It’s been a while since we have had a Black Flag update, but the drought has ended!
Kobold Press is excited to announce our first public Black Flag Roleplaying Reference Document (BFRD). This document is built off the current public Alpha Release and falls under the ORC license. This means that now EVERYONE can freely create using this open rules system!
This is only the first version of the BFRD. As we complete the final rules, the Black Flag Reference Document will be updated and re-released to stay current.
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Hi,
any chance of the SRD also being released under CC-BY, like the 5e SRD?
Thanks
Why not simply use the ORC?
If I had to guess it’s because they’re explicitly saying “this is the specific stuff for if you wanted to make things explicitly compatible with the tales of the Valiant brand/Black brand ” and the orc is going to be the overarching “this is the legally protected expression of all these systems put together.”
Talking about options here. There is eg the 5e SRD under CC, so if I were to combine parts of the two, that would be easier – or if I simply preferred the conditions of CC-BY.
If I wanted to ‘just’ base it off the BFSRD and publish under ORC then obviously there is no issue, but that is not the only possible scenario, so making others easier is a plus in my book.
Personally, I’m a bit disappointed. Instead of creating a ‘clean’ version of their document and then licensing it under ORC and/or CC By, they’ve incorporated parts of the SRD 5.1. This means that this SRD is forever going to be entangled with two different licenses.
As I understand it, the CC 4.0 requires that you indicate if changes were made, unless it’s trivial like correcting spelling errors. Since there’s no indication of modifications being made, that suggests that the entire SRD 5.1 has been lifted and used as-is and then had additional material tacked onto it.
The ORC license is intended to allow copyright protected text to be sectioned out and protected (or not) from mechanics. The CC license on the other hand, just treats everything as a single giant lump sum.
Additionally the “reserved material” is ” all elements designated as Reserved Material under the ORC License.” So now I have to go consult the license to see if something might be considered Reserved because there’s no explicit declaration of what is reserved and then I have to consult the SRD 5.1 to see if the material in question is actually CC By or ORC.
At the moment, I don’t see much difference between Project Blackflag and a random blogger that’s incorporated their unspecified houserule changes into the SRD 5.1 and republished it with the ORC license slapped on for absolutely no reason.
Since this is only the first version of the BFRD, it’s likely to see several updates as the final rules are completed.