Paizo Announces New Irrevocable Open RPG License To Replace the OGL

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...

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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.
 

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BrokenTwin

Biological Disaster
I'm really curious to see what (if any) SRDs are going to be in ORC to entice people to create things in its ecosystem.
Regardless of whether WotC regains their footing after this, it will be nice to see an actually open license out there that isn't controlled by a for-profit company.
 


rknop

Hero
I'm really curious to see what (if any) SRDs are going to be in ORC to entice people to create things in its ecosystem.
Regardless of whether WotC regains their footing after this, it will be nice to see an actually open license out there that isn't controlled by a for-profit company.
Quibble -- there will be no SRD's in ORC.

ORC will be a license, totally detached from any given rules set.

People who release rules sets or SRD can choose to release them under the ORC if they wish.

I suspect that Paizo will announce that Pathfinder 2e (and also Starfinder?) SRDs are available under the ORC at the same time as the ORC is released, but we'll see.
 


DMZ2112

Chaotic Looseleaf
It'd never happen, but wow it would be funny if wotc ended up adopting Paizo's OGL 😂 (I reeeally dislike the acronym "ORC" though - just silly 🙄)

I am a massive fan if only for the logo possibilities and the deliberate departure from a meaningless stuffed shirt Mister Business Esquire language acronyms previously applied.
I quite enjoy the veiled implication that this is a raid. :giggle:
 

overgeeked

B/X Known World
I'm really curious to see what (if any) SRDs are going to be in ORC to entice people to create things in its ecosystem.
Regardless of whether WotC regains their footing after this, it will be nice to see an actually open license out there that isn't controlled by a for-profit company.
The list of game companies who've signed up to help is long and impressive. Here's to hoping at least the big names put their stuff out under the ORC.
 

DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
At this point it seems like what companies shouldn't be doing is getting together to release a Pathfiver (or whatever other name you want to give it). Because isn't that just acknowledging that all people really want is to just play D&D? They want to play "D&D" without playing actual D&D. Seems to me that is giving a whole bunch of advertising to the game and company that everyone is trying to break away from, isn't it?

At some point shouldn't people just make a clean break, rather than try and hang on to a vestigial limb of a game they now hate?
 

BrokenTwin

Biological Disaster
Quibble -- there will be no SRD's in ORC.

ORC will be a license, totally detached from any given rules set.

People who release rules sets or SRD can choose to release them under the ORC if they wish.

I suspect that Paizo will announce that Pathfinder 2e (and also Starfinder?) SRDs are available under the ORC at the same time as the ORC is released, but we'll see.
Normally I'd call that correction extremely pedantic (you know what I meant), but given the amount of legal jargon flying around this forum as of late, I actually kind of appreciate it, haha.
I rather hope they do release a PF2 SRD under ORC and not have to go with a "PF2.5/3" to get away from the OGL and invalidate a bunch of people's purchases. Given that they're currently offering a sale on the core PF2 books though, I'd say they're either going for the former or risking being next on the chopping block with the latter.
 

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