Even the most basic of Google search will reveal that I have a copy of this.. there are only a couple of references on the internet.. one that was sold at NK back in 2007 to ? and the others are all the same, there is my photo and 2 people copied the same photo into their photobucket, there is my collection listing it and a guy saying he has one in the collection he unpacked.. this is the one I bought..

While I have been know to give copies of stuff to original writers his comment of "I could care less about copyright, this is purely a nostalgic quest on my part. I would be happy, if I can get a copy or a pdf, to put up a facebook group and give it away for free." dosen't inspire me all that much.. if I really wanted to do that I prob could, he should get the permission of his ex-wife as well..  I was told it was written by 2 guys as well.. so there is some inconsistency there as well.. on top of that I don't think the writers were mentioned in the book by name.. I see that some guy has said he "may" have a copy on facebook so he may have luck on his side and not have to worry about me at all;)

Brette:)

beasterbrook wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:Even the most basic of Google search will reveal that I have a copy of this.. there are only a couple of references on the internet.. one that was sold at NK back in 2007 to ? and the others are all the same, there is my photo and 2 people copied the same photo into their photobucket, there is my collection listing it and a guy saying he has one in the collection he unpacked.. this is the one I bought..

While I have been know to give copies of stuff to original writers his comment of "I could care less about copyright, this is purely a nostalgic quest on my part. I would be happy, if I can get a copy or a pdf, to put up a facebook group and give it away for free." dosen't inspire me all that much.. if I really wanted to do that I prob could, he should get the permission of his ex-wife as well..  I was told it was written by 2 guys as well.. so there is some inconsistency there as well.. on top of that I don't think the writers were mentioned in the book by name.. I see that some guy has said he "may" have a copy on facebook so he may have luck on his side and not have to worry about me at all;)

Brette:)

Well, I have to confess I don't understand this.  You seem to be angry with me over the fact that I discovered an old work of mine was still in existence, and would like a copy of it.  You don't seem to like the idea that I want to put it up on the web so that others can enjoy it.  As to my ex, we lost touch many years ago, and she never expressed any interest in this rulebook.

If you look the game up on RPGGeek, you will fine that both she and I are credited as the authors.  I can direct you to a government website that will prove who I am.  If that is not enough, I could probably tell you what little I remember of its contents.  I wrote the thing 28 years (or so) ago, after all.  

In the last analysis, what you have is yours and not mine, but if you could see your way clear to send me a pdf, it would be appreciated by me.  I have no desire to take the physical copy from you, and you are very welcome to it.

Regards,

John Vogel

gloriousbattle wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:In the last analysis, what you have is yours and not mine, but if you could see your way clear to send me a pdf, it would be appreciated by me.  I have no desire to take the physical copy from you, and you are very welcome to it.

Regards,

John Vogel

I do think Brett is being fair on this. One thing I would suggest if it's ever copied that it be done so in a way that it becomes an obvious "2nd print" and not just an exact duplication/straight 1 for 1 copy. The other writers and the artist(s?) orig involved should have a say. I think that's incredibly reasonable. Can you assist in tracking down the others?

I can direct you to a government website that will prove who I am.

btw, were you talking about the US Copyright Office?

beasterbrook wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:

gloriousbattle wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:
Having said that I do encourage you to explain the history of the book etc so that we may all benefit..

Brette:)

[Shrugs] I don't mind talking about it, but, as I said, I don't remember much.

I wrote it when I was still in the Army, stationed at Ft. Benning.  My wife was credited because she was my wife.  More on that one later.  A guy named Steve Adlesee (might be getting the spelling wrong) did the illustrations, which, if I remember rightly, were mostly for the new character classes.  A guy who's last name was Minor (don't remember his first name) typed it, as I had written the thing by hand, back in those days when not everybody had a pc.

Of the contents, I remember very little.  New magic user and cleric spells, by level, in more or less OD&D format.  New magic items, of which the only one I remember was the "Torch of Ghostfire."  This was a minor magic item that burned with a magical blue flame.  It provided light only, no heat, nor did it burn anything.

Of the character classes, all I remember is the "Starfarer."  This guy had crash-landed on the high fantasy world (wherever your campaign is set) and had some technological gadgets, he was based on the fighter class.  In fact, all of the classes were written up such that they were based on some D&D class, and were simply modifications of it.  That's pretty much what I remember.

There is other stuff, of course, such as what the dreadspire is, and what that spectre with the crown is standing behind it, but all of that stuff was specific to the game. None of it is in the book. The guy on the front cover with the hammer is my character (Steve's interpretation of it, anyway).  If memory serves, there is an orc-like figure on the back cover, which Steve insisted on drawing with a 1970s hairstyle, for whatever reason.

Anyway, you've said your peace about all this, and that's fine, but here's my thing.  As you point out, this is a virtually valueless rulebook which (though doubting all of my other claims) you accept sold only about 50 copies.  As I said, I'd like it for the nostalgia of it, and no more.  I heard from an old friend in Columbus, Georgia that the book was probably still in existence, as evidenced by Noble Knight's entry.  I was happy to hear this, and thought I'd look around.  

I have written many rulebooks since then, and put them all up online for free.  There is no money to be made from the Codex, by me or anyone else, most likely.  As I said, if I get a copy, from you or whoever, I'll put it up on the web for free, just as a very minor piece of gamer nostalgia.  No one could be less interested in it, and no one is going to sue you, me, or anybody else over it.

