Paizo Announces a New Gaming License Amid Dungeons & Dragons' OGL Controversy

[kyonshi]

https://gizmodo.com/paizo-wizards-of-the-coast-dnd-open-rpg-ogl-1-1-1849982443

Paizo Announces a New Gaming License Amid Dungeons & Dragons' OGL
Controversy

The Pathfinder and Starfinder publisher has finally issued a statement
following a week of news about Wizards of the Coast's updates to the
Open Gaming License.

By Linda Codega

Tabletop roleplaying game company Paizo has released a statement
following the delayed announcement of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming
License 2.0. The company, whose staff includes several former Wizards of
the Coast executives, developers, and lawyers, has announced that it
will be pursuing the creation of a new creative license for third party
developers which it says will be “open, perpetual, and irrevocable.”

This Open RPG Creative License (ORC) is a direct response to the reports
that have come out over the past week about the status of Wizards’
updated Open Gaming License 2.0. Paizo has offered to pay for the legal
work necessary to create this system-agnostic license, however, it
states that it “will not be owned by Paizo, nor will it be owned by any
company who makes money publishing RPGs.” Instead, Azora Law, co-founded
by Brian Lewis (the attorney who developed the legal framework for the
original 2000 OGL at Wizards of the Coast) will “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.” The company hopes to pursue the establishment of a non-profit,
like the Linux Foundation, to hold the final edition of the ORC license.
In order to pursue a more system agnostic and fair license, Paizo states
on the site that it has “a growing list of publishers” that will
participate in the development and expansion of this license. The
companies include some major third-party publishers, including “Kobold
Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and
Battlezoo.” Paizo is actively looking to add to this group of publishers.

[Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha]

And Hasbro has started backpedalling their asses off:

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1423-an-update-on-the-open-game-
license-ogl

https://tinyurl.com/57dteh54

(And they have doubled down on the woke political agenda that they
believe with make them the most money.)

"First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from
being included in hateful and discriminatory products."

But at least:

"Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected."

kyonshi <gmk...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:tprl0n$1k6tb$1...@dont-email.me:

> https://gizmodo.com/paizo-wizards-of-the-coast-dnd-open-rpg-ogl-1

--
Terry Austin

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Quadibloc]

On Friday, January 13, 2023 at 6:06:32 AM UTC-7, gmk...@gmail.com quoted, in part:

> This Open RPG Creative License (ORC) is a direct response to the reports
> that have come out over the past week about the status of Wizards’
> updated Open Gaming License 2.0.

> The
> companies include some major third-party publishers, including “Kobold
> Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and
> Battlezoo.” Paizo is actively looking to add to this group of publishers.

It's all very well that a number of rules systems will be available under this
new license.

I could be wrong, but my perception was that what a lot of game publishers
would have liked was being able to license the _original_ Dungeons & Dragons
rules from way back when, not AD&D 5.0, 4.0, or even 3.5.

And so the OGL was intended to encourage people developing scenarios to
develop them in the form that would promote the sale of TSR's _current_
products.

Now, Chaosium publishes Basic Role-Playing, and the people at Basic Fantasy
are working on a new editiion of that game that will be available under a Creative
Commons license (the existing one is based on AD&D 3.5 under the OGL,
although, like DCC, also now one of those that are involved in the ORC, it's
modified to be more like the earlier versions of the game), so perhaps there
will be options available in this direction.

John Savard