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Ethical Question for Creators

Hi all, I'm new to the marketplace and should be releasing my first packs within the next couple months. Question for you creators: do you think it's ethical to have some overlap of items between your various packs? For example, let's say you're releasing a village pack and a city pack. You've got tables and chairs and beds already created for one; would you use those assets in the other? Or would you draw new ones for each? Or say you're releasing a couple packs that feature caves; would you include a few cave shapes in one that you created for another? Just to be clear I have in mind maybe 10-20% overlap. Interested in your thoughts. Thanks!
I wouldn't overlap them so people aren't downloading the same asset with different names.
I am of the opinion it would be better to give all original content and then advertise your older work with the latest offering. And if you feel you need to complete your set with another crate, bush, or slightly used weapon; create several of them at one time and then sprinkle them moderately into your offerings. That way they would all have that item in it but they would all be slightly different.
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Ziechael
Forum Champion
Sheet Author
API Scripter
An alternative is to have a lower price point on your building sets and have them unfurnished and then do a furnishings pack separate that people could buy to fill the buildings themselves with? You could also do as some creators do and include 2 images for each building, an unfurnished version and a fully furnished one so that users have the option and only have one image to load if they decide to use the furnished version :) Generally though i would advise bespoke content for each pack for the reasons the others have already highlighted.
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Badger
Pro
Marketplace Creator
For my packs, I try to avoid overlap as much as possible, while also keeping an eye on what a set needs to "feel complete". I'm working on a village set and a farmstead set now, so your example is apropos. These two sets will share more pieces than my usual sets, because I don't want a user to feel forced to buy both. Both sets will share, in this case, some basic buildings, a hearth, and some very basic furniture. Both sets also will have the "basic" floor tiles, a few trees, and a boulder from my Forest Pack I, because you need something to sit your village or farm on and not having a tree would be wierd. I feel like it would be less ethical to restrict my trees to only that one set, but I also put about 190 hours of work into this village set, so I don't feel too terrible reusing a tree.  I aim for at least about 80% unique stuff in each set, but may bend that if it makes the set make more sense to include more from my library. For me it's a balance of making sure my most loyal and awesome customers feel "wow, this is super worthwhile" and someone who's never bought any of my stuff doesn't feel "but why are there no trees?!"...and if I'm honest not repainting a new tree for every pack just to claim it's "new". Cause that last doesn't really add any deep value, and it will also make me kill myself around tree number 843. It is my hope, at least, that the wonderful folks who buy every pack I produce can understand and forgive me for reusing my favorite tree so that new people have at least one tree.  Oh! Also! Pick a good naming convention and stick with it, exactly to ensure that people aren't downloading the same asset with different names. "Tree.png" is less help than "NF01_TreeLg_10x10.png"
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Dsurion
Pro
Marketplace Creator
Im on a similar place as Badger, i try not to reuse stuff, but if something i did for another set fits perfectly on a new one, i`ll recolor it and add it kind of like a "bonus"
Badger, those were my thoughts exactly, thanks for the feedback. A question on naming: if you included your tree "NF01_TreeLg_10x10" in another pack, am I understanding correctly that you would keep that same name even if the rest of the assets in the pack started with another prefix (like "CA02_...")? And if so, how does that prevent users from downloading the item twice? Won't it download with the rest of the pack regardless? Can Roll20 detect duplicates within purchased assets?
An asset with the same name but in two packs will still show up in the art library twice.
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Munky
Pro
Marketplace Creator
Compendium Curator
Items like trees, I would feel ok to reuse in other packs. I personally wouldn't re-release the item itself as an individual, but I will be using my trees to decorate future maps with that will be released in other sets. I have reused a few items from other packs on maps created for new packs, but I have not re-released the item itself to be available in two different sets, although that is just me personally. I have seen other artists recycle a few items and make them available in multiple packs, though I cannot comment on the end user attitude towards doing this. 
Not being a creator, take my opinion for the grain of salt it is.  (Though as a potential customer, perhaps it should carry some weight.) I would recommend recoloring any overlap.  Variety is good.  Sometimes I want trees of different shades.  Or buildings.  As for caves, since you don't want to recolor them or they won't look right, using the same curved section is is fine.  But add something.  A crack in the floor, some fungus, something. Gabriel is a very popular artist on Roll20.  He does that.  He resuses tiles and shapes, but from what I've seen there is always something different about them.