[GK Games] More Updates!

[Gypsy Knights Games]

The second edition (OGL version) of Subsector Sourcebook 3: Hub is now available on Drive-Thru RPG!

If you have already purchased (or were gifted) the PDF of the first edition of the Hub sourcebook, check your updates on Drive-thru! You should have a complimentary copy of this book added to your update section.

If you have not purchased the first edition and would like to grab a copy of this sourcebook, just click on the link to see the OGL version!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181672/Subsector-Sourcebook-3-Hub-2nd-Edition-OGL-Version

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

Just wanted to drop in a quick reminder concerning our updated core setting book and our subsector sourcebooks. If you have already purchased these books, you can pick up the latest edition in your "updates" on DTRPG or RPGNow.

If you haven't already purchased these books, now is a great time to do so! Just click on the link next to the book's title:

Clement Sector Core Setting Book: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/180536/Clement-Sector-2nd-Edition-OGL-Version

Subsector Sourcebook 1: Cascadia: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181069/Subsector-Sourcebook-1-Cascadia-2nd-Edition-OGL-Version

Subsector Sourcebook 2: Franklin: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181464/Subsector-Sourcebook-2-Franklin-2nd-Edition-OGL-Version

Subsector Sourcebook 3: Hub: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181672/Subsector-Sourcebook-3-Hub-2nd-Edition-OGL-Version

And more updates will follow soon!

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

For the last several months, I thought that I would be doing something different today. I thought that I would be announcing that you could pick up your copies of the first wave of GKG products to be produced using the Mongoose Traveller 2e rules.

However, due to a last minute legal snag, I cannot do that. I'm not in a position to discuss that problem publicly at this point as we are working with Mongoose to attempt to resolve the matter.

While I cannot yet go into details about this, I can tell you that I am rather angry that I am writing these paragraphs and not telling you of the release of our 2e products. Hopefully, this problem will be resolved quickly.

In the meantime, the first wave of our OGL products are now out there. If you're the sort of person who wants to keep playing using the Mongoose Traveller 1e rules (which are OGL), then I highly recommend that you look into the first wave of products. Not only will you see the older members of our catalog getting updated but you will also new products using those rules as their basis.

If you're waiting on our products using the Mongoose Traveller 2e rules, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait a bit longer than we had previously believed.

 

[Golan2072]

I have purchased the Clement Sector OGL 2nd edition book yesterday, as well as the player's guide. So far I like them very much! They remind me of my old Outer Veil book published four and a half years ago by Spica Publishing (which is a good thing, of course)... Now considering what to purchase next from GKG.

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

I have purchased the Clement Sector OGL 2nd edition book yesterday, as well as the player's guide. So far I like them very much! They remind me of my old Outer Veil book published four and a half years ago by Spica Publishing (which is a good thing, of course)... Now considering what to purchase next from GKG.

Thanks for that!

 

[Golan2072]

You're welcome.

What do you recommend I purchase next from the Clement Sector product line?

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

You're welcome.

What do you recommend I purchase next from the Clement Sector product line?

I would go for one of the subsector sourcebooks. We have OGL versions of Cascadia, Franklin, and Hub already out there. Our updates for Sequoyah and The Clement Sector Colonies will be out shortly.

Cascadia, Franklin, and Hub are much more settled than Sequoyah. The Colonies are, as the name implies, far more frontier.

 

[Golan2072]

Thanks! I will look into them tonight...

 

[Prime_Evil]

I must admit that I'm a bit sad that Mongoose seems to be moving away from the OGL for the Traveller system. Let's hope that whatever they replace it with allows as much third-party activity. In the meantime, I've been reading the updated OGL versions of the GK Games products and I appreciate some of the little tucks and tweaks - they are much tighter now. Obviously you've got more experience writing and editing these sourcebooks and it shows in lots of little ways.

 

[Golan2072]

I must admit that I'm a bit sad that Mongoose seems to be moving away from the OGL for the Traveller system. Let's hope that whatever they replace it with allows as much third-party activity. In the meantime, I've been reading the updated OGL versions of the GK Games products and I appreciate some of the little tucks and tweaks - they are much tighter now. Obviously you've got more experience writing and editing these sourcebooks and it shows in lots of little ways.

The good thing is that the OGL is irrevocable - you can still publish OGL stuff for the previous edition of you want (as GKG does). I only hope that things get clarified and that TAS becomes as good as the OGL for publishing material for the newer - and better - edition of MGT.

 

[Prime_Evil]

I understand that - the sad thing is that DriveThru RPG are locking companies into these Community Content Programs, leveraging their market share to establish a virtual monopoly on entire game systems. The agreement for D&D 5e was the first of these, followed by similar arrangements for Cortex Plus and Monte Cook's Cypher System, and now Mongoose Traveller. This effectively makes it impossible for third-party publishers to sell content via other online store fronts, granting DriveThru / RPGNow complete vendor lock-in. I presume that if you want to sell physical products, you will also need to use Lightning Source. I understand why this level of control over how the licensed IP is used is very attractive to companies like Mongoose, but the long-term effect is likely to be granting DriveThru / RPGNow a monopoly over most of the hobby's most valuable IP.

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

I must admit that I'm a bit sad that Mongoose seems to be moving away from the OGL for the Traveller system. Let's hope that whatever they replace it with allows as much third-party activity. In the meantime, I've been reading the updated OGL versions of the GK Games products and I appreciate some of the little tucks and tweaks - they are much tighter now. Obviously you've got more experience writing and editing these sourcebooks and it shows in lots of little ways.

Thanks for that. We're always striving to be better with each book and I'm pleased that it shows.

