Observations of the Fox

 I love a good list of resource links, and this list from ThoughtPunks certainly fits that criteria. Open Source TTRPG Resources  (I'd recommend a few of the other posts in the series too) I've been meaning to do something like this for a while, but when someone else puts in the legwork, I'm more than happy to direct folks to something that looks good. Here we've got a range of license types, SRDs, open source games, ranges of images and sound archives, pretty much everything. It's certainly not an exhaustive list, I've read through quite a few SRDs that aren't included here, but it's a great start and there's plenty of stuff in these lists that I haven't seen and will need to go digging through myself.  Anyway, enough from me, go over and take a look.  

Looks like the idea of a Code of Ethics has some traction. Here is a sample of where it seems to be heading . At the moment, a Code of Ethics on its own is a vague an nebulous thing. It doesn't need a regulatory body if everyone agrees to it, but the reason something like this tends to be put in place is because people aren't acting ethically and a community benchmark needs to be set. The closest analogue I can see here is the founding of the Comics Code Authority in the US, back in the 60s. The way I understand it, it wasn't really a watchdog, but more a show of solidarity and wholesomeness in the face of groups who wanted to shut them down. Arguably, something like this might have been useful in the moral panic of "D&D = satanism" back in the 80s. Maybe it will be useful if that sort of thing raises it's head further in the new right wing conservative political climate. Maybe. The catch I see is that the whole thing needs a critical mass of people ...

I'm starting to womder if I should just write a setting, or a hack that can be used with 5e, or with one of the many flavours of OSR, or one of the other syste,s that has some kind of open license. Personally, I've always thought that this was a cop out... like sticking a new coat of paint over something that everyone else has already got. I wouldn't buy a product that was in this vein, but it looks like there are a lot of folks out there who would. My artistic integrity says "no", my contemplation of monetary issues says "yes". Artistic integrity is winning out at the moment.

I've been thinking about a Doctor Who RPG for a while, one that stays true to the spirit of the series, rather than a piece of generic rubbish with a Doctor Who veneer glossed over the surface. So, when I found this link I was interested. I don't know if it's the first Doctor Who RPG, or if it's just an early one, but the fact that it's now freely downloadable for personal use makes it a great starting point for exploring systems and settings within the universe of our favourite Gallefreyan. I haven't thoroughly delved into it yet (or the free expansion), but I plan to shortly. Perhaps there will be a time travelling FUBAR expansion on its way.