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OpenQuest and the OGL


Newt

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I couple of things that have arisen from the recent rather heated discussion about the old MRQ SRD both here and elsewhere, that have mentioned the position of the OQ OGL that I feel need answering from me as the creator of OpenQuest (OQ).

1. OQ is in the process of moving to the Legend OGL, The bits of Chaosium IP that were in the original MRQ SRD as in names of Gloranthan beasties (Gorps, Broo etc) never made it into OQ even in its 1st version. Elsewhere someone has argued that Ducks, Elementals and Spirits are Chaosium IP, there certainly weren't depicted as such in OQ where they were more generic fantasy in their presentation. I've had discussions with Jeff Richard from Chaosium/Moon Design over the years on this  Just to be 100% 

Which leads me to the 2nd point which has always underpinned OpenQuest's legality, which folk won't be aware of. 

2. Before I released OpenQuest, in Sept 2009, I showed it to Greg Stafford who quickly consulted with Jeff and they okayed it. I didn't feel the need to make a great song and dance about this because I knew at the time the MRQ SRD OGL covered the work adequately and if anyone was to use OQ's own SRD  that was the basis they had to use to keep it clear.  I then contacted them again via Jeff when the MRO License was withdrawn, because by then I had quite a stable of OQ releases (OQ + adventures, River of Heaven, The Company), plus  there was a growing number of credible commercial works built on OQ such as those put together by Cakebread & Walton and translations such as the French version of OQ. Again because I had asked before doing, acted respectfully OQ and all the works based on OQ are OK by Chaosium.

And finally, because it seems that it needs pointing out, both here and because its the no1 question from the asked by the people who contact me via email about the OGL

3. What isn't OK by Chaosium (and myself) is if you use the OQ SRD to make your own Call of Cthulhu or RuneQuest clone, or any other game that is based upon IP that you do not have written permission to use. its worth noting that even when OQ is clearly using the Legend OGL, you would still be breaking section 15 (which is in short, only use IP you have the rights to in your games).  

When OpenQuest 3 comes out you'll see this reflected in an updated OGL and also in a "How to use OpenQuest to make your own product" section, in both the book itself and the OQ 3 SRD.

I'm not prepared to discuss the ins and outs of this here, so I'm disabling comments for this post. If you have a valid question about OQ and its OGL, drop me a line at newt@d101games.com.

Edited by Newt
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Head Honcho of D101 Games
Publisher of Crypts and Things/Monkey/OpenQuest/River of Heaven
The Sorcerer Under the Mountain

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