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ORC License Third Draft Ready for Comment

Thursday, June 1, 2023

For the last several months, numerous publishers, including Paizo, have been working hard on the ORC License, a system-agnostic, perpetual, and irrevocable open gaming license that provides a legal “safe harbor” for sharing rules mechanics and encourages collaboration and innovation in the tabletop gaming space. In collaboration with hundreds of publishers and other interested parties on the ORC License Discord, we’ve been group-editing the license and related Answers and Explanations (AxE) document, kicking the language into shape and making sure that the license is as solid as possible, and works for as many publishers as possible.


Open RPG logo over-layed over an image of pathfinder champion Seelah leading a battle


We’re nearly at the end of the process. Thanks to all the hard work of everyone listed above, we’re now ready to release the third draft of the ORC License and AxE. We believe this draft is solid enough to be the final draft of the ORC License but know from past experience that new text can bring the opportunity for new errors or requests for clarification. The community has been phenomenally helpful in refining the language of this license. Now it’s time to take one last look and provide any final comments you may have before we lock the license terms in the very near future.

We have provided a redline version of both the ORC License and the AxE below to help you better compare the differences between the Third and Second Drafts. If you wish to start fresh with a “clean” copy of the Third Drafts, those have been provided as well.

We’ll keep commentary open on the official ORC License Discord for the next few days, with an eye toward locking the final version of the license by the end of next week. During this time, we’ll fold any necessary improvements into each document and release a Final Interim ORC License at www.azoralaw.com/orclicense, paizo.com, and elsewhere. Publishers will be able to use this version of the license to publish material under the ORC License by including the proper ORC Notice.

At the same time that the Final Interim ORC License is published, these documents will be filed with the United States Library of Congress, who will issue copyright registration in about six months. Once the registration is issued, Azora will publicly release the ORC License (including the final AxE). The only change between the Final Interim ORC License and the ORC License will be the addition of the TX number in Section III.a.

So, we’re very nearly there! Please help us over the finish line by taking a look at the Third Draft and providing your feedback on the official ORC License Discord. Thank you again for your assistance!

Download the Orc License

Download the Orc License Redlined

Download the Orc AxE

Download the Orc AxE Redlined

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Grand Archive
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Huzzah!
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Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

The third version of the AxE says that you can put CC-BY-licensed material into a product released under the ORC license.

If so, I'm really puzzled as to why Paizo isn't just helping itself to chromatic dragons, glabrezu, duergar, aboleths, alignment, drow, etc, etc, just by releasing a new version of PF under an ORC license that uses elements of SRD 5.1 under its CC-BY license, rather than doing this huge expunging project. Their own lawyers seem to say that's okay.

Any concerns about having Alignment in 1.e.i or 1.e.ii? I only ask since it's being removed from PF2E Remastered, though I realize the ORC is for broad use in a large variety of games.
Liberty's Edge
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DavidW wrote:

The third version of the AxE says that you can put CC-BY-licensed material into a product released under the ORC license.

If so, I'm really puzzled as to why Paizo isn't just helping itself to chromatic dragons, glabrezu, duergar, aboleths, alignment, drow, etc, etc, just by releasing a new version of PF under an ORC license that uses elements of SRD 5.1 under its CC-BY license, rather than doing this huge expunging project. Their own lawyers seem to say that's okay.

Even if Paizo might have solid legal ground to do so, Hasbro could still drag them through an expensive legal process. There has been some discussion about drow in particular in the Pathfinder General Discussion forum.

This post form James Jacobs may help explain some of Paizo's reasoning: James Jacobs on Paizo's history with the drow.

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William Ronald wrote:
DavidW wrote:

The third version of the AxE says that you can put CC-BY-licensed material into a product released under the ORC license.

If so, I'm really puzzled as to why Paizo isn't just helping itself to chromatic dragons, glabrezu, duergar, aboleths, alignment, drow, etc, etc, just by releasing a new version of PF under an ORC license that uses elements of SRD 5.1 under its CC-BY license, rather than doing this huge expunging project. Their own lawyers seem to say that's okay.

Even if Paizo might have solid legal ground to do so, Hasbro could still drag them through an expensive legal process. There has been some discussion about drow in particular in the Pathfinder General Discussion forum.

This post form James Jacobs may help explain some of Paizo's reasoning: James Jacobs on Paizo's history with the drow.

Also, as late as the 2nd draft of the AxE, the lawyers were saying that it was not possible. But in the Discord discussion just a week or two ago, it was clarified that you can use CC-BY in ORC products. So, that was only realized very recently and the Remaster work has been going on for months (and with everything going into drafting ORC and likely advising on some of the Remaster legal issues, I can entirely understand Azora Law themselves missing this point initially).

So maybe it would be alright, but also between A) being several months into development, and B) other than a few painful things to let go of, likely enjoying the creative freedom of building their own concepts to fill those areas, it wouldn't make sense to reverse course now.

Nothing stopping other publishers from using them, however.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
DavidW wrote:

The third version of the AxE says that you can put CC-BY-licensed material into a product released under the ORC license.

If so, I'm really puzzled as to why Paizo isn't just helping itself to chromatic dragons, glabrezu, duergar, aboleths, alignment, drow, etc, etc, just by releasing a new version of PF under an ORC license that uses elements of SRD 5.1 under its CC-BY license, rather than doing this huge expunging project. Their own lawyers seem to say that's okay.

WotC hasn't released the 3.5 SRD as creative commons. Aside from the game mechanics, the one noticeable difference between the 5.1 SRD and the 3.5 SRD is that 5.1 SRD doesn't include any description of the monsters, including the drow.

If you use the CC-BY version of the 5.1 SRD you can use the term "drow" and copy the mechanics, but all of the fluff of the drow is lost.
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Maybe they could come back to Drow in a future supplement?
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UnArcaneElection wrote:
Maybe they could come back to Drow in a future supplement?

Or call them shadow elves or dark elves, those feel suitably generic. But Paizo is moving away from drow in the remaster in any case.

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