Seeking the Emerald City

Joseph Kerr · Unread post by **Joseph Kerr** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:28 am

My latest game idea that i've been tinkering with.

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The wonderful world of Oz has never been so fun as seen through the eyes of a deranged Astral Lord. The players are 3 nightbane, stolen from the real world by the Lord, who's modeled his astral domain to mimic the Land of Oz. The nightbane have been chosen by him to represent the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man. The game will take place as the Lord searches for the right Dorothy. Can the three stop the mage, somehow convincing him of his madness, and stay alive from very real dangers that accompany this fairy tale land?

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Still planning this out, looking at the Wicked Witch and the Great Wizard of Oz. Twisting some story elements to suit my needs. I may introduce new S.P.'s to help with this aswell. Any thoughts and suggestions?

Comments are always welcomed, thanks,

Joseph.

Marrowlight · Unread post by **Marrowlight** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:37 am

If you can find them, skim through some of the Oz novels - they should give you tons of extra fodder.

Makes me think of a Nightbane in Wonderland story as well. (Can't say through the looking glass....too Nightbane already there

)

acreRake · Unread post by **acreRake** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:34 pm

Yeah, i've used both of those ideas...

Also a "Neighborhood of Make Believe/Someplace Else" for an Underground Railroad retreat.

Juankis · Unread post by **Juankis** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:34 pm

Also see if you can get a copy the book "Wicked! - The life and times of the wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire. It's an interesting alternative story of the going ons in the land of Oz.

Joseph Kerr · Unread post by **Joseph Kerr** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 3:04 pm

Awesome, thanks for the replies. Brains still storming with ideas, just trying to sort through it and find the eye of the storm to get a good grasp on the subject.

To make note, i'm thinking about making this an online game, so i am searching for players. If anyone would like to speak with me more about this in that regard, send me a PM and we'll try and get together over an IM or something.

Thanks,

Joseph.

Josh Sinsapaugh · Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:23 pm

A NOTE TO THE MODERATORS: The Land of Oz, as presented in L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Oz Books, with the first (of many) being The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (published in 1901) are IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, having entered into Public Domain in 1951.

Thus, this thread does not constitute as a cross-over/conversion violation.

Addendum One might argue that the Land of Oz is not a Palladium Intellectual Property. The Land of Oz is in the public domain and thus the Land of Oz is technically, for all intents and purposes a Palladium Intellectual Property (because it is an intellectual property belonging to the public at large). Similar, if not identical to Grimm's Fairy Tales and Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.

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Neat idea, BTW.

~ Josh

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:28 pm

Mad Kudos to Josh for his skillful use of litigation.
He clearly made his Law: General Skill check.

Josh Sinsapaugh · Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:32 pm

Sentinel wrote:Mad Kudos to Josh for his skillful use of litigation.
He clearly made his Law: General Skill check.

[A la Elvis]A'thank you, thank you ver'a'much.[/A la Elvis]

Note that my above post was in no way a verbal attack against the Moderators, nor was it meant to flaunt against moderators...more of a preemptive thing...as this thread is perfectly legit under the Board Rules.

I~ Josh

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 5:39 pm

Legitimate is as Legitimate does.

Marrowlight · Unread post by **Marrowlight** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:43 pm

Hrm this sparks a question of my own - given their history of things such as Arthurian Legends and Gods, would Palladium ever consider doing adaptions of other public domain works? Maybe some PD super heroes for HU or some random fairy tales for Palladium Fantasy or BTS?

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:45 am

Marrowlight wrote:Hrm this sparks a question of my own - given their history of things such as Arthurian Legends and Gods, would Palladium ever consider doing adaptions of other public domain works? Maybe some PD super heroes for HU or some random fairy tales for Palladium Fantasy or BTS?

Superheroes rarely hit Public Domain.
Even if you don't see them in print for a long time, there are countless legal battles tying them up.

Marrowlight · Unread post by **Marrowlight** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:47 am

Sentinel wrote:
Marrowlight wrote:Hrm this sparks a question of my own - given their history of things such as Arthurian Legends and Gods, would Palladium ever consider doing adaptions of other public domain works? Maybe some PD super heroes for HU or some random fairy tales for Palladium Fantasy or BTS?

Superheroes rarely hit Public Domain.
Even if you don't see them in print for a long time, there are countless legal battles tying them up.

Didn't Image do a series for years about 40s Heroes that had gone PD?

Sentinel · Unread post by **Sentinel** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:50 am

Marrowlight wrote:
Sentinel wrote:
Marrowlight wrote:Hrm this sparks a question of my own - given their history of things such as Arthurian Legends and Gods, would Palladium ever consider doing adaptions of other public domain works? Maybe some PD super heroes for HU or some random fairy tales for Palladium Fantasy or BTS?

Superheroes rarely hit Public Domain.
Even if you don't see them in print for a long time, there are countless legal battles tying them up.

Didn't Image do a series for years about 40s Heroes that had gone PD?

They may have simply accquired the rights with little effort.
Not every one who holds the rights wants a ton of money for them.
There are peculiarities in the realms of Copyrights, Trademarks, etc that can keep some intellectual properties out of public domain however.

