I recently read a very entertaining book - Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines. In it, a character could pull anything that was written in a book from inside it - laser guns, force shields, Excalibur, the Hope diamond, etc. The idea seems like a lot of fun, and I thought it could make for a fun class for Dredmor, especially since a class full of references and in-jokes to favorite books would fit in perfectly. My question is twofold - first, is it possible to mod in a new tradeskill? Since the magic works around pulling items from books, then having it be a skill that depends on finding bookshelves in game and creating items from them makes the most sense. Second, would any experienced modder be interested in a collaborative project? I haven't coded in fifteen years, so I'm beyond rusty. And I guess a third - is there any problem with making a mod based around a copyrighted intellectual property, or so long as it's just a mod is anything fair game?
Jim C. Hines is a Diggling awesome guy *thumbs up* Not sure if this project could work, but it definitely gets a thumbs up from me for the Hines reference alone.
Any problem at all. Copyright are there to protect from third parties get money from your work, so as long you don't sell your mod, no one can bother you. You don't get issues for making a fan art of Quote, for istance. I think bookshelves are hardcoded, so there shouldn't be ways to interact it in other ways.
Technically speaking, doing anything to the bookshelves right now is kind if impossible (the dreadful words, "hard coded"), but you might want to try going into the "scroll master" area with books as scrolls (you read the book, you get a buff that will be removed if you read another book, and your skills now have a different effect than they would've had if you had a buff from another book) since that might give you a fancy skill tree in the end. It is possible to make a skill tree that would interact with buffs from items, and it is possible to make these items reusable too (without making them into wands), so you can get some good results there. And I won't join you there (since I'm busy trying to do stuff for Heimdallr), but I wish you good luck and I think this site might help you with getting back into coding gear: http://dredmod.com/wiki/Main_Page They haven't sued GLG for the horse armour that serves to throw money into oblivion, so I don't see any problems.
That's not entirely true. Most artists don't care much about fan art or fanfiction, but it is still their intellectual property, and the few that do have brought legal challenges against people. That kind of thing is usually handled on a case by case basis (fair use is kind of complicated), but it's not strictly "You can do anything you want so long as you don't sell it". Things like whether it devalues the franchise are also taken into account, which is why you can't just give away copyrighted works without selling them. This mod is pretty safe though.
The Baen Free Library, free indie games and even webcomics disagree. You can give away copyrighted works without giving away the copyright. The problem with fanfiction is less about... fanfiction, and more about how it can affect the author. One of those lawsuits I believe you're talking about is where a fanfiction writer sued a prolific author because that author had written something similar to her fanfiction. It was after that, I believe, that the author distanced herself from fan creations. But as we're talking in a topic inspired by Jim C. Hines' writing, it's only right to link his blog post about his opinions on the common opinions of anti-fanfic people, but also links to a better picture of the lawsuit I mentioned above, and on top of that points you to his FAQ in which he basically says Don't Ask, Don't Tell (i.e. don't ask him to read it, don't tell him about it). There are companies/authors who ask their fans not to write or broadcast fanfiction. George R.R. Martin is one, another is Archie Comics (who don't have a listing on FanFiction.net at their own request), though I have seen fanfiction unchallenged on fan sites frequented by Archie employees. On the other hand, a lot of video game companies at the very least encourage fanfiction. BioWare are a very notable example of this. As for mods? Well... I don't know. I'd say the Don't Ask, Don't Tell rule still applies in a public setting. I don't know if you could e-mail him and ask - in vague terms - whether it's okay. You know, something like "I'm a member of a site for an indie game and I've had an idea for a skillset mod based on one of your own books. Is this okay to go ahead with, or should I distance it from your work?", but slightly better worded as it's 6am and I didn't frakking sleep.
Only if the author lets you. So you can't give away copyrighted works without giving away the copyright, but they can. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction These are the lawsuits I'm talking about. Like I said, they're usually handled on a case by case basis, as judges decide if a specific work violates fair use or not.
Another thing I forgot to mention. As long as the subject in question (fan-thing about a copyrighted thing) has (little) changes into them, the problem doesn't even apply. Obviously, I have to say "too long; didn't read". But: Yep, this is the second post about trademarks. So, as long you change small things, aka twist the flavor text a little, you don't have problems at all. This is a mod for a roguelike, those were books. The subject itself is different enough to mantain a distance, and if you can do a good work, like EVERY SINGLE REFERENCE OF OTHER SUBCOLTURES IN THIS GAME, you just are creating a little piece of free art. Don't steal, but take hints. For this mod and every other after it.
You can use any stuff you find in my wordsmith mod if you want, it would be a nice idea to craft scrolls into books (or spellbooks) as another use for them
