Please Say this is a Joke

[Nerre]

Yuan-ti, Maglubiyet, Dungeon Master... even Player's Handbook (and more). It's all got to be taken out of the comic.
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Thunt, the solution is far more easy than you might imagine. So many comics, games, films, whatever did include allusions to famous names/games/whatever, and the often did only change minor parts of the word.

For example you could call the race

Juantee instead of Yuan-ti. Still spells the same in english if I am correct.
Or Overlord instead of Dungeon Master.

I can't see that Player's Handbook is a copyright protected word. Even if it is, how about adventurer's handbook? Or come up with something like "Player Character guide".

You don't have to take it out, just replace it with something close enough.


Just think about lord helmet (or whatever is his name in space balls). The names are differnt, still people look very similar and everybody knows who should be who compared to star wars.

[Trojan]

Like Tyr, Odin, Thor and Freja who among their responsibilities included war. Also famous for naming Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Want a day named after you? Being a war-god appears to be a good way.

I always assumed that Friday was named after Frigga, wife to Odin, Freja was goddess of fertility and love wasn't she? Most beautiful of the Norse goddesses, wore the shiny necklace of Brisingamen (except when Thor borrowed it to imitate her when a Joten demanded Freya for a bride)?

[RocketScientist]

I always assumed that Friday was named after Frigga, wife to Odin

Wikipedia agrees with you.

The English term Friday derives from the Anglo-Saxon name for Frigg, Frige.

[DrinksTooMuchCoffee]

Right, THunt needs to be sued by the Norse Gods instead of the Magicians of the Beach.

[Jotunheim]

...You rang?

[SccrD25]

Nice try Ice Giant. Loki already tried that one, you're no god!

(also HA! your comment made me lol)

[Procyonpi]

DM is an easy change to GM, Player's Handbook can be changed to Player's Guide. It'll be a ton of work, but won't change the way the comic reads much. Mags and Yuan-ti will be harder to replace, but those ones are more likely be assailed. He probably needs to replace Drider and maybe Owlbear as well. Those ones are the real pain in the butt. How universal is the term "Dungeon Crawl"?

He should leave one reference to the Drider un-changed, then change a different reference so that someone calls it a "Spider-Man". Then when Wotco and Marvel both go to sue them, he just ducks and they destroy each other.

Technically, it would be Hasbro and Disney suing eachother. Although WotC doesn't claim Drider as product identity and a joke like that about "spider-man" probably qualifies as protected parody.

[CelineSSauve]

Technically, it would be Hasbro and Disney suing eachother. Although WotC doesn't claim Drider as product identity and a joke like that about "spider-man" probably qualifies as protected parody.

That's kinda the point though. WOTC has sent a C&D to someone over something in the SRD. It doesn't they they are not in the right. They apparently have enough money to waste to toss their weight around and make people who don't have money to spare bow down, even if they have the legal high-ground.

[WhichWayDidHeGo]

I played D&D with the original little black books. I quit in the middle 1970's because AD&D came along, and most of the group went off to play that, and about the same time I went to one of the GenCons at Lake Geneva, and found that Gary Gygax and TSR were trying to do things like trademark the word "Nazi". Went away grumpy and ran Traveller for twenty years.

[Zathyr]

I find this kind of idiocy very funny. I never played DnD when I was younger, but after reading Goblins for many years I started wondering if it would be fun. I looked at the online tabletops, and I remembered my brother getting into Warhammer. He was Skaven (which I always thought was really cool lol)

Now? Ha! I will never put money into their dumb pockets. I'd rather they fail miserably.

You can do both, if you really want to. The SRD (system reference document) is free online and contains all the basic rules you would need to play - part of their Open Gaming License that helped to make 3rd edition D&D so popular. You can also probably find used sourcebooks in game stores.

But don't get too mad at WotC/Hasbro. They haven't actually threatened Thunt/Goblins with anything that I know of. It was the Rusty & Co. kickstarter for plushy rust monsters that Wotbro threw a hissy fit over, and was ultimately settled out of court to everyone's satisfaction. To my understanding, that whole thing just got Thunt concerned enough to take some preventative measures.

[brnforce]

I find this kind of idiocy very funny. I never played DnD when I was younger, but after reading Goblins for many years I started wondering if it would be fun. I looked at the online tabletops, and I remembered my brother getting into Warhammer. He was Skaven (which I always thought was really cool lol)

Now? Ha! I will never put money into their dumb pockets. I'd rather they fail miserably.

You can do both, if you really want to. The SRD (system reference document) is free online and contains all the basic rules you would need to play - part of their Open Gaming License that helped to make 3rd edition D&D so popular. You can also probably find used sourcebooks in game stores.

But don't get too mad at WotC/Hasbro. They haven't actually threatened Thunt/Goblins with anything that I know of. It was the Rusty & Co. kickstarter for plushy rust monsters that Wotbro threw a hissy fit over, and was ultimately settled out of court to everyone's satisfaction. To my understanding, that whole thing just got Thunt concerned enough to take some preventative measures.