Marrowlight · Unread post by **Marrowlight** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:51 am

Sentinel wrote:
Marrowlight wrote:
Sentinel wrote:
Marrowlight wrote:Hrm this sparks a question of my own - given their history of things such as Arthurian Legends and Gods, would Palladium ever consider doing adaptions of other public domain works? Maybe some PD super heroes for HU or some random fairy tales for Palladium Fantasy or BTS?

Superheroes rarely hit Public Domain.
Even if you don't see them in print for a long time, there are countless legal battles tying them up.

Didn't Image do a series for years about 40s Heroes that had gone PD?

They may have simply accquired the rights with little effort.
Not every one who holds the rights wants a ton of money for them.
There are peculiarities in the realms of Copyrights, Trademarks, etc that can keep some intellectual properties out of public domain however.

Anyway, back on point - more interested in the Palladium Question than a count of how many are currently Public Domain.

Joseph Kerr · Unread post by **Joseph Kerr** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:32 am

Nerdbane wrote:This sounds rad - but of course I love the subversion of childhood classics. I was just thinking the other day about the Superfriends episode where Aquaman, Superman and Wonder Woman have to play Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion for Mxyzptlk's amusement ...

Anyway, it sounds like you intend to have the Astral Mage be completely bonkers and following no logic but his own. That could be cool, but what might also be cool would be if the Dorothy figure somehow did have some hidden talent or latent ability which meant she could take on the Wicked Witch. Of course in this scenario the Wicked Witch is an Astral Avatar of a Nightlord (Lilith, or invent your own), with Necrophim for flying monkeys and Torturians as Winkies (the "ohh-eee-ohh" guards).

So your Nightbane players have to ask themselves - do we take down the Astral Mage and get the girl the heck out of here? Or can we stomach putting this girl at risk by playing along if there's a chance we could do some serious damage to a Nightlord in the process?

Oh! And you could have Mountebanks as munchkins! The possibilities ...

da Nerdbane

I'm completely loving this! Awesome ideas, seriously. I'd love to speak with you more!

Marrowlight wrote:If you can find them, skim through some of the Oz novels - they should give you tons of extra fodder.

Makes me think of a Nightbane in Winderland story aswell. (Can't say through the looking glass....too Nightbane already there )

Hah, yeah, i'm trying to track down a few. If you know of a good website that details the generic Oz timeline, that'd be cool. Mostly all i found was stuff on Wikipedia....though i trust that information almost as far as i can throw it's digital text.

acreRake wrote:Yeah, i've used both of those ideas...

Also a "Neighborhood of Make Believe/Someplace Else" for an Underground Railroad retreat.

Sweet, i'm definately going to look into using more fairy tales in my games.

Juankis wrote:Also see if you can get a copy the book "Wicked! - The life and times of the wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire. It's an interesting alternative story of the going ons in the land of Oz.

Yeah, i've heard about this book, and i have been looking for it. Also been looking for its sequal "Wicked - Son of a Witch" or something like that. I'm using things from the first book though as i find out more about it.

Josh Sinsapaugh wrote:A NOTE TO THE MODERATORS: The Land of Oz, as presented in L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Oz Books, with the first (of many) being The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (published in 1901) are IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, having entered into Public Domain in 1951.

Thus, this thread does not constitute as a cross-over/conversion violation.

Addendum One might argue that the Land of Oz is not a Palladium Intellectual Property. The Land of Oz is in the public domain and thus the Land of Oz is technically, for all intents and purposes a Palladium Intellectual Property (because it is an intellectual property belonging to the public at large). Similar, if not identical to Grimm's Fairy Tales and Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Neat idea, BTW.

~ Josh

Thank you for that comment, although i figured it was under public domain anyway, the help is appreciated :-D

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Now, as this got a little away from the main topic...i'm trying to think what else i could add. I may write up all 4 witches, have the players deal with them seperately in their own respective provinces? Perhaps base them off the 4 elements? All ideas and comments welcomed 24/7!

Thanks,

Joseph.

Unread post by **AlexM** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:20 pm

Although public domain is appealing because it's free, we have so many of our own ideas we want to see in print.

Alex Marciniszyn

Jefffar · Unread post by **Jefffar** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 4:02 pm

Besides, on first read of this topic (way back before hand) I realized this isn't an issue of public domain or not. There is no conversion here at all. if you said the Wizard of OZ was an Astral Mage and Oz wa his domain and the players were really the Lion, the Tinman and the Scarecrow, yeah, that would be copyright infringment - if the copyright still held of coruse.

But the topic specifically acknowledges the origional fiction and has it as an inspirational model. The villain isn't the Wizard and his domain isn't Oz, but it is his insanity that has lead the villain to believe it is.

In practical terms, the difference is between making a Superman movie, and makign a movie abotu a guy who thinks he is Superman and filing the movie with superman references. There is no attempt to rip off the origional work, it is acknowledged and even honoured by this.

So even without the public domain protection, I don't see a copyright problem.

Josh Sinsapaugh · Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:06 pm

Here is the Wikipedia article about Oz.

From there are a plethora of links to other related articles on every minutia of the fictional world as found in the works of L. Frank Baum.

Just thought that'd be a big help.

~ Josh

Juankis · Unread post by **Juankis** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:04 am

Also you can read of all of Baum's works at the Gutenberg Project website