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.

​

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

 

[Marc Radle]

Friendly reminder! Be sure to sign up to be notified when the Deep Magic 2 KS launches
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deepmagic/deep-magic-2-spellcasters-emporium-for-5th-edition-games

 

[GreyOne]

Given we have strong and unambiguous statements of the OGL's intent from its authors, Doctorow's take on the history of the OGL is frankly a garbage take, say what you will of what's going on now.

Dancey even said one of the goals was to make sure D&D would survive whatever its owners did (or whatever became of them).

(Based on remarks from plenty of lawyers on these boards, his certainty regarding the legalities of the situation is also unwarranted.)

I don't believe he was saying there was any intent on the OGL authors to make a bad document. What he's simply saying is they didn't actually succeed in making a good creative commons type document.

Linda Codega who broke the story seems to like the take.

Thread by @doctorow on Thread Reader App

@doctorow: Last week, @Gizmodo's @lincodega caught a killer scoop - a leake Hasbro's plan to revoke the decades-old #OpenGamingLicense, which subsidiary @Wizards promulgated as an allegedly #open sandbox for people ...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[EthanSental]

As good as kobold press and Coville are, it’s not as easy creating a game players want in numbers needed to make it financially successful enough to make a decent from. Making 5e content with a large player base to a new game will take 100% more effort for them and 10% of the potential revenue. So those thinking them taking up the banner to slay the evil hasbro rulers with a new game…need to be 1000 fold of future buyers of said new game. I just don’t see it happening as they may have a solid core of fans like other 2d20 or MERP or whatever other system but not at the numbers to make such easy money as they did with 5e content. Just my humble opinion.

 

[humble minion]

As good as kobold press and Coville are, it’s not as easy creating a game players want in numbers needed to make it financially successful enough to make a decent from. Making 5e content with a large player base to a new game will take 100% more effort for them and 10% of the potential revenue. So those thinking them taking up the banner to slay the evil hasbro rulers with a new game…need to be 1000 fold of future buyers of said new game. I just don’t see it happening as they may have a solid core of fans like other 2d20 or MERP or whatever other system but not at the numbers to make such easy money as they did with 5e content. Just my humble opinion.

I'm not disagreeing, but there's been some fairly strong indications that what KP intends to do is basically publish a very slightly modified 5e ruleset from the SRD under OGL 1.0a in the same way that PF1 was a very slightly modified 3.x ruleset published under OGL 1.0a.

Kobold Press's statement announcing Black Flag actually talked about 5e compatibility, before it was quietly edited later.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not disagreeing, but there's been some fairly strong indications that what KP intends to do is basically publish a very slightly modified 5e ruleset from the SRD under OGL 1.0a in the same way that PF1 was a very slightly modified 3.x ruleset published under OGL 1.0a.

Kobold Press's statement announcing Black Flag actually talked about 5e compatibility, before it was quietly edited later.

Necromancer/Frog God's post certainly suggested that Black Flag would be something that would keep them in the same business they're in now.

I would not expect Black Flag to be doing anything that would stray too far from classic D&D rules, probably just more stripped down, so that everyone can add on what they want for their games.

 

[JEB]

Necromancer/Frog God's post certainly suggested that Black Flag would be something that would keep them in the same business they're in now.

I would not expect Black Flag to be doing anything that would stray too far from classic D&D rules, probably just more stripped down, so that everyone can add on what they want for their games.

Folks should keep in mind that Kobold Press is unlikely to produce something that isn't compatible with their rather sizable back catalog of 5E material. Which almost certainly means strong compatibility with every other third party's 5E material (and 5E Wizards materials as well).

 

[mamba]

As good as kobold press and Coville are, it’s not as easy creating a game players want in numbers needed to make it financially successful enough to make a decent from. Making 5e content with a large player base to a new game will take 100% more effort for them and 10% of the potential revenue. So those thinking them taking up the banner to slay the evil hasbro rulers with a new game…need to be 1000 fold of future buyers of said new game. I just don’t see it happening as they may have a solid core of fans like other 2d20 or MERP or whatever other system but not at the numbers to make such easy money as they did with 5e content. Just my humble opinion.

agreed, but what can you do when the WotC license terms are entirely unacceptable...

 

[overgeeked]

I would not expect Black Flag to be doing anything that would stray too far from classic D&D rules, probably just more stripped down, so that everyone can add on what they want for their games.

Well, here's to hoping whatever changes they make push the system towards the lighter side. The crunchier side is well covered.

 

[Bohandas]

I'm definitely checking this out

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My honest hope is that as many people as possible write their own open games and release them. It might take a few years, but I can see fans coalescing around certain publishers, systems, or even bits of systems and cobbling them all together to make a game that works best for them and their table. That would be ideal, really. The idea of one big centralized dominant game and game company needs to die here and now.

More people can make a living in the space with a single or very few tent pole games.

We will have a thousand new games a year either way, just like we have for the last decade.