Most agree that Kevin Crawford is one of the modern eras best RPG designers, especially in regards to world building. Now he has turned his hand to Cyberpunk in a new kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sinenomineinc/cities-without-number/comments

I read both Stars and Worlds and found them impressive. Though I get the feeling, he should just write a book.

Beat me to it. Been meaning to post since last night when I got the email.

Amidst the OGL battle, a true champion arises...

Quote from: Kevin CrawfordUpon reaching $200,000 I will place the mechanics of Cities Without Number under some form of open license, whether Creative Commons, the upcoming ORC license, or some other agreement that allows their free commercial use by others for RPGs, VTTs, character generators, supplementary apps, video games, beer coasters, or whatever else they wish. My current tentative expectation is to write a systems resource document and put it under CC0 for others to use however they wish.

It has always been my position that such licensing is not needed for others to copy my mechanics or advertise their commercial works as being compatible with my games. So long as someone's work does not use my specific game settings, characters, and organizations, and does not represent itself as an "official" Sine Nomine game supplement, I have neither the right nor the desire to stop them from replicating the mechanics. Having come up as I have, it would be shameful of me to try to haul the ladder up on other indie publishers. I wish them all as much profit from their work as I've had from mine.

Yet it is understandable that some publishers would prefer something in writing about such things, in case I grow strange and wizardly here on the Lake Michigan coast and forget the plain meaning of my words. If this campaign makes it to $200,000, it will be a sign that people care enough for me to take the extra time and labor to work through the legalities of the matter and present the public with a formal license codifying my stance.

Strange and wizardly. LOL.

Quote from: Aglondir on February 01, 2023, 05:07:18 PM
Amidst the OGL battle, a true champion arises...

Quote from: Kevin CrawfordUpon reaching $200,000 I will place the mechanics of Cities Without Number under some form of open license, whether Creative Commons, the upcoming ORC license, or some other agreement that allows their free commercial use by others for RPGs, VTTs, character generators, supplementary apps, video games, beer coasters, or whatever else they wish. My current tentative expectation is to write a systems resource document and put it under CC0 for others to use however they wish.

It has always been my position that such licensing is not needed for others to copy my mechanics or advertise their commercial works as being compatible with my games. So long as someone's work does not use my specific game settings, characters, and organizations, and does not represent itself as an "official" Sine Nomine game supplement, I have neither the right nor the desire to stop them from replicating the mechanics. Having come up as I have, it would be shameful of me to try to haul the ladder up on other indie publishers. I wish them all as much profit from their work as I've had from mine.

Yet it is understandable that some publishers would prefer something in writing about such things, in case I grow strange and wizardly here on the Lake Michigan coast and forget the plain meaning of my words. If this campaign makes it to $200,000, it will be a sign that people care enough for me to take the extra time and labor to work through the legalities of the matter and present the public with a formal license codifying my stance.

Strange and wizardly. LOL.

beat me to it, i backed it for that reason alone.

I don't usually back crowdfunding campaigns, but in THIS case I'll make an exception.

If the campaign reaches 200K he's gonna put everything under an open license so you can do whatever even with the art if I understood correctly. Gotta respect the man.

Quote from: Aglondir on February 01, 2023, 05:07:18 PM
Strange and wizardly. LOL.

Yea this alone is a great reason.  He was all over reddit during the OGL saying no one would ever need to worry about that, but:
1- He could change his mind technically.
2- He could die or be found liable in some court thing and then his stuff gets sold to the highest bidder, who then does exactly that
3- Some corrupt company could get through some ruling where suddenly it's ok to copyright game mechanics actually, and now the fact that you based something on stars without number means that whomever manages to get the rights has an extremely good case.  So basically (1) or (2) plus a further corruption of the system.

All of these are headed off (as much as possible) by a license.  He's not at all wrong that such a license isn't strictly necessary- much as the EFF  was correct when they pointed out that all the crap Hasbro was pretending to license with the OGL isn't actually copyrightable to begin with.  That's nice and fine, but how much does it cost to prove that in court?  And do you want to spend a serious fraction of your life winning that battle- or losing it, should it be discovered that you were once opposed to transwomen competing in woman's bodybuilding, or whatever?

