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.

 

[FoolishFrost]

Well no, there are a few options before that. 3pp would have been better served getting together and negotiating an alternative. We understand why you want to do it, but we think we can work with you to do it better. The law is uncertain and none of us want to go to court so let’s agree where we can move.

You want 20% royalties over $750k because you want a cut of successful products that use your IP then fine - it needs to be 5% above $750k increasing to 20% at $2m.

You want to be able to change the terms at any time - okay that doesn’t work for us. It needs to factor in minimum periods, protect existing products and allow for at least 12 months notice.

You want rights to use our work to avoid getting sued. Fine, but you also need to provide a system for arbitration where work is recognized and highlighted to ensure proper credit is given.

The negotiation may still happen (my gut feeling is it probably will, with at least some of the big players) and all this posturing is just each side shoring up their negotiating position. A chunk of the fan base having collective apoplexy is a pretty stark overreaction in those circumstances.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but were they not give the contracts cold, and given until the 13th to sign? That was the data points I was given.

 

[Staffan]

The more I think about this, the more I hope that Paizo finds a way to grandfather Open Game Content from the Open Game License v1.0a into the ORC License. I have no idea if that's possible at all, if they'd need WotC to be onboard somehow, or what it would otherwise entail, but there's just so much that can't (or likely won't) be able to make the jump from the OGL to the ORC if they don't.

I'm no lawyer, but I don't see any way they can do that.

The OGL is fundamentally about giving. Yes, there are considerations as well, but the point is that the one releasing things under the OGL gives others the right to use that material under some circumstances. There is no way someone else could write a document taking those rights under other circumstances.

 

[TheSword]

I for one look forward to the post-WotC RPG industry. D&D as a brand can burn.

Yeah you sound like this guy…

MUST SEE: Warhammer Player Burns Army!!!

Don't try this at home! One wargamer takes his opinions to the extreme with fiery results!

www.belloflostsouls.net

 

[payn]

Well no, there are a few options before that. 3pp would have been better served getting together and negotiating an alternative. We understand why you want to do it, but we think we can work with you to do it better. The law is uncertain and none of us want to go to court so let’s agree where we can move.

You want 20% royalties over $750k because you want a cut of successful products that use your IP then fine - it needs to be 5% above $750k increasing to 20% at $2m.

You want to be able to change the terms at any time - okay that doesn’t work for us. It needs to factor in minimum periods, protect existing products and allow for at least 12 months notice.

You want rights to use our work to avoid getting sued. Fine, but you also need to provide a system for arbitration where work is recognized and highlighted to ensure proper credit is given.

The negotiation may still happen (my gut feeling is it probably will, with at least some of the big players) and all this posturing is just each side shoring up their negotiating position. A chunk of the fan base having collective apoplexy is a pretty stark overreaction in those circumstances.

None of this addresses that wizbros can pull the rug at anytime, or claim your work. I believe the reasonable negotiations left at the start. Folks want out from under wizbros and I don’t blame them.

 

[Steel_Wind]

For me, I think what will come from this is the actual "6e" I wanted, not the slightly 5.5 updated version D&D that WotC planned, but it will come from one (or more) of the other extremely talented developers. EDIT: And I would be perfectly happy is a core PHB focused on levels 1-10 and left 11-20 for a separate power mod. I don't know the stats, but I think a small percentage of D&D games actually dip into the high levels.

To be fair, I think you'll be getting both. 6e from WotC, and 5.5 under the OGL/ORC from somebody else.

 

[TheSword]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but were they not give the contracts cold, and given until the 13th to sign? That was the data points I was given.

So, that doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions and negotiate an alternative - if you have the leverage to do that. The proposed contract is a starting point.

Now if you don’t have any leverage then make a decision, sign or not.

What I’m seeing on these boards is lots of claims that 3pp have all the leverage that they are in the position of strength. So why isn’t it be used to secure alternatives… ether because it isn’t as strong as people think it is or they aren’t willing to negotiate.

 

[Branduil]

I agree. I think we will.

Let's just say I don't think it would be a wise business decision.

You can't build a business around hoping that a 9 billion dollar company remains chastened forever and doesn't sue you and make an example to shut all that down whenever down the line. ORC doesn't change that reality if you make a 5e clone.

But yeah, I think we'll see that or near enough.

I would actually be surprised if WotC initiated a lawsuit which had the potential to go really, really badly for them if it becomes a defining case for limiting the copyrights of TTRPGs, in addition to further demolishing their brand. But then again I did not think they would do all of the stupid and self-destructive things they have done for the past month.

 

[Reynard]

To be fair, I think you'll be getting both. 6e from WotC, and 5.5 under the OGL/ORC from somebody else.

I think shifting course and making major changes for 1D&D would be a very risky maneuver for WotC -- especially if Kobold is sitting there waiting to take up Paizo's mantle. I don't imagine risk is something high on WotC's list right now.

 

[gweinel]

I think it’s very worthy of Paizo to pay for the legal fees to set up the license but they aren’t actually changing the circumstances for most 3pp. They are saying that PF2 is open, but it always has been. The take up hasn’t been great because 5e has always been so much popular.

If 5-6 small publishers each release their own game systems distanced from D&D then I am sorry to say I foresee a divide and conquer issue. None of those game systems will become big enough to sustain the community and commentary that 5e does and so the streamers, influencers, you-tubers, blogs? Websites will have to stay with 5e to maintain and grow the audiences they need. Those games become as relevant as the myriad of systems out there now that you struggle to get anyone to talk about (my own preferred WFRP included)

But why? I have a different approach on this. I see ORC a wanna be big umbrella that will shelter many SRDs and many systems. We may have a d100 from Basic Roleplaying of Chaosium, a d20 based system on Paizo's Pathfinder and so on.
I think its purpose will based in diversity and in a multitude of systems than to a system that will antagonize dnd. The strength of such license will be the choices, the freedom that you can choose and play almost whatever system you like.
Is there something that I am missing? I see it wrong?

 

[TheSword]

None of this addresses that wizbros can pull the rug at anytime, or claim your work. I believe the reasonable negotiations left at the start. Folks want out from under wizbros and I don’t blame them.

It was addressed in my second point. You agree time limits, notice periods and protected products.

They are entitled to want out. Wanting to take WotC’s IP with them is a different matter.

‘Mechanics can’t be Copyrighted’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting in these arguments. It sounds like a crapshoot to me.