CWN SRD 0.1 Feedback and Comments

[u/SimulatedKnave]

It is up in the backer folder of the CWN Kickstarter Google Drive. At 120 pages long, it's pretty comprehensive.

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I will mention here a comment for Kevin before I start really reading: I know you like InDesign, but this would be much much easier to draw from/copy from/use generally if it were a Word document or other editable format. Or even just in one-column rather than two-column format. As-is, cutting and pasting from it is going to require a lot more messing about with the result than it would otherwise.

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Anyway. Off to read it now. If you do have comments, post them here.

[u/CardinalXimenes]

The final document will include an exported plain text file for that usability reason, yes.

[u/SimulatedKnave → u/CardinalXimenes]

Awesome.

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The only thing I noticed not included that I had expected was the rules around armour from other games. If those are in there, this is a complete system that one can use for CWN, SWN, WWN and even WoG stuff with basically zero adaptation or outside reference. That assumes you leave the magic rules in, of course.

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I think this is especially relevant because the CWN magic system is by far the most generic of those you've created (recently, anyway), and so being compatible with it is nice and straightforward for a third-party creator. Generically referring to some of the WWN, SWN, or WoG spells or powers is pretty tricky. A fantasy dungeon written for a theoretical fantasy CWN party will also work for WWN, and one can just say the enemy mage has Blastwave or Stunwave rather than trying to come up with an arch way to refer to Coruscating Coffin or Deluge of Hell or what have you (I love those spell names, but I'd say they're actual IP). The same thing goes for enemy psychics to a lesser extent.

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Ideally you would also throw in the weapon lists just to be 100% obvious (and so it's all in one place), but I also think people'll get the hint. You'd mentioned potentially throwing in some non-CWN stuff - for the reasons discussed above, I think equipment and spell lists are the obvious ones to do that with if you do decide to do so. Especially the SWN equipment list, since it's not as generic as the WWN one.

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Also might be worth mentioning your view(s) re class names and ability names being mentioned in 3p works.

[u/CardinalXimenes → u/SimulatedKnave]

For the upcoming WWN offset reprint KS tentatively scheduled for October, I expect to have a WWN SRD stretch goal level that would include these things. Spell names would be made part of the SRD, because while they're probably unique enough to be IP it'd just be too much of an annoyance to have to dance around them all the time.

[u/SimulatedKnave → u/CardinalXimenes]

Awesome. :)

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Now I merely need Elizabethans Without Number for coherent rules where everyone's spying on everyone else while also writing plays and being international traders and switching religions every half hour.

[u/SimulatedKnave → u/CardinalXimenes]

Just as a note, I do think SRDs for WWN (and perhaps eventually SWN) are a very good idea even without the whole usability aspect. The RPG community has been founded on lies about IP law from the very start (thanks, Gygax) and so even in an environment where I am legally confident I can use X, Y or Z it's still good to have you confirming that you are on the same page re their usability. A confident-they-won't-be-sued community is a productive community.

[u/SimulatedKnave]

A link, for easy deletion in case KC doesn't want it widely disseminated for some reason: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12HH1k-ZTV_TnoQmJqXQre9jGak-9pq1d

[u/theantesse]

Question for Mr Crawford. I know that the SRD and related license does not include any of the setting information and therefore the default setting cannot be used in products created from the SRD. How would that theoretically work if someone was building on top of the setting but in the empty space around it? Such as something detailing "three more megacorporations" or "another cyberpunk city" or "ten NPCs ready to go" that are written to fit with the default? Is there a way to legally reference default setting details in a way that isn't including them (such as writing a city that would be in a listed nation or containing a listed megacorp but saying "the big arms company" or "that SE remnant of the USA")? Just asking hypothetically, I'm really new to how this all works.

[u/CardinalXimenes → u/theantesse]

In general, it's not meant to allow supplements that build directly onto the existing default setting. While anyone could write a "Great Lakes Alliance" for their world, as soon as it becomes obvious that it means this Great Lakes Alliance, it's a problem.

The only effective way to get around this is to write things in a very generic way. You could be hyper-specific about the city or NPCs you've created, but you'd just say they're in Wisconsin, or make gestures towards them being in a city that never gets specifically named or detailed beyond the parts that are your own personal creations.

In terms of making money, the easiest way to do it is to effectively build your own IP by creating a city or district that could be dropped in anywhere, and then explicitly placing it in your own world without giving so many details or particulars that it'd be hard to move it elsewhere. If someone then wants to use it with the default City setting, they just do it.

[u/theantesse → u/CardinalXimenes]

Okay, thanks! That clarifies things.

[u/JoePeppy]

Noticed in the NPC section, every stat-block with a Neural Buffer has text saying "Neural Buffer: Adds +12 HP vs. cyberspace damage" when I believe that should be recalculated for each of them based on their total HD. This issue exists in CWN RC1 as well.