Voluminous gallons of ink have been spilled over the OSR and it's "meaning", whatever that is. I am not going to go down that path. But what I do want to do is talk about what the OSR does in terms of myth shattering.
There is a belief that people acquire as a result of living in the culture of copyright protection craziness that makes them view certain things as fixed and immovable. The RPG hobby is no different. Lets take Star Wars as an example, since I kinda touched on it a few days ago.
People view Star Wars as fixed and immovable. There are books for Star Wars; D6, D20, Saga Edition, and numerous supplements. These are the "Star Wars products". You can't just make your own Star Wars products because it is protected by IP. Star Wars is what George Lucas and his cronies decide that it is. You have come to accept that, some more than others.
But this is a myth. Just like D&D, Star Wars is not inviolate. You can do it yourself.
Now the OGL made it easier, have no doubt about that. Oh yes. But.... if you are clever you can do it.
The OSR has taught us that the barrier is a lot lower than you imagine it to be. The only thing the OGL really does is allow you to use names that people recognize easier. Saving throws, for example. The kind of terms that WotC could go after someone about if they didnt have OGL protection. But.... if you rename stuff... there is no problem.
One of the things we are finding with the OSR is that we can restructure the games and keep all the source material in our pockets. You can run a huge range of modules with OSR products. Even when the systems don't match up perfectly, you can tweak it a bit or you can just take the conceptual material and run with the ideas. The ideas are portable. Always have been.
Ars Magica is a terribly written game. The ideas are fantastic. Lets take them. I did for Novarium. If I wanted to, I could retroclone Ars Magica and stay really close to the vision. I am making significant departures, but my point is that I COULD stick with the base idea if I wanted. Very close to it. And just change a few names and fix a few flaws and release it for free.
We can also make the game free or near zero cost. We can distribute it far more widely than anyone could have dreamed in 1980. We can put it in the hands of people who have never been exposed to it before, who can't afford it, or who have misconceptions about what it is. We can expand in every direction.
The OSR is a big fat billboard that says...
You don't have to really respect the copyrights of these old games anymore. You can do whatever you want to them as long as you satisfy a few minimum legal requirements. You can take things in whatever direction you want. Make your own destiny.
I think we are going to start to see retrocloning expanding outside of D&D. We are going to see retroclone VtM and retroclone Ars Magica and retroclone GURPs and so on and so forth. Streamlined, better organized, and in some cases fixed. We are writing our own patches to software that the industry has abandoned.
I think we are standing on the edge of an enormous revolution in hobby design. The inmates have started the revolt. Soon the asylum will be in our hands.
What are you doing sitting around? Get to work you crazy bastards!
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