2

For instance the hero Warlock in DoTA 2 has various abilities, a full list of them (including names and stats) can be seen at https://liquipedia.net/dota2/Warlock#Abilities.

It is legal to create a tabletop RPG (or a campaign for it) with an original race/character/etc. that has these abilities with the same stats but with different names and descriptions?

1 Answers1

3

Copyright is in a work

Copyright is in a work as a whole and its major components. Like, Arthur Canon Doyle had created Sherlock Holmes, and had had a copyright in the character and his description. He didn't have a copyright in master detectives, not even in drug-addict master detectives that have an MD-best friend and play the violin badly. But he had a copyright in Sherlock Holmes, and in the stories themselves.

Aspects of a character are tropes.

Tropes are ideas of powersets or abilities. Some of them have different expressions. For example the typical spell of throwing an orb of Fire is the combination of Fireballs, Kill it with Fire and Playing with Fire. Those tropes can be expressed differently. For example, the text describing the Fireball spell is vastly different from , despite both being an explosion of fire. There is no copyright in tropes, because tropes are ideas and scenes-a-faire.

Warlock from DOTA2 has a Herd Hitting Attack + Synchronization in his Fatal Bonds ability. It is up to the author to figure out the rest and then vary from the trope to find the own expression for the own game.

Trish
  • 42,656
  • 4
  • 93
  • 230