Free League expands open roleplaying game licenses to five core titles

Free League Publishing, the Stockholm-based titan of the “Swedish Noir” tabletop scene, has officially expanded its third-party open game license programme to cover five of its most prominent roleplaying games. The update, announced from the studio’s headquarters in Sweden, brings Dragonbane, Forbidden Lands, Symbaroum, Coriolis: The Great Dark, and Coriolis – The Third Horizon under a unified, royalty-free, and irrevocable legal framework.

The expansion is paired with an aggressive push for linguistic inclusivity, authorised for creators working in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Ukrainian. By codifying these terms, the publisher is positioning itself as a stable alternative to the volatile American tabletop market, providing a permanent “safe harbour” for community creators following the industry-wide anxiety surrounding the OGL crises of previous years.

The Ukrainian Connection: Ethics in Design

The inclusion of Ukrainian in this rollout is more than a mere translation update; it represents a targeted ethical signal from the Nordic publisher. Since 2022, the Ukrainian roleplaying game community has seen a surge in localisations as a form of cultural resilience. By granting irrevocable third-party rights to Ukrainian creators, Tomas Härenstam and his team are bypassing the traditional “wait-and-see” approach of licensed translations, allowing local designers to build directly upon the Year Zero Engine and Symbaroum frameworks without fear of future legal retraction.

This move reinforces a philosophy where the publisher acts as a steward of a system rather than a gatekeeper. For a region currently rebuilding its hobby infrastructure, the ability to publish professional-grade supplements for Forbidden Lands or Dragonbane in their native tongue provides both a creative outlet and a potential economic lifeline for independent designers in Kyiv and Lviv.

The Licensed Wall: The Art Paradox

However, the announcement is equally notable for what remains absent. While the “Big five” are now open, Free League’s most visually iconic titles, Vaesen and Tales from the Loop, remain strictly off-limits to third-party creators. This creates a “Licensed Wall” that highlights the friction between open-source mechanics and protected intellectual property.

The “Nordic Gothic” aesthetic of Johan Egerkrans (Vaesen) and the “Stalenhagian” retro-futurism of Simon Stålenhag (Tales from the Loop) are the pillars of the Free League global brand. By keeping these titles under lock and key, the publisher is making a clear distinction: the mechanics are for the people, but the soul of the brand, the specific artistic visions, remains proprietary. It is a balanced, if frustrating, compromise for a community that has long desired to create official-adjacent content for these atmospheric masterpieces.

Technical Freedom and Community “Patching”

For games like Symbaroum, lead-designed by Mattias Lilja, the shift to an irrevocable license is a strategic victory for long-term players. Known for its evocative setting but often criticised for its complex late-game balance, Symbaroum can now be “patched” by the community. Independent designers are now free to release total-conversion balance sheets or alternative combat systems without needing individual approval from Stockholm.

Tomas Härenstam, co-founder at Free League Publishing, said in a statement,

“Roleplaying is a uniquely creative hobby. As publishers of roleplaying games, we know that the real magic happens in the imagination of the players. We can’t wait to see what stories and worlds our great community will create using these licenses.”

By making these licenses irrevocable, Free League is effectively signing a peace treaty with its community, ensuring that regardless of future corporate buyouts or shifts in leadership, the work created today by designers remains legally protected.