Thursday 24 January 2013

A note on original material

Though this isn't any current news per say, I would just like to take the time and make a post regarding original work in these books.

For those who might have missed it, I do not write everything in these books. First and foremost, I make compilations of old material from GW, old army lists, and WFRP sourcebooks. I then fill that out with my own writing when needed to get a whole book out of it.
I try to ask for permission when possible, and pretty much everyone has said yes to it. When someone have said no, I have either removed their material, or not used it at all. At other times, I have found no way to contact the author, or there has been no name to credit him/her by, and sometimes I have simply missed to include a name in the credits section.
Point is, I am not, and never have been, trying to take credit for anyone else's work and pretend to have written it all myself. If a book says "Written by Mathias Eliasson" this is simply because I have used the same layout as GW (whose authors do not write everything themselves either). All original authors are listed under "Source Material" or "Original Work"

Have I always been crystal clear with what I have written myself? No.
Did I always do my best at asking the original authors for permission every time? No.
Am I trying to improve on it? Yes.

Seeing as there have been a few people who like to call me a "thief" for using other peoples material instead of writing everything myself from scratch (the fact that I have even gotten permission from a lot of people doesn't seem to matter), I'd like to reitarate:

- I don't write all the background myself.
- I don't do most of the artwork myself.
- I don't do all the graphics myself.
- Not every single rule is my original idea.

What I do however, do:

- I write parts of the background myself.
- I do some of the artwork (though not much) myself.
- I do some of the graphics myself.
- Most of the rules are my original ideas.
- I compile all material.
- I edit all material.
- I do the book's layout.
- I write the rules.
- I collect feedback and update the rules.

I am a games designer first and an author second. I wish I had the time to write everything myself, but I don't. I have a life outside Warhammer, and I would like to keep it that way.
But that said: if I have used your material at any point without asking for permission first, I would like to apologize for not doing so beforehand.
If you feel this has been done unfairly, and you would like me to remove those parts, I will do so.
If you have written something that you haven't been credited for, either send me an email or write in the comments, and I will add you to the credits section.
All books will from now on  read "Compiled, Edited & Partly Written by" instead of "Written by" or "Written/Edited by", and the names of the people involved in each WFRP sourcebook will be listed rather than just the book itself.

If anyone wants to use anything I've written, they are free to do so. Also note that I do not make any money out of this. In fact, I have spent a considerable sum on acquiring books and magazines with the sole purpose of making these army books for the community. Why? Because I love this hobby and the world behind it, and want as many people as possible to have to chance of experiencing every facet of it. Simple as that.

5 comments:

  1. You're doing a great job M4cR1II3n

    Some people like to fight some battles that doesn't even concern them (like deffending someonelse material even when they have given you permission to use it!).

    Keep doing your great job, some of us really apreciatte it!

    -Pumpavius-

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    1. Thanks, most people do seem to appreciate the work I put down on these books, but there are of course some that aren't so polite about it.
      Naturally I can understand if someone would be upset if they have written something and not gotten credited for it, but that has never been my intention. Not saying that all complaints are unwarranted, but some make it sound like I'm practically taking other peoples stuff for personal profit.

      I would like to be able to acquire permission for every single thing, but were I (and everyone else who makes fan-made army books) to try and do that, pretty much everything to do with any GW product wouldn't exist.

      Fortunately, I have permission to use material to all fan made Chaos Dwarfs material, the Sartosa book and Mercenaries of Tilea, so there shouldn't be any issues there at least. And with the new (almost finished) Nippon book being pretty much L5R free, there shouldn't be any complaints about that one either hopefully.
      For the rest, I have either sought permission or apologized for not doing so beforehand, so I have tried to make amends for any faults I might have done in the past.

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  2. Yea, your work is truly appreciated. I have been waiting for the new Nippon from you for a while, going to make a Nippon army with figs from the Perry twins.

    You should certaintly not be too hung up on WH source material. Even Alessio Cavatore(I think I'm spelling that right) who have made so much of the material for GW have admitted to using material he did not have permission to because its impossible to track down people, some of the stuff, especially chaos, is like 35 years old by now!

    I must have seen the development of a hundred armybooks/codices and the red thread has always been how one race wiews certain events acording to their own perspective and evidence and another race has infomation that deepens and clarifies it.
    Such as how one can never know the full truth about Nagash without looking to the Skaven.
    And so many things have been streamlined or excluded form later books that you have to go far back to make a really meaningful red thread.

    And with regards to un-offical armies, GW, years ago made the decision to minimise official lore(canon) from races they did not produce a figure-line for but I suppose you know that :P

    Keep up the good work, I'm certaintly gonna enjoy it for years to come :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, that's nice to hear. Regarding Nippon, I just finished up their new history section, only need to add artwork, update contents and credits, and I'm done! Expect the new version tomorrow :)

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  3. dam right m8 your works greatly appreciated especially since sometimes games workshop drop interesting material rather than embracing it like they should like dropping all the storm of chaos lists and races like fimir kislev etc

    keep up the great work and its been very clear you havent just stole work and this is coming from a graphic designer and wargaming sculptor so I should know what im saying keep up the awesome work

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