State of Open Gaming 3

Over February, I added several open games to the Year of Living Free wiki. These include old favourites like Arcana Evolved as well as new – or newly discovered – games like Xceptional.

I also created several System Reference Documents. These present the rules of a certain game in an easily readable and copy-pasteable format so others can reuse or adapt the product.

If you know of an open game not on the wiki, please email Chris Sakkas at <sanglorian@gmail.com>.

State of Open Gaming 2

I’ve decided to make these State of Open Gaming Addresses monthly, since I don’t think there’s enough material to justify making them any more frequent than that.

I wrote an article on how to open license your game, for those of you wondering if open licensing would work for you and which licence to choose.

I also wrote a 24 Hour RPG called A Strange Charm. It uses Otherkind dice as its main mechanic and is under CC Attribution.

The Logic of Tales and Dreams was written by Reason of Principia Infecta. It describes itself as ‘the fragments of a story game, come from afar’ and is under CC Attribution.

Bully Pulpit Games has had its own section added to the wiki, for its games Dulse, Ghosts, Pirate Squad, The Plant and Dungeon Squad. It has also released two Lady Blackbird hacks, Bloody Forks and the mouthful Post Apocbird.

Midian has a page dedicated to it and its public domain SRD, the Dark Fantasy Core Set.

The Mustang has been added to the one.seven design studio’s page, since I missed it when I added John Harper’s other open games.

The Vintyri Project has its own page, since its flagship product Dungeons Daring is open.

I added HG Wells’ books Little Wars and Floor Games to the list of libre games. Are they role-playing games? Not really (although Floor Games is pretty close). But they’re proto-role-playing and I think they deserve a mention.

Have I missed an open game? Shoot me an email at <sanglorian@gmail.com>.

How to Open License Your Game

Chris Sakkas (admin of the Year of Living Free wiki).

This is a draft. Do you have any suggestions? Email me at <sanglorian@gmail.com>.

Why Go Open?

Why not? Let others build on what you’ve created, share your work and develop it further.

• What if shoddy products reflect badly on my own? You can prevent this, most easily with the Open Game Licence. See ‘Product Identity and Closed Content’ below.
• What if other people take my work and sell it? You can prevent this with a Creative Commons Noncommercial licence. See ‘Why Noncommercial?’ below.
• What if other people adapt my work and don’t make it open? You can prevent this with a Creative Commons Share-Alike licence or the Open Game Licence. See ‘Why Share-Alike?’ below.
• What if I’ve used other people’s copyright in my work? You can work around this. See ‘Legal Stuff’ below.
• Will people use my material in a way I don’t like? It’s unlikely. I know of only one case where an author’s open work was used in a way that wasn’t appreciated. The author complained and the problem was resolved.

Benefits to going open include:

1. It increases circulation of your game, because people know they can distribute it legally and ethically.
2. Others may create supplements or modifications of your game, as people have for Donjon (Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike) and 4C System (public domain).
3. It allows you to give back to the community

You might prefer to read this article as a DOC.

State of Open Gaming Address 1

I added DoubleZero, a retro-clone for the James Bond RPG, to the Other Wiki Games section of the wiki. DoubleZero was written by Berin Kinsman and is in the public domain.

Valent Games has made most of its games (including the famous Sufficiently Advanced) available under Creative Commons licences – though some still cost a dollar from the RPGNow store. There’s a page for them on the wiki.

I’ve added a page on OpenD6, the D6 System released under the Open Game Licence.

The Treasure RPG now has a PDF download option.

Games Added to the List of Libre Games

Berin Kinsman also wrote Toybox Wars and Bad Attitudes Revised, both of which have been added to the wiki.

I’ve added two of Christian Griffen’s games. Beast Hunters is a well-known indie RPG though its SRD doesn’t have any beasts or tattoos. Anima Prime is in beta mode, so playtest it!

Not-Too-Silly Stories is an RPG designed for children with a mechanic to stop them from being too outlandish or ruining the game with nonsense.

Iliamna Unknown is a game about software engineers and their computer program, Undead.

1KM1KT Open RPGs

When I stumble across an open RPG on www.1km1kt.net I add it to the wiki under this category. If you find any, let me know at sanglorian@gmail.com or add it to the wiki yourself.

The Seraph [RBH 2]

The Seraph is the fourth class in my plan to write new and compelling warrior classes for the Redbox Hack 2 role-playing game. The Seraph is a human sworn to fight for the Heavenly Host, a master of alchemy and the fickle wind. Download the class here.

The Moon [RBH 2]

The Moon is the third class in my plan to write new and compelling warrior classes for the Redbox Hack 2 role-playing game. The Moon is a serene martial artist who descended from the heavens to search for her missing husband, the Sun. Download the class here.

The Grim [RBH 2]

The Grim is the second class in my plan to write new and compelling warrior classes for the Redbox Hack 2 role-playing game. The Grim is a stern and battered mercenary who has seen too many battles and ambushes to hold much hope for mankind. Download the class here.

The Haunt [RBH2]

The warrior of Redbox Hack 2 is a disappointment. Its companion, the stealthy longrunner, is a fresh take on the scoundrel archetype – skipping across the seas, drawing doorways with chalk and with a contact in every city. The warrior is just a warrior, what we have come to expect from thirty years of fantasy heartbreakers.

I’ve attempted to fix this by writing up a set of new warrior-like classes. Each – hopefully – has a compelling hook in the setting and out-of-combat powers that create and solve problems.

The Haunt is my first attempt. He’s a dabbler in ghosts and spectres, someone who dwells in dark fens and swamps. Download the class here.

Starting Simple [TSGS]

I’m a fan of The Simple Game System and taking advantage of its open licence I adapted the rules to fit on a single A4 page. Download the page of rules along with two sample (one page each) settings here.

Ghost/Echo Whispers

When reading the blog for Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple I came across Daniel Solis’ idea for a Pilgrim Generator. It’s an idea that really interested me, I guess because it – like Oracles in IAWA – provides enough details to prod the story along without dictating things to the players.

So when I discovered Ghost/Echo a couple of days ago, I had the idea to write up a generator like Daniel’s for that game. You can view the work in progress on Flickr. I tried to follow the format of Daniel’s generator and John’s product.

I’m interested in your feedback about my generator, but more broadly about whether generators in general are a good idea for games. I think in one-off games they could be a nice compromise between time-consuming character generation and potentially restrictive pre-gens.

Note: This generator is not open because Ghost/Echo is not open.