Stop telling me to boycott WotC. If you support open gaming, tell who to support. (+ thread)

[Voadam]

Exactly. That's why I wanted a thread that focused on providing a list of companies offering truly open licenses that are not entangled in the WotC OGL.

I think your thread title is working counter to that goal.

Based on the title I came on here to point out the Favorite 5e OGL thread thinking it would be on topic for recommendations on who to support.

Flagging in the thread title that you are specifically looking for irrevocable open license games might give you better results.

 

[MNblockhead]

I think your thread title is working counter to that goal.

Based on the title I came on here to point out the Favorite 5e OGL thread thinking it would be on topic for recommendations on who to support.

Flagging in the thread title that you are specifically looking for irrevocable open license games might give you better results.

Fair criticism. Don't think I can change it now. But as poorly worded as it is, at least was made aware of several games released with CC BY, which is cool.

 

[aramis erak]

Unfortunately unless wizards in a fit of madness lisences their 3.5 and 5ed srds under this new scheme, most owners of existing OGL licensed content cannot help out with quickly growing this new open license repository by just relisencing their work, as they need to make sure that they do not contain any material that can be argued to have been licensed from wizards via OGL.

The OGL 1.0a is, itself, a licensed document under the OGL 1.0a, albeit a different section.

 

[Jerik]

A few other open games I haven't seen mentioned (though maybe they were and I missed them):

• Dominion Rules - AFAIK the first RPG to be released under an open license, predating the OGL; now available for free online (though you can buy a print copy on Lulu if you want to support the creators)
• EABA - Sort of similar to the HERO/Champions system; includes a custom Open Supplement License
• FantasyCraft - Not currently in print, but available in PDF form from DriveThruRPG. (The company is still around, but currently focusing on other things, though there's talk of a new edition eventually.) Licensed by the OGL 1.0, though, so might be in trouble.
• Open Legend - An "open source RPG". I haven't really looked into this one, so I can't say much about it except that it exists.
• What's OLD is NEW - A bit surprised not to see this one mentioned here, since it's actually published by EN Publishing. Again, though, it's released under the OGL 1.0—but AFAIK it doesn't use any WotC SRD content, so that can presumably be changed.
• The Wanton Role-Playing System - The system behind the Over the Edge RPG has now been released as open content—though, again, under the OGL 1.0, but again it doesn't have any WotC SRD content.
• Myriad RPG System - Advertises itself a toolbox rather than a self-contained RPG, but explicitly says "you can incorporate Myriad into your own books and products free of charge, even for commercial ventures".

This isn't exhaustive; there are, for instance, a lot of small indie RPGs on itch.io that explicitly grant the right for anyone to make supplements based on them.

 

[Umbran]

So I would appreciate it if someone would stop repeating why I shouldn't support WotC and tell me which companies offer truly open gaming content, hopefully with licenses that avoid the ambiguity in the WotC licenses.

While small companies will always welcome sales, buying a couple of products right now will not strike a notable blow for open gaming.

If the OGL v1.1 turns out to be as bad as some fear, there will be lawsuits. There will be crowdfunding by small companies to fund their legal actions/defenses. That would have greater impact than buying a rulebook before the license is finalized.

Which is to say, yes, support open content, but we are near a point where the best way to do that may be more direct.

 

[aramis erak]

FUDGE was released under an open license in the 90's... ISTR GNU-FDL... later under some other non-OGL.

That said, Seconding Umbran's advice: wait for the lawsuits and contribute to defense of the 1.0a.

After reading this thread I feel like I should support WoTC.

If they''re able to force the 1.1 on the industry, every OGL product will support WotC.
They're making the smart business move from the corporate view, but at the expense of reputation, and quite likely, a large part of the fanbase.

 

[Jd Smith1]

That said, Seconding Umbran's advice: wait for the lawsuits and contribute to defense of the 1.0a.

Sorry, I've chosen my side.

If they''re able to force the 1.1 on the industry, every OGL product will support WotC.
They're making the smart business move from the corporate view, but at the expense of reputation, and quite likely, a large part of the fanbase.

I think it would be a good thing if WotC prevails. I think it would push writers to seek out innovative avenues, rather than coming up with ever more bolt-on addendum to 5e or stale D&D clones.

 

[Randomthoughts]

I'm hoping this OGL Fiasco will result in at least a few game systems becoming more popular. I remember a time when Storyteller (Vampire) seemed to eclipse D&D for awhile. Personally, I am completely enamored with SWADE right now. It's hitting the right level of crunch and story elements I tend to like. Cortex is another one - simple and crazy robust to capture so many different genres - but it has been floundering of late unfortunately.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I keep looking at alternative systems and finding them using the OGL 1.0, which hampers my ability to recommend things like the truly wonderful Beyond the Wall. Here's hoping a bunch of them go ORC as soon as possible.

 

[Blue]

Please include OGL games - otherwise you are furthering WotC's goals.

There are a bunch of companies willing to fight in court Hasbro's interpretation of the OGL, so a game being OGL shouldn't remove it from the list of what people should play besides D&D. We're not anti-OGL, we're anti-WotC trying to pervert the OGL. We explicitly don't want to boycott game systems that use the OGL from other publishers, they are already having enough trouble.

Anyway, being against the OGL is a lot bigger than that. You'd be throwing out the baby with the bathwater - some other Open Gaming Licenses could have the same problem. People were looking sideways at Cypher System Open License because it was based on the OGL and also didn't contain the word irrevocable. (And the OGL was based on GPLv2, which also didn't.) Not that this should be taken as a a sign of wrong-doing - everyone assumed the OGL was a safe harbor for two decades.

So, please include OGL games in what you will play, since otherwise you are following WotC's agenda.

Also just to be clear, what games out there have other licenses are wholy separate from telling people to boycott. If you only boycott when you have a convenient alternative and won't boycott if it means actual sacrifice, that's says something about the person who won't hold their ideals over their leisure.