SeattleP-I.com/AP: Open Source ideas spread to paper and pen gaming

"An evil empire has overshadowed the land, destroying personal freedom and imposing conformity on a free-thinking community. But now you can take up the "open source" ideal and fight for freedom, justice and treasure...."

",i>Wizards of the Coast, which obtained the rights to Dungeons & Dragons in 1997, is hoping to bring the swords-and-sorcery game back to the popularity it enjoyed in the early 1980s with a modern ideal -- the software-born "open source" concept."

"When the third edition of D&D is released in August, Wizards plans to give the core rules for the game away for anyone to use, hoping that when other companies publish games -- whether they are supplements for the basic D&D game or new games entirely -- it will lead gamers back into the fold."

"We're not creating a new game, but we're creating a much better version of the rules," said Ryan Dancey, vice president in charge of D&D at Wizards, based in Renton. "We think these rules will be flexible enough for a wide variety of games."

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