Public Domain - Taking Open Content a Step Further

Christian Walker · Jan 27, 2002

I've been kicking around the idea of opening much of the content of Scrollworks. This idea came to me as I was cleaning the garage and came across boxes and boxes of Dragon. Thousands of pages of material that is, for all intensive purposes, lost. Sure, you can buy the Dragon CD Rom, but I think that there is some unrealized potential. Imagine if some motivated publisher gathered some of the neat ideas, gave them new life, and then introduced a new generation of gamers to that material?

I don't want the NPCs, locales, and misc info in Scollworks to fade away after an issue has had its run. I want folks to take the articles and enjoy them, either in a commercial or personal capacity. I'd like to see what changes people could make to the material and how they'd alter it to make it their own, without fretting overly about legal issues.

I can make an article available to others simply by declaring it open game content, but this serves only those who work under the OGL/d20STL. So here's my thought: Identify the Open Game Content (such as stat blocks) in my usual manner, but release the text of the article (that has no SRD derived material) to the public domain, as well as the related art.

Let's use an NPC as an example: The NPC description and artwork is public domain, and the stat block is Open Game Content. I think this is key, because if I were to release the NPC description as Open Game Content, then anyone who used that description would have to abide by the terms of the OGL. I want to avoid that because I want to free up the info as much as possible.

Are there any special considerations about releasing material to the public domain that I need to consider? Do I simply declare something to be free for all to use in any capacity they see fit?

This was long. Thanks for reading.

RangerWickett · Jan 27, 2002

Thing is, do you think people would make use of this?

Christian Walker · Jan 27, 2002

RangerWickett said:
Thing is, do you think people would make use of this?

Definitely.

Suzerain · Jan 27, 2002

JoeGKushner · Jan 27, 2002

This is one of the things I'm hopingto see more of. Not necessarily public domain with all things, but more use of the Open Content that's already out there. Freeport, Minions, Wonders out of Time, and Thief of Time are all 100% open content yet very little of them has been made (outside of FP in Arcanis) so I'm definately one whose interested in seeing how things go with this idea.

One of the things I do hate is when a fairly generic monster, say Gator Man, is PI but the stats are OGC. If it was a unique, one of a kind creature, I'd see the point, but with generic monsters, or fairly common creatures... nah. Same thing with spells. Sure, a spell's name may have a unique spellcaster who created it to idenfiy it. Add another generic name that is OGC.

jdfrenzel · Jan 27, 2002

I like the idea, and think it is worth pursuing. RW's question is ringing in my ears, though - it's not just about interest in the material, but also its accessibility.

Regarding the growing volume of OGC, and its quality, I'd love to see some sort of clearinghouse for it all. As players, none of us can afford to even find out what most of it is. Maybe a simple database listing some of the available OGC materials (special rules, spells and monsters especially), a brief description, its publisher and the name of the product in which it appeared. This would give everyone an opportunity to see what has already been done, a chance to get the right product for the rules they like, without undermining the publishers profits.

To start to address RW's question, I think the answer is yes if the info is well-known to all, and is easy to get to and understand. Consider this as a test: How can the system be made so that it takes less time to pull an NPC description from a (probably huge) database than to simply write the description?

But if it is not well marketed and simple to acquire for a player or DM, then I think folks will keep doing it the way they did before.

--- John

Suzerain · Jan 28, 2002

Ashy · Jan 28, 2002

I would think that this website would be the best spot to begin compiling a complete list of OGC information - they have the most info and the most contacts within the biz!