Hey, so I keep seeing people confused about the Open Game License. My Open Gaming for Dummies article helps dispel some of that but let’s come out and get one thing clear – it’s not “just for D&D” or just d20-derived games. Open gaming is strong and diverse.
The OGL is just a license. It’s like the open source Apache, GPL, or MIT licenses in that it can be applied by anyone – though it was written by WotC originally, it’s not owned by them and has no relation to what games can be released under it.
Guess what all game systems are open under the OGL license?
- The Action! system (from Gold Rush Games)
- Traveller (Mongoose’s version)
- Runequest (Mongoose’s version)
- The d6 system (from West End Games’ Star Wars and Ghostbusters)
- Fudge and its newer more popular variant FATE and derivatives thereof, like ICONS
And many more, including many many d20 variants from Anime d20 to Mutants & Masterminds. I’m not sure there’s a comprehensive list – here’s a couple that are old and out of date. But that’s like, a big share of the systems people have played over the decades.
And of course this doesn’t mention other open games published under other licenses, like Eclipse Phase is published under Creative Commons.
Really, publishers, is there a reason NOT to open license your system? Because face it, your system kinda sucks. They all do. Your best bet is to get it in the hands of as many people as possible so they’ll get interested and buy your products. If GURPS got open licensed, for example, maybe someone under 30 would play it.
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