Black Flag Kobold Press' Black Flag System Reference Document Released

The System Reference Document--called the Black Flag Reference Document or BFRD--for Kobold Press' Black Flag roleplaying game system--launched as a reaction to the Open Gaming License crisis caused by Wizards of the Coast in 2022/2023--has been released under the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License, a viral share-alike license designed to replace the Open Gaming License.

A System Reference Document is a tool for third party developers, and contains the rules text that those creators are permitted to use, along with examples of how certain rules elements--such as subclasses--work.

The document includes lineages, heritages, classes, spells, monsters, and more.

The BFRD is the second major third-party 'alternate 5E' SRD to be released, following the Level Up: Advanced 5E SRD (A5ESRD) from EN Publishing.

Wizards of the Coast announced this week that the 2024 core rules of Dungeon & Dragons would be added to their own System Reference Document in 2025.

 

[bedir than]

No. It doesn't. It very specifically state game mechanics. You, however, are folding in some other stuff to make a point. I just think you should state the point clearly.

I quoted Paizo's AxE.
They say descriptive words are Licensed Material. People used to plain English would not consider a descriptor like "howl of the wolves" a mechanic. They do.
I figure they know the ORC better than anyone.

 

[Reynard]

I quoted Paizo's AxE.
They say descriptive words are Licensed Material. People used to plain English would not consider a descriptor like "howl of the wolves" a mechanic. They do.
I figure they know the ORC better than anyone.

But that's not Lore, which is the claim you intimated.

 

[Remathilis]

Sigh. Can't we just go back to the time companies released their whole game for free and other companies sold copies of the SRD for cheap?

 

[Reynard]

Just to be clear: I don't think every game company needs to put out an SRD for their game(s). I just think companies who build their games on Open Content should. That's all.

 

[SlyFlourish]

That is interesting. Thank you for pointing it out. I was unaware ORC required you to release everything. Makes it a little less publisher friendly than I thought.

As others pointed out, it’s only mechanics that you have to release under ORC but, in my understanding, subclasses would fall under that.

By using the 5.1 SRD under Creative Commons, Kobold Press is able to hold back mechanics they didn’t want to release but they give no such freedom to downstream producers who must release all mechanical content they produce from the Black Flag SRD because its release under ORC.

If WOTC had used ORC themselves, Kobold Press would have had to release everything.

I’m not throwing shade on Kobold Press. I love their stuff (and write for them a bunch). I think it’s interesting to note with how the CC and ORC play together. ORC definitely benefits the top of the food chain more than those below.

 

[Remathilis]

As ). ORC definitely benefits the top of the food chain more than those below.

Can I tell you how unsupervised I am by this?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Can I tell you how unsupervised I am by this?

ENWorld owes nearly all of its posts to us being unsupervised.

 

[Zaukrie]

Maybe I'll start a new thread about the game....

 

[Morrus]

What is incentive to buy 40-50 euro book if you can have all the content from said book for free online in more practical format?

If that were true, and the book itself really had no additional value, why would companies ever produce books? All they'd need to do is whack the text up on a website and charge an access fee. The fact is that people do consider the books to have value above and beyond that provided by text on a website, which is why companies don't just whack the text up online and call it a day.

Believe me, if companies made more money doing that, they'd do that. The fact is they don't; they make more money when they make books.

At least at present. As things become more and more digital, that may change.

 

[GrimCo]

If that were true, and the book itself really had no additional value, why would companies ever produce books? All they'd need to do is whack the text up on a website and charge an access fee. The fact is that people do consider the books to have value above and beyond that provided by text on a website, which is why companies don't just whack the text up online and call it a day.

I'm not saying they don't have value for everybody. They have.

Believe me, if companies made more money doing that, they'd do that. The fact is they don't; they make more money when they make books.

At least at present. As things become more and more digital, that may change.

Yes, they make money on books. But full free version of game is eating into the profits. And how much they make on dead tree products is more and more questionable, even for big companies,with rising cost of transportation and logistics. Question is, how much would full free game in srd eat into the sales of core books and is Kobold press big enough to afford it?

If they could shift from dead tree model to online subscription model, companies would jump to it. And they will eventually, when prime target demographic becomes generation that grew up on streaming platforms.