Excelsior Entertainment Forums

Chronopia => Game Questions => Topic started by: leutenantbrittan on July 01, 2012, 03:00:40 PM

Title: Who Owns the Rights to the Rules Mechanics?
Post by: leutenantbrittan on July 01, 2012, 03:00:40 PM

Hi!

I was wondering who owns the rights to the Chronopia rule system. I dont mean the background setting, just the rules mechanics?

I'd love to see the ruleset available again, even if they were made more generic or based on a different setting. Is there any possibility of seeing a re-vamp in a new setting?

All the best!

Title: Re: Who Owns the Rights to the Rules Mechanics?
Post by: Petru5 on July 02, 2012, 01:01:40 PM

Gosh, that's harder to pin down as an intellectual property.  There are so many minis games that use similar mechanics or just take a game's mechanics, tweak them to suit and put them out for a different genre or "mythos".

Title: Re: Who Owns the Rights to the Rules Mechanics?
Post by: kman on July 02, 2012, 05:35:37 PM

Speaking purely from a US law perspective, game mechanics are not copyrightable and generally wouldn't be patentable.  So the core system of both Chronopia and Warzone - d20 system, alternative activation, multiple actions for models, etc. - is completely fair game to be used for another game.  Check out Dark Age some time to see a game that is very nearly a complete rip of Warzone.  Of course it was designed by a couple former Target Freelancers, so I guess it's not much of a surprise.

Quote from: leutenantbrittan on July 01, 2012, 03:00:40 PM

Hi!

I was wondering who owns the rights to the Chronopia rule system. I dont mean the background setting, just the rules mechanics?

I'd love to see the ruleset available again, even if they were made more generic or based on a different setting. Is there any possibility of seeing a re-vamp in a new setting?

All the best!

Title: Re: Who Owns the Rights to the Rules Mechanics?
Post by: leutenantbrittan on July 03, 2012, 12:08:05 PM

Hi!

Thanks for the info folks!

All the best!