Adapting public domain works

Ten public domain works you can use for your next game

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We’ve looked at public domain art resources (twice!) in the past. It’s a great way to make your games look good without spending a lot on an art budget.

This week we look at a related concept where the entire fictional world or universe is in the public domain, ready to be adapted. It can be a fictional setting for your game, or just a source of inspiration!

Works in the public domain

The public domain includes works where no exclusive intellectual property (IP) rights apply. This could be because of many reasons:

• The work was created before copyright laws existed

• The rights existed, but have expired

• The rights were expressly forfeited or waived

• Copyright is otherwise inapplicable

When no one holds the exclusive rights to an intellectual property, you and anyone else can use, modify, incorporate, and reproduce those works without permission.

Works created before copyright laws existed are usually in the public domain, including famous works such as William Shakespeare or Plato.

And as we will see, there are also some interesting public domain works with expired copyright status!

Using a public domain setting

There is a long history of public domain works being adapted into animated films, live action movies, TV series, video games, board games, and other media. Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes would be prime examples, having been adapted into almost countless plays, shows, and games.

We’ve even looked at a few examples of games that have adapted public domain works in the past:

• Wonderland’s War (Alice in Wonderland)

• Unmatched (Alice in Wonderland, King Arthur, and others)

• Broken Tales (Alice in Wonderland, and others)

• Blood Rage (Norse mythology)

Be careful, however, with specific adaptations! While the original 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland may be in the public domain, Disney’s 1951 Alice in Wonderland film is not. Using exact copies of the characters as represented in the film version could be problematic.

The same could be said for The Jungle Book. Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 The Jungle Book is in the public domain, but Disney’s 1967 The Jungle Book film is not.

Also be careful with translations! Specific translations of works may be subject to copyright. For example, the story of The Iliad as told by Homer is in the public domain. The Robert Fagles’ translation of The Iliad is copyrighted and may not be reproduced. The Alexander Pope translation is, however, in the public domain and may be used.

As I’ve noted with an example before, public domain laws and standards can be confusing. I am not a lawyer. If you plan to use a work in the public domain as your game’s setting and/or public domain art, be sure to follow all applicable licenses and local laws.

Public domain works to consider

The list of possible public domain works is too vast to list here. Instead, here are ten works that I think are particularly suited to adaptations in board games and tabletop roleplaying games:

1. A Princess of Mars

John Carter of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp science fantasy Barsoom series began in 1912-1917 with the publication of A Princess of Mars. Confederate General John Carter is transported (with little explanation) to Mars, resulting in swords, romance, and fifteen foot tall, four-armed green warriors. There have been many adaptations, but the only two that stand out to me are SPI’s John Carter: Warlord of Mars (Maitz & Simonsen, 1979) and the Disney movie. With eleven books in the Barsoom series, there is quite a bit of material for inspiration.

2. A Study in Scarlet

Watson and Sherlock

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective Sherlock Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet in 1887. Possibly inspired by Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin, Holmes uses deduction to solve crimes in Victorian England. There are fifty six stories and four novels that are considered part of the Canon of Sherlock Holmes. Notable tabletop adaptations include Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (Edwards, Goldberg, et al., 1982), Unmatched: Cobble & Fog (Daviau, Jacobson, et al., 2020). A Study in Emerald (Wallace, 2013) is a board game based on Neil Gaiman’s mashup of Holmes and Lovecraft.

3. The Scarlet Pimpernel

Baroness Emma Orczy’s 1905 novel of historical fiction gave us what might be the prototype for Zorro, Superman, and Batman: The Scarlet Pimpernel. The first of a series set in 1792, during the French Revolution, Sir Percy Blakeney leads a double life. He is both a wealthy fop, but also a hero who rescues people from the guillotine. I’m not familiar with either, but there is The Scarlet Pimpernel (Kelley, 2019) and The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel (Garfield, 2022) listed as adaptations on BGG. The former has art by Ian O’Toole, which is always enough to catch my attention!

