Son of Oak | The Cauldron of Mist Content Guidelines & FAQ

August 27, 2025 19:05

The Cauldron of Mist (formerly “City of Mist Garage”) is a community content program that enables you to create, publish, and sell products for or based on role-playing games published by Son of Oak Game Studio using the Mist Engine game system (City of Mist, :Otherscape, Legend in the Mist).

Gathered below is information on what you are allowed to use, what you must include, and how you create your product for the Cauldron of Mist (hereafter “The Cauldron”).

Game Rules

Your content must be compatible with the game rules for City of Mist, :Otherscape, or Legend in the Mist as published by Son of Oak Game Studio in the games’ corebooks 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 or Challenge 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 games. You may also create “hacks” which apply the games’ rules to other genres or settings and in doing so modify the rules to fit your creation.

“The City”, Megacities, and “The Hearts of Ravensdale” Settings

You are free to use the canonical settings of City of Mist’s City, :Otherscape’s Megacities, and Legend in the Mist’s Hearts of Ravensdale (once fully published) in your work, extrapolate from them, or add to them.

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 City of Mist and/or :Otherscape and/or Legend in the Mist
“Hacks” based on their existing systems 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, :Otherscape, or Legend in the Mist

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, abuse, 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 Son of Oak Game Studio’s The Cauldron community content marketplace on DriveThruRPG.

Exclusivity

Your content must be exclusive to The Cauldron. You may not share, sell, or crowdfund your content on any other platform. You may advertise your content by linking to its The Cauldron entry.

Use of Other Works

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

Art

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

You may not use any other art from our publications or website (without written consent). Additionally, the items in our Art Asset Libraries cannot be used in any products other than ones created for The Cauldron 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 with the relevant entry as “City of Mist Cauldron Art Asset Library”, “Legend In The Mist Cauldron Art Asset Library”, or “Otherscape Cauldron 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 Cauldron 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 Roll20 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.

Creation Method Filter

If your Game, Rulebook or Adventure product contains AI-generated content, you are required to indicate this using the Creation Method filter. In order to enable this filter, find the Category Assignments section under Filters when you Set Up a New Title or Edit a Title Listing. Under Format near the bottom of the filters list, find the box labeled Creation Method. Click the black triangle and it'll expand the dropdown list, where you can then select AI-Generated.

Logos and Trade Dress

The appropriate The Cauldron logo and Game logo (City of Mist, :Otherscape, or Legend in the Mist) 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 Libraries.

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

Legacy Garage Logos

If your old titles are still using the City of Mist / :Otherscape Garage logos, you do not have to change the logos to be included in the program. All legacy titles under the City of Mist Garage and :Otherscape Garage are supported in the Cauldron.

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

:Otherscape

Legend in the Mist

Legend in the Mist Style Guide and Templates

Legal Text

The following text must appear within your product, wherever the work otherwise lists legal and copyright information. Replace [GAME] with either City of Mist, :Otherscape, or Legend in the Mist as appropriate.

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

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

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 The Cauldron of Mist.

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 role-playing 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

Do I have to update my old City of Mist or :Otherscape titles published under the Garage program?

I already have a publisher account at DriveThruRPG. Should I use my normal publisher tools for submitting The Cauldron titles?

No. The Cauldron titles are managed from the My Content section of your Account page.

Do not use your normal Publisher Hub to set up new The Cauldron 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 The Cauldron content?

The Cauldron content is associated only with your customer account, not your publisher account. The tools available to you for your The Cauldron 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 Cauldron and on DriveThruRPG?

Any content created for The Cauldron, which is completely separate from your other publishing efforts, must remain exclusive to The Cauldron. 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, The Cauldron titles will be searchable within the OBS system, so a double upload will only confuse your customers.

Who owns material in The Cauldron?

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 Cauldron is exclusively licensed to The Cauldron and to Son of Oak Game Studio.

What kind of products are welcome in The Cauldron?

The Cauldron is made for the following types of fan-created content:

City of Mist

Avatar operations
Cases
Player Characters
Danger profiles
Danger Power Sets
Districts
Themebooks
Theme kits
Small-Time Villains

:Otherscape

Challenge profiles
Challenge Power Sets
Player Characters
Jobs
Key Players
Loadout and loot catalogs
Megacities
Themebooks
Tropes and theme kits

Legend in the Mist

Adventures
Agents and Great Dangers (parts of ‘The Mountain’ Series Challenge model)
Challenge profiles
Challenge add-ons
Player Characters
General Store item catalogs
Journeys and Vignettes
Ways of Magic, and rotes
Themebooks
Tropes and theme kits

You will also be able to publish and find City of Mist, :Otherscape, and Legend in the Mist hacks for other genres (as long as they don’t involve third-party IPs).

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