Designers & Dragons: The Column

If I were placing this article in the actual Designers & Dragons book, it'd be the first article in "part seven", as it most clearly shows the transition from the d20 period, which was largely ended by 2006, to the more independent era that has followed. —SA, 9/3/11

Open Design is a d20 company that rather remarkably rose up following the d20 bust--in large part thanks to owner Wolfgang Baur's unique business model.

Days Gone By: 1989-2006

Wolfgang Baur is a game designer with a very long history in the RPG industry before he started his own company. It began in high school when a young Baur submitted "The Glass House", a Forgotten Realms adventure, to Dungeon magazine; it was published in issue #15 (January/February, 1989).

Baur was in good company, as Dungeon at the time was a proving ground for the next generation of game designers. That same issue featured contributions from: Carl Sargent, future architect of Greyhawk; Thomas M. Kane, a frequent Atlas Games contributor in the '90s; and others.

Over the next few years, as Baur moved on to Cornell University, he would contribute to both Dungeon and Dragon. He also took the next step into the RPG field by producing an original supplement,Treasures of Middle Earth (1989) for ICE's MERP.

By May of 1991, Baur was studying biochemistry as a grad student. Then everything changed for him when freelancer Steve Kurtz alerted him to a new opportunity: TSR periodicals was hiring. Baur decided to apply, figuring that if he was hired, he would just play around in the hobby for a year or two. Because of his experience with the TSR magazines, TSR quickly snapped Baur up. The result would be a decade of full-time employment for Baur in the gaming industry.

Baur started out as a "junior flunky" working for the TSR periodicals division, but in time he'd come to edit both Dungeon and Dragon, following in the footsteps of those magazines' most illustrious editors: Barbara Young and Roger E. Moore. He also quickly came to write supplements for TSR. Baur's first TSR box was Assassin Mountain (1993) for Jeff Grubb's Al-Qadim setting, but he's probably better known for his Planescape supplements: Planes of Chaos (1994), Planes of Law (1995), and In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil (1995)--the latter notable for being the book where AD&D second edition's tanar'ri became demons once more, reversing James Ward's 1990 decision to appease allegedly "angry" mothers.

After four years working on TSR's periodicals, Baur decided to try something new. He joined newcomer Wizards of the Coast's RPG division under Jonathan Tweet, moving to Seattle as a result. Though Wizards' roleplaying division was shut down at the end of the year, Baur stayed on board. Much to his surprise, just a year and a half later, he was acting as an advance scout for TSR employees--now moving out to Seattle themselves to join Wizards of the Coast. Baur thus showed off the town to old friends, helped them find apartments, and explained the mysteries of Wizards of the Coast R&D.

Soon Baur was creating RPGs again at Wizards of the Coast, most notably the Dark•Matter Campaign Setting (1999) for Alternity. Unfortunately, he found the constant layoffs that were occurring at Wizards uncomfortable, and as a result ended his four-year tenure at the company in 1999. Since, he has worked gigs at Microsoft (2000-2010) and Pokemon USA (2010-Present) that have taken him outside the RPG industry--at least for his full-time work.

However, Baur wasn't entirely done with roleplaying games. He freelanced throughout the d20 era, writing supplements for new publishers such as Green Ronin Publishing, Malhavoc Press, Paradigm Concepts, Paizo Publishing, and Privateer Press. He ever authored Frostburn (2004), an environmental book for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e, and would later co-author a pair of late 3.5e supplements: Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (2007) and The Forge of War (2007).

By the time the latter two book were published, Baur was onto a totally new roleplaying project: a company named Open Design.

Steam, Brass & Sleepless Beginnings: 2006

In March of 2006 Wolfgang Baur was sleep deprived due to the recent birth of his daughter. He was also vaguely thinking about setting up a college fund. It was some combination of these two elements that led him to make a March 20th posting to his new "Open Design" Live Journal blog. Therein he stated, "Designing an adventure with input from fans and fellow gamers is a great chance to experiment with open design. Will it work? That depends on the game-buying public."

Over the following days, Baur expanded on the idea, stating that he was looking for "patrons" to contribute to the creation of new gaming material. It was an idea that was in the air. That same year, Arc Dream Publishing posted their first "ransom", for Wild Talents (2006). However, Baur offered a unique take on the idea. His concept of patronage were came from the Renaissance, where individuals would commission authors and artists to create work.

As he detailed his model, Baur revealed that he would be offering "exclusive access" to an adventure that would be "written to order" for his group of patrons. The patrons would get to learn about game design and to see the project slowly come together, all the while contributing ideas and comments of their own to the project.

However, Baur was offering more than just an innovative funding model and exclusive access: he also felt that Open Design could produce adventures of a different type than those published by larger companies. He'd later outline three differences between his adventures and others: length; quality; and subject matter.

Most of these comparisons were in relation to what Baur had known at Dungeon magazine. His adventures could be longer than the relatively short pieces in Dungeon, and without the grind to produce a magazine full of adventures, he could pay more careful attention to the individual piece that he was working on. However, it was the question of subject matter that came closest to the heart of the patronage model. Baur didn't need many people at all to make it worth his while to produce an adventure. As a result, he could create adventures that appealed to much smaller groups. This could also allow for more adult material, if desired.

