Paizo Announces New Irrevocable Open RPG License To Replace the OGL

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Paizo, the maker of Pathfinder, has just announced a new open license for use with RPGs. The license will not be owned by Paizo - or by any TTRPG company, and will be stewarded by Azora Law, a company which represents several tabletop gaming companies, until it finds its home with an independent non-profit. This new license is designed to be irrevocable.

We believe, as we always have, that open gaming makes games better, improves profitability for all involved, and enriches the community of gamers who participate in this amazing hobby. And so we invite gamers from around the world to join us as we begin the next great chapter of open gaming with the release of a new open, perpetual, and irrevocable Open RPG Creative License (ORC).

The new Open RPG Creative License will be built system agnostic for independent game publishers under the legal guidance of Azora Law, an intellectual property law firm that represents Paizo and several other game publishers. Paizo will pay for this legal work. We invite game publishers worldwide to join us in support of this system-agnostic license that allows all games to provide their own unique open rules reference documents that open up their individual game systems to the world. To join the effort and provide feedback on the drafts of this license, please sign up by using this form.

In addition to Paizo, Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and a growing list of publishers have already agreed to participate in the Open RPG Creative License, and in the coming days we hope and expect to add substantially to this group.

The ORC will not be owned by Paizo, nor will it be owned by any company who makes money publishing RPGs. Azora Law’s ownership of the process and stewardship should provide a safe harbor against any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license. Ultimately, we plan to find a nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license (such as the Linux Foundation).

Read more on Paizo's blog.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Or drag Paizo through years of litigation until they go bankrupt.

Yeah you can't just choose to do that.

I know people like to think the legal system, especially of the US is corrupt, money wins and all that, but you cannot just say "I will keep you court forever!" over something like an IP dispute. Judges get really mad with you if you start pissing them around or wasting the court's time.

The stuff that stays in courts forever is stuff like incredibly complex chemical contamination litigation cases.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Player says “I got a 36” (14 on D20 + 12 attack modifier). I say, enemy has -3 ac for bring flanked and frightened 1 which makes its AC 26, that’s a critical hit.” High fives all around.

uh...that'd be an attack roll of 26, and would have to be against an AC of 16 (after penalties) for it to crit. typo?

 

[Charlaquin]

modifer (i say "usually" because the alchemist exists), and status is almost always specifically applied by an ability, but circumstance modifiers come up a lot.

Makes sense. As mentioned earlier, I think you could make this a lot more 5e-fan-friendly by making circumstance mod a DM-facing part of setting the DC, and replacing status mod with a dis/advantage-like mechanic. Heck, seems like a variant that could theoretically be published under ORC, assuming PF2 itself gets ORC-ified.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Right, so it isn’t actually that the system requires less math, it’s that the math it does require is easier to automate. Convenient if you’re using such software, but not really relevant for folks who stick to pen and paper at a physical table.

I don't disagree with you about that; although I think the "Mathfinder" rep with PF2 is nowhere even close to the issue as compared to 5e that people think it is. They are really quite remarkably similar in terms of math that is actually applied during play.

If you are using a Foundry character sheet to play via pen and paper at a physical tqable (yes, you can do this; you can print a FVTT PF2 Char sheet on old fashioned paper -- damned slick char sheet, too) all of the issues in derived bonuses re abilities, attacks etc fade into the background, too. The system does everything for you and your players. You just play.

But why would I spend $50 as a one time purchase to use FVTT as a slick character generator that implements every one of the PF2 1.0a OGL rulebooks for free?

[Insert Blink, Blink meme]

Anyways, at least now you know.

 

[Charlaquin]

Player says “I got a 36” (14 on D20 + 12 attack modifier). I say, enemy has -3 ac for bring flanked and frightened 1 which makes its AC 26, that’s a critical hit.” High fives all around.

uh...that'd be an attack roll of 26, and would have to be against an AC of 16 (after penalties) for it to crit. typo?

Yeah… this is the stuff I really don’t miss from the pre-5e days…

 

[GMforPowergamers]

How does any of this matter if WotC goes ahead and says that Pathfinder is released under an unauthorized version of the OGL?

Without open systems worth publishing for, what use is the license?

nobody knows if they CAN stop PF2 from publishing... if they can that means Piazo still needs to raise money and create a new system. However if you read this isn't a Pathfinder license. This is and Open License so Fate Fudge and some others can all sign on and put there own SRDs up under it.

Now up until now I have said If I were advising Piazo I would suggest they not pick this fight However it now looks like it is more the concept, the very thought of the OGL they want to fight for. So if Money is not there prime motivation, then they will atleast try to keep PF2 without WotC from shutting them down.

I assumed that the money was the bottom line (even if you are not greedy money is nice to pay mortgages and eat and silly stuff like that) but it appears that for them this is a principle

 

[Abstruse]

There's one bit in this announcement that I think is rather important:

Paizo does not believe that the OGL 1.0a can be “deauthorized,” ever. While we are prepared to argue that point in a court of law if need be, we don’t want to have to do that, and we know that many of our fellow publishers are not in a position to do so.

It looks like Paizo's thrown down the gauntlet and is ready to foot the bill for a court fight if Wizards of the Coast does follow through on the alleged plans to completely revoke the OGL v1.0a.

Oh and side note: I chatted a bit with John Nephew of Atlas Games and he said he's also interested in the ORC License to release the WaRP System (from Over the Edge) and previously said on social media he planned to release Ars Magica under an open license as well (before the ORC announcement).

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah you can't just choose to do that.

I know people like to think the legal system, especially of the US is corrupt, money wins and all that, but you cannot just say "I will keep you court forever!" over something like an IP dispute. Judges get really mad with you if you start pissing them around or wasting the court's time.

The stuff that stays in courts forever is stuff like incredibly complex chemical contamination litigation cases.

People like to say this, but history shows something different with TSR and Mayfair, TSR and GDW. Neither Mayfair nor GDW lost the lawsuit, but both were effectively hobbled by the law suits, taking away time and money to release product and so both settled with TSR, ending further plans.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Yeah… this is the stuff I really don’t miss from the pre-5e days…

...typos?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

People like to say this, but history shows something different with TSR and Mayfair, TSR and GDW. Neither Mayfair nor GDW lost the lawsuit, but both were effectively hobbled by the law suits, taking away time and money to release product and so both settled with TSR, ending further plans.

that was 25 30 years ago, maybe the courts are better now?