Well Made Public Domain RPGs - Another Unicorn Hunt?

[John Michael Crovis]

I'm thinking of writing a universal system and putting it directly into Public Domain. I want to do this because, as far as I can tell, there have not been any successful Public Domain Table Top RPGs. Successful is, of course, a relative term, but specifically I mean successful in comparison with other open content games.

My plan:
1) Make the game as affordable as possible by requiring commonly available items (six-sided dice, cards, no figurines).
2) Try to strike a balance between simplicity and strategy to make a system that is easy to learn, but fun to play.
3) Make the game modular, to accommodate different playing styles, different genres, and different settings.
4) Open development of the game, so that I can get feedback every step of the way.
5) When the game is finished, open a Wiki in an attempt to build a community of players who play/contribute to the game.

I know that, in terms of open gaming, story is King. As such, I should think about creating a setting along side the game rules in order to entice players into trying the game. The setting should incorporate as many different game elements as possible to demonstrate the versatility of the system.

Why would I want to do this? I have a soft spot for the early years of the d20 system - when the gaming industry honed in on the d20 system as *the* universal gaming system, which then led to a boom in the industry as a whole. I am an idealist; I was really excited about how this opened doors for so many people and felt that the future of our hobby was bright. It was only after I realized that 4th Edition D&D was going to be less open that I became disgusted with D&D and started thinking about writing.

I know that my little game is probably not going to be as far-reaching - but hell, I at least want to try. My question is, have I missed a game where this has already been done? What do you believe the pitfalls of doing this would be? How can I reach as many people as possible with a gaming system?

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[John Michael Crovis]

[Sanglorian]

I know this is over a year late, but I create a tab on the public domain page of the FOSsil Bank so you can check out what public domain tabletop games have already been created.

http://fossilbank.wikidot.com/status:pd

[alieen]

Looks good, if I'm being terse. The fonts work, the document's otherwise pretty simple. It works, though. I wouldn't be able to say much more without playtesting, but I'm still working on getting my Shadowrun group to be skilled at *Shadowrun* (characters are actually likely to die within the next hour, since we're meeting soon).