I'm Giving My Game Away - Blame Basic Fantasy
Big announcement. I’m giving the game away. Olde Swords Reign is now free.
Why I’m Doing This
The OGL disaster nearly broke me. Watching a massive corporation decide they could just take our hobby and monetize us? I wanted nothing to do with their license anymore.
But during that whole mess, one group shone brighter than anyone else: Basic Fantasy.
Chris Gonnerman put out a manifesto. The Basic Fantasy community - not just the game, but the actual community of people - rallied together. They worked to ensure their game would be free forever, for everyone.
They released everything under Creative Commons Share-Alike. Use it however you want, just share it the same way.
I’m a massive open source fan. I run Linux. I love the philosophy. What Basic Fantasy did lit a torch when the room was dark.
I want to follow that torch.
How It Works
I’ve created osrain.com. There’s a downloads page where you can grab:
- The full game PDF - free
- The players guide - free
- More resources as I add them
If you’ve already bought the game: don’t panic. The game isn’t changing how it plays. Your copies work fine. The rules stay the same, the mechanics stay the same.
What I need to do is rewrite portions of the book to excise the OGL completely. That means things like spells need new text. It’s the hardest path I could have chosen, but it builds the right foundation.
Building a Community
There are forums on the site. Not Discord - forums. Chris Gonnerman showed me why: forums have history. Ideas get developed, catalogued, searchable. Discord conversations disappear.
If you create stuff for the game, you can share it there. If there’s good community content, we’ll host it for download. I’m going to template things to make creation easier. Content kits, guides, whatever helps people contribute.
I’m new at this. We’ll figure it out together.
The OSR Project
The name works on multiple levels:
- OS - Olde Swords
- Reign - the game itself
- Open Source - the philosophy behind it
This isn’t just about one game. It’s about building something the community owns. Something that can’t be taken away by corporate lawyers.
Bottom Line
The Basic Fantasy project showed me what our hobby can be when people share freely. They made me want to give my game away.
And honestly? It feels pretty damn good.
Come along for the ride. Grab the game. Join the forums. Help build something.