I’m interested n creating a multiplayer tabletop game inspired by dramatica. The results of the players actions would be determined by a random draw of 64 cards that comprise the 4 domains as “Sphere, Thought, Deed, Mask.” Each card contains situations informed by dynamic pairs. Everything else is original: the art, the story setting, etc.
Am I infringing on Dramatica by basing the game engine on it? Would i have to come up with brand new terms for the dynamic pair cards in order to avoid copyright infringement?
I believe that this game engine is inspired by dramatica, but I’m not sure if using the dynamic pairs is fair use.
In general, using high‑level inspiration from Dramatica is fine – there is never a problem with “content”, “setting”, or any of third-party subject-specific illustrations of Dramatica theory concepts.
What we need to check is the case where the entire copyrighted terminology is repackaged. My guess is that our IP lawyers will suggest some way we can do a simple, specific, limited license so we aren’t putting the entire copyrighted work into the public domain to be used for any purpose. That would probably include some kind of appropriate attribution.
Can you give us a week or two to check with our IP lawyers to figure out how best to support you?
What Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley have created is breathtakingly brilliant. Unfortunately, we live in a society where such a transformative narrative philosophy cannot be given to humanity as a gift to enhance ALL creative endeavors, because such geniuses still have to struggle to put food on their table.
If i ever become a millionaire off of some future creative project, I’ll be more than happy to buy a license to be able to incorporate the 64 words or any of the other amazing concepts Dramatic offers.
But for now, this is just too scary and overwhelming for me to consider during this preproduction phrase.
Honestly, I will just come up with a similar version of the dynamic pairs, riffing off of Jung’s Archetypal Opposites. Yes, it’s inferior, but I’m fairly certain i won’t have to deal with an IP lawyer. I hope, lol.
Thanks, anyways, and i appreciate the quick response to my question.
I was the one that suggested we needed to consult the IP lawyers.
I’m not suggesting you need to, or that any such license needs to be of significant cost.
The dilemma is this: if the owner of a copyright, patent, or trademark doesn’t assert those rights, then they are in danger of losing them – which doesn’t help when the “bad guys” actually misappropriate intellectual property.
Rest assured, we want to help – we just need to figure out HOW to do it and not create problems for us in the future.
Can we talk off-line? DM me privately through this discussion and we’ll set up a Zoom.