Hail fellow adventurers, steampunk pirate captains, and intergalactic smugglers, I’ve come to know fondly as the #OpenLegion!
Many of you have probably wondered about the fate of Open Legend…
“Is it dead?”
“But the store still works, right?”
“Why is that?”
Great questions, let’s talk about those and others.
3 years ago, about my 7 months after the Kickstarter was wrapped up, I was right in the thick of things writing both the Amaurea’s Dawn Campaign Setting and also the Open Legend Core Rules book. At that time, I had been working probably about 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for a number of years. I had a momentous “crash” and, if I’m being honest, a near miss with a mental breakdown. I’m grateful that I didn’t have a full-on breakdown.
As is often the way when we realize there is something out of alignment in our lives, I sat for a long time in a kind of shell-shocked state and began to ponder my life and the meaning of my choices. After some time, I realized that I had become a workaholic. Open Legend was my 10th business venture. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have started it, and it will always hold a special place in my heart, since it was my brainchild that was met with far more enthusiasm and success of any of my previous mad science experiments as an entrepreneur.
Despite my love for it, I realized that my life had become severely out of balance and Open Legend (as well as other business ventures) had become an escapist means of coping with a life that was deeply painful and void of meaning outside the project itself. Since I was 13, it was Dungeons & Dragons for 20 years and then Open Legend for 7. I know the world is full of pain and I’m not the only one out there who has been helped by Open Legend to create a safe space when sometimes life does not live up to the great dreams and aspirations that we cradle secretly in our hearts. We live out those secret longings in our hearts, and role-playing games are among the best ways to express that. I personally have felt led to move my “adventures” to things that I can feel and touch in real life – rocks, trees, rivers. I spend most of my time outside these days, in the mountains hiking, backpacking, skiing, etc. My heart has been stolen away by these things.
I’ve long hoped for the opportunity to “set the little Open Legend bird free” and entrust it to a better caretaker. For legal reasons, this has only become possible recently. When that option opened up, I knew immediately the person whom I would like to take over as captain of this whacky crazy ship. “Great Moustache” as many of you know him (Jonathan Potter to the rare few who know his no-longer-secret-identity as of this moment) has been an incredible steward of this whole project in my absence. I know that he cares more about it than anyone else involved. I encourage all of you to support him and help him as he learns the ropes (I’ll be helping him behind the scenes as well).
To those who have felt the pain of my poor communication, slow response to emails, and lack of motivation in delivering the content that was promised by the Kickstarter, I promise you that things are about to change in the most wonderful way imaginable.
Please accept my apologies, all who have been affected by my struggle in and through all of this. I know that I’ve let you down. It was never my heart to do that, but I alone am responsible for the ways the company (Seventh Sphere is the owner of Open Legend, technically) has let down her customers. I trust that Jonathan will do infinitely better than I have done and that the company is coming into the bright new future that I’ve always hoped for it, but not had the heart to deliver on.
If you’ve seen the Netflix series “Godless”, I feel it does a decent job of telling my story. “A man who got away clean” is something you might say of the main character and the catharsis he experiences as he rides off into the sunset and away from the darkness of his past.
I hope all of you can forgive me and wish me well on my journey as I ride off into the sunset of the Wild West. Jonathan will take great care of you in my absence and will help address the remaining things that I’ve left undone.
Catch you later on down the trail folks 
Brian
