Paizo, publisher of the Pathfinder role-playing game, has announced a new Open Game License and threatened legal action against Wizards Of The Coast.
This happened after the Dungeons & Dragons publisher tried to change its existing Open Game License (OGL), which was created in 2000. A publicly available copyright document allows any developers of tabletop role-playing games to modify, copy and distribute content intended for Dungeon. and dragon games.
However, last week it became known that Wizards Of The Coast intend to change the original version of OGL, which allegedly will make the previous version “unauthorized” and introduce rules according to which anyone who earns money using a product created on the basis of OGL will have to report income. to Wizards Of The Coast.
The decision to try to monetize this long-standing agreement caused a negative reaction from fans. In response, Wizards Of The Coast completely removed the document from their website.
Now Paizo, the publisher of the OGL-based Pathfinder tabletop role-playing game, has announced that it is ready to sue the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons.
“Paizo does not believe that OGL 1.0a can ever be ‘deauthorized’,” Paizo said in a statement (via Polygon). “While we are prepared to challenge this point in court if necessary, we do not want to do so, and we know that many of our fellow publishers are not in a position to do so.”
“We have absolutely no interest in the new OGL Wizards,” he continued. “Instead, we have a plan that we believe will irrevocably and indisputably preserve the spirit of the Open Game License,” Paizo announces the creation of its own OGL, which is called the Open RPG Creative License (OPC).
OPC is currently being developed by Azora Law. According to Paizo, Azora co-founder Brian Lewis “was the Wizards attorney who developed the legal framework for OGL itself.”
We have announced a plan for a system neutral open RPG license in collaboration with other game companies. We believe it will irrevocably and unquestionably keep alive the spirit of the Open Game License. Learn more:https://t.co/uQNKiz0wzv #OpenRPG #pathfinder2e #starfinder pic.twitter.com/JJOW9DiioO
— Paizo (@paizo) January 12, 2023
Paizo pays for legal work, but will not own ORC. Azora Law is designed to provide “governance” until a non-profit organization with a history of working with open source licenses is found.
“We invite game publishers from all over the world to join us in supporting this system-independent license, which allows all games to provide their own unique reference documents with open rules that open their individual game systems to the whole world,” Paizo continued.
According to Paizo, companies such as Kobold Press, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Roll for Combat, Rogue Genius Games and Chaosium support this initiative, and more and more publishers are turning to it. Wizards Of The Coast has not yet commented on the situation.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Wizards Of The Coast were going to cancel five unannounced games, but one studio working on the project with them denied that their project was affected, despite reports saying the opposite.
In other news, it should be noted that the Hogwarts Legacy Steam release will include the controversial anti-piracy software Denuvo.
