Help politely requested for new Content Creator

Ladies & Gents Hoping that someone who has experience of creating content for the Roll20 MarketPlace can help me with some answers to these questions. I'm looking to release a "one-off" dungeon for D&D fifth edition. I'm a "bullet-point" kind of guy so here goes: 1) Can I include tokens from the D&D PHB & Monster Manual and include in the description for the game that the purchaser needs to have bought these books? 2) In the above scenario, what would happen if people purchased my game but didn't have this content? Would the tokens come through with some kind of "missing" graphic? 3) A similar question, but I presume that I am allowed to use "normal" D&D 5e monsters in any published game or do I need to create custom-monsters? Thanks - any help very much appreciated. Stay safe people Richard.

1) They generally prefer you to have EVERYTHING for the adventure self-contained, so referencing something else is probably not a good idea.  All monsters/tokens for the adventure need to be included for the adventure so you can play it without purchasing anything else. 2) Since the art is owned by Wizards of the Coast, you will need to create your own or pair with an artist to create some for the pack. 3)  This I am unsure about.  If it is a licensed monster then you might need to make your own description and such due to copyright.

Hi Richard B! 3) You are free to use monsters available in the SRD. These contain minimal info beyond the statblock and no artwork. You can supply your own artwork if you have the rights as Wordforger outlines in point 2 above. Without an express licensing agreement from Wizards of the Coast, you cannot use any other published material outside the SRD. There are other legal requirements, such as disclaimers that must be present, that are delineated in the SRD and the 5th edition Open Gaming License. Refer to Wizards of the Coast's website for latest versions of the the appropriate documents. IANAL, but this is the general situation.

You can either contact an artist who already has made tokens and ask to license them for commercial use (not on the forums, but through their own social media) or find someone whose art you like or can afford and commission custom tokens. :) Most artists will do one or the other so don't worry, it's not hard, and if you can't afford custom art you can always license stock art to make your tokens.

Thanks for the responses everyone, much appreciated. Noted, re: the use of official monsters. I guess the same applies to spells too?  Now to find an artist. Thanks again Richard

Richard B. said: Thanks for the responses everyone, much appreciated. Noted, re: the use of official monsters. I guess the same applies to spells too?  Here is a copy of the SRD .

Richard B. said: Ladies & Gents Hoping that someone who has experience of creating content for the Roll20 MarketPlace can help me with some answers to these questions. I'm looking to release a "one-off" dungeon for D&D fifth edition. I'm a "bullet-point" kind of guy so here goes: 1) Can I include tokens from the D&D PHB & Monster Manual and include in the description for the game that the purchaser needs to have bought these books? 2) In the above scenario, what would happen if people purchased my game but didn't have this content? Would the tokens come through with some kind of "missing" graphic? 3) A similar question, but I presume that I am allowed to use "normal" D&D 5e monsters in any published game or do I need to create custom-monsters? Thanks - any help very much appreciated. Stay safe people Richard. I have released several SRD products on Roll20 and wanted to expand on the good information that others have already listed. First, follow Keith's guidance and read the Open Gaming License (OGL) page in the System Resource Document (SRD) and follow it completely as you create your product. Second, the only WotC content you can include in your product is what is in the SRD. For example, if a spell is listed in the PHB but not the SRD, you may not use it . As for your specific questions: No, you may not mention any WotC product in your product. You may not even mention Dungeons and Dragons. Most people get around this by saying their product is "5e" or "Fifth Edition" compatible since those words are not protected. What you can  do is link into the 5e compendium. If you open a compendium entry that has a link to what you want to link to, you can copy that hyperlink into a handout in your product. Then the user click's on the link and opens the relevant entry in the compendium. You should only do this with SRD entries, though. While you are creating your product, you can go into the game settings page and disable all compendium expansions. This will leave you with just the SRD content. You can only include content in your product that is your original work or that you have explicit permission to use. For game text, that usual means products that are released under the OGL, such as the SRD. Each OGL product lists what can be reused and what cannot. For example, the SRD explicitly mentions many proper names that may not be reused (such as Underdark), and the SRD contains alternate titles for some items (such as  acid arrow  instead of   melf's acid arrow ). For art, it needs to be stock art, creative commons, original, or commissioned, and you have to follow any credit requirements in your product.  Since you cannot even mention the other WotC products, the scenario in your question should go away. You may use monsters released under the OGL. This includes those monsters in the SRD. Don't forget that you must include a copy of the OGL in it's entirety in your product and that your copy in section 15 must cite each OGL product from which you have pulled content. You will find things much more affordable to use stock art from a site such as drivethrurpg.com rather than commissioning an artist. A site such drivethrurpg.com has lots of art, and the Jacob Blackmon art from Rogue Genius Games is quite affordable there (especially during sales). Dungeondraft is a good resource for making your own maps. Realize that the minimum price for a marketplace product is $4.99, so your one shot / one-off dungeon needs to be worth that. I am not speaking for Roll20 , but my assessment of their guidance is that a one shot should cover at least 2 (and preferably 4) hours of gameplay.

