How to Make a Fate Game Using the OGL

The Open Game License (OGL) is a popular choice that is well-known in gaming circles. This is a good choice if you’re already familiar with its use, or if you’re looking to intermix your content with other OGL licensed content. Prior to Fate Core, the OGL was the only license available for the Fate system, due to the earlier edition’s derivation from the Fudge RPG system. The OGL compels you to keep open what you’ve borrowed, and to make a clear product identity declaration about what you’re not making open by basing your game on OGL content.

Our advice: This licensing option is here mainly for folks who are already familiar with the OGL, and/or are looking to integrate our content together with something also available under the OGL. It’s bulkier and more baroque to use, and for many it’s more difficult to understand.

HOW TO MAKE A FATE GAME USING THE OGL

We’re going to be borrowing FudgeRPG.com’s excellent boilerplate approach, here.

What you need to do is:

Grab a copy of the OGL and put it in your product (we tend to put it where you normally find the copyright page, while others might put it at the end of their work). (See "Full OGL License Text" file)
Use the text found below as the start of your Section 15 of the OGL
Replace all of the [square bracketed text] found there with the specifics of your own product.

That’s it. You don’t have to ask our permission or anything like that, though we’d love it if you let us know your product’s out there and maybe slide us a few free copies (digital is fine). If you want to use the Powered By Fate logo on your product, you can find one on our main licensing page.

15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition © 2013 by Evil Hat Productions, LLC. Developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue

[Include the appropriate Section 15 Copyright Notice information from any additional Fudge and/or Fate Open Game Content used in this document]

[Name of this document or material] Copyright [Year], [Copyright Holder’s Name]; Author[s] [Insert the name or names of the author or authors of this document]

In accordance with the Open Game License Section 8 “Identification” the following designate Open Game Content and Product Identity:

OPEN GAME CONTENT

[Insert a clear designation of what parts of this document you are releasing as Open Game Content, making it eligible for use by others under the Open Game License. Note that existing Open Game Content must remain OGC. Example: “The contents of this document are declared Open Game Content except for the portions specifically declared as Product Identity.”]

PRODUCT IDENTITY

[Insert a clear explanation of what parts of this document are designated as Product Identity and hence excluded from the designation of Open Game Content. Examples: “All content of this document is Open Game Content” or “All artwork, logos, symbols, designs, depictions, illustrations, maps and cartography, likenesses, and other graphics, unless specifically identified as Open Game Content” or “Any elements of the proprietary setting, including but not limited to capitalized names, organization names, characters, historic events, and organizations; any and all stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, documents within the game worlds, quotes from characters or documents, and dialogue”]