All the kuffuffle around the rpg scene with the OGL that much of the DnD stuff of the last 20 years has been around got me thinking about miniature games.

With the ever growing use of 3D Printing and some of the best models I have ever seen being released as SLT files for printing, or sold on Esty by people who own 3D Printers.. it seems the miniture scene could soon be in the same kind of place the RPG scene is in. As in you can make your own setting and characters and just release a rule book. No miniatures of any kind. Then people can play it using minis of their choice, just printed out.

So like in the RPG there is a thriving scene of poeple making supplements. Which are just rules and setting. I think that the Miniature Wargame Scene could be poised to start doing the same thing, as the barrier... minis... is not as relevant.

For Example here is a few SLT dude I know  :

• DC Minis @b3dserkStudios
• Marvel Minis Trident Studios@Patreon
• Random Stuff Papsikels@pateron

For some reason, a lot of the quality STL makers sell on their patron. I am not sure why.



I recently bought a bunch of Papsikels minis for running the [family=56423]Alien RPG[/family] by [company=22864]Free League[/company]. They were actually great quality. Not as good as CMON or Monolith or P2 or GW or some other "factory" based min maker... but still very good and in many cases more imaginative and detailed as well. Papsikels among other things, make a SciFi range. It currently has Alien, Predator, Stargate and Terminator models.

I think the advent of 3d printing could change that. As it is now possible for a small time creator to make a supplement and just release stl files.

: TL;DR :

Just to be clear... I was NOT asking for miniature agnostic games. I was asking if there is a public OGL-style licensing agreement that exists in the wargaming community. Like OGL or ORC for the TTRPG space, or like the GPL or MIT programming licenses.

So the question is... Are there any miniature based wargames that have a kind of OGL style license. That allows a 3rd party designer to make their own games using the system, terminology, classes, etc etc. Not those things specifically, but the question is... Is there a OGL like license for any major miniature wargames.

I know of several generic rules, but I don't recall any licenses for them.  Perhaps that's an opportunity for someone to explore.  Get ahead of the game so to speak.

HG Wells' wargaming book is well and truly in the public domain.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3691/3691-h/3691-h.htm

True, true.  Kriegsspiel and Free Kriegsspiel date back to the 1800s as well.  I just read an article that says FKR is alive and well on Discord/Tabletop Simulator.

Aparently Planet 28, and all of Mammoth Miniatures' games, are now open license:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=138645.msg1763620#msg1763620

How badly do you want to pressure GamesWorkshop?

Here's one I created. You can use this as I am releasing it into public domain:

Units have attributes:

Attack
Defense
Movement
Health

Units can move "Movement" value in inches.
When a unit attacks, you take its Attack value and roll 2d6. Defender rolls 2d6. If you beat the defender value, the defender loses one point of health.

This system needs some additional embellishment, but a lot of that embellishment depends on what you're trying to do with your game.

Quote from: Summon666 on January 26, 2023, 08:55:37 PMJust to be clear... I was NOT asking for miniature agnostic games. I was asking if there is a public OGL-style licensing agreement that exists in the wargaming community. Like OGL or ORC for the TTRPG space, or like the GPL or MIT programming licenses.

I'm heavily involved in (non-GW) miniature gaming and to my knowledge there is not any sort of OGL for miniature wargames nor do I want there to be. In this hobby, almost all the money is made on the models, not the rules. So there is really no reason to the game's producer for prevent anyone from making expansions or whatever for a particular game system. Thus, there is no need for an OGL as none of these companies (outside of GW, of course) would stop you in the first place.

And the amount of Patreon miniature creators is staggering. There is a YouTuber called Tabletop Karnage that makes monthly previews for all the 3D printable gaming Patreons out there. His videos are 45-60 minutes of just listing all the new files. And this is EVERY SINGLE MONTH. I doubt anyone could even print all the STL miniatures released every month even if they were printing full time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvO0BeBqbCo

9th Age is in the creative commons. https://the-ninth-age.com/footer-annex/Legal-notice.

I'm of the opinion that most of the Game's Workshop name changes away from common names like dwarf and elf allow them to protect trademarks for the models and their books, but the mechanics for wargaming all seem to be public domain or creative commons at this point.

Quote from: JackFS4 on March 22, 2023, 11:40:36 AMI'm of the opinion that most of the Game's Workshop name changes away from common names like dwarf and elf allow them to protect trademarks for the models and their books, but the mechanics for wargaming all seem to be public domain or creative commons at this point.

That seems likely. I do, however, think this is a long term strategic mistake as the primary appeal of their settings is how accessible they are. You pretty much used to know what the factions were just by looking at the names. Compare that to something like Infinity which is a good game with great models but the setting is just confusing with nonsensically named factions.