In a couple of posts I wrote about copyright, Creative Commons, OGL and related topics. Today, I searched the internet for some roleplaying games that actually have been released under a CC license. The list is probably far from complete, so if you know any other games that should be on that list, please let me know!
- The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon
- Violence: the RPG of egregious and repulsive bloodshed by Greg Costikyan
- Dungeonslayers by Christian Kennig
- YAGS by Samuel Penn (the game uses the GNU GPL, but it’s close enough)
Please note: Dungeonslayers is currently available in German language only.
What kind of criteria did you use for this? Do only CC RPGs count, or any freely distributed one? Because I know a couple rules-lite RPGs out there that are free. I'm also writing one for fun that is under a C.C. license, but it's Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works right now.
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@Wyatt – Think it was Only CC (or GPL) RPGs. There are many free distributed ones, but I think many are under OGL or something similar.
@Sanastar – Do you think more games might use CC or do you think that many games are based off the OGL, so they have to keep the OGL?
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The ones on the list are released under CC or in the case of YASG under the GNU GPL. I know there are a lot of freely distributed games but I am looking for those who are not only free to share but which can also be adapted etc.
But I already thought about compiling a list of free RPGs including short reviews. I've noticed that most free RPG lists are terribly outdated. But compiling such a list is quite a task, so I am still waiting for the right time to start.
@Bonemaster: The games that currently use OGL in combination with the d20 System will probably have to stick to it, since I don't see Wizards release their stuff under Creative Commons. There may be a few of the other companies who have adopted the OGL for their systems switching to CC, but I doubt it.
BUT I see a bright future for new, original games released under more "copyleft" licenses.
John Kim keeps a comprehensive list of open-content games at http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/byke…
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This is a topic dear to my heart! One I watch most eagerly. Sadly, most Free RPG designers don't give much of a fig about the licenses that they produce games under. Once complete, they just want to get the game out there! Furthermore, some like the idea of having a free PDF for those that want to download and check it out and then have a POD copy at Lulu (or similar) for those that can't be bothered to download and print and just want the book in their hands!
Ricardo, over at the Free RPG Community ( http://www.freeroleplay.org/ ) is pretty hot on his licenses and I think he has a few CC ones on there.
P.S. Thanks for the Blogroll to the Free RPG Blog!
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You don't have to thank me. I find your Free RPG Blog very interesting and have subscribed to it on my feed reader as soon as I discovered it. Did I understand it correctly that you are also behind 1KM1KT? That's one of the few RPG sites I checked out regularly even before I discovered the RPG blog community.
And thanks for sharing that link with us. I think I'll check that site out later.
I'm proud to say that I am an Admin at 1KM1KT but the site is really owned, created and powered by the superb Keeton Harrington. Without him, there would be no RPG Laboratory either. I'm trying to funnel designers from the Free RPG Blog into the community at 1KM1KT as it's a bit transient over there: people write a game and quite often disappear!
Glad you like the Free RPG Blog, I was surprised that no-one had thought of it before!
<abbr><abbr>Rob Langs last blog post..Players will never forget their friends – or enemies…</abbr></abbr>
By the way, would it be possible to add a some functionality to 1KM1KT that allows the user to search for (or filter) games that use a certain license?