The use of the term open gaming began with the publication of the original SRD and the simultaneous release of the Open Game License (OGL). However, role-playing games had been licensed under open and free content licenses before this.
Open Game License Despite Fudge and other games, the open gaming movement did not gain widespread recognition within the role-playing game industry until 2000, when
Wizards of the Coast (WotC) published portions of the 3rd Edition of
Dungeons & Dragons as the
System Reference Document under the Open Game License. This move was driven by
Ryan Dancey then Brand Manager for WotC, who drafted the Open Game License and first coined the term "open gaming" with respect to role-playing games.
Open Gaming Foundation The Open Gaming Foundation (OGF) was founded by Ryan Dancey as an independent forum for discussion of open gaming among the members of the fledgling open gaming movement. The OGF consisted of a web site and a series of mailing lists, including the
OGF-L list (for general discussion of open gaming licensing issues) and the
OGF-d20-L list (for discussion of d20-specific issues). The most common criticism of the OGF was that it was primarily a venue for publicizing Wizards of the Coast. Ryan Dancey was an employee of WotC, and discussion on the mailing lists tended to focus on d20 and the OGL (both owned by WotC) rather than on open gaming in general. The OGF maintained a definition of an "open game license" while it was active, with two criteria: • The license must allow game rules and materials that use game rules to be freely copied, modified and distributed. • The license must ensure that material distributed using the license cannot have those permissions restricted in the future. The Foundation explicitly stated that the first condition excludes licences that ban commercial use. The second requirement is intended to ensure that the rights granted by the licence are inalienable. Codega highlighted that "if the original license is in fact no longer viable, every single licensed publisher will be affected by the new agreement. [...] The main takeaway from the leaked OGL 1.1 draft document is that WotC is keeping power close at hand". The ORC was described as an open, perpetual, and irrevocable system-agnostic license Paizo planned to find a "nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license" and stated that "Azora Law's ownership of the process and stewardship should provide a safe harbor against any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license". The ORC was released in July 2023. The copyright to its text is owned by Azora Law who have dedicated it to the public domain "as a safe harbor against the license being controlled by any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license".
Free League Publishing's licenses Free League Publishing announced two licenses, for its Year Zero game system and another for its upcoming fantasy RPG
Dragonbane. == Adoption ==