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.

 

[Matchstick]

Oh, I didn't see Pinnacle. Do you have a link, or was it just something they talked about on their live stream earlier?

It's in the Savage Universe Licensee Open House video on YouTube.

SavageUniverse: Licensee Open House

Savage Universe is THE place to find out about all of Pinnacle’s partners, including Aces, the Savage Worlds Adventure Guild, Translators, the Media Network,...

www.youtube.com

Scroll ahead in the video to 1:08:38 or so. Also, a minute or two past that Shane says they aren't anticipating any trouble with Savage Pathfinder. Excellent video BTW, Pinnacle has some big plans to support and encourage creators that they work with.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Out of curiosity, how does it run without a VTT? Is there less math if all you have is your brain to do the calculations for you?

In terms of character gen? Significantly more complicated that 5e -- but 5e is uhm... well... on the simplistic side if it's vanilla core 5e. If you are playing with whistles on, Tasha and Xanathar's? More similar, but PF2 is still more complicated there. It's not as granular as PF1 though.

I do honestly recommend FVTT as a character gen. Pathbuilder and Wanderer's Guide are also good. I think HLO is awful and a waste of money. I spent a fair bit there, too. With PF1, Herolab was essential. With PF2 -- HLO is setting money on fire to no particular purpose, imo. [To be clear, with HLO, it really isn't just the money. I owned all of it before I quit PF2. It's worse than that -- not only is it expensive, it's non-intuitive, difficult to use, and just... underwhelming.]

But in terms of combat flow at the table? Not much different at all, really. They each have their quirks, but it's quite close in most respects. The new action economy in PF2 is really quite good; I prefer that aspect of it to 5e and yes, I do think it's simple to learn and use in that regard.

AoOs in PF2 are different, in the sense that not many classes (or monsters) actually get one. It's an ability to be able to take an Opp attack. If you don't have it, you don't get it. At low to mid-level, few do other than fighters (and even then).

 

[payn]

Out of curiosity, how does it run without a VTT? Is there less math if all you have is your brain to do the calculations for you?

Its not the math that can bog down tabletop, its often a simple + or minus 1 or 2 to your character sheet stats. Its knowing the conditions that riggers the relief and causes the escalation. Its a little daunting at first but once you run them all it gets easier.

 

[Umbran]

Not to put pressure on him, but a major factor is probably that Morrus is asleep

Also, maybe Paizo didn't talk to Morrus before making this announcement?

 

[mamba]

Generally these CC licenses forbid making a profit when borrowing from CC-licensed content.

no, there are a plethora of licenses to choose from, both allowing commercial use or not

I assume the main issue is that they have no provision for PI / ways to include or exclude parts of your work

 

[humble minion]

Also, maybe Paizo didn't talk to Morrus before making this announcement?

Or maybe Morrus's lawyer has been off sick and has been unable to offer advice the last few days. there could be any number of things happening.

Let's not pick on any of the third party creators over this if we can. From Morrus to Mercer, they all have their own legal/contractual/commercial situations to deal with, they're not the ones who've caused this whole issue, and I bet they all fervently wish it had never happened.

 

[Thaumaturge]

If Paizo had a lite rules system I'd definitely jump ship. Maybe as mentioned above this gives everyone what they want. WotC/Hasbro gets to lock down their game. Everyone else gets an open license to invest in. It could be a win win. Still baffling how WotC dropped the ball. All they had to do was walk all this back and not change anything, ya know make a statement. Almost feels like the mid 2000s lol

Thoughts on the Cypher System? They have their own open license, SRD, and are more rules light than 5e.

Thaumaturge.

 

[JEB]

Oh, I didn't see Pinnacle. Do you have a link, or was it just something they talked about on their live stream earlier?

Can't find a link offhand, but it was mentioned in one of the approximately 20,000 threads on the OGL here. I think it was on their livestream.

EDIT: Never mind, @Matchstick's got you covered. (Thanks!)

 

[Yaarel]

no, there are a plethora of licenses to choose from, both allowing commercial use or not

I assume the main issue is that they have no provision for PI / ways to include or exclude parts of your work

For example, here is a brief summary from CreativeCommons.org website.

"
CC BY-SA: This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.

"

The OGL 1.0a doesnt force you to make your modifications Open Content.

All Open Content that you contribute is voluntary.

Others of course can continue to borrow the same Open Content you did.

 

[kerleth]

Seeing as the overwhelming majority of Dnd's identity is based on other "intellectual property", I think a reference to one of it's big inspirations fits very well here. I present to you a historical reenactment of the response of the 3PP community, of this very moment in time, from the future!