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Message: <blockquote data-quote="damieus" data-source="post: 551228" data-attributes="member: 4270">gamebasicsHere's the intro (mission statement) to Primus.What is the strength of the internet? Why has d20 taken off so significantly? What is it about those two that they share?Free and open communication. The internet works so well because anyone can post just about anything and it can be viewed by a huge audience. d20 has taken off because wizards made it open gaming material. So Primus will take this to a new level. I use the Linux analogy a lot, but I think it bears mentioning in this context, since no one here has heard it before. Linux is an OS that is built and maintained by a worldwide group of hackers (programmers) that are dedicated to the OS enough so that they maintain and add on to it free of charge, out of the goodness of their heart. (Or some other reason we can't even fathom) Linux is freely distributed and anyone can get a copy of it for little to nothing. In addition, it happens to be the most powerful, resiliant and customizable OS known to man. Everything is open source, meaning you can go in and change something if you don't like the way it works. I've often heard stories of Unix servers that run for months or years without ever having to be rebooted. Toys R Us has Unix servers to handle their transactions from each register from all stores in a region and they havent been rebooted in over a year. Those puppies are really getting hammered, but they just take it and keep rolling. (I know this because I was working on some software for them)So it is obvious to anyone who looks at the situation that an OS built and maintained by dedicated users is infinitely superior to something built and maintained by a large company. And on top of the superiority, the OS is totally free.So what does this all have to do with RPGs? What possible point could this raving psycho have to make?Here is the deal.Wizards is the RPG equivalent of Microsoft. Well that is not entirely fair. They did make their basic system free of charge, but when they add functionality, it is not free. Plus, while in the Unix community, if something is made that is an improvement over the original material, then it is embraced and propogated in the next version. When we want something to change in d20 we may as well just forget it.As is evidenced by the extremely high quality of, say, scarred lands, we all know that RPG materials written by and for gamers are the highest quality. So who is the gamer equivalent of unix freaks? Us. We love games and are willing to work on them for free. (not all the time, but some of the time) We want to make the highest quality game system known to man, but we have no real way to go about it. So enter Primus. The idea behind Primus is that it will be an open source, community-based and community-driven game system for roleplaying. Every aspect of it will be open to the public free of charge. I am in the process of setting up a file server from which you can download the core rules at any time. In addition, I will set it up so that user made additions, modifications, and enhacements can be uploaded to the server. The community can discuss these changes and additions at length and improve on them. If the general consensus is that the new part is good enough or original enough to add to the quality of Primus as a whole, it will be made canon and added to the official rules, and any old material will be stuck in the usermade modifications folder. Example: Say we are using a d20 to determine all checks. Then the community (after lots of hot debate I am sure) decides that a 3d6 is a better way to go. I will modify the official document to include 3d6 instead of 1d20 and make 1d20 an optional modification.So, with a community dedicated to talking about and improving the system, and with a central file server to upload all original material to, we have a truly open system. Made by gamers, for gamers.Next: Primus basic tenets</blockquote>

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