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Open gaming is a movement within the
tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...
(RPG) industry with superficial similarities to the
open source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...
movement. The key aspect is that copyright holders license their works under public copyright licenses that permit others to make copies or create derivative works of the game. A number of role-playing game publishers have joined the open gaming movement, largely as a result of the release of the original
System Reference Document In the open gaming movement, a System Reference Document (SRD) is a reference for a role-playing game's mechanics licensed under a public copyright license to allow other publishers to make material compatible with that game. In 2000, Wizards of ...
(SRD) by
Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...
, which consisted of the core rules of ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
'' 3rd edition. Open gaming has also been popular among small press role-playing game and supplement authors.


History

The use of the term open gaming began with the publication of the original SRD and the simultaneous release of the Open Game License (OGL). However, role-playing games had been licensed under open and free content licenses before this.


The Fudge Legal Notice

The
Fudge ''Fudge'' is a generic role-playing game system for use in freeform role-playing games. The name "''FUDGE''" was once an acronym for ''Freeform Universal Donated'' (later, ''Do-it-yourself'') ''Gaming Engine'' and, though the acronym has since b ...
role-playing game system A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...
was created in 1992 by
Steffan O'Sullivan Steffan O'Sullivan is the author of several role-playing game books. Career Steffan O'Sullivan was a writer for '' GURPS'' products including '' GURPS Swashbucklers'' (1990) and '' GURPS Bunnies & Burrows'' (1992). He designed the '' FUDGE'' role ...
with extensive help from the rec.games.design community. The name stood for "Freeform Universal Donated
Game Engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...
" until Steffan O'Sullivan changed 'donated' to 'DIY' in 1995. One reason why Fudge succeeded is that the author released it under the "FUDGE Legal Notice", a license that removed most restrictions on non-commercial use. However the FUDGE Legal Notice (more commonly known as simply "the Fudge license") was never intended to cover any work other than its
eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
role-playing game. Derivative works which were to be distributed for a fee required written permission from Fudge's author, Steffan O'Sullivan. The details of the Fudge Legal Notice were modified and expanded from time to time as O'Sullivan updated his work, but the essential elements of the license remained unchanged. The 1993 FUDGE Legal Notice allowed reprinting of the Fudge rules, including in otherwise commercial works, as long as certain conditions were met. The 1995 FUDGE Legal Notice permitted the creation of derivative works for personal use and for publication in periodicals. In March 2004, Grey Ghost Games acquired the copyright of Fudge, and on April 6, 2005, they released a version of Fudge under the
Open Game License The Open Game License (OGL) is a public copyright license by Wizards of the Coast that may be used by tabletop role-playing game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, no ...
, making it open for commercial use.


Dominion Rules and Circe

The phrase "opensource roleplaying" was used as early as 1999 by the Dominion Rules role-playing system, the license of which permitted supplementary material to be written for its rules. Another "open" system was the Circe role-playing system, published by the WorldForge project under the
GNU Free Documentation License The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights ...
(GFDL). Gods & Monsters, created by Jerry Stratton, was also distributed under GFDL in 2013.


Open Game License

Despite Fudge and other games, the open gaming movement did not gain widespread recognition within the role-playing game industry until 2000, when
Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...
(WotC) published portions of the 3rd Edition of ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
'' as the
System Reference Document In the open gaming movement, a System Reference Document (SRD) is a reference for a role-playing game's mechanics licensed under a public copyright license to allow other publishers to make material compatible with that game. In 2000, Wizards of ...
under the Open Game License. This move was driven by Ryan Dancey then Brand Manager for WotC, who drafted the Open Game License and first coined the term "open gaming" with respect to role-playing games.


Open Gaming Foundation

The Open Gaming Foundation (OGF) was founded by Ryan Dancey as an independent forum for discussion of open gaming among the members of the fledgling open gaming movement. The OGF consisted of a web site and a series of mailing lists, including the ''OGF-L'' list (for general discussion of open gaming licensing issues) and the ''OGF-d20-L'' list (for discussion of d20-specific issues). The most common criticism of the OGF was that it was primarily a venue for publicizing Wizards of the Coast. Ryan Dancey was an employee of WotC, and discussion on the mailing lists tended to focus on d20 and the OGL (both owned by WotC) rather than on open gaming in general. The OGF maintained a definition of an "open game license" while it was active, with two criteria: # The license must allow game rules and materials that use game rules to be freely copied, modified and distributed. # The license must ensure that material distributed using the license cannot have those permissions restricted in the future. The Foundation explicitly stated that the first condition excludes licences that ban commercial use. The second requirement is intended to ensure that the rights granted by the licence are inalienable.


Reaction

The OGL gained immediate popularity with commercial role-playing game publishers. However, the OGL was criticized (primarily by independent role-playing game developers) for being insufficiently "open", and for being controlled by the market leader Wizards of the Coast. In response to this, and in an attempt to shift support away from the OGL and toward more open licenses, several alternatives to the OGL were suggested and drafted. Similarly, the popularity of the OGL inspired others to create their own, specific open content licenses. Virtually none of these gained acceptance beyond the works of the licenses' own authors, and many have since been abandoned.


