What is born from the commons should return to the commons.
Permission in plain language
Licence and attribution
Except where an item states otherwise, the original text, tables, and examples in the Narateer Core Rules Compendium are © Stuart Shaw and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).
You may copy, share, adapt, publish, and use that material for any purpose, including commercially.
The licence covers
The original rules text, tables, and examples in the online compendium and compiled Markdown rules download, except where a different notice appears.
The licence does not cover
The Narateer name, logo, and trade dress; website and tool code; artwork unless it is separately marked; or third-party material. Those items retain their own rights or stated licence.
Copyright protects Narateer’s copyrightable expression—the written text, tables, and examples—not abstract ideas, procedures, methods, systems, or game mechanics as such.
Recommended attribution
“Narateer Core Rules — Pre-alpha v0.1” by Stuart Shaw, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: https://narateer.stuartshawcreations.com/rules. Changes: [describe your changes].Give attribution in any reasonable manner for your medium. Retain the source and licence links where reasonably practicable, identify whether you made changes, and present the credit in a way that does not imply that Stuart Shaw or Narateer endorses your work.
You may use the Narateer name where reasonably necessary for attribution. You may also use “Compatible with Narateer” in plain text to describe genuine compatibility. Do not use the Narateer logo or trade dress, or imply approval, sponsorship, or endorsement.
The CC BY 4.0 legal code is the complete licence; this plain-language summary adds no additional conditions to that copyright licence.
Thirty Years of Work, and More
Narateer is the result of more than thirty years of design, failure, rebuilding, and rediscovery. I began as a teenager, scribbling ideas in the margins of school notebooks. The game grew through campaigns that broke it, lessons that reshaped it, and a relentless commitment to better play.
What stands today carries that persistence: hard-won insight, sleepless nights, and a long memory for every mistake made at the table. It is my work, but it was never made in isolation.
Every roleplaying game enters a conversation already in progress. Designers learn from games, tables, arguments, experiments, and communities that came before them. Narateer has been shaped by that wider culture and by the people who tested it, questioned it, and showed me where it failed.
Modern AI tools later contributed ideas, critique, drafting, analysis, and implementation. They materially assist the work; I retain canon and publication authority and remain accountable for what is released. The complete account of that contribution, including its limits, belongs in the AI Declaration.
Why Permission Must Be Shared
I retain copyright and authorship in Narateer. What I refuse to hoard is permission.
Copyright recognises the work I have done. The Commons Pledge determines what I will let other people do with it. Through CC BY 4.0, I grant a worldwide, non-exclusive public licence to use the covered material. That licence does not distribute ownership; it gives everyone durable permission to read, share, adapt, publish, and build upon the rules.
That is the only path that feels honest. Narateer was built within a living culture of shared play and accumulated craft. Its core rules should return value to that culture, not become a gate around it.
Use them. Adapt them. Fork them. Publish your own work. Sell what you create if you want to. Credit the source, identify your changes, and let the next table carry the work somewhere I never could.
Narateer was never meant to be a walled garden. Let it grow wild. Let it become more.
Free, Forever
This is not a marketing hook or a temporary offer designed to build goodwill before the door closes. Narateer’s core rules will remain free because shared imagination should not depend on a subscription, an account, or my continued permission.
Every version released under CC BY 4.0 remains available under that licence. My pledge goes further: future Narateer core rules will also remain free to read, free to play, and openly licensed for others to build upon.
You will never need to pay to play Narateer.
You will never need separate permission to build on its openly licensed core.
You will never lose the rights already granted over a released version while you comply with its licence.
This is a moral stance. Not a tactic. A promise.
Optional Tools, Not Mandatory Gates
Narateer may offer optional tools—AI-powered sidekicks, encounter builders, lore assistants, and more. Use them if they enrich your table or help support the project.
But they will never be required to access or use the core game.
Nothing essential will stand between you and the rules: not a subscription, a download code, a sign-up form, or a proprietary tool. The heart of Narateer is human connection. Technology should lighten the load, not take the reins.
My Promise
When you open Narateer, you are holding one creator’s life’s work and one contribution to a much older, wider culture of play.
What is born from the commons should return to the commons.
So take it. Play it. Make it your own.
If it speaks to you, build on it. Teach it. Share it.
Narateer’s core will never be taken from you.
Not now. Not ever.
— Stuart Shaw
Founder and Steward of Narateer