In for $80.

Got the offset of SWN and WWN from the previous Kickstarter...I dunno, will probably never play either, but worth the money. I did do a one-shot over Halloween with Silent Legions and the core system he uses is pretty good. Kind of reminds me of Palladium FRP, honestly. Anyway, DEFINITELY back this just for the open licensing. Kevin Crawford is what Monte Cook wishes he could be as a game designer.

Quote from: Brad on February 01, 2023, 05:35:35 PM
In for $80.

Got the offset of SWN and WWN from the previous Kickstarter...I dunno, will probably never play either, but worth the money. I did do a one-shot over Halloween with Silent Legions and the core system he uses is pretty good. Kind of reminds me of Palladium FRP, honestly. Anyway, DEFINITELY back this just for the open licensing. Kevin Crawford is what Monte Cook wishes he could be as a game designer.

Agreed. Literally every word. Backed. I avoid KS when I can these days, but this was an easy purchase.

Kevin Crawford is one of my favourite authors. I'm definitely backing this once payday arrives.

QuoteSecond Stretch Goal Hit; Public License To Be Given
Munificent patrons,

Three thousand backers, two hundred thousand dollars, and about twenty-one hours; you've been tremendously generous in your patronage, and accomplished in less than one day what I thought would take weeks.

As promised, I will be putting the mechanics of CWN under a public license for others to use as they wish. While I don't personally believe this is necessary, and anyone has the moral and legal right to duplicate the mechanics for their own settings and games, it's understandable that publishers might want something a little more official before they start spending development effort on a product.

Once CWN is in final form and has been released, I'll go back through the file and trim out any non-mechanical material, leaving in the mechanics, stats, gear, cyberware, and other non-setting content, including the magic mechanics in the deluxe section of the book. I will then apply a license to the document and post it up for others to download and use as they wish. I may also include chunks of Worlds Without Number and Stars Without Number if I have the time and focus, though I believe the mechanics in those games are just as free to duplicate as CWN's are.

The license I will be using has not been entirely determined yet, but unless a good reason appears to avoid it, I will likely be using the Creative Commons CC0 license. I do not require or need acknowledgement, so it's not necessary to use a license requiring attribution. I intend to clarify that anyone is able to advertise material as being compatible with Stars/Worlds/CitiesWN as part of their marketing, if they think it appropriate.

And now, back to the text mines. I'd like to get you a fresh beta by the end of the weekend, and much work remains to be done.

With regards,

Kevin Crawford

we did it reddit!

The interesting thing here is that he didn't have to do this. He doesn't use the OGL for his flagship games. So he is future proofing against himself. In a time when empty virtue signaling is the standard, Kevin is coming from an authentic place. He has also managed to somehow remain apolitical without getting cornered by the woke.

I've been curious about all his games.

I do raise a bit of an eyebrow at the number of people saying, "I buy his stuff but I don't run any of the game" comments. Are these just mostly reading material for many people?

Quote from: Mistwell on February 01, 2023, 09:45:24 PM
I've been curious about all his games.

I do raise a bit of an eyebrow at the number of people saying, "I buy his stuff but I don't run any of the game" comments. Are these just mostly reading material for many people?

I have been running a campaign of Stars Without Number for over a year now. My players love the rules. As a GM, I find his world building sections of the game to be some of the best GM materials ever written.  I suspect many owners of his book buy the games for just he GM tools. And even if that all you ever use, the games are a bargain.

Quote from: FingerRod on February 01, 2023, 09:36:15 PM
The interesting thing here is that he didn't have to do this. He doesn't use the OGL for his flagship games. So he is future proofing against himself. In a time when empty virtue signaling is the standard, Kevin is coming from an authentic place. He has also managed to somehow remain apolitical without getting cornered by the woke.

All the more reason to support creators like this. He offers great material, and stays out of the political bullshit.