Pathfinder 2E Paizo Officially Supporting Foundry, Free Content Ending

[kenada]

Just wait until the foundry team decides that an official WoTC license and ability to actually sell WoTC material is the thing to do and all the “free” options are ended there as well.

Foundry isn’t doing this or any of the D&D support. Unlike roll20, you can actually produce and sell your own content for Foundry. From what I understand, the D&D stuff provided by the community already has for-pay aspects to it.

 

[kenada]

Just want to say that I'm not the cheapskate some of you are trying to portray me as being. I will gladly pay for content.
I just don't feel like dancing, making kissing videos, and being a complete corporate fanboy because Paizo has announced that they are going to start charging a premium for something we used to get for free. You know, I'm not going to celebrate just for the chance to give Paizo money. For something I was already getting.

What’s the alternative? Someone else step up to work for free on your behalf? That’s pretty damn entitled.

It's like if your friends had a nice public access TV show they were filming in their basement and they decided to stop doing it (because it's honestly, a lot of work). And then Noah's Arcade comes in to buy it and sell you the episodes, more slickly produced by Rob Lowe. But then Rob Lowe steals your girlfriend, who is a totally rad rocker gal.
So I'm not going to cheer for Rob Lowe, you know what I mean?

This is a terrible analogy.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

Foundry isn’t doing this or any of the D&D support. Unlike roll20, you can actually produce and sell your own content for Foundry. From what I understand, the D&D stuff provided by the community already has for-pay aspects to it.

You cannot sell anything not OGL-based. So none of the WoTC material. That is what is happening now for Pathfinder 2 - now that official material is available the “free” material is going away.

Foundry does not have a license from WoTC, so they cannot sell official materials. Do not confuse that with automating the rules.

 

[Nilbog]

So the free conversion module is stopping? So now you have the option of converting the pdf yourself, or paying extra for a more advanced official version (with I assume a decent level of support for bugs etc)

While it sucks that you lose something you took advantage of, I don't believe the remaining options are that bad.

For me it's great news, I'm a forever pf2e DM, who is itching to play the game, and my players excuse has always been they don't have the free time to create all the foundry stuff, and they wouldn't use the free module as they said it was too complicated and still left work to be done. No excuse now! Still I'll expect they'll find another one

 

[kenada]

You cannot sell anything not OGL-based. So none of the WoTC material. That is what is happening now for Pathfinder 2 - now that official material is available the “free” material is going away.

No, that’s not what happened. The developer stopped and then Paizo stepped in. He’s not being prevented by Foundry or Paizo from continuing work on his converter. He’s decided not to do APs and adventures anymore because it’s turning into being too much like a job. He’s still going to be doing smaller stuff like modules. Paizo is now going to provide that missing content (and more, it sounds like), but they want paid for the job.

Foundry does not have a license from WoTC, so they cannot sell official materials. Do not confuse that with automating the rules.

You speculated about Foundry’s signing a license with WotC and ending the unofficial support that exists now. Again, that’s not how Foundry works. The unofficial support that’s available, which includes a D&D Beyond importer, is all developed and hosted by third-parties. The Foundry devs could try blocking it on the official package list, but users would still be able to find it via third-party sites like Foundry Hub or by installing directly from the manifest.

Even if WotC did decide to sell premium content on Foundry, I doubt Foundry itself would have anything to do with that. Premium content is also developed and hosted by third parties. As far as I can tell from the license, they don’t even take a cut. It’s very creator-friendly compared to e.g., mobile software ecosystems and the roll20 marketplace.

 

[kenada]

There’s a really good post over on the PF2 subreddit explaining what happened: .

A few things to note:

• The development of premium PF2 content for Foundry and FryGuy’s stopping development happened independently. My characterization was not correct, but neither is it correct to say that Paizo is killing free content.
• Foundry got more involved than I expected. They’re moving the PF2 community repo into their own GitLab repo, but it will remain community-driven.
• The first premium content will be available this Saturday.
• Foundry posted a FAQ on their site.

 

[JThursby]

Foundry got more involved than I expected. They’re moving the PF2 community repo into their own GitLab repo, but it will remain community-driven.

There's a reason for this. Here's a chart the PF2e Foundry team put out to show just how ridiculously large the code base has gotten:

The scale at which new code and updates to code is done in the system rivals that of Foundry itself. Foundry having the GitLab repo accomplishes a few things:

• It assures Paizo that Foundry has a stake in the continued maintenance of the PF2e system implementation by assuming responsibility for it. I imagine Paizo did not want another VTT partner to treat their system as abandonware after Roll20 botched things. Foundry assuming nominal responsibility while keeping all the community devs in charge is a best of both worlds scenario.
• It allows the PF2e devs to work more closely with Foundry for updates and maintenance. With a huge amount of code this is a non-trivial task, every extra bit of coordination helps.
• It creates a pipeline for community devs to hear about future Paizo partnership products and do paid commission work for it. Paizo can order a VTT version of an AP from Foundry and provide assets like art and music, and Foundry will hire devs from the community to create the maps, npcs, etc. Empassioned devs do a good job and get paid, Foundry keeps everything working and gets paid, Paizo makes the original APs and gets paid, everybody wins.

 

[kenada]

It creates a pipeline for community devs to hear about future Paizo partnership products and do paid commission work for it. Paizo can order a VTT version of an AP from Foundry and provide assets like art and music, and Foundry will hire devs from the community to create the maps, npcs, etc. Empassioned devs do a good job and get paid, Foundry keeps everything working and gets paid, Paizo makes the original APs and gets paid, everybody wins.

Does it? According to the reddit post, Sigil Entertainment is involved. I assume they are handling the conversions while leveraging the community contributions to the system. It would certainly be nice if Paizo or someone could kick some funds back towards those devs because they are doing good work for nothing right now.

 

[JThursby]

Does it? According to the reddit post, Sigil Entertainment is involved. I assume they are handling the conversions while leveraging the community contributions to the system. It would certainly be nice if Paizo or someone could kick some funds back towards those devs because they are doing good work for nothing right now.

We know that Sigil worked with Narchy of NarchyMaps to create the battle maps for the current three VTT projects. You're right in that it isn't solely community devs working on the project, but we've already seen one of the biggest names of the PF2e community become a part of the official process.

 

[dave2008]

What’s the alternative? Someone else step up to work for free on your behalf? That’s pretty damn entitled.

Yes, that is what I've been thinking the whole time. I earnestly hope Retreater is OK. His posts seem to be getting grumpier and grumpier. I know I have had a hard time in the pandemic and I see some of my troubles in his posts. I hope your doing well @Retreater, and if not, that you get the help you need. I'm struggling with that myself.