyer 
either I don't think posting a quick adaptation that pretty much 
requires the SJ rules to work would infringe.  Could be wrong though, 
since I'm not, in fact, a lawyer.

Brad