Terms and conditions

This is a translation for convenience. Only the German version is legally binding.

1. Scope and provider

These terms and conditions apply to the use of Spielbuchschmiede and to the purchase of credits. The provider is RPG Welten UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Stolzestraße 10, 44139 Dortmund, Germany, registered in the commercial register of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Dortmund under HRB 21805, represented by its managing director Jörg Strube (provider, we). Full details are given in the imprint.

Spielbuchschmiede is intended for consumers and for businesses. A consumer is anyone who uses Spielbuchschmiede for purposes that cannot be attributed predominantly to their trade or business or to their self-employed professional activity. Conflicting terms of the user do not apply, even if we do not expressly object to them.

2. Service

Spielbuchschmiede is a tool in the browser with which you create gamebooks. You set up series, volumes, characters, places and sections, connect them into a story with choices, and can play the gamebook on screen, including together with fellow players. You can generate print PDFs that are prepared for printing, for example at Amazon KDP. You can invite other people to a series as co-authors or editors. For texts and images you can use artificial intelligence functions, which we purchase from third parties (privacy policy, section 10).

We owe the provision of Spielbuchschmiede and of the functions you have booked, not a particular result. The content produced by an artificial intelligence function is not predictable. We give no warranty that a print PDF will be accepted by a particular print service or by Amazon KDP. The requirements of print services change, and the review is a matter for those services.

3. Account

You need an account to use the service. You must be of legal age or have the consent of your legal representatives. You give truthful information when you register and confirm your email address. You keep your login details secret and tell us if you suspect your account is being misused. An account cannot be transferred. You can use several ways to sign in (password, sign-in link, Google and a second step with a one-time code). We recommend the second step.

The contract for use is concluded when you have created the account and confirmed your email address.

As the owner of a series you can invite other people by email as co-authors (edit) or editors (read and comment), change their role and remove them again. If co-authors trigger a function that uses credits, the credits are deducted from your balance. You can set an upper limit for each co-author. You are responsible for whom you invite. For content that co-authors contribute, section 8 applies to them in the same way as to you.

4. Book licence, credits, prices and payment

Writing, checking, playtesting and a preview of the print package with a watermark are free of charge. You unlock the files without a watermark (the print-ready interior, the cover, the print package, the EPUB and the action sheet) with a book licence. A book licence applies to exactly one volume and is paid once. It includes a number of credits stated on the Pricing page. After the purchase you can keep editing the volume and create the files again. The book licence belongs to the account that holds the volume as owner.

For the purchase of a book licence or a credit pack we need a complete billing address.

You can buy credits and book licences worldwide. Buyers with a billing address in Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria are excluded. Payment is made in euros. We determine value added tax according to the country in which you are resident. Your billing address and the country of your payment are decisive for this. With a billing address in Germany we show German value added tax. For consumers in another country of the European Union we show the value added tax of that country. Businesses in another country of the European Union receive an invoice without value added tax if they provide a valid VAT identification number, which we check through the VIES system of the European Commission. The recipient of the service then owes the value added tax (reverse charge procedure). For buyers outside the European Union we do not show German value added tax.

Functions that cost us money, above all the artificial intelligence functions, are paid for with credits. You buy credits in packs on the Credits page in your account. All prices are gross prices in euros including statutory value added tax, where it applies. Payment is made through the payment service provider Mollie with the payment methods offered there.

The purchase contract is concluded when you have ticked the confirmations, chosen the book licence or the pack, and we have received confirmation of the payment. After the payment is confirmed we unlock the book licence, credit the credits to your balance and send you an invoice. It is available in your account under Invoices.

Credits are a balance for the functions of Spielbuchschmiede. They are not money, do not earn interest, are not paid out and are not transferred to other accounts. Purchased credits have no expiry date. We can change the prices of the packs and the number of credits an action costs. The change applies to later purchases and later actions and is shown on the Credits page. Credits you have already bought are kept.

5. Use of credits

Before every action that costs credits, the Credits page shows the maximum price in credits. At the start of an action we reserve this amount on your balance. If the action succeeds, the credits are used. If it does not succeed, the reservation is released and your balance is not charged. Credits for running jobs are reserved and are not available for other actions. If your balance is not sufficient, the action is not carried out.

A result whose content you do not like is not a fault within the meaning of this rule. You can run the action again, and credits are then used again.

We can temporarily block the use of the artificial intelligence functions, for example in the event of a disruption at the provider, in case of suspected misuse or when a cost limit has been reached. Your balance is kept in this case. A refund of unused credits is excluded, unless the law requires it. Your right of withdrawal is set out in the withdrawal policy.

6. Withdrawal

Consumers have a statutory right of withdrawal. The details, the loss of the right of withdrawal in the case of immediate performance and the model withdrawal form are set out in the withdrawal policy.

