Games released under the BRP SRD OGL?

[pulpcitizen]

Hi guys. I have been away from the forums and BRP for a few years, but recently my brain has been percolating a new campaign setting idea which I may eventually self-publish.

 

To that end, I would like to see some examples of games/settings published under the BRP SRD OGL - can you point me to such examples (not Mythras thanks, which looks good, but deviates from the DNA of BRP in instances I want to keep the BRP DNA intact).

 

Thanks in advance. 🙂

Edited November 13, 2021 by pulpcitizen
Missed off question mark in subject line

[DreadDomain]

To my knowledge, there are only Toxandria and an adventure from Kabouter Game and Slaves to Fate, an adventure from Earl of Fife.

[Atgxtg]

Yeah there isn't much. I think that's because the SRD is fairly new, and some games in the past,  that might have been BRP ended up going to a different game system because of the licence requirements that were in place at the time.

[pulpcitizen]

Thanks DreadDomain and Atgxtg, that is helpful. 🙂

[Atgxtg]

Oh, and before I forget it again, there is Classic Fantasy. That really was an official BRP supplement, geared to an OSR FRPG style of play. It eventually went over to Mythras, but originally was a BRP product. BRP Rome did something similar, and the Mythas version is very similar to the BRP one.

While I do not like Mongoose RuneQuest, and prefer BRP to Mythras, I must admit that MRQ and Mythras do have some good setting and sorucebooks for them (thanks to some very good writers), and that such books are among the easiest things to adapt to BRP, as 85% of the game stats are the same or close enough to work. . So if you see something for those games that seems interesting, it might be worth picking up and adapting to BRP, or at least use it as a reference.

 

Oh, and you might want to look at a few of Chasoiums earlier games. Stormbringer, RingWorld, RuneQuest 3 Viking and Land of the Ninja are all heavily BRP compatible (BRP got most of it's game mechanics from RQ, Stormbringer, Magic World, Call of Cthulhu and such), so ihey might serve as examples of the adaptability of BRP, as well as examples of what settings have already been covered in some form. The third Viking rulebook for a BRP family is going to be compared, fairly or otherwise,) to the two pre-exsting ones. On the other hand, the first BRP book on Naval Battles during the Battleship Era won't have that problem-at least not to the same extent.

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by Atgxtg

[pulpcitizen]

11 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Oh, and before I forget it again, there is Classic Fantasy. That really was an official BRP supplement, geared to an OSR FRPG style of play. It eventually went over to Mythras, but originally was a BRP product. BRP Rome did something similar, and the Mythas version is very similar to the BRP one.

While I do not like Mongoose RuneQuest, and prefer BRP to Mythras, I must admit that MRQ and Mythras do have some good setting and sorucebooks for them (thanks to some very good writers), and that such books are among the easiest things to adapt to BRP, as 85% of the game stats are the same or close enough to work. . So if you see something for those games that seems interesting, it might be worth picking up and adapting to BRP, or at least use it as a reference.

 

Oh, and you might want to look at a few of Chasoiums earlier games. Stormbringer, RingWorld, RuneQuest 3 Viking and Land of the Ninja are all heavily BRP compatible (BRP got most of it's game mechanics from RQ, Stormbringer, Magic World, Call of Cthulhu and such), so ihey might serve as examples of the adaptability of BRP, as well as examples of what settings have already been covered in some form. The third Viking rulebook for a BRP family is going to be compared, fairly or otherwise,) to the two pre-exsting ones. On the other hand, the first BRP book on Naval Battles during the Battleship Era won't have that problem-at least not to the same extent.

 

 

 

As this may become a self-published project, I am mindful of the exclusions of SRD. At its core SRD is a better fit for what I have in mind than Mythras as th underlying engine. 

The add-ons/changes will be a psychic powers system and changes to combat.

[Atgxtg]

7 hours ago, pulpcitizen said:

As this may become a self-published project, I am mindful of the exclusions of SRD. At its core SRD is a better fit for what I have in mind than Mythras as th underlying engine. 

That does have it's advantages as well. A BRP or Mythras prodcut has the advantage of a pre-existing fan base that you can try to tap into, but going your own way with a different, but  similar game system gives you more freedom. You can adjust all sorts of things without the same sort of scrutiny you'd get if you altered an "official" product. 

 

[pulpcitizen]

1 hour ago, Atgxtg said:

That does have it's advantages as well. A BRP or Mythras prodcut has the advantage of a pre-existing fan base that you can try to tap into, but going your own way with a different, but  similar game system gives you more freedom. You can adjust all sorts of things without the same sort of scrutiny you'd get if you altered an "official" product. 

 

That is what i hoping for essentially, plus I have always enjoyed the elegance of the BRP skills experience mechanic 

[Atgxtg]

25 minutes ago, pulpcitizen said:

That is what i hoping for essentially, plus I have always enjoyed the elegance of the BRP skills experience mechanic 

Plus you don't have to worry about what happens to your game if things change with BRP. The thing about SRD's is that a company can always release a new edition and leave all those relying on the SRD out in the cold. 

[g33k]

On 11/15/2021 at 11:10 AM, Atgxtg said:

... The thing about SRD's is that a company can always release a new edition and leave all those relying on the SRD out in the cold. 

Why?

