Heya,
I am an independent computer game developer and I was wondering if anyone knows of any existing and established game-oriented universes that are community created or public domain.

If you were wondering, I ask here because I figure that this community is much more in tune with this side of game making than is the computer game dev community. :)

Also, if I didn't post in the correct area, please exuse me. I read all of the descriptions and this section best fits the summary of this post.

Thanks!

Well, for future purposes Connections would probably serve better. This one's more properly for actual game design. None the less, welcome to the Forge!

Talking game-oriented universes within easy grasp... Here's some ideas:
- History: There's humongous amounts of historical or quasi-historical gaming material published by all kinds of companies, and for the most part it's all very easy to reuse by virtue of dealing with public domain stories. For example, you could take a GURPS sourcebook of an appropriate historical period and get lots of material that is, simply speaking, just rearranged and analyzed historical research. Or go directly to the sources, I guess, and use any good history books; our own world is full of real-life settings that obviate the need for further setting design.
- Almost public domain: there are several roleplaying games, setting included, that are licenced under OGL (not usable for you, as it limits electronic use) or Creative Commons. The latter category includes one of my own favourites, Near of the Shadow of Yesterday. While some of these licences might limit commercial use, it is a worthwhile bet to contact the authors and ask for an exception; I've usually got my exceptions when I wanted to do something that was just outside the licence they're already offering.
- Not free at all: even non-free settings might be surprisingly useful for somebody working on a zero-budget, if you keep your eyes open. Several indie roleplaying developers have expressed publicly an "open but unlicenced" attitude to others using their work, which basicly means that they welcome project propositions and are likely to allow others to use their work for open-licence-like terms, just on a case-by-case basis. Ben Lehman's Polaris is one excellent setting that might be available based on Ben's earlier discussion of the issue, depending on the specifics of your project.

Hmm... that being said, I fail to recall any settings that would be both completely free and established in the sense of being popular. There are plenty of roleplaying games with elaborate settings that are completely worthless, i.e. free and forgotten, but I can't think of any free ones that would actually have active play. I guess it goes to show that you need the economic cycle to keep up interest in a game.

Hello Curved,

Many imaginary universes are currently under public domain conditions, that may suit your purposes. I suggest you take a look at your country's copyright law to see on what conditions old works could be useable from a public domain angle. In Canada, for example, works of litterature fall into the public domain 50 years after an author's death unless exceptional measures have been taken. Therefore you could presumably use many settings, that have been used for RPGs before, in respect of copyright law (Canada in this example): *possible* examples include Baron Munchausen, E. Burrough's Tarzan, Punch & Judy, Le Morte d'Arthur, H.G. Well's War of the Worlds, the Little Prince by St-Exupery, classical fairy tales, the epic of Gilgamesh, the Trojan War, the Odyssey and others. Take care to verify the legal status of these works on your country, though. Many of those were featured as RPG settings in the last 10 years. You might find a wealth of freely-usable ideas there, though not much in science-fiction as we imagine it today.

Caveat Emptor: This suggestion is not legal advice. It is a suggestion to inform yourself about copyright law in your country. In Canada, you may find the Copyright Act on the www.canlii.org

Regards and Happy New Year,

Erick

Alternatively, you might be able to procure a license to somebody's property at no cost for a very long duration. They'd be receiving free publicity and advertising while you would have a fully supported RPG Universe that is established, continuing to be worked on, and with a go to guy. For example, some people who play World of Warcraft go and buy the TRPG.

Out of curiosity, what kind of game are you making? (A Mud, a sprite RPG, etc.)

Wow, this forum rocks! -- Thanks for all the help and advice!

Polaris looked very interesting, and you will have to tell me more about TSOY, as I didn't really get a good feeling for what it offered on its website.

As for the kind of game I am making, I'm trying to decide. :) I've made a pretty revolutionary networking system, and so I am prospecting what type of game to demo it with. If I can find a suitable RPG world/ruleset, then that would be a great way to go. As it is though, my backup is a squad-based tactical war game. Whichever way I go the game would be in 3D.

There are two things I am looking for (in addition to that whole no-cost thing). The first is that the world has an artistic direction that I like, and the second is that the rules are very simple. There are a ton of games with one or the other, but its hard to find both. Do you have any more ideas? :)

Thanks!

Ah, are you thinking of adapting the rules from a tabletop game as well? Ambitious, that. Tell us more, because that casts the whole thing in a rather different light.

Curved: e-mail me at taogames@gmail.com at your convenience.

yrs--
--Ben

ER Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros was published in 1922 and is reportedly in the public domain in the U.S. but won't be in the public domain in the U.K. until 2015:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros