Choice Script Fanfiction

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I was wondering, what is the legality of writing fanfiction for Choice Script games? Obviously, because it’s fanfic, I wouldn’t sell it. I would put it somewhere public. But should I ask the author first? I’m not sure how I would even contact them.

My idea is basically a sequel/continuation of Vampire the Masquerade: Sins of the Sires. It stars Marios, the human son my protagonist, Aliki abandoned when she became a vampire. Now grown, Marios has become curious of his mother’s disappearance. He is attacked one night by a caitiff who turns out to be his adopted sister (half-sister?) whom Aliki adopted in the epilogue.

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Fanfiction exists in a kind of legal gray area. If the owner of the IP asks you to take it down and you don’t, they could probably pursue legal action against you. But most authors and publishers won’t bother, as long as you use appropriate disclaimers and aren’t making money off of it.

I don’t think there’s any expectation that fanfic writers are supposed to have the author’s blessing. But if you feel weird about going ahead without his knowledge or approval, you can contact him here.

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@AletheiaKnights
Thank you :smile: I’ve contacted the author. I don’t think it would be a problem if I just wrote it, but I feel better asking.

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That’s understandable. And I think he’ll be glad to hear from someone who loved the game!

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I think there’s a very good legal case to be made that fanfiction is transformative and not a copyright infringement. I recommend looking through the FAQ from the Organization for Transformative Works (the good folks behind Archive of Our Own), available here.

The Archive would be a great place to publish your fic, as they have resources to fight unfounded legal claims. This may not apply if you don’t live in the US though; I don’t know anything about copyright elsewhere.

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A few things here.

  1. Theodoridou does not own the copyright to VTM or SOTS. Paradox Interactive does.
  2. You may feel a moral obligation to ask Theodoridou for permission, but he cannot legally grant you the right to write fanfiction in the World of Darkness.
  3. I’m not a lawyer and I do not speak for Paradox, but I’d be surprised if they pursued a legal case against you for writing fanfiction. At most, I think they’d ask you to take it down. But even that would surprise me greatly, as it’s at odds with their goal of promoting the play of their games.
  4. Choice of Games reserves the absolute and unconditional right to demand that someone writing in our IP (Heroes Rise, for example) take it down, as it could be construed as infringing on our IP; we also recognize the same rights belong to those authors of ours who have written a game that we have published, and we are willing to act on their behalf.
  5. Choice of Games nor its authors have never exercised this right.
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A few years ago I did have similar idea to write fic featuring my protag from Grand Academy for Future Villains. As I put more thought into it, though, it eventually evolved into its own story independent of Grand academy. Maybe I can do the same with this… take the basic concept and make my own characters, change up the setting. But if I do that, is it really a fic?

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Not according to EL James’s legal team.

But if it’s really important to you to write it as a fanfic, go ahead. Technically you could be ordered to take it down, but the chance of that actually happening is negligible. So write it the way you want. In the extremely unlikely event that anyone with a copyright or IP interest in the material has any objection, you could consider reworking it then.