 | |
| Formerly | Open Design LLC |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Role-playing games, magazines |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Wolfgang Baur |
| Products | Kobold Quarterly , Kobold Guides, Hoard of the Dragon Queen , The Rise of Tiamat |
| Brands | Midgard Campaign Setting |
| Website | Official website |
Kobold Press, also known as Open Design, is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements.
Wolfgang Baur launched Open Design in 2006. Open Design funded projects using a crowdfunding model dubbed "patronage," with the resulting products available exclusively to backers through PDF releases and limited print runs. The first product published by Open Design was Steam & Brass (2006), a steampunk-themed adventure module using the d20 System. Steam & Brass was also the first product set in Baur's setting of Zobeck, later known as Midgard. [1]
In 2007, Baur launched Kobold Quarterly through Open Design, which filled in the gap in the role-playing industry left by the end of Paizo Publishing's run on the magazines Dragon and Dungeon . Unlike previous projects from the company, Kobold Quarterly was available to the public. Kobold Quarterly ran for 23 issues, with the final issue produced in October 2012. [1]
Open Design began to shift away from a focus on the "patronage" model in 2008, releasing titles such as the Zobeck Gazetteer (2008) to the public, and began publishing products entirely outside the "patronage" model in 2011, including a series of game design guidebooks. In 2012, Open Design began producing books under the imprint "Kobold Press"; by the end of the year, the company had ceased publishing as Open Design and exclusively published products as Kobold Press. [1]
In 2014, Wizards of the Coast commissioned Kobold Press to create the two adventures for the initial Tyranny of Dragons storyline for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Hoard of the Dragon Queen (2014) and The Rise of Tiamat (2014). [2] [3] [4]
Leaked documents from Wizard of the Coast in January 2023 suggested that Wizards planned to change the Open Game License (OGL), developed for its Dungeons & Dragons products, to be more restrictive and potentially harm third-party content creators. [5] [6] In response to the OGL leak, Paizo announced plans to develop a new license called the Open RPG Creative License (ORC) – this would be an open, perpetual, and irrevocable system-agnostic license stewarded by a nonprofit. Additional publishers, such as Kobold Press, will also be part of the ORC development process. [7] [8] Polygon reported that "in the weeks that Hasbro spent publicly flailing, customers spent an extraordinary amount of money investing in its competition". [9] Kobold Press informed Polygon "that its sales quadrupled in January". [9]
As Open Design, the company's products included the magazine Kobold Quarterly; a line of game design guidebooks, such as The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design (2011) and The Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design (2012); and a number of "patronage"-funded adventures and sourcebooks, many of which were set in the Midgard setting. [1] The Midgard Campaign Setting was originally published in 2012. [10] [11]
As Kobold Press, the company continues to produce game design guides and material for the Midgard setting, and has moved to Kickstarter to fund additional projects. [1] In 2017, the company ran a Kickstarter to update the Midgard setting with a new edition of the Midgard Campaign Setting (2018); [10] [12] this book is "useable with any fantasy roleplaying system". [10] This Kickstarter also included supplements for specific role-playing game systems such as Midgard Player's Guide for Pathfinder RPG (2018) and Midgard Heroes Handbook for 5th Edition (2018). [10] [13] The company has published other titles compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game including Deep Magic, Southlands, and the Advanced Races Compendium. [14] [15] [16] Kobold Press has released many Midgard projects compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition such as Midgard Heroes for 5th Edition (2015) [17] and Midgard Worldbook for 5th Edition (2021). [18] Compatible adventures and supplements in the Midgard setting have also been released for 13th Age and the AGE System. [19]
On January 10, 2023, Kobold Press announced that it was developing an "available, open, and subscription-free" [20] ruleset for tabletop role-playing games codenamed Black Flag. [21] [22] [23] Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com , stated that "the announcement is a clear pushback against recent rumored changes to the Open Game License, which provides the framework for publishers such as Kobold Press to make material compatible with Dungeons & Dragons. Kobold Press is one of the largest publishers of third-party D&D 5E material" and "is one of the publishers likely to face the most challenges under the OGL 1.1". [21] In April 2023, Kobold Press announced that this project will be titled Tales of the Valiant and that the game will be built off the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition portion now under the Creative Commons license. It will launch with a Kickstarter in May 2023 to crowdfund the Player's Guide sourcebook and the Monster Vault sourcebook. [24] [25]
 |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Origins Awards | Best Game-Related Publication | The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design | Won | [26] [27] |
| ENNIE Awards | Best Adventure | Streets of Zobeck | Gold Award | [28] | |
| Best Art, Interior | Book of Drakes | Nominated | |||
| Best RPG Related Product | Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design | Gold Award | |||
| Best Writing | Your Whispering Homonculous | Nominated | |||
| 2013 | Best RPG Related Product | Kobold Guide to Wordbuilding | Gold Award | [29] | |
| Best Writing | Gold Award | ||||
| Best Setting | Midgard Campaign Setting | Nominated | |||
| Best Supplement | Dark Roads & Golden Hells | Nominated | |||
| 2014 | Best Aid/Accessory | Kobold Guide to Magic | Nominated | [30] | |
| Best Monster/Adversary | Midgard Bestiary: 13th Age Roleplaying Game Compatible Edition | Nominated | |||
| Judges' Spotlight Winners | Deep Magic | Won | |||
| 2016 | Best Cartography | Southlands Campaign Setting Map | Nominated | [31] | |
| Best Setting | Southlands Campaign Setting | Silver Award | |||
| 2017 | Best Aid/Accessory | Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns | Silver Award | [32] | |
| 2019 | Best Monster/Adversary | Creature Codex for 5th Edition | Silver Award | [33] | |
| Origins Awards | Roleplaying Supplement | Nominated | [34] | ||
| Roleplaying Games | Midgard Worldbook | Nominated | |||
| 2022 | ENNIE Awards | Best Cartography | Scarlet Citadel Map Folio | Nominated | [35] |
| Judges' Spotlight Winners | Kobold Guide to Monsters | Won | |||
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Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
Midgard
Other Sourcebooks & Adventures
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