Licencing / Permission: Offering a Self-Calculating Excel Character Sheet (PF 2E)

[Mr.Mordecai]

Hi Paizo staff & Whoever may help,

I am finishing (perhaps one more, I don't know) a partially self-calculating Excel Character Sheet for the Pathfinder 2E.
I started just for me too ease playing around with different options a bit but I thought that perhaps other may find it useful as well. Of course I don't want to sell it but perhaps offering a donate link in a later versions.

Are there guidelines I can read and check?

[AJCarrington]

You might want to drop an email to [e-mail]

[Glenn Elliott]

You should read both of these to see if either one fits what you want to do:

Paizo Community Use Policy
Pathfinder Compatibility License

[Mr.Mordecai]

Yeah, thanks. It seems that I first ended up in the wrong forum :-(
Meanwhile I've found the Community Use Policy.

But It seems that it doesn't cover the PF 2nd Edition (yet?). I am also not sure If I am allowed to add a (completly free and optional) donate button somewhere. Not on the sheet, but on the website that I will use to host the document and do some versioning. I am not sure where it will end up...using GIT seems a bit strange for an excel sheet :-)

The Compatibility License at least is for 2E and covers only logo and font usage? I don't need either. Refereres is more interesting perhaps, as I e.g. do not reference "Elf Racial Traits" but integrate them in the sheet which may include some automatic calculation, e.g. listing theirs Senses in the Visions Section of the sheet. So someone using the sheet will know what (some) traits are doing - even without having the book himself. A lost of stuff is only text however with no further explanation what It does, e.g. "Strong blooded Dwarf" appears as Notes in the Saving Throws section without further description.
Characters editors like PCGen do the same I think but I don't know if they are licenced somehow.

This was some of my original question. The sheet really took hundreds of our of work and isn't finished yet at all. I only can do it because I am sick and at home or hospital most time. I just thought that someone will like it. Makes more fun playing aorund with characters and it is really very easy doing own designs and customizing of the sheet as I strongly separated the "view" from the "calculating" sheet.

Hmm...

[Nylanfs]

We at PCGen use the Community Use Policy because we are entirely free and volunteer based. The only funds we receive are via the donate button.

If you are going to offer your thing freely with nothing more than perhaps a donate or patreon, or ad revenue from your site you'd use the CUP. If you have a store (like d20pfsrd) then you have to use the Commercial License.

And they have stated that there either will be a addition to the CUP, or a second version for 2e.

[Mr.Mordecai]

Oh thanks Nylanfs, that did help. No store of course, it is just a simple sheet and it does deliver the experience like a full-flegded app like PCGen is. That sounds then very much like CUP.

[Vic Wertz]

Let's start over.

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 https://paizo.com/paizo/about/communityuse. If you are a commercial user, our PI is not available for your use without a specific license. The Community Use Policy is not at all edition specific, or even game specific—it applies to Paizo IP in general, including things related to Starfinder, both editions of the Pathfinder RPG, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and more.

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 https://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility; the equivalent license for the Starfinder RPG is at https://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.”

[Mr.Mordecai]

Thanks again for your patience. I already read this but are struggling with its meaning.
I know I will need both the OGL and perhaps the CUP as well.
Game mechanics are covered by the OGL, for some things - like the name of the Golarion Deities - I will need to also comply to the CUP to use them (on page 638 of the PF2E there are the exceptions from the OGL).

The CUP isn't rule agnostic, but for example it doesn not cover the logo or art of the PF 2E (yet, if ever)? So no use of the PF 2nd edition logo or art.

And then there is still the Compatibility License?! Can you help me to sort it in to my original question?

[Vic Wertz]

Correct—you'll need the OGL for the game mechanics, and the Community Use Policy for deity names.

Under the CUP, you can't charge for access to the content, but you can accept donations to cover costs.

The Second Edition logo and iconic art should have been added to the Community Use Package by now. I will push to get those updated.

The Compatibility License doesn't work for your spreadsheet—it's only for books, ebooks, or free websites.