In his first cut of the patronage model, Baur aimed low. People could join for as little as $5--as subscribers--or as much as $50--as patrons that would get the opportunity to add content to the adventure. History would eventually show that gamers would be willing to contribute much more to projects of this type. Open Design's most recent patronage project, The World of Midgard, has patronage packages running from $29.95 to $599. The highest level, for the Exarch of the Magocracy, allows the patron to both submit material from their own campaign and to play a private Midgard game with the designers at an upcoming convention.

As part of the patronage process, Baur also allowed his supporters to select what adventure he'd be writing. He offered up a list of seven possible d20-based adventures: "The Black Forest", "Empire of Ghouls", "The Flying Fortress", "Steam & Brass", "The Lost City", "The Tenth Hell", and "Tomb of the Dragon". Patrons voted and eventually decided on "Steam & Brass", which Baur had described as "A city-based adventure involving a clockwork mage, the Mouse King, and a contract with a devil. Sort of an Iron Kingdoms or Warhammer Fantasy tone." On July 4, 2006, Baur officially announced that the project was funded, thanks to 49 patrons.

What's impressive about Baur's initial listing of adventures is how many have since been made. Two of the ideas became Open Design products that we'll meet down the road: Empire of the Ghouls (2008) and "The Black Forest", the latter of which became (in a fashion) Tales of the Old Margreve (2010). Baur would also turn The Lost City" into Crucible of Chaos (2009) for Paizo Publishing (2008).

For now, though, Baur was working on Steam & Brass. Over the next months, he would see it double then triple in size--not even including the game design articles he wrote to describe the process. By the end of September, the project was drawing to a close, and Baur made his last call for patrons. He officially closed the project to new participants on September 30. The final list of patrons included a who's who of the gaming industry, inculding Matt Forbeck, Jeff Grubb, Chris Pramas, Phil Reed, and Steven Schend. Steam & Brass (2006) was published on October 5th as a 115-page PDF. It was also available as a print-on-demand (POD) book to patrons for a limited time only.

The book, written in what Baur called a "2e style", was well-received--which would quickly lead Open Design to increasing success, as we'll see. However, Baur was still learning about the patron process and how it could interrelate with the mass market, and this brought Open Design its first controversy. When Baur had conceived of patronage, he decided to produce limited editions, just as "patron projects of long ago were kept in private hands and never shown to the public." However, as soon as Steam & Brass was created, there was wider interest in the book. Seeing this, Baur asked his patrons if they'd be willing to open up Open Design's premiere adventure to a wider audience. Four patrons--led by Steven Schend and Troy Luginbill--refused this permission, with the approving vote of 70 others. As a result, Steam & Brass is now the most limited of limited editions, only (legally) available to those who signed up by September 30, 2006.

Steam & Brass was notable for one other reason: it was set in the Free City of Zobeck, an original steampunk setting setting mixing fantasy and clockwork. It would be the basis of most of Open Design's later products and is now evolving into a world with the upcoming production of the Midgard Campaign Setting book. This shows how much the history of a roleplaying company can depend on a decision made in its earliest days. If patrons had instead decided to have Baur produce "The Lost City" or "The Black Forest"--both projects that were preferred over Steam & Brass at some points in the voting--then Open Design would probably be working on a totally different world book today. Or, alternatively, they might not have succeeded at all.

As it happens, the first Open Design patrons were quite canny in their decision making, for Steam & Brass ended up being only the beginning.

The Later Limited Editions: 2006-2009

The success of Open Design was proven by the very rapid development of its next project. Wolfgang Baur posted the first poll about a new design on September 1, 2006, while still working on Steam & Brass. He offered up a set of three possibilities on October 14 and patrons picked Castle Shadowcrag as the winner on October 31st. Baur described the new adventure as taking place in "a Gothic castle entangled with the plane of Shadow". It was set in the same world as Steam & Brass, though distant. The adventure was quickly funded and released near the start of the next year.

Castle Shadowcrag (2007) continued in the footsteps of Steam & Brass with one exception: though the book was still a limited edition, it wasn't be limited to just its patrons. Instead, patrons of future projects would also be able to purchase Castle Shadowcrag, until the printing ran out. Though certainly more open than Baur's first take on patronage, this new exclusivity has also caused controversy, as it has resulted in Open Design projects published through the first part of 2009 slowly dropping out of print--presumably forever.

Over the next three years, Baur used his patronage model to produce six more projects: Empire of the Ghouls (2007), Six Arabian Nights (2008), Blood of the Gorgon (2008), Wrath of the River King (2008), Tales of Zobeck (2009), and Halls of the Mountain King (2009).

These later limited-edition products brought a few new firsts for Open Design. Though Wolfgang Baur was still the heart of the company, he began bringing in other luminaries from TSR and Wizards of the Coast to help him produce the books. Prime among them was Nicolas Logue, who got his start with Blood of the Gorgon. Simultaneously, Baur decided to move his company beyond the shrinking d20 industry. As a result, Wrath of the River King appeared as a fourth-edition adventure, based on the requests of patrons.

Surprisingly, this did not result in an abandonment of 3.5e. Beginning in 2008, Open Design was perhaps the only RPG company around supporting both 4e and d20, though their support for d20 has since evolved into support for Paizo's Pathfinder system.

In the end, Open Design's production of limited-edition and exclusive adventures marked just one phase in the company's development. Starting in 2007, Open Design was also working on projects that received mass-market attention--and that would soon change the way they were producing adventures as well.