Bethesda investigates plagiarism charges based on the D & D adventure

By Jon Ryan

Bethesda announced that it was investigating allegations of plagiarism related to a marketing initiative for ESO's upcoming expansion, Elsweyr.

In a bid to promote the new Elder Scrolls Online update, the Bethesda Dutch studio has released a table-top RPG adventure on the subject of the unnamed, rules-based ESO of the fifth edition of Dungeons & # 39; Dragons of Wizards of the Coast. However, the studio seemed copied – it was more than a few basic rules – it was almost a 2016 adventure.

Spotted originally after Bethesda promoted the scenario on the table on ESO's Facebook page (which has since been deleted) and reported by Ars Technica, the adventure reflects many aspects of the scenario of the League of Adventurers 2016 "The Black Road". While some elements of D & D's basic rules are available to designers through the Open Gaming License, originally published by WotC to allow users to create and publish their own Dungeons and Dragons content, these protections are not do not extend to the content of adventures. The Black Road was written using the D & D 5th rules for a 5th game – as an official part of Storm King's Thunder King Adventure Path – by Ben Heisler and Paige Leitman, and remains protected by the copyright laws.

Leitman had originally responded to the alleged plagiarism in the comments of the now-deleted Facebook publication, while Heisler commented on the question on his Twitter account, saying "It's a surreal day when a leading gaming company steals your shit."

Bethesda has since announced its two Twitter and the Facebook profiles that they "have pulled a previously shared ESO table RPG adventure while we are studying the source", even though all the documents are still available on Dropbox.

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JR is Features Editor at IGN and really likes D & D – maybe a little bit as well a lot. He often expresses this love on Twitter.