OGC in Pathfinder


General Discussion (Prerelease)


I'm a little confused on what's PI in Pathfinder.

It says "All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts, places, etc.), dialogue, plots,
storylines, language, concepts, incidents, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress."

Now I understand trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names, dialogue, plots, storylines, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress. Those are easy.

The thing I don't understand is langauge, concepts, and incidents. Can anyone explain this to me?

Thanks,
Anfalas


I think they use the same boilerplate in their modules that they do in the Pathfinder rules. So some things that make sense with a module (like "incidents") don't make much sense in the context of a rulebook.

"Language" and "concepts" are pretty vague, though.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Anfalas, the One True God wrote:

I'm a little confused on what's PI in Pathfinder.

It says "All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts, places, etc.), dialogue, plots,
storylines, language, concepts, incidents, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress."

Now I understand trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names, dialogue, plots, storylines, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress. Those are easy.

The thing I don't understand is langauge, concepts, and incidents. Can anyone explain this to me?

Thanks,
Anfalas

We didn't actually create those categories—they come from section 1(e) of the OGL:

The OGL wrote:
(e) "Product Identity" means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content;

Generally, we kept the stuff we wanted to protect from that list in our own Product Identity statement, and moved the rest into our Open Game Content. (We simplified the language in some places, and left it alone in others.)

I interpret "language" to mean the actual textual content of the products. I see "concepts" as a broad-scale term that covers anything that's particularly unique to our setting, such as the way our cosmology works (so you can't just take our cosmology, for example, and substitute in the names of your own gods). "Incidents" would cover adventures and encounters, as well as the kinds of things you'd find in backstories of characters, countries, gods, etc.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32

If I'm understanding it correctly, the declaration of "language" as product identity means you can't use things like descriptive text, introductory text, specific examples, or "designer notes" sidebars as OGC. But the actual game rules themselves are OGC.

So, if its pure game mechanics (if it comes from the 3.5 SRD, if it directly replaces something in the 3.5 SRD, if it's a table listing a numerical progression, etc.), its OGC.

But explanations and examples of those rules - plus text that isn't directly related to those rules - is product identity.

Does that sound about right?

As for the declaration of "concepts" as product identity, that seems a bit redundant. The "language" restriction already prevents you from lifting specific descriptive text and just replacing proper names. So I'm not really sure I understand the "concepts" clause.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Epic Meepo wrote:

If I'm understanding it correctly, the declaration of "language" as product identity means you can't use things like descriptive text, introductory text, specific examples, or "designer notes" sidebars as OGC. But the actual game rules themselves are OGC.

So, if its pure game mechanics (if it comes from the 3.5 SRD, if it directly replaces something in the 3.5 SRD, if it's a table listing a numerical progression, etc.), its OGC.

But explanations and examples of those rules - plus text that isn't directly related to those rules - is product identity.

Does that sound about right?

Sounds about right to me.

Epic Meepo wrote:
As for the declaration of "concepts" as product identity, that seems a bit redundant. The "language" restriction already prevents you from lifting specific descriptive text and just replacing proper names. So I'm not really sure I understand the "concepts" clause.

"Language" doesn't prevent you from paraphrasing; "Concepts" does.

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