License¶

The Frontiers Tabletop Engine is published under the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License.

This page contains the notices required by that license, identifies what is and is not covered, and explains in plain language what you may do with Frontiers.

In Plain Language¶

This section is a summary for convenience. It is not part of the license and does not modify it. Where this summary and the ORC License disagree, the ORC License controls.

You may:

Build and publish games, supplements, modules, and tools using the Frontiers rules.
Sell what you make. No royalties, no revenue share, no permission needed.
Modify the rules however you like, including changing anything you disagree with.
Say your work is powered by or compatible with Frontiers, using the wording below.

You must:

Include the required notices below in your published work.
Credit Frontiers as an upstream source, along with any other Licensed Material you used.
License your own adapted rules content onward under the ORC License, so the next designer has the same freedom you did.

You may not:

Use the Frontiers name, logo, or branding as though your work were official.
Imply that Frontiers endorses, sponsors, or is affiliated with your work.

Required Notices¶

The ORC License requires that anyone publishing a work using Frontiers include the notices in this section. Reproduce them in a reasonable manner for your medium.

ORC Notice¶

This product is licensed under the ORC License located at the Library of Congress at TX 9-307-067 and available online at various locations. All warranties are disclaimed as set forth therein.

Attribution Notice¶

Identify every Licensor whose Licensed Material you used, including upstream licensors. If Frontiers is among them, credit it as:

This product is based on the following Licensed Material: Frontiers Tabletop Engine, © 2026 Jayke Paver, frontiersengine.dev

You must also state how you wish to be credited by anyone who builds on your work. For example:

If you use our Licensed Material in your own published works, please credit us as follows: [Title of Your Work], © [Year] [Your Name or Pseudonym].

Reserved Material Notice¶

Identify your own Reserved Material, if any, in the work:

Reserved Material elements in this product include, but may not be limited to: [your setting names, characters, organizations, locations, artwork, logos, and trade dress], and all elements designated as Reserved Material under the ORC License.

Expressly Designated Licensed Material¶

If you choose to offer any of your own Reserved Material under the ORC License, identify it. If you are not doing so, this notice may be omitted.

What Is Licensed¶

Under the ORC License, Licensed Material includes the expressions reasonably necessary to convey the functional ideas and methods of operation of a game. For Frontiers, that covers essentially the entire engine:

The resolution machinery, including the Resolution Die, the Gradient Die, Thresholds, and Favor and Disfavor.
Attributes, Derivatives, and the values calculated from them.
The modes of play, the action economy, and every rule governing them.
Health, pressure, and exertion systems, including the Wound, Fatigue, and Energy economies.
Skills, Abilities, Equipment, Characters, and Advancement.
Every table, formula, procedure, and worked example used to operate the system.
The terminology needed to use these rules, including the names of Attributes, resources, and mechanics.

This material is Licensed Material by operation of the ORC License itself. No separate designation is required, and it cannot be withdrawn.

What Is Reserved¶

Under the ORC License, Reserved Material covers trademarks, trade dress, and creative expressions that are not essential to the operation of the game system. The following are Reserved Material of the Frontiers Tabletop Engine:

The names Frontiers, Frontiers Engine, and Frontiers Tabletop Engine as titles and marks.
The Frontiers logo, wordmark, icons, and associated visual branding.
The trade dress and visual presentation of official Frontiers publications and of frontiersengine.dev, including layout, typography, and design assets.
All artwork published by or on behalf of Frontiers. Reserving this material does not restrict your use of the rules. You may build and publish freely without any of it.

Starter Sets and Modules published on this site are not Reserved Material. They are part of the licensed body of work and are covered in full below.

If you want to use something that is Reserved, ask. Requests go to contact@jaykepaver.me, and the answer is usually yes. Frontiers exists to be built on, and the reservations here are about keeping official and community work distinguishable, not about keeping anyone out.

Starter Sets and Modules¶

Starter Sets are not settings kept aside for official use. They are quickstarters: complete, playable configurations of the engine, published as starting points for designers. They are Licensed Material in full, free to use, adapt, reskin, and build upon. Nobody is required to use one, and anyone may.

Modules published on this site are Licensed Material on the same terms, whether written by Frontiers or contributed by the community. Contributors retain authorship of their work and are credited as Licensors in their own right.

Because these are separate works, they must be attributed separately. Using the engine plus a Starter Set plus a community Module means crediting all three, including the Module's creator by name.

Attributing Multiple Sources¶

List every Licensed Material you drew on. A work built on the engine, a Starter Set, and a community Module would credit all of them:

This product is based on the following Licensed Material: Frontiers Tabletop Engine, © 2026 Jayke Paver, frontiersengine.dev [Starter Set Title], © [Year] [Author], frontiersengine.dev [Module Title], © [Year] [Module Creator], frontiersengine.dev

If you used only the engine, credit only the engine. If you used a Module, its creator must appear in your notice even if you changed how it works. This is required by the ORC License, which asks that every Licensor and upstream source be identified.

What This License Does Not Cover¶

The ORC License governs copyright and similar rights only. It expressly does not grant trademark or patent rights.

Use of the Frontiers name and branding is therefore governed separately, by the Trademark and Usage Policy. In short: you may state compatibility, and you may not present your work as official.

Compatibility Statements¶

You may describe your work using wording such as:

Powered by the Frontiers Engine
Compatible with the Frontiers Engine

You may not use the Frontiers name as the leading element of your product title, use Frontiers branding assets, or present a derivative work as the official engine or its continuation. Nothing in the ORC License permits you to assert that your work is connected with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Frontiers.

Scope¶

These notices apply to all documents published by the Frontiers Tabletop Engine at frontiersengine.dev, including Rulesets, Design Documentation, Modules, Starter Sets, archived releases, and future versions, unless a specific document states otherwise.

Where a document lists additional contributors, those contributors retain authorship of their contributions, and their contributions are offered under the ORC License on the same terms.

Versions and Irrevocability¶

Frontiers is published in versions. Each release remains available so that work built on an earlier version stays usable.

Under the ORC License, an offer to license published Licensed Material is irrevocable. Frontiers cannot withdraw, revoke, or add conditions to material already published under it, for any existing or future licensee. Later releases may designate additional material, but nothing already granted can be taken back.

Frontiers may revise the wording on this page for clarity, or update its Reserved Material designations for future releases. Neither can reduce the rights already granted.

Contact¶

For questions about this license, or to request permission for anything falling outside it, email contact@jaykepaver.me.

Permission requests for Reserved Material are welcome and are generally granted. Say what you want to use and how, and expect a straightforward answer.

Not legal advice

This page explains how Frontiers applies the ORC License. It is not legal advice. The ORC License is the controlling document; where this page and the ORC License conflict, the ORC License governs. If you are publishing commercially, consult a qualified attorney.