Content Guidelines

This community content program enables you to create, publish, and sell products for or based on the City of Mist RPG by Son of Oak Game Studio. Gathered below is information on what you are allowed to use, what you must include, and how you create your product.

Game Rules

Your content must be compatible with the City of Mist RPG rules as published by Son of Oak Game Studio in the game’s Core Books and supplements. You are not allowed to copy large sections of any of those books. Small rules entries, excerpts, and content items (e.g., Danger profiles) are permissible, but you should refer readers to the appropriate book and page number for rules instead of copying them. As a guideline, if it’s already printed elsewhere, you shouldn’t need to reprint it in its entirety in your work. See also Use of Other Works below.

You may create additional rule sets and expansions to build on the existing City of Mist game. You may also create “hacks” which apply the City of Mist rules to other genres or settings and in doing so modify the rules to fit your creation.

“The City” Setting

You are free to use the canonical setting of the City in your work, extrapolate from it, or add to it.

Allowed & Prohibited Content

You may only use this license to create digital tabletop RPG products, such as tabletop RPG game content, supplements, maps, tokens, and characters. You may sell print copies of your work, but only via DriveThruRPG’s print-on-demand service.

Your creations can include:

• New supplements and expansions for the City of Mist RPG

• “Hacks” based on the City of Mist system for other genres and settings, excluding hacks for any third-party IP/setting (i.e., your setting must be original), and excluding any universal systems based on City of Mist RPG.

Prohibited media types include but are not limited to:

• Novels or LitRPG

• Comics

• Audiovisual productions

• Other games

• Music

• Software and apps

Neither your products nor any promotional material, including blog/social media posts or press releases, may contain racist, homophobic, discriminatory, or hate speech. If you choose to depict extreme violence, injustice, or other sensitive topics in your creation, you must include a content warning in your product description and at the beginning of your product. We reserve the right to remove any materials that we determine do not conform to our guidelines for this program.

Illegal and infringing content is not allowed. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your products don’t violate laws, or copyright, trademark, privacy, existing agreements, or other rights.

Neither your products nor any advertising, promotions, press releases, or other documents affiliated with the product may contain any claim that you or the product has been sanctioned or approved by Son of Oak Game Studio, or is affiliated with Son of Oak Game Studio in any way, other than to acknowledge that the work is produced and distributed as part of the City of Mist Garage.

Exclusivity

Your content must be exclusive to the City of Mist Garage. You may not share, sell, or crowdfund your content on any other platform. You may advertise your content by linking to its Garage entry.

Use of Other Works

You may use other works published in the Garage in your work, such as a Danger profile that fits your Case. However, your work must be predominantly original (roughly over 70% original content by word count). Others may similarly use your published Garage work in their creations.

Art

In your works, you can freely use the art from the Art Asset Library we’ve made available. Art from the Art Asset Library can be used in any product created on the Garage, including for other settings.

Art Asset Library: 

You may not use any other art from our publications or website (without written consent). Additionally, the items in our Art Asset Library cannot be used in any products other than ones created for the Garage and cannot be altered except as needed to incorporate them into your layout. 

If you use any of this art in your creations, please credit it as “the City of Mist Garage Art Asset Library”.

Other art options:

• Public Domain Art. Great to use—but make sure it’s truly public domain first!

• Stock Art. Usage of stock art depends on the license associated with that stock art. Most of the stock art sold under the "Publisher Resources" category on DriveThruRPG includes a license that would allow it to be used in your Garage titles.

• Commissioned Art. Usage of art that you’ve personally commissioned depends upon your terms with the artist of the work. You must have the rights or license to use the art in your product. The artwork does not become the property of OneBookShelf or Son of Oak Game Studio.

• Creative Commons. This depends on the type of Creative Commons license. Some allow commercial use, others do not; some require attribution; it’s up to you to ensure your usage is permissible.

AI Content Policy

Son of Oak Game Studio follows DriveThru Marketplace Guidelines in regards to AI-Generated Writing, Editing, and Art.

Update March 24th, 2023: The following policy applies to DriveThru Marketplaces, including Community Content Programs and Supported Marketplaces. DriveThruRPG defines “AI-Generated art” as images created through the use of artificial intelligence algorithms and techniques trained on pre-existing data sets. (Examples: Midjourney, Artbreeder).

• At this time, DriveThru Marketplaces require partners to set their own AI-generated artwork policies on Game, Rulebook and Adventure products. Any products that utilize AI-generated artwork must be tagged as such.
• At this time, DriveThru Marketplaces do not accept standalone artwork products that utilize AI-generated art.

Titles that do not comply are subject to removal from the marketplace. Repeat offenders may have their publishing permissions revoked. A full statement of intent regarding our policy update can be found here.

