2000s: Open and Indie Gaming
Frustrated that game supplements suffered far more diminished sales over time than the core books required to play the game, WotC's Dungeons & Dragons brand manager Ryan Dancey introduced a policy whereby other companies could publish D&D-compatible games under the Open Gaming License. This would spread the cost of supplementing the game and would increase sales of the core books, which could only be published by Wizards of the Coast. The new D&D rules became known as the d20 system, and a System Reference Document was published, containing all the rules needed to write a supplement or run a one-off game, but lacking the character advancement rules necessary for long-term play. The open gaming movement enjoyed a great deal of success, and although there was some criticism of the move a great many d20 System games have been released.
Meanwhile, self-defined "Indie role-playing" communities arose on the internet, studying role-playing and developing the GNS Theory of role-playing games. With the advent of print on demand and PDF publishing, it became possible for these individuals to produce games with tightly-focused designs, eschewing the mainstream trends of the industry.
Read more about this topic: History Of Role-playing Games
Famous quotes containing the words open and/or gaming:
“With liberty and pleasant weather, the simplest occupation, any unquestioned country mode of life which detains us in the open air, is alluring. The man who picks peas steadily for a living is more than respectable, he is even envied by his shop-worn neighbors. We are as happy as the birds when our Good Genius permits us to pursue any outdoor work, without a sense of dissipation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsocial man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)