Archives of Nethys Paizo Partnership ENDS

[Ravingdork]

A sad day for all who make use of Archives of Nethys; their partnership with Paizo is officially at an end. [source]

Nethys wrote:

Hi everyone,

We come to you today with some bad news. For nearly eight years, we here at the Archives of Nethys have been a licensed partner of Paizo Publishing and have proudly served this community as an official reference for all of Paizo's game systems. A few weeks ago, Paizo sent us an e-mail stating that our partnership has been terminated, effective on July 24th.

We have been told the reason for this decision is that our website has not produced royalties for Paizo. While we cannot go into the full details of our license arrangement, the general details have been publicly known for many years. Paizo would send us early access book PDFs well ahead of release and provided us with their art assets to use on the site. In exchange, our team of volunteers would make sure that the rules and content of the game made it onto the website in a timely and accurate manner. Lastly, if we generated enough profit, we would pay Paizo a royalty on that money, as licensed partners typically do. Unfortunately, as of the time of receiving this email, we had not made enough profit in a given month to generate any royalties for Paizo as per this arrangement.

Admittedly, Paizo's decision comes as a bit of a surprise to us - it was always known that our business model, for lack of a better word, was reliant on donations and ad revenue to support the website. Our primary expenses have only ever been server rental costs (both for the website and for elasticsearch, our search engine) and so long as we made enough money for that, we were happy. Everyone who works for the website is an unpaid volunteer drawn from the Pathfinder/Starfinder communities. We've always believed that attempting to monetize the site more aggressively would result in less users and that our real value to Paizo was in the traffic and business we sent their way. After all, one of the first things often said when pitching the game to a new friend is "the rules are free". Sadly, Paizo's decision has still been made.

With all of this said, the Archives of Nethys will continue to support this community. Paizo has even encouraged us to do so under the Community Use Policy (CUP) instead of our partnership license. This will, however, necessitate some changes going forward. As of July 24th:
We will be taking down all artwork that is not compliant with the Community Use Policy. This will be the majority of our artwork, leaving compatible art such as the iconics, religious symbols, and anything else it covers.
We have been hosting the original Paizo PRD up until now, under legacy.aonprd.com. With the partnership dissolving, we will be taking this site down.
We will no longer receive books early, so after Bastion of Blasphemies & Dead God's Hand (PF2e), along with Secrets of the Swarm (SF2e), we will have to go back to acquiring our PDFs the more traditional way. This means that our ability to release content on street date will cease. We will still aim to get our content online as quick as we can, but we will no longer be able to target the street date.
We are sure this news is as disappointing to all of you as it was to us, and we wish we could do more to change it. If you have any feedback about this change, we would encourage you to direct it to Paizo -- in a polite manner -- either using their messageboards or sending an email to [e-mail]. Please use our Discord feedback channels for any other questions you may have for us. If you'd like to support us, especially now that we will need to purchase the books ourselves, please do so via our Patreon.

- Nethys
2026-07-14

[BlueMagnusStormCrow]

Disappointing. Seems rather short sighted. At least things will still be available on delay I guess.

[Ravingdork]

I never understood why Paizo wasn't paying Nethys' "staff" as full-fledged employees in the first place (or at least hiring them on as contractors).

The very idea that volunteers have to pay Paizo to do something that strictly benefits Paizo, rather than the other way around, has always rankled my feathers.

I'm of the mind that both sides dropped the ball with their backwards arrangements, and now we have to deal with the fallout.

[Maruburr]

This seems like a poor decision on Paizo's part. You have no idea how many folks I've pulled into this game based on the existance of the archives. Why would you make your best advertising mechanism worse? What are you saving the company here to not send a pdf and some art out to them? I really hope you rethink this. It's honestly baffling that you haven't been paying them for this work they've been doing already, and now this? I worry paizo is going downhill with decisions you've been making recently.

[Ghenshau Last Cleric]

This feels like a insane move by Paizo, and visibly untrue! Archives has lead many to actually get Paizo products. While the idea of royalties could maybe make sense in certain scenarios- the way that Archives operates, by donation, makes it- all frankly as per the original idea, dumb. The best move would be to simply continue with the original partnership and discuss things further.

But, who knows, maybe its just that I fail to see what Paizo was losing from it in the first place.

[QuidEst]

Really rough to hear. I'm glad they can still operate, but it still is a bummer.

I'm guessing "free option has things up for free immediately" makes getting Nexus-type deals/money harder, and Diamond stuff is making that necessary...

[JiCi]

Ghenshau Last Cleric wrote:

But, who knows, maybe its just that I fail to see what Paizo was losing from it in the first place.

Something something being scammed by Diamond something something...

