Logos & trade dress

[vivsavage]

I am interested in creating some 6"x6" spell and monster cards for use with DCC. I have a couple of questions for those with knowledge on the topic:
- Are 3PP allowed to use the DCC logo?
- Are 3PP allowed to mimic the trade dress (fonts, layout, etc) of the DCC rulebook?
- Has anyone, to your knowledge, created spell or monster cards for DCC?

[GnomeBoy]

I am interested in creating some 6"x6" spell and monster cards for use with DCC. I have a couple of questions for those with knowledge on the topic:
- Are 3PP allowed to use the DCC logo?
- Are 3PP allowed to mimic the trade dress (fonts, layout, etc) of the DCC rulebook?
- Has anyone, to your knowledge, created spell or monster cards for DCC?

The "compatible with" logo that you've seen on other third-party items is available if your products are approved by Goodman Games.

IIRC, you are not allowed to mimic Goodman Games' trade dress.

I haven't seen those, but I have heard them talked about. So pure speculation: Others have wanted to put DCC spells and monsters onto cards, but they were shot down. Of course the way to find out for sure if this is viable is to contact them and propose what you want to do...

But there are other spell resources you're up against, such as the Crawler app, and the fact that people print off the spells they need for handy reference from their pdf copies of the rules.

[vivsavage]

The "compatible with" logo that you've seen on other third-party items is available if your products are approved by Goodman Games.

IIRC, you are not allowed to mimic Goodman Games' trade dress.

Of course the way to find out for sure if this is viable is to contact them and propose what you want to do...

I assume I can print the cards, sans the logo, under the OGL. I've sent an email a few days ago but haven't heard back yet.

[GnomeBoy]

I assume I can print the cards, sans the logo, under the OGL. I've sent an email a few days ago but haven't heard back yet.

As per page 450, all spell names are Product Identity, except such items that already appear in the SRD. Rules-wise Chapters 1 and 4 are designated as being derived from the OGL, but I don't know that spell mechanics fall under that at all.

But I'm just a lay person on the sidelines. My gut tells me that the spells would be proprietary and the specifics in the monster stats would be, too. Even if you could print the text of the spells without a contract (which I do doubt) you clearly still couldn't call the Hepsoj's Fecund Fungi spell by name, for example. Goodman Games has built up a lot of loyalty, and skirting around the license might mean not tapping into a large portion of their customer base... A bad move, IMO.