Harry Potterband? A potion of luck?

[Grotug]

I realize Harry Potter isn't exactly umm.. revered reading, but seeing as potions and spells are a big part of the story I thought a Harry Potter variant of the game could be fun. There's even a rare potion of luck in Harry Potter: when quaffed, the user's day is unnaturally lucky: everything goes in the user's favor. Such a potion could be super rare in Angband, too, granting the user very good luck for a short period of time: ie. finding very good loot, getting saves at crucial times, etc. Of course having it last the whole level might be too powerful, maybe only as long as !heroism or something.

[DavidMedley]

Potterband sounds like fun to me!

[DrWho42]

i would give it a play!

[bio_hazard]

There's a lot of potential there. Somebody do this!

[DavidMedley]

Beware The Ministry of Magic

There's a lot of potential there. Somebody do this!

I'm not sure how Angband avoids copyright problems - because it was started before LotR was a billion dollar property? - but I wouldn't count on the Harry Potter franchise to turn a blind eye.

[fph]

I'm not sure how Angband avoids copyright problems - because it was started before LotR was a billion dollar property? - but I wouldn't count on the Harry Potter franchise to turn a blind eye.

I think simply because no one makes money out of it. It's a bit like fanfiction, and there is plenty of it around for Harry Potter as well.

[wobbly]

Why not just save yourself the legal hassles and call it tome 5?

[Thraalbee]

Iirc PernBand was renamed/altered due to owners of the TM not ok with it

[luneya]

Iirc PernBand was renamed/altered due to owners of the TM not ok with it

That's correct. Creating a derivative work such as Angband requires permission of the copyright holder, and the game's being non-commercial does not necessarily suffice for a fair use exemption. In the cases of V and Z, the management of the Tolkien and Zelazny estates decided not to bother enforcing copyright against the game's developers, which they can afford to do because unlike a trademark, an author's rights under copyright law do not lapse if the author declines to enforce them stringently. In the PernBand case, McCaffrey (or more likely her agent or publisher acting for her) decided not to let it slide, and the developers of the variant wisely chose to obey the cease-and-desist notice rather than fighting it out in court.

Given the active publication of Pottermore and other Harry Potter-related gaming content, it is absolutely certain that Rowling will not be permissive of Angband development. If anything more came of the Potterband idea than the current content of this thread, it would be rapidly shut down by a cease-and-desist notice and a follow-up lawsuit if the notice were ignored.

[Grotug]

Given the active publication of Pottermore and other Harry Potter-related gaming content, it is absolutely certain that Rowling will not be permissive of Angband development. If anything more came of the Potterband idea than the current content of this thread, it would be rapidly shut down by a cease-and-desist notice and a follow-up lawsuit if the notice were ignored.

My impression is that Angband is too much under the radar for anyone who is not actively searching out this type of game to even be aware that it exists. It's hard for me to imagine Rowling would ever be aware that Potterband exists, or to really care about its existence given the non-monetary fan-based novelty that it is likely to be perceived as, if, somehow, Rowling were to become aware of it. But maybe I am woefully wrong.

[Nick]

In the PernBand case, McCaffrey (or more likely her agent or publisher acting for her) decided not to let it slide, and the developers of the variant wisely chose to obey the cease-and-desist notice rather than fighting it out in court.

My understanding is that it was specifically because McCaffrey's people were licensing a game (probably this one), and didn't want any competing games.