Starting Campaigns

[Cuchulainshound]

I wanted 2nd in the first place, so I wouldn't have to read up on the conversion to 3.5. They wanted to keep to 3.5 because they are most familiar with that system. But when they saw me poring through pdfs to learn the conversion, they changed their minds on me.

Well, at least they're considerate, even if their timing is lousy.

Honestly, ploesch is right- of all the games I've been in, on-line and off, the only
workable sheets I've seen are custom built. The TSR ones suffer from the worst era of TSR graphic designers who clearly were NOT gamers.

[Aren Yashar]

Even if anyone had original sheets, they are copyright protected, and we don't wanna get on the bad side of WOTC. They may say OK to photocopy for personal use, but posting a PDF or Scan of one on a public forum would not be personal use.

Seriously, the official sheets were junk, which is why nearly everyone made their own. They were particularly useless for Birthright.

After a certain amount of time, doesn't copyrighted material fall into the public domain? Birthright is out of print, for heaven's sake, and has been for a long time. Would TSR *ahem* WotC really care if something like an admittedly crappy character record sheet fell into a post or pm? I'm willing to bet it was publicly posted on the internet at one time, like the current 3.5 character sheet out of the PHB is.

Besides, I'm just curious what they looked like. I do have quite a bit of hard and soft cover 2nd edition AD&D material, but none of the original character sheets are included in what I have. Oh well...

[Sorontar]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads for AD&D downloads fully approved by WotC. An NPC charsheet is listed along with some Birthright stuff.

[Aren Yashar]

Already been there...

[irdeggman]

After a certain amount of time, doesn't copyrighted material fall into the public domain? Birthright is out of print, for heaven's sake, and has been for a long time. Would TSR *ahem* WotC really care if something like an admittedly crappy character record sheet fell into a post or pm? I'm willing to bet it was publicly posted on the internet at one time, like the current 3.5 character sheet out of the PHB is.

IP doesn't though.

[DanMcSorley]

On 9/5/06, Aren Yashar <brnetboard@birthright.net> wrote:
> After a certain amount of time, doesn`t copyrighted material fall into the public domain?
> Birthright is out of print, for heaven`s sake, and has been for a long time.

Yes. Copyrighted works enter the public domain 95 years after publication.

You`re not asking for Birthright material anyway, you`re asking for
general AD&D material. You might have better luck asking at a forum
dedicated to older versions of D&D, like dragonsfoot.

Actually, they have character sheets posted there that might work for you:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/cs/index.shtml#CS2E32

--
Daniel McSorley

[Cuchulainshound]

Copyright law is as convoluted as any badly written rules any of us have every run across. Anyone who has had personal experience with it (voluntarily or no), will tell you that there are many "if's" and "but's" and exceptions, and that once lawyers get hold of it, the grey area is far greater than the black and white.

Unless it's completely trivial, don't make assumptions- and don't believe anyone but a paid lawyer. (Anyone who's not "paid" to be your lawyer, is just playing one.)

You`re not asking for Birthright material anyway, you`re asking for general AD&D material.

Actually, he is. There were TSR BR character sheets sold at one time- as ugly and useless as anyone can imagine, but dedicated to BR characters.

Now, considering the fact that TSR is long out of bussiness, BR is long out of print and WotC long ago chose to drop the BR line, I think that even the most rabid lawyer could find something better to do than pursue that particular breach of copyright- altho' some do it as a matter of principle and policy, the "slippery slope" philosophy.

Look around on other boards- and good luck. (You might need it!)