Friends of the Pack
Community Sharing
The frameworks in the Hounds & Jackals materials were meant to be shared on purpose, because they gain value by becoming common language rather than by being kept. You may take one into your own work, free, on the four terms below.
The goal is the day a stranger writes a game and says this uses a Hounds & Jackals framework, and everyone at the table understands at once.
To be plain about which is which
What you pay for when you buy one of these books is the book: its writing, its examples, and the work of assembling all of it in one place. What is free is the framework itself, and it stays free whether you bought the book or borrowed it.
IF YOU WANT TO USE IT
Four things. No ceremony, no paperwork.
Credit it
Put a line in your credits or acknowledgements:
Built on [TITLE], created by Bruce Ballon, Hounds & Jackals Games & Magic, houndsandjackals.ca
That is the ask, and it is the whole of it. Why this house asks it, and what it holds itself to in return, is Keep the Bones.
Wear the Friend of the Pack
Please put it on your back cover, where there is usually room and nobody has to redesign anything. Two versions are here for you, one for light covers and one for dark. Use whichever sits better on yours. Yes, they are “dog tags”… what did you expect?
Just click and download the images to use.
Do not copy the text verbatim
Take the ideas, the vocabulary and the reasoning, and put them in your own words. Restating is welcome and lifting is not.
Do not take the art
The framework is being given away and the art is not, because it is somebody else’s hand. Every illustration commissioned for these books was made by a named person who was paid for it, and their work is theirs. Ask before using any of it.
And if you are unsure, ask
I am one person with an email address, and I would rather have a conversation than have you guess. If you want to show me what you are making, I would enjoy seeing it. Information on how to contact me is here: Contact.
WHAT THE FRIEND OF THE PACK IS NOT
It is not a seal of quality and it never will be. It does not say your work was approved, checked, or endorsed by anybody. It says that something from this house is in there, and that the maker has credited it.
A mark that meant approved would be a mark I had to police, and the day I started refusing people would be the day it stopped being a gift. Anyone who has credited it may wear it.