Permission to Make a Physical Version of Tales of Tribute?

VoidCommander · December 2023

Hello @ZOS_GinaBruno ,

I am a really big fan of Tales of Tribute. I truly think it is one of the best card games I've ever played, and I'd love to be able to bring it to life for my friends and family members who also like card games, but are not fans of the Elder Scrolls Online. To address this, I would like to create a physical version of Tales of Tribute. Initially for the prototype phase, the Tales of Tribute decks would only be for my own personal use with my friends and family as already stated, but if given permission I would like to be able to distribute these to others in the community as well.

I thank you for your consideration of this request, and am open to email communications if that would be deemed more appropriate.

-Void Commander

Personofsecrets · December 2023

You don't need permission to reuse game mechanics, so just do something like making a game called "Tribute of Tales." Even if you want to use identical card effects, that can be done legally. Just come up with a novel way of conveying the game rules to players.

I was in the process of designing a class based deck builder about a decade ago. I didn't complete the game, but TOT has given me some good thoughts regarding how I could possibly pick it back up.

Northwold · January 28

Personofsecrets wrote: »

You don't need permission to reuse game mechanics, so just do something like making a game called "Tribute of Tales." Even if you want to use identical card effects, that can be done legally. Just come up with a novel way of conveying the game rules to players.

I was in the process of designing a class based deck builder about a decade ago. I didn't complete the game, but TOT has given me some good thoughts regarding how I could possibly pick it back up.

Careful it's not as black and white as that and among other things could potentially be trademark infringement.

Personofsecrets · January 29

Northwold wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

You don't need permission to reuse game mechanics, so just do something like making a game called "Tribute of Tales." Even if you want to use identical card effects, that can be done legally. Just come up with a novel way of conveying the game rules to players.

I was in the process of designing a class based deck builder about a decade ago. I didn't complete the game, but TOT has given me some good thoughts regarding how I could possibly pick it back up.

Careful it's not as black and white as that and among other things could potentially be trademark infringement.

Thanks for writing. I found this article which may be interesting to some.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2014-15/march-april/not-playing-around-board-games-intellectual-property-law/

Northwold · January 29

Personofsecrets wrote: »

Northwold wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

You don't need permission to reuse game mechanics, so just do something like making a game called "Tribute of Tales." Even if you want to use identical card effects, that can be done legally. Just come up with a novel way of conveying the game rules to players.

I was in the process of designing a class based deck builder about a decade ago. I didn't complete the game, but TOT has given me some good thoughts regarding how I could possibly pick it back up.

Careful it's not as black and white as that and among other things could potentially be trademark infringement.

Thanks for writing. I found this article which may be interesting to some.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2014-15/march-april/not-playing-around-board-games-intellectual-property-law/

Good find but again, be careful. This is simply a summary article of some American law.

1) ESO is not only active in America and even if the article were comprehensive on that front (it isn't), the laws of other jurisdictions also apply.

2) No general summary is ever going to give you proper advice on what could happen in a specific case.

Best practice is to ask permission. Especially if a product is made available commercially. It's unlikely anyone would care were it just for family and friends but that is seemingly not what the OP is proposing.

Seraphayel · January 31

As long as you do this for your own pleasure and not for commercial interest, there should be no rights infringement or any other problems occuring.

VoidCommander · February 2

Is there

Seraphayel wrote: »

As long as you do this for your own pleasure and not for commercial interest, there should be no rights infringement or any other problems occuring.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. In order to pay money to a 3rd party to print my own personal use cards, I need permission. Otherwise that 3rd party is financially benefiting from my patronage at the expense of ZoS's intellectual property.

For those interested, I did reach out to Zenimax corporate for permission to print some custom cards for my own personal use. They obviously refused because why would they ever say yes? They had a nice opportunity to do something nice for the community that would have cost them literally nothing, but oh well I guess.

To add insult to injury, they even told me they had no interest in licensing their IP to anyone (ie: not ever making an IRL version of Tales of Tribute). So not only can I not make my own personal deck of cards, but they won't ever do it themselves either.

Personofsecrets · February 3

VoidCommander wrote: »

Is there

Seraphayel wrote: »

As long as you do this for your own pleasure and not for commercial interest, there should be no rights infringement or any other problems occuring.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. In order to pay money to a 3rd party to print my own personal use cards, I need permission. Otherwise that 3rd party is financially benefiting from my patronage at the expense of ZoS's intellectual property.

For those interested, I did reach out to Zenimax corporate for permission to print some custom cards for my own personal use. They obviously refused because why would they ever say yes? They had a nice opportunity to do something nice for the community that would have cost them literally nothing, but oh well I guess.

To add insult to injury, they even told me they had no interest in licensing their IP to anyone (ie: not ever making an IRL version of Tales of Tribute). So not only can I not make my own personal deck of cards, but they won't ever do it themselves either.

I'm shocked that you heard back anything at all. Would you please share what channel you used for communication?

The designers of Tales of Tribute of talked about the different games that inspired them. I wouldn't be surprised if those same inspirations could end up inspiring another game that could be mechanically similar to TOT.