Over 1,500 Publishers Support Paizo's Upcoming Open RPG Creator's License

Paizo has revealed some of the 1,500+ tabletop RPG publishers who have expressed an interest in their new Open RPG Creator's License (ORC), describing the group as the 'ORC Alliance'.

The license itself is still being worked on, so these 1,500 publishers have not actually seen it or signed anything. But they have indicated to Paizo that they support a new, truly open, irrevocable industry license.

Over the course of the last week, more than 1,500 tabletop RPG publishers, from household names going back to the dawn of the hobby to single proprietors just starting out with their first digital release, have joined together to pledge their support for the development of a universal system-neutral open license that provides a legal “safe harbor” for sharing rules mechanics and encourages innovation and collaboration in the tabletop gaming space.

The alliance is gathered. Work has begun.

It would take too long to list all the companies behind the ORC license effort, but we thought you might be interested to see a few of the organizations already pledged toward this common goal. We are honored to be allied with them, as well as with the equally important participating publishers too numerous to list here. Each is crucial to the effort’s success. The list below is but a representative sample of participating publishers from a huge variety of market segments with a huge variety of perspectives. But we all agree on one thing.

We are all in this together.

• Alchemy RPG
• Arcane Minis
• Atlas Games
• Autarch
• Azora Law
• Black Book Editions
• Bombshell Miniatures
• BRW Games
• Chaosium
• Cze & Peku
• Demiplane
• DMDave
• The DM Lair
• Elderbrain
• EN Publishing
• Epic Miniatures
• Evil Genius Games
• Expeditious Retreat Press
• Fantasy Grounds
• Fat Dragon Games
• Forgotten Adventures
• Foundry VTT
• Free RPG Day
• Frog God Games
• Gale Force 9
• Game On Tabletop
• Giochi Uniti
• Goodman Games
• Green Ronin
• The Griffon’s Saddlebag
• Iron GM Games
• Know Direction
• Kobold Press
• Lazy Wolf Studios
• Legendary Games
• Lone Wolf Development
• Loot Tavern
• Louis Porter Jr. Designs
• Mad Cartographer
• Minotaur Games
• Mongoose Publishing
• MonkeyDM
• Monte Cook Games
• MT Black
• Necromancer Games
• Nord Games
• Open Gaming, Inc.
• Paizo Inc.
• Paradigm Concepts
• Pelgrane Press
• Pinnacle Entertainment Group
• Raging Swan Press
• Rogue Games
• Rogue Genius Games
• Roll 20
• Roll for Combat
• Sly Flourish
• Tom Cartos
• Troll Lord Games
• Ulisses Spiele

You will be hearing a lot more from us in the days to come.

 

[Vincent55]

'We' is not a single entity, 'we' is a bunch of people who say one thing and do a multitude of other things in reality. 'We' are a vocal minority on the Internets that just makes a lot of noise and not very consistent noise at that. 'We' are a legion of sheep...

IF 'we' look at who has the most power in these relationships (outside of WotC/Hasbro), then we should look at the influencers like Critical Role and their ilk (NOT a fan, but I recognize their power). Those are a class separate from most publishers, if WotC/Hasbro manages to keep/pacify them, nothing much will change in the short term and very little in the long term. If current OGL companies move away from D&D support with ORC or ORC compatibility with D&D becomes unclear, it leaves a massive door open for new publishers that will use the new OGL that see money being left on the ground...

Obviously, you missed understood what I meant, We were everyone who are opposed to the underhanded grab that Hasbro did, from the sound of it you're trying to downplay the pull "we" have makes me think you're trying to advocate for them and make it appear as if we are not going to affect them when the facts say different in the media and from their responses to the backlash. You can do your best to post disparaging remarks and try and say that "we" can't have an effect on a "big bad corporation" but I say it is obvious we did.

 

[Vincent55]

Agreed Cergorach and well said. I think in 3 years, dnd will be number one by a long shot like currently, one dnd keeping the steam up since it’s based on 5e and proven to be popular. Whatever comes of ORC will strike a cord with a group of gamers like PF2, just it won’t be as profitable for smaller publishers as a supplement under the future terms of the finalized new OGL1.2. This passionate fervor will be a bump on the Highway of gaming history…just hopefully we all learn something from it, especially WoTC. I just hope myself and my group of friends are still around and gaming in 20 years since we will be pushing 70!

only if fools fall for the liers tactics, and with orc and others signing up under it big major companies I don't thing they will recover or be in the same spot as the king has been knocked off the throne.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm not looking forward to how toxic the community is going to be toward them when they...don't stop playing DnD.

I actually don't think they have much to worry about. I suspect a large amount of their audience are the people who are CR fans who play D&D... not the D&D/OGL diehards who also watch CR. So there's a good chance that a lot of their audience have no idea about this OGL thing, because none of them care about any products outside of CR and D&D and the show.

That's the thing that I suspect is going to shock a lot of the people here on the boards when all is said and done-- I just don't think most of the general D&D audience knows about or cares about all of this. After all... a large number of 3rd Party D&D material is made, sold, and bought through DMs Guild and NOT the OGL... so if the Guild is still up and running, many players will not see their purchasing habits change nor will a lot of designers. They'll still create D&D product for DMs Guild, and folks will buy it through DMs Guild.

So what will happen is that by the spring the OGL 1.2 will be released, most current OGL designers will move away from it and begin supporting other games instead of D&D (and hope against hope those games have or find enough of an audience to keep their sales going), and the D&D wing of the RPG community will continue on as though nothing happened.

And at that point down the line we'll see just how strong the "Never playing D&D so long as WotC owns it!" contingent's resolve actual is.

