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

Paizo, Creator of scout and star finder Roleplaying Games, has engaged in a legal battle with Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. In a statement released Jan. 12 by the Redmond, Washington-based company announced that it would remove its products from the Open Gaming License (OGL), which is expected to be either amended or withdrawn by Wizards in the near future.

Developed and refined in the run-up to D&D 3rd Edition, the OGL has been in place for about 20 years. It’s part of the legal framework that allowed developers like Paizo to build their own tabletop RPG companies alongside Wizards’ own brand. In December, Wizards announced that it would update the OGL with increased fidelity – that it would only apply to written content and static digital files (like PDFs) and that creators would have to report related earnings back to Wizards on an annual basis. But many have viewed the repeal of the OGL as an existential threat to non-D&D games such as scout.

“Paizo does not believe that OGL 1.0a can ever be ‘deauthorized,'” Paizo said in its statement. “While we are willing to argue this point in court if necessary, we do not want to have to do so and we know that many of our publishing colleagues are unable to do so.

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

The Open RPG Creative License, also known by the acronym ORC, is currently being developed by Seattle Azora law, a company representing Paizo and other related game publishers. According to Paizo, Azora co-founder Brian Lewis was “the attorney at Wizards who developed 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 supporting this system-independent license, which will allow all games to provide their own unique open-rules reference documents that open their individual gaming systems to the world.”

The statement went on to say that no gaming company will own the ORC, but that it will be up to Azora Law to take “ownership of the process” and provide “stewardship” to create “a safe haven against any company purchased.” create”. , sold or change management in the future and attempt to revoke rights or revoke parts of the license.

“Ultimately,” concludes Paizo, “our plan is to find a nonprofit organization with a history of open source values ​​to own this license (such as Linux Foundation).”

While Paizo will foot the bill, other, smaller publishers have also lined up behind ORC. Asked for comment, Paizo confirmed this to Polygon goblin press, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Roll for battle, Rogue Genius gamesand chaos have already supported the initiative. Other publishers, Paizo said, are already beginning to get in touch.

As of Friday morning, more than a week since a draft of the OGL was leaked to the press, Wizards remains silent.

Update (January 27): Wizards of the Coast announced on Friday that it would halt efforts to completely change the Open Gaming License. OGL 1.0a remains in effect. However, the Hasbro-owned company goes a step further by putting much of D&D’s core rules and lore under a Creative Commons license – effectively enhancing protections for creators and further opening up its intellectual property for the world to see can build, commercial and otherwise.

Paizo issued a statement Twitter about the sudden and almost total turnaround. The formation of the ORC continues and the company recommits itself to the difficult legal work that lies ahead.

“We welcome today’s news from Wizards of the Coast regarding their intention not to disable OGL 1.0a,” said Paizo. “We continue to believe there is a strong need for an irrevocable, perpetual, independent, system-neutral, open license that will serve the tabletop community through non-profit governance. Work on the ORC license continues, with a first draft expected to be released to participating publishers for comment in February.”