Phil “The Chatty DM” writes one of the best blogs for GMs out there, Musings of the Chatty DM, and he’s recently kicked off something I wanted to share with Gnome Stew Readers:

Project Kobold Love

So what is it? Here’s the quick summary in Phil’s own words:

I’m sick and tired of the Editions Wars. So much so that I want to show that a game system is just an excuse to have fun, no more.

Project Kobold Love will be a Creative Commons, Non-Commercial, 5 scene adventure featuring the Reverse Dungeon Trope. If it’s good, I want to be able to publish it commercially while leaving others the right to hack it legally as long as no one tries to sell it without talking to me first.

That’s Project Kobold Love in a nutshell. Chatty’s next step will be to use PKL as a springboard to introduce Chatty Studios:

Chatty Studios is my own part-time stab at entering the RPG publishing industry. Taking a page from Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design concept, I want to publish fan-supported D&D 4e material through a patronage system.

Patrons would pay me up front (giving me capital to allow me to hire artists and technical help I do not possess) in exchange for an open and interactive experience where I build the product through blog posts for their eyes only.

Phil’s already gathered a posse of collaborators for PKL, posted the nuts and bolts of the adventure and reflected on what he’s gotten himself into.

I think Project Kobold Love is a very cool idea, and it’s even cooler that Phil is going balls-out and taking a plunge like this. I know him well enough to know that a) he never stops moving and b) he doesn’t do things in half measures — this will be interesting to watch.

I don’t have nearly enough time right now to hack Project Kobold Love myself, but maybe you do — that’s why I wrote this post. If the idea grabs you, head on over to Chatty’s site and join the kobold-loving posse.