BFRD in the CC!
Hi all,
There's a bit of industry news that dropped this morning. It's exciting for folks who make roleplaying game content, more so than those who aren't creators, but it still impacts players in some interesting ways.
The thing that enables third party publishers (3pp) like Lazy Wolf Studios to make roleplaying game content that is compatible with Dungeons & Dragons and other 5e systems are the licensed documents. Dungeons & Dragons' 2014 edition rules were placed into the Creative Commons, allowing anyone to use their rule system to create content (or that portion of the ruleset they designated as open content).
Since November 2023 and the release of Banner of the Bull, Lazy Wolf Studios has been producing content for Kobold Press' 5e-compatible system, Tales of the Valiant. But up until now, the Black Flag Reference Document (BFRD), the basis for third party publishers (3pp) using Tales of the Valiant as the rules engine for their adventures, was only available under the ORC license.
The ORC is a different license that has some language in it that is less ideal for certain publishers than Creative Commons. It also makes crossing the streams, taking things available under D&D's CC license and mixing them with things under TOV's ORC, impossible. (Level Up Advanced 5e releases under both ORC and CC, bless them.)
Well, today Kobold Press just dropped the BFRD into Creative Commons. This is fabulous news for 3pp creators!
They've also updated their reference document, adding a number of cool mechanics, previously not available for third party use, into their open content, namely Attitude, Dread, Environmental Hazards, Curses, Diseases, and Traps. I'm particularly excited that Dread—a substitute for the somewhat problematic Madness mechanics of older TTRPGs— is in there, as that's something I've been asking for.
As I say, if you're not a creator/publisher, you can pretty much ignore this. Just know that making cool things for you to enjoy just got a little bit easier, and the tools we third party creators can play with just expanded a little more.
That's all for now. Take care, and more as I know it.