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Peter Oliva Chris Labonville Mike Vandergrift Mike Lejeune Chris Warter Mike Unknown Hargrid Tenslayer Staff Details |
| Volume 1, Number 3 | August/September 1999 |
| Forgotten Realms Projects List |
 
By Mark Oliva Moderator, Forgotten Realms Projects Mailing List Birnensoft@t-online.de One of the biggest events on the projects list since Times Issue No. 2 hit your browsers had more to do with the lists' projects than with any specific list project. A real uproar was generated when Yahoocame uder fire after taking over GeoCities and then attempting to implement new Terms of Service (TOS) that not only sent several project officers up in arms but also created a furor throughout the Internet. To continue to have full access to their old GeoCities web sites, project officers were required to agree to a new TOS that would have given Yahoo!GeoCities virtually unlimited and perpetual rights to use any and all material on any Yahoo!GeoCities web sites. This change of policy affected paid GeoCities Plus members as well as users of free web space at Yahoo!GeoCities. On July 6, Yahoo!GeoCities backed down and rescinded the controversial provisions. Two other services - Tripod and Xoom! - had incorporated similar but more mildly worded provisions in their TOS. These services also made some minor changes, and according to a copyright attorney who reviewed that matter for the Realms Projects List, there no longer is any legal jeopardy to authors' rights' to material posted on Yahoo!GeoCities or on Tripod or Xoom! This issue was an important lesson, not only for project group leaders and members but also for readers of the Times who may be contributing to various online projects. Before a project group selects a Web Space Provider (WSP), it's wise to look closely at the Terms of Service. Any TOS that takes away rights from its members usually also has an indemnity clause that assigns all legal responsibility to the user. According to the copyright attorney consulted by the projects list, the degree to which TOS terms can be enforced is quite variable from one country to the next, but the danger always is there that such TOS terms could lead one into an expensive lawsuit. Readers of the Times who are thinking about contributing to one or more projects also would be well-advised to check the TOS of the project's host (WSP) before making submissions. There is little chance that a contributor might be sued, but a greater chance that someone else's WSP may be claiming rights to and using the material you've developed. Another upshot of this whole matter that may have a direct effect upon Times readers is that several projects who were affiliated with Yahoo! GeoCities, Tripod and Xoom! deactivated their accounts while the controversy was running. Some of these accounts have been reactivated, but other projects changed addresses completely. For current project URLs, please check one of the following addresses:
Updates on active projects - click the option you want: Arylon is a Forgotten Realms city being developed on the Sword Coast by members of the three Internet mailing lists. It's located on the Chionthar River between Baldur's Gate and Elturel. Arylon also is the biggest of the active Realms Projects, and it has grown substantially since our last report. The project now has divided itself into separate web sites:
Since the last issue of the Times, the Arylon Council has been busy releasing all of the backlogged material from the late councilor Jade Williams, who died tragically in her native Great Britain earlier this year. Jade's posthumous contributions have enhanced what already is perhaps the best gaming city in the Realms. In another bit of Arylon news, Council Member Timothy Haney finished his tenure as Arylon Judge. Tim remains of course as an active council member. In late July, former Forgotten Realms Mailing List Moderator Andrew Hackard was elected to succeed Tim and is now fully occupied with his judicial duties on the banks of the Chiontar. The extensive Daggerdale project, headed by Florida's Erskine Fincher, has at last gone public with an Internet appearance. Daggerdale long has been one of the favorite scenarios of DMs in the Realms. Among other things, the Daggerdale project is gathering material from a wide variety of DMs and gamers as well as other projects, to try to flesh out this area of great heroism, darkest evil, subterfuge and intrigue. Along with extensive expansions to the campaign setting, the project also offers several top quality maps for downloading. Among other things, the Daggerdale Project offers access to Christoff Wuttke's "Touble in Dunbarton" adventure in Daggerdale, the Northern Journey projects Daggerdale module and Eric Boyd's Realmspeak Teasers for Daggerdale. The site also offers Eric's reviews and other online material on Daggerdale. URL: http://mapmaker.freeservers.com/daggerdale.html To get around frequent problems with URL overloads, the Forgotten Realms Zone (the Realms information center) of the Realms Projects Mailing List has added several Internet mirror sites. There now are two sites in the U.S.A., one in Canada and one in Greece. The FR Zone is not a Realms Project in and of itself, but rather a central point for information on projects, important FR Internet addresses, access to the various FR mailing lists, rules for the mailing lists, the Realms-L FAQ, the Realms-L LISTSERV commands, hyperlinks to many other web sites, etc. Internet URLs:
eMail-Address: Birnensoft@t-online.de In the past months, the Northern Journey project has been going through the biggest overhaul in its history, all based on input from users and other members of the projects list. The next results should be available for download sometime in August or September (1999). During the development of the planned fifth module named "The Great Dale," the project group for the first time placed its preliminary maps and texts in Internet for download and review by users. "At first, the only substantial replies we received came from Simon Gibbs in Australia, who had done considerable work on the Bloodstone lands himself," according to project leader Greg Waters. "But then the number of responses slowly began to grow. Most people were generally happy with our overall plan, but our design was extremely unpopular," Waters said. "We weren't offended by this criticism. On the contrary, it gave us a very good picture on how we can make the final part of Northern Journey much better, in our own opinion as well as that of the users. So, basically, we threw away about 75% of what we'd done and then did about 150% of what we'd planned to." Waters said that the Northern Journey's voyage across the Dragon Reach was something of a new departure for the NJ project group. The original plan had been to do two additional modules, No. 5 "The Great Dale," set in the Vast, Impiltur and the Great Dale, and No. 6 "Castle Dragonblood," set in Damara and Vaasa. He said because none of these areas ever had been developed in any great detail by WotC/TSR, the project group decided to turn out the last two modules as combinations of adventure and unofficial campaign setting expansions. "People who downloaded the test versions said we had done both too little and too much," Waters said. "They said would were detailing Impiltur and the Great Dale too little to make the 5th module really useful as a campaign setting expansion. Above all, they thought we had turned Impiltur into a land that was too secure, with too few adventure hooks possible. "On the other hand, they also thought that the drafts of the fifth module had become far too big and bulky to be practically useful at all, and suggestions were pretty much unanimous that we improve a lot of things and divide them up." As a result, according to Waters, there will be three additional NJ releases, not two, as originally planned:
"There isn't too much detail on the Vast in the new module," Waters said. "TSR has done little with the Vast, but this area is the RPGA's playground, and the RPGA has done a good job of fleshing it out and making the details available free in Internet. We simply make reference in most cases to the RPGA's download addresses. All we've added to the Vast is a few adventure hooks and Erskine Fincher's Angels of Ilmater. "Impiltur is entirely different. We've developed the entire kingdom down to tiny villages, and we've mapped just about everything. The maps will be available in CC2/CM format and as GIF files. We believe that our unofficial campaign setting expansion for Impiltur is just as comprehensive or moreso than any expansion done by WotC for the Realms to date. "We've also done our Impiltur in such a way that it can be used in any campaign. No DM will have any trouble ignoring the NJ adventure elements and simply running his own campaign in our setting. Everything we've done is compatible with WotC's Realms "canon" to date, but we can't of course guarantee compatibility with future official FR releases." For more information on the existing Northern Journey material and downloads of the Northern Journey Campaign Guide and the four finished modules (Silverymoon, Moonwood, Daggerdale, Tale of 2 Liches) see the following URLs:
eMail addresses: Birnensoftt@t-online.de If you're interested in taking a look at the projects mailing list, simply send an eMail to: with this message:
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