Prime Evil

You can use as much of the SRD as you like (as it is all Open Game Content). However, the Open Game Licence expressly prohibits indicating compatibility with any copyrighted game system, so you'd still need a compatibility licence to indicate that the supplement is to be used with the Revolution system.

Squee! Looking forward to this!

I think literary cyberpunk did move on, but SF movies tend to lag a decade or two behind the written word. In SF literature, cyberpunk has recently become obsessed by environmental collapse - an approach pioneered by the works of Paolo Bacigalupi.

Has anyone done any mechanics at an intermediate scale of small domain management? I'm wondering if anyone has produced detailed rules for building a stronghold, ruling a frontier barony, engaging in regional trade, developing local communities, etc. I think one of the MRQI books touched on this, but it wasn't in much detail...

True...but none of those conversions were released under the OGL. This means that they aren't available for third-party use...

This is shocking news. Greg was a giant in the industry and an amazing person. He has given us years of joy. He inspired and influenced an entire generation of game designers. And in addition to his work in the gaming industry, his contributions to Shaman's Drum deserve recognition from everyone interested in alternative spirituality. My thoughts and condolences are with his family during this difficult time.

Yes, please!

The MRQII Empires book is one of the best releases for that product line. The idea of treating realms and organisations like characters was clever and could be developed a lot further. The MRQ I version has some poor editing and is inferior to the revision.

This is good news. I'm glad to hear that OpenQuest has a future. But if you don't have doubts about the quality of your own work, you probably don't care about it enough :) The comment that the OGL situation almost killed OQ is concerning though. My understanding is that even if the MRQ1 SRD is no longer valid under the OGL, OpenQuest is still OK under the provision of Section 13 of the OGL. This section states that if the upstream license was terminated "all (existing) sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License". In other words, so long as you were in full compliance with the terms of the OGL, your sublicense survives when the upstream publisher loses the right to distribute the SRD. In this specific case, the inclusion of Glorantha-specific material in the SRD was a breach of Section 5 of the OGL (Representation of Authority to Contribute). Mongoose did not have the right to release this IP as Open Game Content, so when their license to produce RQ expired they were then in breach of the license. Because they did not cure this breach within the 30-day grace period, their right to distribute the SRD automatically terminated. However, due to the clause about the survival of sublicenses I suspect you are on solid ground provided that you do not reference any of the Glorantha-specific material (thereby falling afoul of section 5 yourself).

I think that the survival of the BRP system over thirty years despite numerous "real-world" problems along the way is a testament to how solid and adaptable it is. If you go back and read RQ2 and compare it with other stuff coming out at the same time, you get a sense of just how brilliant it was.

So long as you abide by all of the terms of the Open Game Licence, you can use any Open Game Content (OGC) to create derivative works. This can include adventures or sourcebooks or campaign settings. It can also entire games. This is what makes things like Renaissance possible. It is also what allowed Paizo to fork D&D 3.5 to create Pathfinder when 4e came out. However there are some important limits on this freedom. Firstly, you can't use any material that the publisher of the game has designated as Product Identity (PI). Secondly, you can't infringe on the trademarks of the creator of the source material. So you can't misrepresent your work as an "official" OQ publication. And you can't indicate compatibility with OQ without a separate license with Newt allowing you to do so. So you can't use the OpenQuest logo or say that your work in "Powered by OpenQuest" without permission. This is why many OGL games release the game system as Open Game Content but have a separate trademark licence allowing you additional rights to indicate compatibility with their system. Nothing in the Open Game Licence indicates that upstream publishers "approve" of any derivative works. The licence is designed so that if you misuse it, upstream publishers are protected against legal liability. If you use OGC for questionable purposes, then you are on your own. If you want to place a stamp on your work saying "approved by Chaosium", you need permission from Chaosium to do so - and they can place whatever restrictions they like on this approval. For example, back in the day there was a section in the d20 licence indicating that Wizards of the Coast could withdraw approval for publishers to use the d20 logo on works that breached community standards.

That's a very good picture and a very nice article. It seems like a smart approach. I like the fact that you are aligning the worship of Ernalda to historical precursors. It makes everything feel more...um...grounded...

Fair enough. That's a personal preference. I agree with you that digital only is the best approach. However, POD can be a game-changer for small publishers working in niche markets... The market is fairly segmented. Even so, I get the feeling that many GMs mix-and-match elements from different d100 variants. I'm not sure that the gaps need to be "economically meaningful". Hobbyists write systems for artistic reasons as well as economic ones. Personally, I don't have any issue with the publication of more d100 variants provided that they bring something new to the table. I'll use the bits that I like from a range of different games. I said that Sabre was "interesting". There were a few things I liked and a lot that wasn't to my personal taste. I would note that the authors of Sabre credit Mythras and indicate that they use some mechanics with permission from the Design Mechanism. However, obviously I don't know the details of the arrangement.

I think every gamer has the desire to produce a variant of their favorite RPG incorporating their own house rules and reflecting their own preferences. I'm no exception here - I've got my own private d100 variant that I've worked over the past few years. My aim was to build a variant closely aligned to grimdark sensibilities (Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, Glen Cook, Anna Spark Smith, et al). But developing a published work is different to designing something for your own personal enjoyment. Keep in mind that the market for d100 games is a tiny segment of the overall RPG market. Print runs aren't huge by commercial standards and margins can be tight. The d100 market is crowded, but there are still a few gaps that an enterprising designer could fill. I think there is space for a system a bit lighter than Legend / Mythras, but with a bit more crunchy than OpenQuest. There is also room for genre-specific implementations of the various d100 systems. For example, I've thought seriously about developing a cyberpunk variant of Legend or Mythras. I think such a game could work surprisingly well and there is little competition in this space at the moment. Another approach might be to test the waters by developing a sourcebook for an existing game, either under the OGL or a traditional licensing arrangement. I used to run a Spells of Legend thread over on the Mongoose forums where I posted new spells once or twice a week. I've also considered gathering my own contributions into a new work. It's worth noting that many people mix-and-match material from different d100 variants, so this can still reach a wider market. As an aside, I'm glad that you mention Sabre - it's an interesting system midway between D&D and Legend / Mythras. I'd also point out that Arc Dream declared some portions of their updated Delta Green rulebook as OGC. These develop the MRQ II / Legend game system in a different direction to the one chosen by RQ 6 / Mythras.

Does this mean that TDM will out-tweet Donald Trump?