Very cool, thanks for the info too! I just get a really bad vibe when a company/entity goes all hardcore restrictions on copyrights/trademarks. It usually signals weakness. Hopefully these are all just extra, unneeded precautions but you never can be too careful.

With all of the stress in my life right now I guess I kind of just hoped I could relax with my favorite webcomic. The fact that it is dealing with all this stress too is frustrating.

[stevedj]

I find this kind of idiocy very funny. I never played DnD when I was younger, but after reading Goblins for many years I started wondering if it would be fun. I looked at the online tabletops, and I remembered my brother getting into Warhammer. He was Skaven (which I always thought was really cool lol)

Now? Ha! I will never put money into their dumb pockets. I'd rather they fail miserably.

You can do both, if you really want to. The SRD (system reference document) is free online and contains all the basic rules you would need to play - part of their Open Gaming License that helped to make 3rd edition D&D so popular. You can also probably find used sourcebooks in game stores.

But don't get too mad at WotC/Hasbro. They haven't actually threatened Thunt/Goblins with anything that I know of. It was the Rusty & Co. kickstarter for plushy rust monsters that Wotbro threw a hissy fit over, and was ultimately settled out of court to everyone's satisfaction. To my understanding, that whole thing just got Thunt concerned enough to take some preventative measures.

Hmmm, in a way then, it sounds like maybe THunt is moving too soon on this -- perhaps he really should wait for such a C&D order, then with some out-of-court discussions, maybe he wouldn't have to change quite as many references as might be happening now...???

[ForgetsOldName]

Actually the only thing I would suggest Thunt do is consult a lawyer. Or better yet, let Blind Ferret call their go-to guy/gal.

[Jotunheim]

The problem with waiting is that it would potentially mean Goblin was offline for months and months while the legal stuff was dealt with, and I don't think he wants to deal with that.

[mortissimus]

Like Tyr, Odin, Thor and Freja who among their responsibilities included war. Also famous for naming Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Want a day named after you? Being a war-god appears to be a good way.

I always assumed that Friday was named after Frigga, wife to Odin, Freja was goddess of fertility and love wasn't she? Most beautiful of the Norse goddesses, wore the shiny necklace of Brisingamen (except when Thor borrowed it to imitate her when a Joten demanded Freya for a bride)?

He, didn't think anyone would pick up on that one. Frigg and Freja are somewhat overlapping deities (with Friday having different names within the germanosphere in accordance to which was the dominant one), and Freja was in the previously linked list of war gods. She did have a realm of hall of fallen warriors - F├│lkvangr - and roles overlapping with the Valkyries, which I don't think Frigg had.

Here is for the interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigg_and_ ... hypothesis

In conclusion, the Norse gods were released under an open license so different versions were forked off at times. This enabled adaptation in a fierce marketplace. To bad the wizards are not following that ancient example. (Off topic? Who, me?)

[Trojan]

In conclusion, the Norse gods were released under an open license so different versions were forked off at times. This enabled adaptation in a fierce marketplace. To bad the wizards are not following that ancient example. (Off topic? Who, me?)

Having re-read my comment my apologies for any perceived snarkiness

If someone researched it enough, I expect that most old gods would prove to have been re-packaged and re-labelled many times - for that matter many current gods may have older roots than their supporters would be happy to discuss.

[mortissimus]

Having re-read my comment my apologies for any perceived snarkiness

Oh no, not at all, just me trying to be funny.

[mnementh]

In conclusion, the Norse gods were released under an open license so different versions were forked off at times. This enabled adaptation in a fierce marketplace. To bad the wizards are not following that ancient example. (Off topic? Who, me?)

Having re-read my comment my apologies for any perceived snarkiness

If someone researched it enough, I expect that most old gods would prove to have been re-packaged and re-labelled many times - for that matter many current gods may have older roots than their supporters would be happy to discuss.

Yeah, lets not get started on Christmas Trees or the Easter Bunny...


mnem
*Genuine repackaged Quetzalcoatl*

[talantus]

wouldn`t it be easier to put a disclaimer? instead of going trought changing everything?

[CelineSSauve]

wouldn`t it be easier to put a disclaimer? instead of going trought changing everything?

Thunt said in the chat that the next book won't have any changes, just things like the Card Game.

[LooksAndSmiles]

Haven't read the thread through, but wouldn't it be possible to ask WotC themselves whether they would allow Thunt to use the terms without changing them (or paying a license fee or something)? It could count as a partly fan-fic or something, maybe there is a legal term that would allow the easy acceptance. Even more, I guess this comic does them better advertising with original "names" than with fake ones, so if I were anyone important at WotC I'd even support this comic however I could. :/

[CelineSSauve]

It could count as a partly fan-fic or something, maybe there is a legal term that would allow the easy acceptance.

FanFictions don't count as any of the Fair Dealing exceptions under Canadian Law, and all the impression I've gotten of US Law imply that it's even worse there. (Thunt is Canadian, though, so he has to deal with Canadian Law. He does sales to the States, though, so he has to also keep that in mind.)

The only way FanFictions get under the radar of some authors is that the author makes no profit from them. Thunt, on the other hand, is rightfully proud of the fact that he supports his family with Goblins.