Update July 19th, 2023: While we value innovation, starting on July 31st 2023, Roll20 and DriveThru Marketplaces will not accept commercial content primarily written by AI language generators. We acknowledge enforcement challenges, and trust in the goodwill of our partners to offer customers unique works based primarily on human creativity.

Logos and Trade Dress

The City of Mist Garage logo must appear on the cover of your work. It cannot be altered and must be discernible and legible at normal full-screen viewing size. It does not need to be larger or be the primary logo or title on the cover. We have several cover templates that include the logo at the correct size to make it easier to use, but you’re free to place it separately to make it better fit with your own cover design aesthetic. The logo along with other graphic design elements are included in the Art Asset Library.

You may not use the City of Mist logo without the Garage distinction, Son of Oak Game Studio logo, or logos affiliated with the City of Mist Core Books or any of its supplements (such as the Nights of Payne Town logo). Essentially, the only logos you should use are the City of Mist Garage logo and any logos of your own creation.

Creator Templates

You are encouraged, but not required to use the following templates when creating your work. These are available for Adobe Indesign and include an example PDF.

You can find the templates (and relevant fonts and graphic components within) here:

• City of Mist Garage Style Guide 

• Avatar Template

• Case Template

• Danger Template 

• District Template 

• Theme Kit Template 

• Villain Template 

Legal Text

The following text must appear within your product, wherever the work otherwise lists legal and copyright information:

This product was created under license. City of Mist and its logo are trademarks of Son of Oak Game Studio LLC. All City of Mist setting material, art, and trade dress are the property of Son of Oak Game Studio LLC.

This work contains material that is copyright Son of Oak Game Studio LLC and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for City of Mist Garage.

All other original material in this work is copyright [THIS YEAR] by [YOUR LEGAL NAME OR COMPANY NAME] and published under the Community Content Agreement for City of Mist Garage.

Pricing and Payment

You can offer your creations at a set price, “Pay What You Want,” or free of charge ($0). You can check the site for sales data, plus ratings, and reviews of your offerings. You are free (and encouraged!) to promote your creations via social media and other outlets where roleplaying game fans gather.

Based on historic data from DriveThruRPG sales for pdfs, the most successful set price points are $1.00, $2.00, $2.95, $3.95, $4.99, $7.95, $10.00, $14.95, and $19.99. You should also compare your price to existing or similar products to get a sense for what the market is used to.

Once you’ve activated your title for sale, you’ll start seeing royalties accumulating equal to 50% of the sale price per item sold. You can withdraw this money via PayPal by going to the My Money section of the Account page. Note that the My Money section of your Account page will not display until you have a balance accrued.

There is a $2 fee to cover the cost of each withdrawal, but you will pay no other fees to receive your money. Royalties on a sale are available for you to withdraw 60 days after the sale.

To prevent certain types of fraud, we must hold back the amount of royalties you earned in the past 60 days from being eligible for withdrawal. The amount eligible for withdrawal at any time is your total account earnings balance less the amount earned in the past 60 days. You may use your earnings as site credit to pay for orders on site; this will lower your earnings balance and the amount eligible for withdrawal.

Frequently Asked Questions

I already have a publisher account at DriveThruRPG. Should I use my normal publisher tools for submitting City of Mist Garage titles?

No. City of Mist Garage titles are managed from the My Content section of your Account page.

Do not use your normal Publisher Hub to set up new City of Mist Garage titles.

Royalties for title sales will likewise accrue in your customer account, not in your publisher earnings account.

Can I use my publisher tools on my City of Mist Garage content?

City of Mist Garage content is associated only with your customer account, not your publisher account. The tools available to you for your City of Mist Garage content are found on the Account page and are a simplified subset of your normal publisher tools.

Can I release the same products on both the City of Mist Garage and on DriveThruRPG?

Any content created for the City of Mist Garage, which is completely separate from your other publishing efforts, must remain exclusive to the City of Mist Garage. It cannot be listed anywhere else, not even on DriveThruRPG.com, and will not be considered part of your publisher account (although it will be part of your “My Content” on the new site).

As a side note, City of Mist Garage titles will be searchable within the OBS system, so a double upload will only confuse people anyway.

Who owns material in the City of Mist Garage?

Son of Oak Game Studio retains the IP for its published rules, settings, characters, concepts, plots, and storylines, etc. All original work published in the City of Mist Garage is exclusively licensed to the Garage and to Son of Oak Game Studio.

What kind of products are welcome in the City of Mist Garage?

The City of Mist Garage is made for fan-created:

• Avatar Operations

• Cases

• Characters

• Danger Profiles

• Districts

• Theme Kits

• Small-Time Villains

You will also be able to publish City of Mist hacks for other genres (as long as they don’t involve third-party IPs or universal systems).

The following formats are welcome: PDF, DriveThruRPG’s Print-on-Demand.