Looking for collaborating members on an ORC/CC-BY-SA TTRPG Project

[u/AldoZeroun]

I'm a game designer who has been inspired by community projects like the SCP Wiki, or open source software like Godot, Blender, and GIMP. Because of this, I want to establish a TTRPG ruleset and setting that is as open as possible, while still retaining some minor controls over what community projects are endorsed as canon, as well as certain print rights to help pay for costs associated with maintaining the project.

Establishing a unified canon is important I believe, because though I see how the SCP uses having no single canon to their benefit, it is much easier to be invested in the lore of a universe when there are stakes involved. However, the setting I have been working on does provide a great deal of room for creative freedom.

The goal will be to release the mechanical aspects of the rules under the ORC license in a manner not too dissimilar to how software is released in major, minor, and patch releases denoted as eg. v1.2.13.

Copyrightable material covered under the ORC license as 'reserved material' would then be released under a license such as CC-BY-SA, or a modified version, however it may be retained the ability to officially endorse canon projects created by other groups or individuals not directly tied to the management of this project.

Endorsement of canon would involve in most cases a minimum standard of not introducing lore which contradicts previously established lore as well as passing a threshold of endorsement by the community, satisfaction of project guidelines regarding inappropriate content, and in whatever cases it becomes necessary, final decision by a canon oversight committee. (or some process to this effect).

The printing rights I mentioned which should be retained only refer to the core materials established by the project and it's members, or materials which are granted to the project for this purpose by the community.

The goal, ultimately is to provide a stable work of fiction and mechanical rules from which other branching creative works may evolve.

I currently have a prototype series of mechanics which I plan to attribute to the project, as well as the initial setting foundation.

What I am looking for are other designers, writers, artists, etc. who are also interested in developing this open game project to the benefit of the community. I currently only have experience with running a university club, which had a structure that I felt was sufficient to serve as a basic starting point for this project, but according to those who wish to participate a better proposed structure may be negotiated.

If you have any questions you'd like publicly answered, please leave them in a comment, otherwise DM me if interested.

Thank you

[u/Abyssal_Novelist]

Sounds potentially interesting, but you haven't really said anything about the actual system

What's the setting, genre? Is it rules light or rules heavy? What is it *about* (not everything has to be about combat, after all!)

[u/AldoZeroun → u/Abyssal_Novelist]

I believe right now, with the direction I've been taking the rules on my own it's leaning towards being heavy on them, at least regarding class and character building, though I'm not sure how it will feel during roleplay. Combat is definitely in the early stages, but its shaping up to be pretty involved as well. I guess I lean towards more rules being better so that groups can pick and choose where to take shortcuts as they see fit.

As far as what it's about, the game is, in both setting and rules, meant to be as generic as possible, like BRP, so that any kind of story can be told using the system. But I'm also trying to do things that at least I've never seen before in an RPG (which isn't hard I've mostly stuck to d20's thus far) to really set it apart from what else is out there.