Paizo commits to legal battle against Wizards of the Coast over Pathfinder and D&D

Paizo is the creators of The Paizo. Pathfinder Starfinder role-playing games, has committed itself to a legal battle against Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. Redmond, Washington’s company said that its products would be removed from the Open Gaming License (OGL) in a late Thursday statement. Wizards is likely to modify or withdraw this license soon.

The OGL was developed and refined in the leadup to D&D’s 3rd edition, and has been in place for some 20 years. It is part of the legal framework by which creators like Paizo have been able to build their own tabletop RPG companies alongside Wizards’ own brand. In December, Wizards said it would be updating the OGL with increased specificity — that it would only apply to written content and static digital files (like PDFs), and that creators would be required to report related earnings back to Wizards on an annual basis. But many have interpreted the repeal of the OGL as an existential threat to non-D&D games like Pathfinder.

“Paizo does not believe that the OGL 1.0a can be ‘deauthorized,’ ever,” Paizo said in its statement. “While we are prepared to argue that point in a court of law if need be, we don’t want to have to do that, and we know that many of our fellow publishers are not in a position to do so.

“We have no interest whatsoever in Wizards’ new OGL,” it continued. “Instead, we have a plan that we believe will irrevocably and unquestionably keep alive the spirit of the Open Game License.”

Azora Law is developing the Open RPG Creative License. This license, commonly known as ORC (or Open RPG Creative License), is being developed by Azora Law. Azora Law represents Paizo, and other affiliated game publishers. According to Paizo, Azora co-founder attorney Brian Lewis “was the attorney at Wizards who came up with the legal framework for the OGL itself.”

“Paizo will pay for this legal work,” the company said. “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.”

The statement goes on to say that no one gaming company will own the ORC, but that it will be up to Azora Law to take “ownership of the process” and provide “stewardship” in order to create “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,” Paizo concludes, “we plan to find a nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license (such as the Linux Foundation).”

Paizo will cover the costs, however, small publishers like Green Ronin and Roll for Combat have also backed the ORC. Polygon reached out to Paizo for clarification. He confirmed that Kobold Press (Green Ronin), Legendary Games and Roll for Combat as well as Chaosium, Rogue Genius Games and Roll for Combat have all supported the effort. Paizo stated that additional publishers are starting to reach out.

Wizards has remained silent since Friday morning. This is more than just a weakness after a draft OGL was released to the media.