RPG Talk: In the Public Domain 2026

In the last couple years, as more and more well-known properties entered the public domain, my mind has wandered into imagining role-playing games based on those now public properties. I would have loved for fan designers and writers to take advantage of those opportunities to create a collection of beer & pretzels or otherwise indie games based on whatever year's public properties (and would have contributed if asked). What if we imagined it this year? What would such a collection look like?

Sadly, we can't do a Shadow RPG, not YET. A lot of ink has already been spilled regarding the fact that in 1930 (the year that has just gone public), he was just a radio voice narrating the Detective Story Hour, and had none of his personal attributes. Maybe next year. So what does that leave us, and what COULD be used as a role-playing setting at no licensing cost? (Note that I'm not a copyright lawyer and that this isn't permission, as with the Shadow, it may be that not EVERYTHING relating to the worlds or characters listed are in the public domain. Copyright is also country-specific, so who knows if YOU or I could get into legal trouble - I guess I just answered why no one was actually doing such a fan project.)

A number of war films about World War I could lend their titles to your generic WWI setting and system. I would go with Hell's Angels as the main book, and make it about aerial aces, with an easy sourcebook named The Dawn Patrol. Other releases using the same system could be based on All Quiet on the Western Front (German soldiers), Morocco (the Foreign Legion), and War Nurse (medical adventure behind the front). Similarly, we could graft our western system to titles like Cimarron and The Big Trail. But that feels like cheating.

There's a danger in using continuing characters. Sam Spade first appears in The (now public) Maltese Falcon, but Hammett puts him in later mysteries, so you'd have to be careful about what you include. Perhaps The Maltese Falcon is perfect, simply as a scenario for any mystery RPG system. Nancy Drew and Miss Marple are other continuing detectives who made their debuts in 1930 and whose lives are therefore partly available. I think a Nancy Drew mystery RPG for kids would be very neat, actually (and presages my #1 idea for an RPG, below).

I think we get into similar hot water with comics and cartoon characters like Blondie (and Dagwood, not that there's an adventurous setting there) and Betty Boop, who, it seems, isn't ACTUALLY available, only her dog-woman precursor from Dizzy Dishes. Perhaps more useful are Quick & Flupke, Hergé's street urchins who get into trouble in Depression-era Brussells. Okay, maybe not, but Tintin and Milou (Snowy) TECHNICALLY become available this year with the full publication of Tintin and the Soviets and the beginning of Tintin in the Congo. Very primitive, small-cast Tintin, so I'd wait longer (Captain Haddock won't be in the public domain for another 10 years, though).

Honestly, the best place to find RPG adventure settings is in children's literature. The Little Engine That Could represents a nice opportunity for a Milk & Biscuits game to introduce the hobby to smaller children. You take the role of toys in inspirational adventures that teach wholesome lessons. I'd see it. My personal choice, however, is Swallows and Amazons, which already SOUNDS like an RPG, and indeed, has a map on the original cover! Arthur Ransome's book turns Cumbria's Lake District (using the actual maps, so that's easily available) into a stage for swashbuckling and piracy, using child protagonists and small boats to recreate the great pirate and exploration epics. I love the idea of a setting that's generated by your PCs' imaginations (a great justification for "hero points") and setting or no, I would encourage GameMasters to transform their own childhood haunts into lands of adventure. It doesn't have the marketing power (i.e., recognizability) of some of these other properties, but you can look forward to a follow-up sourcebook called Swallowdale the next year.

So what five games end up in the 2026 Public Domain Collection were I its editor?
-The Little Engine That Could
-Cimarron - a western RPG
-Hell's Angels - a WWI RPG
-Nancy Drew
-Swallows & Amazons

Skews young, but I don't dislike it!