I first heard about Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design Project when I was having dinner with Phil - the Chatty DM. Even though Wolfgang is Phil’s nemesis he is a fan of the project. It has to be good sign, right? Well, it is!

What is the Open Design Project?

The open design projects are patron-driven RPG projects. From what I gather, patrons pay for someone to write an adventure - and contribute to the work in progress along the way. Since there is no retailer, no publisher, no distributor, and no print costs, it doesn’t take that many patron contributions to generate professional quality work.

Blood of Gorgon

The most recent project is an adventure called Blood of Gorgon (50,000 words! That’s novel size!). It includes daily posts and discussion as well as some design essays. The adventure should be completed by the end of February so you can still participate! The patrons will get a PDF and even a book (print on demand quality - which could vary depending on the number of patrons but I personally have had only good experiences with print on demand books)

Interesting… What now?

Kobold Quarterly has a ton of information on the project - including an entertaining interview with the author of Blood of Gorgon, Jonathan (Sorry!) Nicolas Logue. ( I have to include Kobold Quarterly in my top 50 websites. I give them 4.7 out of 5 red dragons.)

Check out Free City - Wolfgang Baur’s website.

Or skip the details and jump in! Join the Open Design Project.