Copyright Question: Can i post hombrew statblocks with Bestiary names on my website?

[BRANDOL1C1OUS]

I have a homebrew campaign for which i have made a significant ammount of changes to core content such as races and classes. the trox race for example i have completely redesigned to be a playable race. can i post these races and classes to my website? or are the names themselves copyrighted material?

[Sam Phelan]

Hello BRANDOL1C1OUS,

I do not know the answer to this question, but I have directed it to the people who do! We will hopefully have an answer for you the near future. Thank you for your patience!

[Vic Wertz]

Let me start with a stock answer just so we’re on the same page, and then I’ll talk about how it applies to your question.

When it comes to the Pathfinder or Starfinder RPGs, our intellectual property generally falls into two categories: Open Game Content (generally game mechanics) and Product Identity (generally setting material, trademarks, artwork, and other non-mechanical stuff).

Anything we've declared as Open Game Content in our products is available for use under the Open Game License; anything we've declared as Product Identity is not available under the OGL. In most of our products, you'll find the statements of OGC and PI on the title or credits page at the front of the book. Note that these statements occasionally vary from product to product, so you'll need to check the individual statements in each product you wish to draw from.

If you are a noncommercial user, you may be able to use some of our PI by way of our Community Use Policy, which you can find at http://paizo.com/paizo/about/communityuse. If you are a commercial user, our PI is not available for your use without a specific license.

To use Open Game Content in your own projects, you need to use the OGL, which you can find in any OGL product. The OGL itself tells you how to use it. Please note that the OGL is Wizards of the Coast's license, not Paizo's, and so I can't provide any advice about its suitability for your use. You may wish to consider speaking with an intellectual properties legal specialist.

Note that the OGL specifically restricts you from using "any ... trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product Identity by the owner of the Product Identity", or from "indicat[ing] compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark." So to indicate that your OGL project is compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, you'll need to follow our free Pathfinder RPG Compatibility License, which you can find at http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility; the equivalent license for the Starfinder RPG is at http://paizo.com/starfinder/compatibility. Note that these Compatibility Licenses are applicable only to books, electronic books, and freely available websites. You can still use Open Game Content in a OGL product that's not a book, ebook, or free website, but you can't say it's compatible with the Pathfinder RPG or the Starfinder RPG or use trademarks like Pathfinder, Starfinder, or Paizo in any way; you may, however, use the non-trademarked terms “PFRPG” or “SFRPG.”

So, to address your specific question, race and class names are generally Open Game Content (again, you need to check the statements of OGC and PI in each product you wish to draw from to be sure), so you'll need to use the OGL. The Compatibility License and Community Use Policy are optional.