Thread: Am writing a book based on a RPG game I played..

But am wondering if I am going to have copyright issues. This was an online game I played over the space of a year and a half, and so many interesting things had happened that I wanted to make a story out of it.
Does anyone know if it's legal to do that?

I guess it depends on how much of the game you use. I'm thinking that you will cross some line in copyright issues.. it'd be hard to write a story based on a game without doing so. Your best bet would be to contact the company that made the game, and ask them if they'd mind you writing the book. They may think it's a great idea (as it promotes the game), they may ask for some money for the use of it, or they may say no. But it's best to get an idea from them as to what they're happy with.. then you'll have some concept of whether you should proceed or not.

If you were just looking to use some of the events that happened, but can get away without using any details from the game (such as names, locations, theme, and anything else specific to the game), then you may be fine just writing away and not claiming any association with the game.

Thanks for replying..this isn't really any well known RPG it was just a game played in an online community. I think I will take your advice and not use too many of the same details that are game specific.
I read that Weis and Hickman used a RPG game to create Dragonlance but I don't know the specifics.

There's a variety of novels based on role playing games. The D&D game world spawned Dragonlance, along with Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and others. You'll find that the authors have some license to produce works based on the common theme; they have been allowed to use the theme.

As an example, R. A. Salvatore created the Forgotten Realms 'world' based on the D&D game dynamics (creatures, magic, etc). And the Forgotten Realms was popular enough to spawn a series of games along with other books based on the same world. There's an amount of give and take amongst the various artists.

You just need to know where you stand with your chosen theme.. and that mostly comes down to how much of the details you intend to borrow; which relies on whether people will overly notice that you're using someone else's content. If you're confident that it's not noticeable, then you should be fine just writing away.

bookmommy, was the RPG based in a world created by scratch by the GM, or was it a commercial RPG in the vein of D&D? It's possible that in the case of the former, if you cleared things with the GM and (if feasible) the players beforehand, that you'd be able to overcome the issues that way. In the case of the latter, IP issues are more likely to come to the fore, and you should probably consider just using the events with characters and a world of your own to avoid any issues arising. If you can't get the GM's clearance in the former case, you're probably safest to go with a world of your own as well.

Tsaeb..without giving too much away it was based on a series of published novels that people are Role playing in an online graphics based chat site(Think IMVU, Second Life, etc..)so the world and the names for cities and such are copyrighted in the books, but the basic story I want to tell should be okay told in another world or with a twist.

I would be very careful when it comes to using a game world. Underworld managed to cause a lawsuit from White Wolf because of what White Wolf considered to be plagiarism of their concepts featured in the RPGs Vampire and Warewolf, allthough the siomilarities are superficial at most.

Using any element exclusive to the game is risky, it's best to contact them first. They might just give you permission or they may want cash or some % of the sales if you get it published. Better that than getting sued for all you're worth. Meanwhile, a lot of RPGs share common traits, orks, magic swords and epic quests are pretty universal to fantasy, lazers and spaceships feature in most scifi. Perhaps you could just take the story and change some of the more game-exclusive concepts. If the game features its own set of beasts, make up your own monsters perhaps.

This would be pretty easy with D&D, but near impossible with Wherewolf: The Forsaken. It depends on the specifics of the RPG you played