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Anonymous (played anonymously)

I'm going to present a scenario to you which I'm currently in. I need advice. I want to be anonymous because I wish not to talk to the person who flaked on me. It was quite some time ago, but I still look back at it to this day and wish that they hadn't.


Another player pitched a fantastic idea to me at one point. That was well over two years ago. I took the bait and they reeled me in, yeah? They did like 98% of the worldbuilding, where I offered a little bit of feedback as they saw fit. I created a new character from scratch to suit our purposes, and we started roleplaying. I thought we had fun? I know for sure that I did. We made long-term plans, which if executed would've had enough content span over a year or two. We wrote for a while, but about 50 or so replies in the player flaked on me, never to get in touch again. I'm sure they had their reasons, or maybe they didn't, but that's not what this is about.

As much as I enjoyed myself, would it make me a terrible roleplayer, or person even, if I reused their content, or created my own heavily inspired by it, to do 1x1 with someone else?
I feel like you should ask their permission or change a lot of the setting and story to make it uniquely yours.
Anonymous (played anonymously) Topic Starter

AdoboKitty wrote:
I feel like you should ask their permission or change a lot of the setting and story to make it uniquely yours.

I really want nothing more to do with the player because I'm honestly that upset, even after all this time. I realize it's not a good thing to hold grudges, but that's just a flaw of mine, I guess...
Anonymous wrote:
AdoboKitty wrote:
I feel like you should ask their permission or change a lot of the setting and story to make it uniquely yours.

I really want nothing more to do with the player because I'm honestly that upset, even after all this time. I realize it's not a good thing to hold grudges, but that's just a flaw of mine, I guess...

Understandable, we all have flaws. It would probably be best to use it as inspiration but change it enough so as to not have problems later on. You don't want them popping up later and saying you stole their concept. Plus it would feel good to make a story and universe that's uniquely yours.
It's wrong to take someone's creative work, even if they flaked. It's not a crime necessarily or anything to lose sleep about, but it's not great. It sucks yeah, but it's better to develop something that's definitely distinct. I think you could start by looking at the original work and changing things you think would be interesting and just seeing how the idea snowballs into something new and maybe even let someone new world build with you so it's more even.
Rogue-Scribe

I’d say it’s wrong to do something like what you’re talking about since you say that they did 98% of the world building and you don’t want to even try to contact them about it. It’s best not to do it.

To use it as inspiration for something more original might be ok, but still, I’d try and get their tick of approval for it. If you do get any sort of approval, be sure to get it in writing and save it, because even if you get tacit approval, they may come back and later say they didn’t give approval.

I’m assuming two things … that this other person is a member of RP Repository and the RP world you refer to was created here. If by ‘flaked’ you mean they left the site, then there may not be a way to contact them, or if they have blocked you, then it’s against site rules to contact them.
Anonymous (played anonymously) Topic Starter

Thank you all for being honest with me! What I'll do is peel off all the aesthetics and worldbuilding and keep the core plot, which when I think about it was the thing I actually liked the most, and work out the rest from scratch.
Anonymous (played anonymously) Topic Starter

Rogue-Scribe wrote:
I’d say it’s wrong to do something like what you’re talking about since you say that they did 98% of the world building and you don’t want to even try to contact them about it. It’s best not to do it.

To use it as inspiration for something more original might be ok, but still, I’d try and get their tick of approval for it. If you do get any sort of approval, be sure to get it in writing and save it, because even if you get tacit approval, they may come back and later say they didn’t give approval.

I’m assuming two things … that this other person is a member of RP Repository and the RP world you refer to was created here. If by ‘flaked’ you mean they left the site, then there may not be a way to contact them, or if they have blocked you, then it’s against site rules to contact them.

They haven't blocked me. They just lost all interest in me, their own character and their own setting, and moved on to do other things. I wish not to have any more contact with them, because to be honest I'm still holding a bit of grudge.
I disagree with everyone here, lol. You're not selling the idea. You're not making a profit off of it. You're not even proposing making an entire group for RP for it. You're using it exclusively for personal entertainment between you and whoever you happen to RP with. People RP with plot and settings and worlds--hell, even characters--that aren't their own all the time through fandoms.

In addition, even putting myself in your previous partner's shoes... Likely, I wouldn't even know if you're just going to be 1x1ing with someone else. And if I did know, I really wouldn't care if you reused my ideas lol.
Sanne Moderator

Hey gang!

Some official moderator input: If something was created 98% by someone else, taking it as it is with minimal or no modifications and without their permission is highly likely to conflict with our rules on copyright. While I can't say for certain that would be the case here, we would definitely investigate it from this perspective if a report came to us on it.

That said, taking a general idea or concept and making it your own by building something new around it is typically fine! Writing prompts are a good example of this: you start with a generic idea and then create your own story around it. If that is how you'll approach this situation, then odds are it's going to be alright. :)

(For reference, I have no knowledge of the specific world and its details nor do I know what the inspiration here looks like by comparison. We usually have to look at this on a case by case basis, so this is intended as general advice on how we handle it officially.)
Anonymous (played anonymously) Topic Starter

Sanne wrote:
Hey gang!

Some official moderator input: If something was created 98% by someone else, taking it as it is with minimal or no modifications and without their permission is highly likely to conflict with our rules on copyright. While I can't say for certain that would be the case here, we would definitely investigate it from this perspective if a report came to us on it.

That said, taking a general idea or concept and making it your own by building something new around it is typically fine! Writing prompts are a good example of this: you start with a generic idea and then create your own story around it. If that is how you'll approach this situation, then odds are it's going to be alright. :)

(For reference, I have no knowledge of the specific world and its details nor do I know what the inspiration here looks like by comparison. We usually have to look at this on a case by case basis, so this is intended as general advice on how we handle it officially.)

Thank you. I 100% doubt the player would care after two years considering they abandoned all the work they put into it, but for the sake of, well, not risking getting in trouble considering the copyright rules, I was already thinking I'd re-use the concept and core plot, but strip off the world-building and aesthetics, the "fluff", so to speak. I'd boil it down to nearly just a prompt and rework everything that isn't essential to it- would that suffice?

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