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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 9689725" data-attributes="member: 54840">I think there's a subtlty easily missed in these conversations which is what is released under an open license and what we wouldn't expect to be.A company's core fictional IP, I wouldn't expect that to be released under anything except maybe some type of community license that, I imagine, can be rather restrictive but still let people make compatible stuff in a company's world.I certainly don't mind companies making things like new subclasses or monsters or other new things and not releasing those. I don't think all of that needs to be released.But a game's core mechanics, that seems like something worth releasing to say "hey, we were influenced by this stuff so we're giving that back out too". I think Daggerheart can do this. They reference a ton of games that influenced their own game. They can make a special mechanics-focused SRD that just gives that part of it into the CC. They can even call the rule system something different so they're not muddying up Daggerheart with it.I was looking at Free League's separation between their core engine – Year Zero – and that stuff is separate from their actual game world material. Granted, they're still using a bespoke license which means I have to either risk reading it myself or hire a lawyer to read it – not something we expect small publishers to do. But it seems like a nice open license.Their Dragonbane license is more restrictive but I can understand that since it's their core IP and the setting and feeling and system are all mixed up together.Again, that's just from a quick look and they're unique licenses so who knows for sure, but that seems like it makes sense.For me, I'm happy when a game's core rules and core mechanics are released under very open licenses like CC BY – especially if those rules are clearly derivatives of other RPGs which also had those open licenses. I can completely understand if those companies then restrict further access to their game's core IP stuff – the world and setting and world / setting mechanics.To me, a question I ask is "is the fact that this material isn't released under an open license getting in the way of the progress of the hobby?" It's not always a clear answer but it's the question that guided me when <a href="https://slyflourish.com/lazy_gm_resource_document.html" target="_blank">releasing my own material under a CC BY license.</a> I didn't want to be the gatekeeper of material I thought should be everyone's.</blockquote>

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