 

[yukigono]

Other big publishers that are missing from the list include Catalyst Game Labs (Shadowrun, Battletech), White Wolf (World of Darkness, Exalted), and by extension, Onyx Path. I honestly didn’t expect to see either Catalyst or White Wolf there (even though Catalyst are in dire need of fresh ideas). However, I thought Onyx Path would benefit from being part of a more open licence, especially after they have their own D20 line (Pugmire), which was published under OGL 1.0.

Let’s hope it is a “wait for the final version of ORC and OGL” thing.

Catalyst couldn't join ORC even if they wanted to. They don't actually own BattleTech or Shadowrun, they just run the games on license from Topps/Fanatics.

 

[Aspirinsmurf]

So there's a good chance that a lot of their audience have no idea about this OGL thing, because none of them care about any products outside of CR and D&D and the show.

I think that analysis is sound. And it is why I think the "playtest" scheme is disinginuous at best.

 

[Arakhor]

Well, it's not 1990 any more. Whether or not they care about the OGL is another matter, but with YouTube, Twitter, Tiktok and the like all recommending things based on algorithms, I can't imagine that there are many role-players who haven't at least heard of the debacle.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think that analysis is sound. And it is why I think the "playtest" scheme is disinginuous at best.

I don't see how one applies to the other? A lot of CR's fans probably don't even bother looking at the playtest packets?

 

[Aspirinsmurf]

I don't see how one applies to the other? A lot of CR's fans probably don't even bother looking at the playtest packets?

Probably not. But they're very much welcome to.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

It is all about content creation for ONE DND. WotC desperately needs 3PP to do that for them. Otherwise, WotC has to bear the costs of doing it and that then increases the risk of either losing money outright or not getting a larger return. By ending the older OGL, they would be forcing all 3PP to move immediately to making content for ONE DND.

WotC will probably retain its place as Number One, but will the market share decline? They want everyone to stop playing 5e and move quickly to ONE DND. It is not going to be backwards compatible despite their claims. The people running WotC are looking at the short term profits because they stand to make bigger bonuses that way. What does that do for long term profitability? I have no doubt that ONE DND will be profitable, but will it sell what those folks want it to sell in a short time period? It's the corporate greed that is alienating people.

The ORC is being done for good reasons. Paizo and other companies do not want WotC running the industry for them. These companies have shown they can create games and content for audiences and make a profit at it. WotC is threatening that, so hello ORC. What if ONE DND isn't that good? What if there is not much playable content for it? We already know that it is a small base of people who purchase the most 5e materials. If any of them stop buying WotC products, that could add up significantly.

 

[Cergorach]

Obviously, you missed understood what I meant, We were everyone who are opposed to the underhanded grab that Hasbro did, from the sound of it you're trying to downplay the pull "we" have makes me think you're trying to advocate for them and make it appear as if we are not going to affect them when the facts say different in the media and from their responses to the backlash. You can do your best to post disparaging remarks and try and say that "we" can't have an effect on a "big bad corporation" but I say it is obvious we did.

Maybe don't try to determine for the rest of us what we understood or not. No, I understood exactly what you're saying. I'm just saying that you're interpretation of the events is wrong*. 'We' did not convince WotC of anything, certain entities had that pull with WotC/Hasbro, not the 'we' sheep. Entities like the aforementioned 'influencers' and the companies that bigger publishing companies that spoke up against the new OGL, those that were generating a LOT of revenue that WotC/Hasbro wants a piece of. Business news sites that already picked up the Magic: The Gathering issues at WotC/Hasbro, seeing another news cycle of another WotC/Hasbro story. Those kinds of stories affect the stock price for Hasbro, investors start to ask more questions, etc.

When exactly did you buy your last D&D product? I'm guessing that happened in the previous century... Why would WotC/Hasbro even consider listening to non-customers in the first place? I was actually buying D&D product just before all this happened, not directly from WotC, but through their D&D licensees. I scrapped everything D&D from my buy/wishlists, I even scrapped non-D&D products from those licensees from my buy/wishlists and let them know why. I did my part, but I expect that my part isn't exactly effective at all. Nor is your part with shouting shouting the hardest from the rooftops...

You, and many others, overestimate the power of 'we' (the consumer) because 'we' are an inconsistent lot. How many of those people crying the hardest here would have started buying WotC product again in a couple of weeks/months when they forgot their current 'rageout'? 'We' don't really matter in the scheme of things. 'We' don't have the influence you think you have. The people with the actual power made the changes that have been made to date, and those have imho been primarily made from a business perspective and not much else (even though it might certainly have been presented differently). 'We' sheep have been supporting them either by buying their products or giving them power through views...

More then 50 million people apparently play D&D, do you think that the less then 25k petition is representative of those 50 million people? It's less the 0.05% of the player base! In what universe would WotC be swayed by those people, many of which aren't even D&D customers anymore, but OGL customers from other companies...

Of the here mentioned 1500 ORC publishers, less then 5% would even be interesting (and thus relevant) for WotC/Hasbro, then there's all the bigger companies doing their own thing, their own license. I estimate that WotC/Hasbro saw all their expected income sources turn away from the new OGL, add to that bad business news, investors asking questions, upper management asking questions, some people getting thrown on swords, etc. And they blinked, how much they'll blink we'll just have to see...

Even the biggest company on this ORC list is insignificant compared to WotC/Hasbro, all of them combined doesn't make them all that more influential, because most are insignificant. So why would WotC want that money in the first place (they don't even bother with revenue below $750k should already say something) from these companies? Because it's perpetual 'free' money, it goes effectively directly into the profit column. WotC/Hasbro doesn't have to do anything for that (beyond establishing the license for it in the first place).

*Realizing full well that my interpretation of events might be wrong as well. But at least I'm not a bull in a china shop... ;-)