Pathfinder OGL/3.5 RPG system from Paizo

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Right - Basic D&D competed with AD&D through several versions, but this is the first time that the companies will be different.

Ah! Okay, that makes sense.

 

[buzz]

FWIW, I was mulling this thread over last night, and spawned a new thread about some related thoughts.

As for this thread, my position is now this: Rock on, Paizo. I'll be back in '09 to see where Pathfinder ends up.

 

[Ripzerai]

It's the range of d20 products as a whole - with all the innovation and diversity that all the various companies have built, and all that can yet be made, the sort of thing that ENWorld has always been built around - that's useful to keep and support and develop. It's good to know that someone's going to be supporting something that you can still use the Book of Eldritch Might with, for example. It's good to know there's going to be a campaign setting where we might expect to see monsters from all the open-content bestiaries that have been published in the last seven years. It's even better to know that some of the monsters, feats, classes, and so on from all these d20 books in all their richness and creativity will be modified freely, improved and expanded upon. The d20 system can be a living, breathing, evolving entity. It's what it was intended to be, but Wizards never really took advantage of third-party innovations. It's exciting to know there's a company that can.

WotC's strategy makes sense for them. If they don't periodically make all their old stuff obsolete, they have a diminishing number of things they can sell people. Their best sellers are things like Complete Warrior, but Complete Warrior II is inevitably not going to do so well. As people have the books they need, they have less reason to buy new things. So it's in WotC's best interest to, every five years or so, come up with a new system that's so awesome that it's worth it for you to throw your earlier stuff away, with the knowledge that in another five years they'll be talking about how horrible 4e was and aren't we glad that 5e's finally coming along to save us all.

Paizo has a different business model. People always need new adventure paths, even if they're holding tightly to their copies of Races of Stone or The Book of Hallowed Might or The Assassin's Handbook and don't need new versions of those things. At the same time, they can still take this opportunity to make backwards-compatible improvements to the rules. In theory, they could come out with a new rulebook every year, updated with all the latest d20 bells and whistles, and you could use it or not, and the adventure paths would still be perfectly usable in your game. That's the ideal, anyway.

In a fully open system, other d20 companies could embrace this standard and continue to improve on it. It'll likely be a smaller market share than D&D, but it's one with real advantages. It's like the difference between Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, or Windows and Linux. It's what the OGL was made for, even if WotC never knew it.

 

[Gallo22]

I've said it in the recent past and I'll say it again, Paizo is what WotC use to be or should be.

I'm very excited about this!

THANKS PAIZO!!!

 

[DM_Jeff]

I've said it in the recent past and I'll say it again, Paizo is what WotC use to be or should be.

Indeed, they already are in my house! At least if you count the fact that my gaming budget has completely switched companies, yes. Someone sticking with 3.5 was all I asked. Who thought wishes came true?

-DM Jeff

 

[JoshuaFrost]

Too bad. Are you guys going to do anything equivelant to the SRD? Or is the SRD the best we will get for free?

Tree, I don't want to ignore your question but I don't yet have an answer for you. This is something we've only vaguely discussed. I'll bring it up in our next meeting.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Indeed, they already are in my house! At least if you count the fact that my gaming budget has completely switched companies, yes. Someone sticking with 3.5 was all I asked. Who thought wishes came true?

-DM Jeff

Odd, now that you mention it. I haven't been making a conscious effort to buy company X over company Y, I've just been buying what appeals to me as a gamer. My gaming budget has been getting spent on Pathfinder and some PDFs for the past year or so (and before some smart alec points it out, yes, I know Pathfinder hasn't been around for a year yet). My last few purchases have been Pathfinder#7, ENPub's War of the Burning Sky 1-9, Dawning Star Quick Launch and Helios Rising, and RDP's Alien Invasion.

 

[Ripzerai]

It seems to me that there are two completely different problems this addresses:

1. The desire to still have new adventures you could use with Relics & Rituals or Tome of Magic or Goodman Games Guide to Rakshasa or whatever with.

2. The desire to continue the Open Gaming movement, the idea that there's a commonly used ruleset that you can turn into Arcana Unearthed or Mutants & Masterminds as easily as City of Brass. There are other open systems, of course, but nothing that's been played with by so many people as the OGL. 4e won't be completely open, and that's a bigger deal to some people than the particulars of the rules. Just having the right to post the OGL in HTML format on a web page without subscribing to D&D Online is a huge added value, more important in my mind than the particulars of what a fighter's powers are or how many hit points a first level wizard has.

The idea of Open Gaming has been so important to ENWorld for so long that I'm surprised it's not a deal-breaker for more of the community here.

 

[Psion]

It seems to me that there are two completely different problems this addresses:

1. The desire to still have new adventures you could use with Relics & Rituals or Tome of Magic or Goodman Games Guide to Rakshasa or whatever with.

2. The desire to continue the Open Gaming movement, the idea that there's a commonly used ruleset that you can turn into Arcana Unearthed or Mutants & Masterminds as easily as City of Brass. There are other open systems, of course, but nothing that's been played with by so many people as the OGL. 4e won't be completely open, and that's a bigger deal to some people than the particulars of the rules. Just having the right to post the OGL in HTML format on a web page without subscribing to D&D Online is a huge added value, more important in my mind than the particulars of what a fighter's powers are or how many hit points a first level wizard has.

Ayup.

There's a thread over on that forum trying to draw parallels between the 2e-3e transition an the 3e-4e transition. I think point #2 speaks to what I was overlooking in that thread as a major difference.

To wit: Rob Repp. Anyone remember this character? At the time, there was a budding body of AD&D fansites, but Mr. Repp as the TSR web rep went and started sending cease and desist letters to ISPs, and many sites came down, the only alternative being some ill maintained web community that had TSR's blessing.

When the OGL was announced, the idea of a license that implicitly allowed and validated fan sites (and third party producers) was a welcome shift in direction. The creative community flourished, and people could feel safe in sharing their worlds and settings.

Now, we are on the eve of an opposite trend. The GSL is here, and it's a more traditional license. No guarantees for fansites. Yes, most rational companies won't take that approach these day, but you never know. Just today, I heard that White Wolf made an exalted fansite take charm cards down.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Tree, I don't want to ignore your question but I don't yet have an answer for you. This is something we've only vaguely discussed. I'll bring it up in our next meeting.

I apologize if this has been posted and I missed it, but will Paizo be allowing other companies to officially support for the system via some sort of licensed logo (like d20)?