Once the OGL/SRD is "in the wild," it's essentially impossible to pull back, and equally useful as the basis for your new game.
Just because the company moves on, doesn't mean the players of the game have to (q.v. Pathfinder from the D20 OGL, when WotC moved to D&D4e).

[Mugen]

12 hours ago, g33k said:

Why?

Once the OGL/SRD is "in the wild," it's essentially impossible to pull back, and equally useful as the basis for your new game.
Just because the company moves on, doesn't mean the players of the game have to (q.v. Pathfinder from the D20 OGL, when WotC moved to D&D4e).

And WotC tried very hard to kill the first SRD and the games based on it when they released 4e, as publishers had to stop publishing their existing lines to write for the new game. A strategy that didn't work at all...

[JonL]

On 11/15/2021 at 1:10 PM, Atgxtg said:

Plus you don't have to worry about what happens to your game if things change with BRP. The thing about SRD's is that a company can always release a new edition and leave all those relying on the SRD out in the cold. 

 

20 hours ago, g33k said:

Why?

Once the OGL/SRD is "in the wild," it's essentially impossible to pull back, and equally useful as the basis for your new game.
Just because the company moves on, doesn't mean the players of the game have to (q.v. Pathfinder from the D20 OGL, when WotC moved to D&D4e).

Anyone considering building on Chaosium's SRD licenses should look at section 10 very closely. While current management thankfully has a record of acting fairly and with integrity, section 10 effectively gives Chaosium or their successors in rights the ability to change the license terms or shut the whole thing down at their discretion. You could continue to publish existing works (possibly with slight tweaks) under the license as it was, but nothing new without accepting the changed terms (which could be anything). To be clear, I don't expect them to abuse it, but it is a thing to consider when weighing your options.

Edited November 18, 2021 by JonL

[Atgxtg]

19 hours ago, g33k said:

Why?

Because they can pull the rug out from under you at any time.

19 hours ago, g33k said:

Once the OGL/SRD is "in the wild," it's essentially impossible to pull back, and equally useful as the basis for your new game.

Yes, but not equally useful to sell your game. 

As GMs/players we can use any set of rules that we want to. I run a few out of print RPGs that are no longer supported. But those games are considered "dead" and get no support, or any coverage. Plus many gaming groups flock to the newest edition of a game and leave the older one behind. It's almost taken for granted that they will do so. 

19 hours ago, g33k said:

Just because the company moves on, doesn't mean the players of the game have to (q.v. Pathfinder from the D20 OGL, when WotC moved to D&D4e).

No, but from a sales point it usually does. How many new D&D 3.0 supplements have you seen lately? Pathfinder succeeded because a company stepping in and supported 3.5 so well that they could compete with 4E. It revealed the weakness of OGL, letting the worms out of the can, but it only really worked because Piazo could invest a lot of money into it. For a small self-publisher that's probably not going to happen., especially not for BRP. How many Publishers make BRP products now? I think almost all the ones who once did so have moved onto other systems, some even made their own BRP related system. 

So if someone is an author/publisher they have to consider what they get from BRP compared to going with another system or even one of their own. 

 

 

[Mugen]

49 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

Pathfinder succeeded because a company stepping in and supported 3.5 so well that they could compete with 4E. It revealed the weakness of OGL, letting the worms out of the can, but it only really worked because Piazo could invest a lot of money into it.

That was only a weakness for WoTC. As far as I remember, Ryan Dancey created OGL precisely to protect the game from being discarded by WotC and replaced by a game players didn't want (and I say that as one of those few who prefer 4e).

[JonL]

25 minutes ago, Mugen said:

That was only a weakness for WoTC. As far as I remember, Ryan Dancey created OGL precisely to protect the game from being discarded by WotC and replaced by a game players didn't want (and I say that as one of those few who prefer 4e).

That's a key difference between Chaosium's license and Wizco's. If the OGL had contained language like Section 10 from the BRP license, Wizards could have updated the terms once D&D4 came out such that going forward you had to pay a $$ per-unit sold license fee for any new works referencing the 3/3.5 SRDs. They could even made it a closed license going forward where any new works would have to get approved by the license holder. Or anything. 

I trust Meints & co to be straight shooters who would not pull such BS, or else I wouldn't be a contributor to QuestWorlds. Just the same, the people in whom licensees must place their trust that Section 10 will not be abused are not immortal. I suspect the inherent uncertainty there is one of the factors that has limited adoption, sadly. 

That said, if someone feels like it's a good fit for their project in spite of the drawbacks, more power to them. I wish any such authors (and Chaosium) every success.

[RosenMcStern]

Legend, OpenQuest and Revolution D100 are published under a on-repudiable OGL that has survived, so far, the test of time. You can base your work on these variants and tweak them as you like. The only drawback is that your game will not be labeled as "coming from that orifinal idea by Ftafford, Perrin et al.", although everyone will know it is coming from there.

[yojimbo]

13 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

Legend, OpenQuest and Revolution D100 are published under a on-repudiable OGL that has survived, so far, the test of time. You can base your work on these variants and tweak them as you like. The only drawback is that your game will not be labeled as "coming from that orifinal idea by Ftafford, Perrin et al.", although everyone will know it is coming from there.

There’s also GORE which is also published under the original  non-repudiable OGL (not the Chaosium BRP-OGL).

Scratch that, GORE references the problematic RuneQuest SRDs, so you’re best avoiding it.

Edited November 20, 2021 by yojimbo