Munchkin Online through Skype

[Frozen3003]

I really want to play Munchkin and I'm certainly a big fan of it. I got the game itself along with the expansion packs as a gift which was worth 1300-1400 DKR (Around 180 Euro). If anyone is interested in playing the game through Skype where I will be playing the Game Master and not participating in the game itself, please post it here.

1. Skype is needed. There will be a skype conversation but it is NOT needed to have a microphone and most of the conversation will be out of text.

2. English is needed.

3. We will be playing Munchkin and all the expansion packs up to the one with Portal. We will NOT be playing the portal expansion pack.

4. The game will be ''saved'' as when someone don't have time to play it, I will just place the game somewhere where it will not be touched until further play.

5. You must know the Munchkin rules which is pretty obvious.. If you forgot a rule or two feel free to ask but don't participate if you don't know anything about it.

6. The game will be text based with me, giving out cards to everybody and telling what the cards do. From there the individual persons will say what they want to do.

I am a fast writer and is gonna write what each cards to as quick as possible. There will be no cheating (except cheat cards ofcourse :D) and the game will be played 100% fair and after the rules.

So I am gonna put the whole game up infront of me where the rest of the players will just be looking at what I write to them.

There will be me and three other players.

[Scummbuddy]

Sounds like a decent idea, but I believe you will not be able to write up the cards and their purpose. You will probably be allowed to state the card title that has been drawn, but people will have to have their own decks to sort through and find the cards to read the text themselves.

This is so everyone participating has paid for the game. I suggest they should pre-sort out all the cards into face-up piles for easy finding, if they don't already know all the cards by heart.

I would be interested in joining the session.

[Frozen3003]

Originally Posted by Scummbuddy

Sounds like a decent idea, but I believe you will not be able to write up the cards and their purpose. You will probably be allowed to state the card title that has been drawn, but people will have to have their own decks to sort through and find the cards to read the text themselves.

This is so everyone participating has paid for the game. I suggest they should pre-sort out all the cards into face-up piles for easy finding, if they don't already know all the cards by heart.

I would be interested in joining the session.

But why do they need to have paid for the game to join? If it was in real life and I was playing with 3 other friends, they all don't need the game for it to be legal, if that is what you mean? As long as I have paid for the game it should be okay?

I got it at my Confirmation as a gift from my brothers and sisters from the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' store in Aalborg.

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by Frozen3003

But why do they need to have paid for the game to join? If it was in real life and I was playing with 3 other friends, they all don't need the game for it to be legal, if that is what you mean? As long as I have paid for the game it should be okay?

Because you don't have the copyright to the game, it is illegal for you to distribute the text of the cards.

[Frozen3003]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

Because you don't have the copyright to the game, it is illegal for you to distribute the text of the cards.

So that means it is illegal for me to be playing the game virtually like this, but not in real life? I'm a bit confused over the copyright rules, but rules are rules.

I'm withdrawing the offer for playing the game this way since I believe that getting people with all the expansion packs up till the one with portals and dungeons, will be rather difficult.

[EarthStone]

Originally Posted by Frozen3003

So that means it is illegal for me to be playing the game virtually like this, but not in real life? I'm a bit confused over the copyright rules, but rules are rules.

Another way to think of it, is to compare it to loaning a book to a friend to read. That is legal.

Photocopying that same book so a friend can read it is illegal, even if your friend promises to burn the photocopied pages after reading them.

The act of typing out the text of the cards for your friends to read (even if done during the course of playing the game over Skype) is the same as photocopying the pages of a book. You do not have the legal right to create a duplicate of that card, even temporarily, regardless if that duplicate is a physical or electronic copy.

[Ronnke]

"You draw a lvl 6 Shrieking Geek, it's +6 against warriors and worth 2 treasures if you beat it, but if you can't and fail to run away, then you will loose any race or class cards you have in play"

If that was typed over skype, then wouldn't that fall under fair use?

[MiniMunch]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

"You draw a lvl 6 Shrieking Geek, it's +6 against warriors and worth 2 treasures if you beat it, but if you can't and fail to run away, then you will loose any race or class cards you have in play"

If that was typed over skype, then wouldn't that fall under fair use?

I'm not sure, but given the idiocy of the copyright system, probably not.

Why writing the text of a card versus allowing a friend with a good memory to play should be any different is beyond me, but the law begs to differ.

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

"You draw a lvl 6 Shrieking Geek, it's +6 against warriors and worth 2 treasures if you beat it, but if you can't and fail to run away, then you will loose any race or class cards you have in play"

If that was typed over skype, then wouldn't that fall under fair use?

Please be sure you understand the meaning of the term "fair use" before you use it. Wikipedia has a decent summary you can use as a starting point.

To answer your question, though, no, that's not fair use, any more than turning in a rewrite of "Letters from a Birmingham Jail" under your own name would be.

Originally Posted by MiniMunch

Why writing the text of a card versus allowing a friend with a good memory to play should be any different is beyond me, but the law begs to differ.

Because it's the difference between person A drawing card text from his memory and having it provided by person B. If everyone involved in this hypothetical game has all the cards, then they can refer to their own decks for the text, and there's no need to infringe SJ Games' copyright.

A general copyright debate is off-topic for this forum, and since the original poster is abandoning his idea, I see no reason for this thread to continue.