Licensing Fate (OGL)
The Open Game License (OGL) is one of the licensing options available for Fate.
System Reference Documents (SRDs)
- Fate Core System System Reference Document
- Fate Condensed System Reference Document
- Fate Accelerated Edition System Reference Document
- Fate System Toolkit System Reference Document
- Fate Adversary Toolkit System Reference Document
- Atomic Robo RPG System Reference Document
- Venture City System Reference Document
- War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus System Reference Document
- Sails Full of Stars System Reference Document
- Gods & Monsters System Reference Document
- Frontier Spirit System Reference Document
- Fate Conspiracies (from The Three Rocketeers) System Reference Document
- No-Skill Swashbuckling (from The Three Rocketeers) System Reference Document
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). You can find a copy here.
- 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
Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
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”]
Hey guys. Really excited about your system. I’m working on a game and needed a good system. Looks like I might have found it.
I really appreciate you guys sharing Fate with the community in this way. Thank you for being awesome!
What happens now with Fate OGL content, is it in any way or form affected by WOTC revocing of OGL 1.0a in its push for OGL 1.1 which the united D&D Creators community is protesting at this moment?
Absolutely nothing happens. Fate OGL content never inherited anything from WOTC’s open content — we just used the license because it’s the open license that Fudge chose to use, and it was one folks were familiar with. And Fate Core is alternatively also licensed under CC-BY, which is more permissive, less onerous, and more clear than the OGL, so folks can very easily fail over to that if they’re nervous about the OGL being revocable — tho, amusingly, it might not be, in the opinions of a number of legal folk who’ve looked at the matter.
Bottom line: tempest in a teapot, a non-event, carry on.