OGL: Kobold Press 'Raising Our Flag' For New Open RPG

Kobold Press has announced its plans regarding the upcoming new OGL v1.1, which involves a new, open game codenamed Project Black Flag.

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Kobold Press has been and always will be committed to open gaming and the tabletop community. Our goal is to continue creating the best materials for players and game masters alike.

This means Kobold Press will release its current Kickstarter projects as planned, including Campaign Builder: Cities & Towns (already printed and on its way to backers this winter).

In particular, Deep Magic Volume 2 will remain fully compatible with the 5E rules. We are working with our VTT partners to maintain support for digital platforms.

As we look ahead, it becomes even more important for our actions to represent our values. While we wait to see what the future holds, we are moving forward with clear-eyed work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it—Code Name: Project Black Flag.

All Kobolds look forward to the continued evolution of tabletop gaming. We aim to play our part in making the game better for everyone. Rest assured, Kobold Press intends to maintain a strong presence in the tabletop RPG community. We are not going anywhere.

Raising Our Flag - Kobold Press

Kobold Press is committed to open gaming. We are moving forward with clear-eyed work on a new Core Fantasy tabletop ruleset: available, open, and subscription-free for those who love it—Code Name: Project Black Flag.

koboldpress.com

 

[overgeeked]

https://twitter.com/BlackFlagRPG

Aye!

Will ye be granted permission to board?!

All hands on deck.

 

[darjr]

Interestingly, BlackFlagRPG was launched in December 2021. Maybe this is a repurposed older account?

No idea. It might be like MCDM something they’ve been kicking around.

 

[Gammadoodler]

You should probably read the 61 pages you pointed me to. I'm the litigator in that thread who said there what I'm saying above. They probably aren't winning the case, and they are highly unlikely to win an injunction.

That doesn't mean a defendant has no risk. "Probably" is another way of saying "maybe not" when approached from the opposite perspective.

And "highly unlikely" is another way of saying "it's not hopeless and they have a chance", again, depending on which way you want to see it.

Nothing is certain in litigation. We can deal only in probabilities. You've rolled enough "20s" to know that it happens a lot, right?

Still, if you are going to make a bet whether you roll a 20 or not -- or even 17+ on the next roll of the dice, you also know which way that die roll is likely to pan out, right?

Same thing.

This was the bit that I was wondering about when all this started to drop.

How likely it was for such injunctions to be granted. More importantly, it'd be good to better understand how much cost and effort would be necessary for 3pp to contest such injunctions vs. how much money WotC would need to 'invest' to initiate and argue such court proceedings.

I gotta imagine that WoTC would be willing to outspend any target 3PPs by some significant multiple. I'm wondering if there is a reasonable threshold multiple that would most likely yield a favorable decision, and by extension, how painful 3PPs can make it for WotC by retaining attorneys.

(I realize that legal costs are not directly correlated with effective litigation, but I expect they'd serve as reasonable proxies for rhis)

 

[see]

I can't believe that the argument of "it had it, then it didn't... it didn't change" would not shut that down.

I'm not sure exactly what you're saying here, so, let me try to be clearer.

That the Pathfinder 2e Bestiary as it exists is a derivative work of WotC's copyrighted material is pretty certain. Setting aside the specific mechanics, a huge number of the monsters as "literary works" are very closely based on their portrayal in WotC-owned works that are substantially the original work of TSR and WotC over the publication period of 1974 to 2003. The OGL 1.0a didn't change the fact that it's a derivative work; it was, rather, a license to make/publish/sell derivative works.

Now, that's just copyright law; it's a matter entirely aside from the contract law issues of whether and how WotC can revoke or terminate the OGL 1.0a, and what rights Paizo would retain regarding the Bestiary as a result of the license terms and various statements WotC made about what the OGL meant. There are lots of opinions on that, which I am convinced, from the last few days, that I am completely unqualified to judge.

But without something outside copyright law giving Paizo permission, the Pathfinder 2e Bestiary is not something Paizo could have legally published. A theoretical 2019 Bestiary published without a license from WotC would have had to have been a substantially different work.

So, similarly, if Kobold Press were to attempt to create a 5e compatible game without a WotC license, they might very well be able to get a very good match on the core mechanics, plus a reasonably familiar set of classes and subclasses. But if they tried to reproduce substantial sections of the SRD5's monster entries, they'd have trouble. Stuff matching folktales, public domain material, and common tropes, with occasional resemblances to WotC material is one thing; repeated and concatenated similarities to things that first appeared in D&D are another.

(I'm reminded here of White Wolf's lawsuit against Sony over Underworld. None of the points of similarity brought up in the lawsuit was something unique to White Wolf's products, but so many points of similarity in a single stack amounted to a credible lawsuit that was able to extract a settlement in four days. Granted, probably in part because the amount of money was likely too small to count as a line item in Sony's promotional budget for the movie, but still.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For the record, I think D&D style games having monsters that don't just read like someone rewrote the 1E Monster Manual and Fiend Folio is a good thing. As the OSR movement and the more recent multicultural and multinational gaming movements have shown us, there's a wealth of stuff out there that makes for gaming beyond anything that Gygax ever dreamed of.

I have full faith that Paizo and Kobold Press, if forced to excise the TSR/WotCisms from their monster books, would come back with something amazing to replace them.

 

[humble minion]

I have full faith that Paizo and Kobold Press, if forced to excise the TSR/WotCisms from their monster books, would come back with something amazing to replace them.

Kobold Press already have a full line of monster books. If they end up bringing out an approximately 5e-like ruleset, they probably don't even need to write another one.

 

[Mind of tempest]

honestly, the way I see it this is a die-or-fly situation as if they do not get a rule set they can publish in they are condemned to slow death at best.

so they are seeking to grow wings and become urd press is not insanity.

pathfinder is likely to have the same kind of ideas as it will suck but better to hurt now than extinction.

as wotc-hasbro has more options to sinking the competition than just direct suing people.

do you think this also signals a change in how many books we are getting as 3rd helped keep people tied over during the times when dnd was low on content or not got content people wanted?

 

[guachi]

Just bought $264 of Kobold Press stuff to go with the two Midgard books I have (Southlands and City of Cats, both purchased at a local game store for 50% off at a Black Friday sale)

I don't know if Kobold Press are the "good guys" but I do know who the bad guys are.

 

[Zardnaar]

Just bought $264 of Kobold Press stuff to go with the two Midgard books I have (Southlands and City of Cats, both purchased at a local game store for 50% off at a Black Friday sale)

I don't know if Kobold Press are the "good guys" but I do know who the bad guys are.

Damn should go buy pdfs for ToB 2+3+ creature codex. And Southlands 5E.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I know they can create new PC races/lineages/species, but I feel curiosity about if they are going to create new classes, and someone with some special game mechanic.

Kobold Press is the first 3PP what has published 5e in Spanish languange, and this is a sign they are among the "heavy metal" of the 3PPs.

Teorically WotC should enjoy the adventage of the no-English-speaker market because they have their own translator team, and they shouldn't need partnerships with other companies.

If Hasbro should worry about 3PPs is these are creating new IPs (and this is good for the player) and these could be acquired later by some big fish from the entertaiment industry, for example a videogame studio or a streaming service.

My best wishes for Kobold Press, but maybe I am too old to keep collecting RPG books when today they are running out of date too soon. I am a collector, not a true player, and I have wondered if really I feel true illusion to buy some of the last D&D sourcebooks to be published. I feel my 3.5 books are like jewels, created with true love for the game. And the new books are now more like a update patch. And more expensive than books published by others with the same number of pages.