I, too, am saddened by this. We were looking forward to running an OGL line and a 2e line on TAS. From the look of things right now, we'll just be sticking to the OGL line.

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

The good thing is that the OGL is irrevocable - you can still publish OGL stuff for the previous edition of you want (as GKG does). I only hope that things get clarified and that TAS becomes as good as the OGL for publishing material for the newer - and better - edition of MGT.

It is quite true that the OGL is irrevocable. The Community Content Program is also irrevocable.

In a lot of ways, it feels to me like the CCP is the direct opposite of the OGL. With OGL, the rules were forever open for everyone and the settings were closed content. With CCP, the rules are closed but the settings become open forever.

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

The second edition (OGL version) of Subsector Sourcebook 4: Sequoyah is now available on Drive-Thru RPG!

If you have already purchased (or were gifted) the PDF of the first edition of the Sequoyah sourcebook, check your updates on Drive-thru! You should have a complimentary copy of this book added to your update section.

If you have not purchased the first edition and would like to grab a copy of this sourcebook, just click on the link to see the OGL version!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182049/Subsector-Sourcebook-4-Sequoyah-2nd-Edition-OGL-Version

 

[Prime_Evil]

It is quite true that the OGL is irrevocable. The Community Content Program is also irrevocable.

I'm not sure that's true - the FAQ for the Community Content Program implies that publishers retain the rights to any intellectual property that they contribute, but Mongoose retains all rights to their implementation of the game system itself (with the 3e setting under licence from FFE). This would imply that Mongoose can revoke or change the licence at any time without notice. This model is much closer to the GSL used for D&D 4e than the OGL, with the added complication that a third-party (in this case DriveThru) acts as a middle-man. It's a strange licensing arrangement that seems to combine the worst of all worlds (at least on the surface). Perhaps Matt might be convinced to clarify the thinking behind the new arrangement - he's a decent guy and obviously has business reasons for going down this path (possibly related to maintaining tight control over the IP). The obvious danger is that it might encourage third-party publishers to fork the rule system using OGC from the old SRD (possibly with additional OGC from Traveller20 to fill in the blanks) - that's what happened with Pathfinder when WoTC introduced the GSL. Hopefully this can be avoided here as Mongoose have done a stellar job (pun intended) with the new edition of Traveller, but it's definitely a business risk.

In a lot of ways, it feels to me like the CCP is the direct opposite of the OGL. With OGL, the rules were forever open for everyone and the settings were closed content. With CCP, the rules are closed but the settings become open forever.

Yes. And that introduces a lot of business risk for 3PPs. However, it has to be balanced against the fact that Mongoose is allowing publishers to draw upon a much broader range of Traveller IP. A happy medium might be to offer something similar to what WoTC has done with 5e - continue to offer a certain amount of OGC for those people who want to use the rule system to create their own settings and use the CCP to licence the official 3I setting.

Out of curiousity, is there any exclusivity in the CCP arrangements? Can't you release a TAS product under CCP and then strip out those portions not compliant with the 1st edition SRD and release an OGL edition? I didn't see anything in the CCP documents that would prohibit you from offering a product for multiple SF rule systems....so it would seem to be permissable to backport products.

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

Well, as I said over in the TAS forum, if you think of this as an "electronic equivalent" of writing for JTAS or Challenge, then this thing works beautifully. However, for a 3PP with his/her own setting, posting something here would be akin to suicide.

I'm not angry about the program itself. I'm angry that it was sold to me as something which it clearly is not and that I asked these questions quite a while back and got very different answers than the reality which I am now seeing. I certainly would not have spent time, effort, and money assembling a 2e version of Clement Sector.

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

The second edition (OGL version) of Subsector Sourcebook 5: The Colonies is now available on Drive-Thru RPG!

If you have already purchased (or were gifted) the PDF of the first edition of any of our Colonies books or purchased the Clement Sector Colonies print book, check your updates on Drive-thru! You should have a complimentary copy of this book added to your update section.

If you have not purchased the first edition and would like to grab a copy of this sourcebook, just click on the link to see the OGL version!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182173/Subsector-Sourcebook-5-The-Colonies

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

The updates just keep coming!

The second edition (OGL version) of our hugely popular 21 Plots is now available on Drive-Thru RPG!

If you have already purchased (or were gifted) the PDF of the first edition of 21 Plots, check your updates on Drive-thru! You should have a complimentary copy of this book added to your update section.

If you have not purchased the first edition and would like to grab a copy of this sourcebook, just click on the link to see the OGL version!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182398/21-Plots-2nd-Edition-OGL

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

More updates!

The second editions (OGL versions) of two of Gypsy Knights Games' entries in the hugely popular 21 Plots series are now available on Drive-Thru RPG! 21 Plots Too and 21 Plots III have joined the OGL update!

If you have already purchased (or were gifted) the PDFs of the first edition of 21 Plots Too and 21 Plots III, check your updates on Drive-thru! You should have complimentary copies of these books added to your update section.

If you have not purchased the first editions of these books and would like to grab copies of these sourcebooks, just click on one of the links to see the OGL version!

21 Plots Too: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182847/21-Plots-Too-2nd-Edition-OGL

21 Plots III: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182848/21-Plots-III-2nd-Edition-OGL

 

[Gypsy Knights Games]

The updates just keep coming!

The second edition (OGL version) of 21 Plots: Planetside is now available on Drive-Thru RPG!

If you have already purchased (or were gifted) the PDF of the first edition of 21 Plots: Planetside, check your updates on Drive-thru! You should have a complimentary copy of this book added to your update section.

If you have not purchased the first edition and would like to grab a copy of this sourcebook, just click on the link to see the OGL version!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183013/21-Plots-Planetside-2nd-Edition-OGL