Intent of the Aetherdark Third-Party License

The AETHERDARK THIRD-PARTY LICENSE VERSION 1.0 in the rear of your PDF or physical book is a stand-alone document. This page is just to help explain it. The annotated pages at the bottom of this are a hopefully-useful visual guide to what my intent was when I was writing out a list of what of Aetherdark could and could not be used in third-party products.

What Books are Covered?

A book that has the AETHERDARK THIRD-PARTY LICENSE 1.0 included in the PDF or print book is covered by the license.

What about books that don't include the license?

Not everything includes the license. If a book doesn't include the license, it isn't covered. Right now, that includes the setting zines. So, you can't write an adventure in the Great Tree in Sar Silvercloak At the Root of Corruption.

These will be coming. As setting and adventure zines are published for these worlds, those will include the license.

What is meant by clause 3 of the AETHERDARK THIRD-PARTY LICENSE 1.0?

The clause in question:
3. Content. You may freely use and reference the general concepts of Aetherdark in this book, such as the rules, game mechanics, and setting. You may not use any other elements, copy any text, or copy any art from this book, unless it is listed in the LICENSED FOR REUSE section of this book, in which case such content may be copied and reasonably modified under the terms of this license.

"Rules" and "game mechanics"

These are usually given as part of a section. You can convey the exact same rules and can reference the rules, but you cannot copy them. Sometimes, there is no other way to clearly produce a given rule, in which case you can write the same thing.

"Setting"

This is a broad term meant to include not just a specific setting, such as "The Ring", but all the vague elements that, when taken together, make it clear something is set specifically in Aetherdark, not just in any random interstellar naval fantasy setting.

The stars are crystals, nebulae are loose aetherdust that cause magical effects, arcane jets funnel aether through tubes to runic plates at the rear and cause violet flame to leap out the rear of the ship and propel it forward, and so forth. You can keep piling on elements from Aetherdark and, at some point, it will be definitively an Aetherdark book. This is allowed, so long as you are using elements from a book containing the license.

"Any other elements"

This only fully covers a small portion of the book. Specifically, you cannot copy, in any way, the art. Most of the text, however, has components of rules, game mechanics, and setting. You cannot copy from these sections, but you can use them and reference them. In addition to rules and game mechanics, some of the content of Aetherdark is advice, which also cannot be copied and only rarely contains any rules or setting details.

Where do these show up?

Generally, Aetherdark has four types of text: rules, description, advice, and statistics.

  • Rules text is not directly copyable, but it can be referenced and used. This is highlighted in yellow in the examples below.
  • Descriptions are the most likely to contain elements of the setting. This is highlighted in light orange in the examples below.
  • Advice is generally text explaining how to play the game. Rarely, this will contain something about the setting that could be used. This is highlighted in dark orange in the examples below.
  • Statistics are the most likely to be available only if directly listed in the LICENSED FOR REUSE sections (see below).
  • Art cannot be copied (unless it is specifically called out in the LICENSED FOR REUSE section). Uncopyable art is highlighted in red below.

What is licensed for reuse?

Each book that includes the AETHERDARK THIRD-PARTY LICENSE 1.0 can also include a LICENSED FOR REUSE section that lists elements that can be copied directly. This list is written assuming familiarity with the content of the book and should be interpreted with that context in mind.

To explain, I'll go over the elements included in the core Aetherdark rulebook. The LICENSED FOR REUSE section there has:

  • The names of locations, organizations, characters, and items.
  • The names and rules for crew reputations.
  • The names, statistics, rules, and abilities of the example ships.
  • The names, statistics, and rules for types of ammunition and rare improvements.
  • The names, statistics, abilities, table of decks, and boarding events tables of the crews, ships, leviathans, and astral beasts in the enemies section.
  • The diagrams of ship decks included alongside the example ships and alongside ships in the enemies section.

Ideally, these are self-explanatory for someone familiar with Aetherdark, but I've annotated a few pages to make things more clear. In all these annotations, green is something that CAN be copied. All other text cannot be copied, but it likely has rule or setting elements you can reference and reuse.