Open RPG Creative License

Linda Codega, for ''
Io9 ''io9'' is a sub-blog of the technology blog ''Gizmodo'' that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under ...
'' in January 2023, reported on the details from a leaked full copy of an update to the OGL including updated terms such as no longer authorizing use of the OGL1.0. Codega highlighted that "if the original license is in fact no longer viable, every single licensed publisher will be affected by the new agreement. ..The main takeaway from the leaked OGL 1.1 draft document is that WotC is keeping power close at hand". Following this, Paizo announced a new Open RPG Creative License (ORC) as a direct response to the reported changes to the OGL. Additional publishers, such as Kobold Press,
Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...
, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, and Rogue Genius Games, will be part of the ORC development process. The ORC will be an open, perpetual, and irrevocable system-agnostic license with legal development paid for by Paizo "under the legal guidance of Azora Law", however, the license "will not be owned by Paizo, nor will it be owned by any company who makes money publishing RPGs". Paizo plans to find a "nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license" and stated that "Azora Law's ownership of the process and stewardship should provide a safe harbor against any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license". The ORC was released in July 2023.


Free League Publishing's licenses

Free League Publishing announced two licenses, for its Year Zero game system and another for its upcoming fantasy RPG ''Dragonbane''.


Adoption

The most common open gaming license in use by commercial role-playing game publishers is the OGL. There are many publishers currently producing material based on the first System Reference Document, and many which make their products available under the OGL but which use game systems not based on the SRD. Wizards of the Coast used the non-open Game System License for the 4th edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', but released a new System Reference Document in 2015 for the 5th edition licensed under the OGL.


Approved licences

The Open Gaming Foundation describes these licences as ‘Known Open Gaming Licenses’. * The Open Gaming License drafted by Wizards of the Coast * The
GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...
, and the Free Documentation License drafted by the Free Software Foundation * The Open Content License by OpenContent qualifies as long as neither of the License Options in Section VI of the license are used. * The Creative Commons "CC-BY" license and the Creative Commons "CC-BY-SA" license


Open games

The following games are fully or partly under an Open Gaming Foundation-approved license or a
free culture The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content, otherwise known as open content. They encourage creators to create such content by using ...
license. * '' 13th Age'' by Fire Opal Media, published under license by
Pelgrane Press Pelgrane Press Ltd is a British role-playing game (pen and paper), role-playing game publishing company based in London and founded in 1999. It is co-owned by Simon J Rogers and Cat Tobin. It currently produces GUMSHOE System RPGs, ''13th Age'', ...
(OGL) * '' Blades in the Dark'' by One Seven Design, in association with
Evil Hat Productions Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games and other tabletop games. They are best known for the free indie RPG system ''Fate'', '' Blades in the Dark'', and '' Thirsty Sword Lesbians'', all of which have won multiple awa ...
(CC-BY 3.0) * '' Castles & Crusades'' by Troll Lord Games (OGL) * '' Dominion Rules'' (Dominion Rules License) * '' Dungeon World'' by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel (CC-BY 3.0 and OGL) * '' Eclipse Phase'' by Posthuman Studios (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) * ''
Fate Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predeterminism, predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often used interchangeably, the words wiktionary ...
'' by Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment (OGL and CC-BY 3.0) * ''
Fudge ''Fudge'' is a generic role-playing game system for use in freeform role-playing games. The name "''FUDGE''" was once an acronym for ''Freeform Universal Donated'' (later, ''Do-it-yourself'') ''Gaming Engine'' and, though the acronym has since b ...
'' System Reference Document by Grey Ghost Games (OGL) * '' Gumshoe System'' by Pelgrane Press (CC-BY-3.0/OGL) * '' Labyrinth Lord'' by Goblinoid Games (OGL) * ''
Legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...
'' by
Mongoose Publishing Mongoose Publishing is a British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, publishing material since 2001. Its licenses include products based on the science fiction properties '' Traveller'', ''Judge Dredd'', and ''Parano ...
(OGL) * '' OpenD6'', based on the D6 System originally published by
West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars'', ''Paranoia' ...
(OGL) * '' OSRIC'' by Stuart Marshall and Mathew Finch (OGL) * ''
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game The ''Pathfinder Roleplaying Game'' is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) that was published in 2009 by Paizo Publishing. The first edition extends and modifies the System Reference Document (SRD) based on the revised 3rd edition ''Dungeons ...
'' by Paizo (OGL) * ''
Traveller (role-playing game) ''Traveller'' is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Marc Miller (game designer), Marc Miller designed ''Traveller'' with help from Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. Editions ...
'' by Mongoose Publishing (OGL)


Retro-clone systems

A number of fans and publishers have used existing open game content to create rules systems which closely emulate older editions of games that are no longer supported, and released those rules systems under an open license. The term "retro-clone" was coined by Goblinoid Games, the publisher of Labyrinth Lord. Notable examples of retro-clone games are '' Basic Fantasy RPG'' (based on ''Basic Dungeons & Dragons''), '' OSRIC'' (based on 1st edition ''
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Several different editions of the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of ''D&D'', Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the ...
''), '' Labyrinth Lord'' (based on ''Basic Dungeons & Dragons''), and ''
Swords & Wizardry ''Dungeons & Dragons'' retro-clones are fantasy role-playing games that emulate earlier editions of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') no longer supported by Wizards of the Coast. They are made possible by the release of later editions' rules in a ...
'' (based on original ''Dungeons & Dragons'').


References


External links


Open Gaming Foundation



FOSsil Bank’s list of free culture tabletop games (mostly RPGs)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Open Gaming Role-playing game terminology