Really good advice, Brian! I hadn't even thought about it, but the new ability to turn off specific compendiums is a good tool for adventure writers on the marketplace.

keithcurtis said: Really good advice, Brian! I hadn't even thought about it, but the new ability to turn off specific compendiums is a good tool for adventure writers on the marketplace. I had requested it a while back, and some of the Roll20 staff liked it. Even though the suggestion did not gain many votes, I guess they liked it enough to bring it about. :)

Folks I am slightly in awe of the responses you've given me. Really appreciate the help and the advice you've provided. I've just disabled all compendiums on the game I'm working on, I never realised that piece of functionality was there. I'll be using ' Inkarnate ' to create my maps (I'm a longstanding pro user) so that leaves me with: tokens, Handout art and "cover" art to purchase. Maps and games concepts I'm good at. My ability to draw/paint is however.... "limited"..... I'm currently playtesting the game with my usual group, they've spent 9 hours playing it so far and are about half-way through so I think I'll be offering fair value for money. Thanks for the advice on the pricing policy Brian. I've previously published to the DMsGuild on a " pay what you want " basis". Not a great idea if you want to make money - lesson learned. Thanks again. Richard

Folks Well I've play-tested my game with two groups. One a "mature" set of forty-somethings who've been playing D&D since they were kids. The other my own children who are somewhat younger. To my surprise my kids displayed more common-sense... Anyhow, I was just wondering if anyone on the forum had any recommendations for artists or particular compilations of artwork. Please feel free to PM me if you do. Thanks. Richard

On DriveThruRPG, Rogue Genius has a bunch of older artwork by Jacob Blackmon that is affordable and has a simple credit and license policy.

Thanks Brian, I'l take a look.

A quick follow-up to this thread with an update of how my "search for art" has been progressing. Hopefully, this will be useful to others in the same position. As already suggested, DriveThruRPG has an excellent range of art ready to be licensed. The single biggest problem is trying to find a single provider who will provide ALL the art you need. It's harder to get a common look and feel if you mix artists. At the "higher-end" there are some spectacular artists on the DeviantArt site. Although most don't explicitly state their art is for sale, if you contact them privately, many are open to offers. This is a great site for "cover art" or for handouts where you really need some top-quality images. There are also a few sites with free art which obviously is of "mixed" quality. The best one I found was "Pixabay" which has some very interesting images, but you'll need to wade through a lot of useless stuff to find it.... Hope this is useful. Richard

On a different note. What are people's views on recommended map sizes. I see that Roll20 suggest that maps should be a maximum of 30*30 in size. However, most of the modules I have seen use larger maps (including WOTC). What do people recommend as an appropriate max map size?

You can have really big maps if you do not use the lighting system. Under LDL, I could get beyond 100x100 when necessary. It was a bit slow but worked. For AFoW, 50x50 was pushing it with individual lights, and 30x30 was a good number when using AFoW with Global Illumination.

Also, keep in mind that module designers for print products rarely if ever consider the requirements of digital play. A mega dungeon in a book requires no more overhead than a 10x10 room with an orc and a treasure chest. When Roll20 commits to converting a dungeon, they must do the best they can with what they have been given, even if it violates their own best practices. Brian gives pretty good rules of thumb.