AvtrSpirit's page

Paizo is committed to open gaming. There is no flaw in the ORC license.

I belieeeeve! In my heart of hearts, I believe it to be true. But it is a deeply uncomfortable experience to have one's faith be tested.

And it puts me in a dilemma, as a Pathfinder Infinite creator. I have a class published on there under the OGL. I want its mechanics to stay open, but I also want to publish a revision that is compatible with the remaster (with OGC content removed) - preferably giving the revision away for free to everyone who has already bought the first version.

With this announcement, I believe there's no way to do that while keeping the mechanics open to use in 3rd party ORC products.

Please, Paizo, show me that my faith is not in vain.

Infinite content is already on separate storefronts on DrivethroughRPG from other Paizo-related third-party content.

That's true. But DTRPG is not run by or affiliated with paizo, other than the fact that you can sell Pf2e compatible products on there. I could publish PF2e compatible ORC content on itch.io, or host it on my personal website too.

So I'm not saying that there is no other place than Infinite to sell ORC content.

The argument that I'm making is about public relations.

If Paizo doesn't use the ORC license in Infinite in the same way that it is currently using the OGL, it makes it look like:

- Paizo is not committed to open gaming (since their own store front is going from "open mechanics" to "closed mechanics").

- There is some flaw in the ORC license that makes even Paizo (the people that spearheaded its creation) afraid of using it, while they continue to allow the OGL.

While I hope those aren't the actual reasons for this announcement, that's what it looks like.

It sounds like the only way to publish open content (mechanics) in Pathfinder Infinite is now by referencing the OGL and making sure to include some OGC.

While I understand the reasoning, this is a terrible look.

If you do want to avoid crossing the streams, I strongly recommend starting a second digital storefront for ORC titles. Otherwise the headlines just write themselves: "Paizo prohibits 3rd party publishers from using ORC license in its storefront." "Only way to publish open content in Pathfinder Infinite is by using the OGL."