List of Open Games

[velkymx]

There are in fact several Creative Commons licenses, and the difference really matters for anyone building off of them. I'm not a lawyer but this is my basic take on them.

- CC-0 and CC-BY are by far the most generous: republish the original, or create derivative works. CC0 is effectively declaring it to be in the public domain. CC-BY is only one step away: all you have to do is cite your source.

- CC-BY-SA is kinda-sorta like the OGL (but not exactly): you are required to make whatever creative work you build upon the CC-BY-SA source ALSO CC-BY-SA, and it carries forward to anyone building off of yours. (Whereas the OGL didn't require anything you add to be open but you can if you choose.) This means you have to make it available for free even if you are selling it.

- CC-BY-NC-SA, the one Cresthaven uses, is basically the equivalent of following the Wizards Fan Content Policy. Only noncommercial, share-alike derivative products allowed. If you use anything from Cresthaven in the thing you make, you can't sell it.

- There are also CC-BY-ND / CC-BY-NC-ND, which are "no-derivatives," meaning you can only redistribute the source material without alteration. With "NC" (noncommercial) it means you can't use it to make money.

Some of these are perfectly useful for building upon in a personal, social, or otherwise noncommercial way. Or for, essentially, fan content. But for like, an RPG publisher, there's a massive difference between the legality of using original CC0/CC-BY material and using original material licensed with, say, CC-BY-NC-ND.

Yep enjoy it for personal use, but don't use it for making money off of other's ideas without having a discussion with the creator.

 

[Lupin]

Yep enjoy it for personal use, but don't use it for making money off of other's ideas without having a discussion with the creator.

Bit of a passive-aggressive tone in there.

My point is that there is no "THE creative commons" license, which is what you said it had. And if all anyone wants to do is legally share barebones rules PDFs on the internet, all of them accomplish that. For anything beyond that, those specifics matter.

 

[Theory of Games]

Mutants & Masterminds has the Super-Powered trademark license and it's led to some great superhero splat.

 

[aramis erak]

I know the normal version is derived from MongTrav, but I don't understand all the implications of that.

Mongoose has a different task system than any prior edition, two different construction systems (one per edition) for Adventure Class ships, and two different Battle Class Ship systems. The two Mongoose editions have different skill lists from any prior editions and from each other.
Character gen is also significantly different in the details than any non-mongoose edition.

Many Traveller GMs are not sensitive to system mechanics, and find it "compatible" with Classic and Mega; from my point of view that's a grand delusion, in that what they're actually doing is converting on the fly. It doesn't even use the same levels of difficulty labels as any prior Traveller.

Any design done under MGT isn't a legal design under any other version; that's a general truth of Traveller in general - no two editions design sequences match.

CT had 4 published and one unpublished design system. Those being Bk2-77, Bk5-79, Bk5-80, Bk2-81. The unpublished seems to have been an early draft of '79. Both Book 2 systems are very close, but the drive performance table is different between the two, and neither is forumlaic (but both are almost formulaic). Both Bk 5's switch to percentage based designs, and allow much larger ships, but some differences in weapon sizes, and massive differences in how the ratings are calculated. Both also grandfather in CT-77 drives... Several published ships clearly were built with the unpublished system, as they incorporated items not in Bk2, but were published before 1980, and have systems not introduced mechanically until then.
MT (MegaTraveller) is ratings compatible with CT Bk5-80... but the design sequence itself isn't.
TNE is derived from MT, but is significantly different, and has a much different ruleset, and the combat ratings are incompatible.
T4 used the same design sequences as TNE, but changed the combat ratings... at least in FF&S. The corebook had a badly done subset thereof. And a fan done (but officially approved) different subset of it.
T20 used the Bk5-80 rules as a baseline, changed the computer rules, added a number of new options... but remains combat ratings compatible with Bk5-80, and thus also with MT.
Mongoose 1st is based upon book 2-77, but also includes a few items from Bk5-79...
Mongoose 1st High Guard is clearly grounded in Bk5-79, with similar major flaws.
Mongoose 2nd core is closer to Bk5-80... but not quite the same.
T5 is entirely a new design sequence with hints of CT-bk5-80 and Bk2-81...
GT has its own, GURPS Vehicles derived, design system.

CT had no formal task system. Combat had a standard 2d6+mods for 8+... with mods from two tables minimum, 3 if any conditions applied. Plus a ±1 for attribute, specific numbers by weapon..
MT had 5 labeled difficulty labels. 2d6+Asset1+asset2 for TN+, TN by label. A
TNE also had the same five labels, but a different mode - 1d20 ≤ (Stat+Skill)×DiffMult
T4 used the same 5 labels, plus a 6th, but used (diff)d6 ≤ (Stat+Skill)
T5 uses the same labels as T4, but allows difficulties to exceed the hardest label.
T20 provided d20 TN's for the MT labels.
GT was pure GURPS.
Mongoose uses 7 labels, and they don't match the MT/TNE/T4 ones.

So... as with most Traveller editions, lots of handwavium and converting on the fly has been a standard operating procedure.

And then there's Cepheus - early versions were (per the author) taking the MGT 1E SRD and making it more like CT...

For the rules sensitive, excepting CT77/CT81 and maybe MT, each edition is a wholly new game, and Mongoose is no different on that score.
For the rules-don't-matter crowd, it's generally "close enough" to CT and MT for ready conversion on the fly... I'm definitely NOT one of those.

Oh, and in Char gen? Only Mongoose has up-or-out in character gen - they combined the promotion and retention rolls into one, which no other edition did.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Thanks for the summary, Aramis. I'm not completely disconnected from Traveller, but don't have the depth of participation to be aware of most of things you talk about.

Just a note that Cepheus Deluxe (which is probably my favorite evolution off Trav) does some additional things differently even from basic Cepheus.

 

[aramis erak]

Thanks for the summary, Aramis. I'm not completely disconnected from Traveller, but don't have the depth of participation to be aware of most of things you talk about.

Just a note that Cepheus Deluxe (which is probably my favorite evolution off Trav) does some additional things differently even from basic Cepheus.

Not a lot of people are as deep to Traveller in as I am...
... but there are several dozen who are. I'm looking forward to the new timeframe Marc's working on for the default setting for T5... 700 years after the virus... and with drives 10× further per jump in FTL...

 

[Thomas Shey]

I will have to admit the old Trav jump drives are about the slowest I ever saw in a game that bothered with FTL at all...