Something that I have seen is over the past few years was a lot of Fan Based art, fiction, and games written in an established franchise.
Let me be clear it is very tempting to make fan based art and projects based on your favorite venue (X Files, Star Trek, Law and Order etc)
And you may even find resources for this stuff on the web.
But let me state that messing around with copyrighted worlds can bite you big in the butt. Especially if you accidently make something popular. These guys put millions and millions into their projects and many times they are not friendly toward any use of their world outside of their control.
J.K. Rowling has sued one of her fan clubs for a Harry Potter costume party!
I am not saying Rowling should have acted like that, I think it was a bad business move and a betrayal of her fans. But the organizor of the event lost thousands of dollars and was publically humiliated by the experience.
Computer games have been the subjects of some of the biggest and most complicated legal actions in the past hundred years. Many times it was over fan made games or enhancements to games.
To even write a small but complete RPG game will take months of hard work and effort- and it would be a shame to get sued for your own efforts if you decide to use a franchised world without the copyright holder’s permission.
A second issue is computer art- just a because a 3d model is free does not mean it is copyright free. I downloaded a program called DAZ3d to use a poser- but if you read the license it states very clearly that the use of any geometry, texture, or animation or created from, based on, or created with DAZ3d is forbidden to be used in 3dGames.
That means you could get sued for producing a game using models you created in their system.
So be careful and make sure your not risking your precious cash by exposing yourself to needless risk.
JB Skaggs