New Updates for Codex – Goodbye OGL, hello Indy World

We have done a fairly significant round of updates to three of our books so far – Core Rules and Player’s Guide, and our new adventure module / setting book, The Road To Monsterberg: Curse of the Mad Princess. In large part this was to remove all DnD and OGL / SRD references because we are removing ourselves from the OGL due to the (somewhat) recent incident with the owners of the OGL, and in part to change some language and terminology so as to make the game ‘friendlier’ to people more familiar with Call of Cthulhu, Warhammer FRP, Mythras, and other D100 and Indy games. We also simplified a few things and added several new features. The three books we have already updated are available in their new versions on DriveThru, if you already purchased them you can just go there and download the updated version. We will be updating Superno (including adding a couple dozen new spells) and updating all of our adventure and weapons resource books in the coming weeks.

About the 2024 / Series 8 Edition:

This edition is a substantial change compared to previous editions. We are moving away from the SRD and back toward something closer to the original design in some ways, while incorporating some new ideas from Stara Szkola, the “OSR” version of our game rules, and more generally moving toward our own niche in the Indy Game world.

OGL incident

Due to the 2022 incident which suggested the possibility of big changes to the rules of the OGL, we are no longer comfortable with Codex being under the OGL license. This required us to remove all references to OGL / SRD rules and terminology.

Compatibility with D100 and Indy games

Although we know many OSR, and some Pathfinder etc. gamers playing Codex, and even some 5E people, many of those who have contacted us over the years come from the world of Warhammer, Mythras or Call of Cthulhu (etc.) type games. Certain terminology like “Classes” and “Feats” are off-putting to people from this background and don’t really mean the same thing in Codex as they do in most OGL games. Some of these are not even really used in Codex, like Saving Throws. Others have different meanings in Codex than they do in DnD, like Class. In this update we made some changes to terminology which should be a bit easier for non DnD gamers to mesh with and understand. The structure has largely remained the same, with a few minor tweaks.

Gameplay efficiency ala SSk / OSR

During play-testing of Stara Szkola we found substantial improvements in gameplay over Codex in some areas where the simpler SSk mechanics could replace the original Codex mechanics, both for combat and character generation. This is also aimed toward moving a little closer to the OSR ideal of simplicity and brevity. This does not mean major changes in structure but some reduction in arithmetic and fewer things to remember.

Themes

• Moving from OGL to Indy
• Opening the door to OSR and to D100 players
• Simpler, lighter, faster

Terminology Changes

Changed “Class” to “Vocation”

Changed “Martial Feat” / MF to Device / DV

Opportunity Attack / OA – Reflex Attack / RA

Passive Defense – Reflex Defense

If you have thoughts on any of this, contact us on our Discord