7. Rights in your content

All texts, images, characters, worlds and other content that you enter into or upload to Spielbuchschmiede (your content) remain your property. You keep all rights in it. We do not acquire any rights in your books.

You grant us the simple, non-exclusive right, unlimited in territory, to store, process and display your content, to convert it into print PDFs and, within the functions you choose, to pass it on to the service providers named in the privacy policy and to fellow players whom you invite. The right applies only to the extent necessary to operate Spielbuchschmiede and to perform this contract, and ends with the deletion of your content, apart from backup copies, which are deleted once their retention period has expired. We do not use your content for advertising and not to train our own models.

To the extent that we hold rights in the results of the artificial intelligence functions, we transfer them to you, as far as this is legally possible. Whether such a result is protected by copyright depends on the legal situation, and we cannot guarantee it. The providers of the functions (OpenAI, Ludo) have their own terms of use and policies. You undertake to comply with them when using the functions.

8. Responsibility for content and rights of third parties

You are yourself responsible for your content and for the results of the artificial intelligence functions that you use. This also applies to their publication, for example at Amazon KDP. You check results before you publish them, in particular for errors, for similarity to other people's works and for rights of third parties.

You may only enter, upload, have generated and publish content in which you hold the necessary rights and which does not violate laws or rights of third parties. In particular, you may not:

• use content that violates copyrights, trademark rights, personality rights or other rights of third parties, for example images of real people without their consent or the imitation of other people's works
• create content that sexualises minors, that incites violence or hatred, that contains symbols of unconstitutional organisations or that is otherwise criminal
• use the functions for spam, for deception or to circumvent the content review
• circumvent or disrupt the security, the cost limits or the availability of Spielbuchschmiede, or put a load on it with automated mass requests

Gamebooks with dark themes are permitted as long as they do not violate these rules. Amazon KDP and other print services often require a statement as to whether content was created with artificial intelligence. You make this statement yourself.

You indemnify us against claims of third parties that are based on a violation of these rules by you, including the reasonable costs of legal defence, to the extent that you are responsible for the violation. You send notices of unlawful content to [email protected].

9. Availability

We strive for high availability, but do not owe uninterrupted accessibility. Maintenance, disruptions at our service providers and force majeure can lead to outages. Where possible we announce maintenance work in advance. The artificial intelligence functions depend on external providers and can fail separately.

You are responsible for keeping your own copies of important content, for example by generating and saving the print PDFs.

10. Suspension

If you violate these terms, or if there is a justified suspicion of misuse, we can suspend your account or individual functions. In doing so we take your interests into account and inform you of the reason, as far as that is possible. In the case of a suspension because of a violation for which you are responsible, there is no entitlement to a refund of credits. Statutory rights remain unaffected.

11. Liability

We are liable without limitation in cases of intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body and health, under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) and to the extent that we have given a guarantee or fraudulently concealed a defect.

In cases of slight negligence we are liable only for the breach of essential contractual obligations. These are obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance you may regularly rely. In this case liability is limited to the foreseeable, typical damage. For loss of data we are liable only to the extent that the loss would have occurred had you made regular backups appropriate to the risk. Otherwise liability for slight negligence is excluded.

The limitations of liability also apply to our legal representatives and vicarious agents. Statutory rights in respect of defects remain unaffected.

12. Term and termination

The contract for use runs for an indefinite period. You can terminate it at any time by requesting the deletion of your account by email to [email protected]. We can terminate the contract with a notice period of 30 days. The right of both sides to terminate for good cause remains unaffected. Good cause for us exists in particular in the case of a serious violation of section 8.

If we terminate without good cause, we refund the value of the purchased credits that have not been used. Before deletion you can generate and save your print PDFs. After deletion your balance lapses, unless we have refunded it. Retention obligations under tax and commercial law remain unaffected.

13. Changes

We can change these terms and the services for the future if there is a compelling reason, for example a change in the legal situation, the discontinuation or change of a service we use, or a technical development, and the change is reasonable for you. We inform you by email or when you sign in at least four weeks before the change takes effect and ask you to agree to the new version. If you do not agree, the previous version continues to apply to you, as far as that is reasonable for us. Otherwise we can terminate the contract under section 12. When you make a purchase, you confirm the version that applies at the time of purchase.

14. Final provisions

The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. For consumers, this choice of law applies only to the extent that it does not deprive you of the protection granted by the mandatory provisions of the state in which you have your habitual residence.

If the user is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction is Dortmund. For consumers the statutory places of jurisdiction apply.

We are neither obliged nor willing to take part in a dispute resolution procedure before a consumer arbitration board.

If a provision of these terms is invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected. The statutory rule replaces the invalid provision. The contract language is German.