4. Dracula

Published in 1897, Dracula is an epistolary novel by Bram Stoker about Jonathan Harker’s business trip to a Transylvanian castle. The vampire story is widely known, and putting an interesting twist on some of the tropes might be a challenge. Still, the setting is compelling. Notable tabletop adaptations include Unmatched: Cobble & Fog (Daviau, Jacobson, et al., 2020), Horrified (Prospero Hall, 2019), and multiple editions of Fury of Dracula (Hand, 1987). The Dracula vs Van Helsing (Rambourg & Théo Rivière, 2023) card game is on my list to try, if for no other reason than the Weberson Santiago art.

5. Treasure Island

Pirate ships and treasure maps

Need a setting filled with buccaneers and buried gold? Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, originally published in 1883, is in the public domain and able to be used. You could make the case that this novel has forever made deserted tropical islands, X marks the spot on a treasure map, peg legs, and parrots all part of the pirate mythos. Lefty Wright and his twin flintlock pistols, Pork & Beans, approve. Treasure Island (Paquien, 2018) with gorgeous art by Vincent Dutrait is the prime board game adaptation.

6. The Call of the Wild

Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, published in 1903, is different than the other novels and settings on this list. The main character is a dog named Buck who ends up in Yukon, Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. I’m not familiar with any tabletop game adaptations using this work, but it could be really interesting!

7. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1869) is Jules Verne’s story of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. If you plan to adapt this for your game, be careful not to confuse the 1954 Disney film with the original text. There are quite a few adaptations listed on BGG, but Nemo’s War: Second Edition (Taylor, 2017) is notable with art by Ian O’Toole.

8. King Solomon’s Mines

Allan Quatermain

Sir H. Rider Haggard created the lost world literary genre with the publication of King Solomon’s Mines in 1885. It follows adventurer Allan Quatermain as he explores ancient civilizations on the African continent while searching for a missing brother. Jungles, deserts, treasure rooms, immortal witches, and unfortunate colonial attitudes abound. There are a few adaptations on BGG, but most people might know Allan Quatermain from Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Also, I somehow missed the 2004 two-part television miniseries staring Patrick Swayze as Allan Quatermain on the Hallmark Channel.

9. The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers was published in 1844 by Alexandre Dumas with assistance from Auguste Maquet. It’s a swashbuckling, adventure novel set in 17th century France. The main character is d'Artagnan who is accompanied by Athos, Porthos, and Aramis… the three musketeers of the title. If you want a setting with sword fights, but also firearms, this might work. It’s been adapted countless times in various media, including the 1993 Disney film. Tabletop adaptations include The Three Musketeers: The Queen's Pendants (Bernard, 2009). Seems like a good choice for a roleplaying game.

10. The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow is a collection of short stories by Robert Chambers, originally published in 1895. It sits firmly in the weird fiction and supernatural horror genres, with stories that are loosely connected. One connection is a fictional play called The King in Yellow that has the ability to drive people to madness just by reading it. The stories inspired H.P. Lovecraft, who included references in his own works. References also appear in the first season of True Detective. Tabletop games inspired by the work (directly or indirectly) include the Call of Cthulhu RPG, Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016), Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019), and Arkham Horror (2005).

Honorable mentions

I tried to choose public domain works that I felt were both interesting and perhaps less common. There are, however, so many works that are worth mentioning.

A few additional ones to consider include: The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, H.P. Lovecraft short stories, Tom Sawyer, Robin Hood, King Arthur, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

I did not include Robert E. Howard’s Conan, even though many of the works are in the public domain. There seem to be lingering copyright and trademark disputes that have yet to be resolved. A similar situation exists for Solomon Kane.

Conclusion

Some things to think about:

• Public domain works are a wealth of inspiration: There are so many amazing public domain works and pieces of art to use and incorporate into your designs. You don’t need to incorporate them completely, and instead can just take bits of inspiration.

• Be careful with movie adaptations: Some of the film adaptations of public domain works have become so ingrained in us as canon, that it’s hard to separate them from the original works. As with the examples above, make sure you are using the original characters and not the ones created for the films.

• Watch out for complicated cases: Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos has been expanded by many authors and adapted into specific representations by companies like Chaosium. Parts of the mythos are copyrighted and/or trademarked (e.g. the Elder Sign and Yellow Sign symbols).

Did this help inspire you to consider public domain works for a game setting? Which of these do you think have the most potential?

— E.P. 💀

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