Policies

Introduction

This section contains the official policies of the BoD for PCGen

3rd Party Use of Output Sheets

• PCGen grants any 3rd party the right to use PCGen Output Sheets in any publication, regardless of the cost to the end user.
• PCGen requires that the 3rd party acknowledge that the Output Sheets came from PCGen and to put in their publication a link to PCGen.
• PCGen's link is: http://pcgen.sourceforge.net

Data Inclusion Policy

The following policy is an excerpt from PCGen's Publisher and Sources Page.

1. Source Ownership: All source material is owned by the publishers. As such, PCGen shall comply with all publisher wishes as it relates to the use and distribution of the their source material in the form of PCGen datasets, whether the material is OGL, Closed Content, or a mixture of the same.
2. Publisher Agreements: All source datasets included within PCGen must be covered under a documented "Publisher Agreement" prior to being uploaded into the PCGen repository. Publisher Agreements shall include the list of sources covered under the agreement, the permissions being granted, general and specific, the type of publisher review required, the date the permissions were granted/last confirmed.
3. Minimum Permissions Level: All datasets distributed with PCGen must have as a minimum a granted permission level, from the appropriate publisher, of "OGL+Title". This will ensure that all data used within PCGen can be properly identified.
   1. The only exception to this policy is where a dataset containing only OGL material, from a source where the publisher has granted 'OGL Only' permission, and the dataset is used as the foundation for other permissioned source material. In this case, the 'OGL Only' source may be used, at the discretion of PCGen's Board of Directors, as an unidentified dataset to allow inclusion of the permissioned datasets.
4. Minimum Dataset Content: All game-mechanics associated with permissioned game elements, called objects within PCGen, found in a publishers source material (i.e. Abilities & Feats, Classes, Equipment, Domains, Skills, Spells, and Races) are required for a dataset to be considered for inclusion in the PCGen Distribution.
   1. Object name: As per the RSRD vs the PHB/DMG/MM, the name can be different than the one used in the book. EXAMPLE: The Quiver of Elhonna from the DMG, ©WotC 2003, and not released under the OGL as part of the RSRD, has been replaced within PCGen by the Efficient Quiver, ©PCGen 2001-2007, and released under the OGL as part of PCGen's RSRD dataset conversion.
   2. Access to any rule associated with a permissioned object. If a permissioned object description/mechanic includes data that is used for calculations of any sort, PCGen must have access to that data to allow the calculation and display of all the derived values for the game features. Examples of such data include weapon damage stats.
   3. Access to any rule associated with a non-permissioned object that is required to allow the proper use of an effected permissioned object. If a non-permissioned object description/mechanic includes data that is used for calculations of any sort within a permissioned object, PCGen must have access to the non-permissioned data to allow the calculation and display of all derived values for the game features.
5. Data Not Included in Datasets: PCGen will not incorporate the following in any distributed dataset, making owning the source necessary to use the dataset.
   1. The description of any game mechanic, using the permissioned data soley for the calculations described above.
   2. 'Fluff' content, i.e. detailed object description or story-line.
6. Homebrew RPG Material: PCGen will not distribute nor promote data sets based upon homebrew RPG material.

Rationale: PCGen requires direct, positive permission to include material in distributed data sets. Even in the case where material is covered under the OGL, PCGen seeks permission from the publisher for specific permission to include their material. This is done to protect the publishers rights with respect to their material. In the case of homebrew material, it is impossible for the PCGen Team to determine absolutely that no 'derivative work' has been included. That being said, if we included such material we are potentially violating the rights of the publisher whose material it is derived from.

Data Inclusion Procedure

The following is PCGen's procedure on including data for distribution.

1. PCGen’s publisher liaison (PL) team contacts the publisher and asks for permission to include one or more of their sources in PCGen’s distribution.
2. If the publisher agrees, they will be asked if they wish to review the dataset prior to it’s release.
3. Data monkeys (DM) work on the dataset.
4. When completed, the dataset will be reviewed by the OGL team to make sure that it complies with the OGL and with the publisher’s declaration of PI and OGC.
5. The dataset is reviewed by a data chimp as part of PCGen’s internal quality control review.
6. If a publisher review is not required go to step 10 below.
7. The dataset is then provided to the publisher
8. If the publisher deems it complete and ready for inclusion, then it will be added to PCGen’s distribution.
9. If the publisher has issues with the dataset, those issues are corrected, and the process repeats with step 5 above.
10. The Content SB, Data 2nd, or Data Chimp reviews the set and decides whether the dataset should be released as "Production" or "Alpha".
11. The dataset is entered into the repository for distribution.