The RPG scene has repeatedly laughed, cried, or tooted about the various 'indie RPGs' made by corporations with with multiple accountants. But wherever you want to draw the line, it can't be a single author, because nobody makes a standard RPG alone. Even the smallest, the most indie of the indie-RPGs, has a credits …

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Every time I find some interview with an RPG creator, I notice some trickery, or perhaps confusion. The presenter brings up a question about how they make their RPGs, and the answer explains how they make money. There's nothing wrong with having a job, but how a woodcarver carves wood isn't the same as how they market …

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I recommend these RPG RSS feeds. If you don't use RSS, check my setup overview . Blue Mountain has a post on saving Ravenloft modules (which is brave, and laudable). Cthnonic Studios has a thoughtful section on RPG design theory, and another on reviews . DriveThruRPG has a feed so full of new RPGs that nobody can …

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New RPG creators and tech-startups both enjoy giving themselves the badge of 'open source' without having to open up a single source file. In the tech world, they call the company 'Open AI', and in the RPG space, they call their licence the 'open gaming licence', or simply declare they have an 'open RPG', then let …

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It cannot be long before anyone familiar with abusive software models, and RPGs, notices undeniable parallels. The free and openly available systems function well in a technocratic sense, but lack advertising. On-boarding new people feels easy when dealing with an enthusiast, but your standard user struggles with the …

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Software engineers regularly jump into others' open source, and help out, but the RPG community do not do the same, because they do not have the right tools. Look throughout the history of any number of software projects and you'll find a slew of apparently random people, unknown to the software's creator, jumping in …

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I warned ye! but did you listen to me? Oh no... you knew didn't ye? It's just a harmless little licence, isn't it? ...sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

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I've implied all this heavily in other writing, but just to be clear, here is the game plan for BIND. Firstly, BIND doesn't matter. I want to see an open-source RPG that's actually open source. I want to see the community able to break away from a corporation telling them what they can do, and just make their own …

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A few RPG creators might make bank, but for the most part, we don't. For the most part, people don't even want to make it their entire career - they have a particular vision of a game they want to make. I think if indie designers want to see their ideas succeed, they should release them and start working with others, …

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The Open Gaming Licence (OGL) does not in fact produce terribly open games, so I wish people would stop referring to such RPGs as 'open source'. No Real Books The OGL specifically excludes Product Identity. "Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; …

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