Well, I came to the Acaeum looking for this, which has proven to be everything it is rumored to be.  It really is a sad state of affairs when old grognards with nothing better to do sit on rulebooks of no value to anyone, and bark and snap at the guy who made the thing in the first place, on the sorry excuse of copyright.  Dude, nobody cares, including me.  If your holy mission is insulted or violated in some way by my getting a pdf of the thing, then by all means, don't give me one.  If I never come up with one, I won't lose any sleep.  This was all about fun, a concept to which you seem to be a stranger.  Ciao.

Oh, yeah.  Been married a few times, in case that also is important to you.  This is because guys who are not completely locked in gamerdom occasionally meet girls.  

What's a grognard;-)?  

Sorry, I don't want to poke the bear - I just had a "Who's scruffy-look'n?", Han Solo moment.

ibm_ted wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:What's a grognard;-)?  

Sorry, I don't want to poke the bear - I just had a "Who's scruffy-look'n?", Han Solo moment.

Napoleon's Old Guard were referred to as 'grognards' (grumblers).  In modern wargaming and roleplaying parlance, it has come to refer to a grumpy old gamer.

Oh dear.. in the RPG world there has been numerous threads on copyright and how unfair it is.. with stuff like this once its printed the copyright reverts to the original contributors, the art to the artists etc, that why its theoretically so hard to republish these things legally.. of course people don't care and they scan and put up stuff all the time, there is a huge amount of it out there and (to be honest) I have thought about it myself quite a bit.. copyright sux when it comes to these examples.. but, unfortunately you don't "own" legally the copyright for all of the content of the book that's the crux of the matter to me.. yes I know how unfair that sounds etc, I know you will tend to view the matter from your own perspective etc I know I look like an "old Grognard" etc..  I know the answer will be "we did it as a fun thing" "we didn't think about copyright in those days" "I didn't think I'd need a contract allowing me to republish" "We didn't even do contracts for contributors" etc etc trust me its all been spoken about before (I'm pretty sure there will be a copyright notice in the book though) and while you may have written stuff and released it for free (very commendable) if someone were to use any of it without your consent I'm pretty sure you would rely on copyright law to protect your interests...

...this is how crazy copyright is.. the picture of the Codex, you know the one that is posted above, well you see, since I took the photo of it I have the copyright on that photo, and by posting it my copyright on it has been violated (no Vault Keeper.. you don't need to remove it that's fine;) and I could ask for it to be removed (including all those posts on facebook) that's how suck full copyright is... no you don't need to remove it.. I was just pointing it out..

gloriousbattle wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:
Well, I came to the Acaeum looking for this, which has proven to be everything it is rumored to be.  It really is a sad state of affairs when old grognards with nothing better to do sit on rulebooks of no value to anyone, and bark and snap at the guy who made the thing in the first place, on the sorry excuse of copyright.  Dude, nobody cares, including me.  If your holy mission is insulted or violated in some way by my getting a pdf of the thing, then by all means, don't give me one.  If I never come up with one, I won't lose any sleep.  This was all about fun, a concept to which you seem to be a stranger.  Ciao.

Oh, yeah.  Been married a few times, in case that also is important to you.  This is because guys who are not completely locked in gamerdom occasionally meet girls.  :wink:

There are a lot of people here that have given away stuff here for free or a fraction of its market value to "help" people in the hobby. There are a lot of us that don't post scans of our collection because of what we think about others copyright.. that's why you don't see scans of a lot of old stuff doing the rounds on the internet (well that and its a bloody lot of work to do)..

There are a lot of people here that don't post their collections so its really a minor miracle that you you have found someone in about 6 hours after posting about it who has a 28 year old book that maybe sold 50 copies... there are books that I have been looking for for 20+ years and I've never seen a copy come up for sale or even someone that admits that they own a book...   posting comments like this on facebook "Jack Vogel Well, here's me making lemonade out of lemons. A friend managed to find a guy who at least claims to have a copy. He's some silly old grognard who immediately got insulting, and is growling over this valueless old rulebook like a dog with an old bone. So, I thought I'd share the fun. The level of nerdrage here is almost off the charts." probably isn't going to help your cause that much you know.. you really should be taking the long approach on this, I've waited years to get copies of books, you can't expect things like this to be instantly granted in your favour "as that's what you think should happen".. saying how unfair life is because someone won't give you a copy of something you contributed (? maybe you did the whole thing) to usually doesn't reflect well..  (BTW there is a market for these types of "valueless old rulebook", I get outbid all the time on valueless old rpg stuff...) If I really wanted to be a "silly old grognard" I would have posted a semi-sarcastic comment..

gloriousbattle wrote in THE CODEX OF DREADSPIRE:  I have no desire to take the physical copy from you, and you are very welcome to it.

Thanking you for allowing me to keep something I already own;)

Yes I'be been Married, Divorced, Married again with 2 kids.. its not that important to me in the context of this..

Brette:)

Lol.  Old grog who nobody pays any attention to blasts off multiple long posts to stir up trouble.  Sad.

You kiddies have fun.  I'm outa here  

This whole thread is just perplexing.  It completely imploded over such a little thing.  And the name-calling.  Oi.

~throwi