Public Domain Gaming

Why hasn't the community adopted public domain gaming?

I stare at the Without Number SRDs, and both are in the CC0 public domain. We have the Wizards SRDs, which are on a higher level Attribution license, but in all honesty, rules cannot be copyrighted. A lot of this is already public domain language and concepts. Goblins, orcs, and trolls are folklore - they can never be tied to one gaming license or another. Of course, over the years, plenty of companies have introduced lore into these concepts that should be avoided.

But for the section of the gaming community notoriously opposed to Wall Street shenanigans and business practices, most gamers crawl back to D&D Beyond and rules that are controlled tightly within corporate grasp. I get it; the platform will win every time, but where are your principles?

Why isn't the community converting everything into a public-domain rules framework and breaking free of all this corporate control of gaming? Free and open licenses (attribution) are great, but an even better level of openness is when things are put in the public domain.

But companies can steal what is in the public domain! This is Disney's entire business model, and to an extent, it is the Wizards' model. You can't stop them, but don't have to support them.

You have a choice.

The Worlds Without Number SRD is an excellent public domain fantasy set of rules, ready to be expanded and used for any fantasy game. This is 100% compatible with B/X spells, monsters, classes, and magic items - and public domain versions of these can be created, too. Any B/X compatible content works with the game. All that is needed are compatible public domain and historical source expansions. You could replace all OGL content with public-domain works, and everyone owns this to do as they please, create games, computer games, or any other derivative works.

If everything is put into CC0, we could be done worrying about licenses and "who can do what, how."

Why wait to convert my games and put my expansions into CC0? Here is my orc, my dragon, and my troll. Here is my Mana Shock spell. Here is my Fire Blast spell.

Other Creative Commons games are good, too, except for the ones that force you to buy the "paywall parts" of the game just to play. But a part of me feels the public domain is the best way to go.

Gaming, how we interact socially, should belong to the world. Nobody should own it.

The concept of ownership of rules and content in gaming needs to go away. The community must focus on contributing to the greater whole of humanity and future generations. Building a public-domain gaming library will free the hobby from corporate control forever. Derivative works will blossom and flourish, but that core will always belong to the people of Earth.

Why do people play games where the owning company could legally threaten them for sharing their creativity? Because it ensures I can always find a game? Convenience is not a good enough reason.

I get it—some of them are nice games. They have the art and adventures to back them up.

However, in the long term, gaming must be a freer and communal space for future generations.