Lawyer Ninja Strike!

[Spiteful Crow]

Are there any legal issues I should try and steer clear of if I try to run a forum RPG? Like, if I run an adventure, can I get in trouble for "spoiling" it on a public forum?

[Le Noir Faineant]

AFAIK, no, but you should be very careful with posting rule specific info (in D&Ds case, everything that's outside the OGL and the SRD) publically.

If the boards is restricted to members and cannot be lurked, then you can post such things.

(Best thing would be to post that question at ENW as well - that's where I got this info from.)

[Spiteful Crow]

Well, my plan was to keep the game mechanics 100% behind the scenes and only have IC stuff posted on the forum. Can I get in trouble for revealing adventure plots, or am I only in danger if I reveal stuff like Azalin's game stats?

And what's ENW?

[Le Noir Faineant]

AFAIK, only gaming stats are a legal problem - at least this what I was told.

ENW = ENWorld, the biggest d20 platform on the web, with a huge PbP Board.

http://www.enworld.org/

To be honest, I am not sure about the details, but I set up these rules when I started running my PbP-game over at the Zeitgeist Games site, and I never heard any complaints so far...

Des' Blackmoor PbP Rules

WotC in general shows huge tolerance about fan activity - other companies, like Games Workshop or White Wolf for example, have shut down entire boards because of posting rule materials...

But in general, as long as it's SRD or OGL, you don't run any danger, I think...

[Jester of the FoS]

No one is going to sue over revealing a couple lines of a statblock, just the whole thing (or very close to the whole thing).
Plots are not a problem as they're heavily discusses already, as long as you don't post the entirity of the text online allowing people to use the adventure w/o the gamebook. If you vary from them slightly it wouldn't hurt though...