If Paizo and the other companies were refunded and compensated from Diamond's closure, AoN wouldn't have been cut off.

[Ravingdork]

I'd go so far as to say that fully half of the current player base got into the game solely because of the Archives of Nethys and the Pathbuilder 2e App/website.

Diminishing the AoN feels a little too much like shooting themselves in the foot. Whatever royalties they weren't getting will surely be eclipsed by all the future players that won't be joining if AoN shutters it's doors.

Well, maybe Nethys will have more money to put into his pet projects now that he's not having to PAY PAIZO FOR THE PRIVILIDGE OF SUPPORTING THEIR BUSINESS.

[Lady Marc]

I don't really understand this decision on just about any level. From an idealistic, "how things really should work", perspective... Well, this is going to burn off a lot of good will towards Paizo. From a strictly pragmatic perspective, there's that, and I also doubt that making the rules more inaccessible will sell more.

[Brew Bird]

JiCi wrote:

Ghenshau Last Cleric wrote:

But, who knows, maybe its just that I fail to see what Paizo was losing from it in the first place.

Something something being scammed by Diamond something something...

If Paizo and the other companies were refunded and compensated from Diamond's closure, AoN wouldn't have been cut off.

But is AoN actually costing them any money?

[BlueMagnusStormCrow]

Ravingdork wrote:

I'd go so far as to say that fully half of the current player base got into the game solely because of the Archives of Nethys and the Pathbuilder 2e App and website.

All of my Pathfinder 1e campaigns were only run because the Archive of Nethys existed.

[Master Han Del of the Web]

They could have at least said something. This sort of thing always goes a little easier with actual honest communication. Handling it this way feels immature and untrustworthy.

[JoelF847]

Particularly upset with the deprecation of legacy.aonprd.com. The index searches there is the best around.

[JiCi]

Brew Bird wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Ghenshau Last Cleric wrote:

But, who knows, maybe its just that I fail to see what Paizo was losing from it in the first place.

Something something being scammed by Diamond something something...

If Paizo and the other companies were refunded and compensated from Diamond's closure, AoN wouldn't have been cut off.

But is AoN actually costing them any money?

To run the site? No... AoN is completely independant.

To likely lose book sales due to "having access to everything online for free"? Probably... especially after losing money and having laid off staff...

[Maruburr]

JiCi wrote:

Brew Bird wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Ghenshau Last Cleric wrote:

But, who knows, maybe its just that I fail to see what Paizo was losing from it in the first place.

Something something being scammed by Diamond something something...

If Paizo and the other companies were refunded and compensated from Diamond's closure, AoN wouldn't have been cut off.

But is AoN actually costing them any money?

To run the site? No... AoN is completely independant.

To likely lose book sales due to "having access to everything online for free"? Probably... especially after losing money and having laid off staff...

They aren't shutting the site down though, they are jus losing early access, so those who weren't going to get the book still won't I imagine.

[JiCi]

Maruburr wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Brew Bird wrote:

JiCi wrote:

Ghenshau Last Cleric wrote:

But, who knows, maybe its just that I fail to see what Paizo was losing from it in the first place.

Something something being scammed by Diamond something something...

If Paizo and the other companies were refunded and compensated from Diamond's closure, AoN wouldn't have been cut off.

But is AoN actually costing them any money?

To run the site? No... AoN is completely independant.

To likely lose book sales due to "having access to everything online for free"? Probably... especially after losing money and having laid off staff...

They aren't shutting the site down though, they are jus losing early access, so those who weren't going to get the book still won't I imagine.

I can only hope that the site can remain open... although like I said, I don't think it was ever backed by Paizo. It is solely running on Patreon funds.

I can live with a delayed release of rules and new stuff on the Archives. That's how it was at first.

[Master Han Del of the Web]

Removing a lot of stuff they no longer have the licensing to use is going to take time and manpower.

[moosher12]

This is really disappointing, please grant it back. AoN was such a beautiful service that helped me bring people into the community. And without it, it never could have happened. And frankly, because of Paizo's need to apply errata to books, Archives of Nethys is not just important, but almost mandatory. As playing the game through books only makes players and GMs have to deal with Paizo's various unupdated, and sometimes even broken content. Even when you own the books and the PDFs, AoN is still a valuable resource for managing the game as a whole.

[The Masked DM]

The absolute majority of my buys have been in relation to AoN. I've paid my fair share to Paizo. Knowing that the rules and other elements will see a delayed entry there? I'll wait out of principle to see what AoN offers before buying. All this has done for me is that they'll get their money later now if I still want to buy at that point. I don't like decisions like these with absolutely no information towards the community.

@Paizo: You've always been transparent with your community. Don't make the mistake of ignoring what's happening here and now and hide behind the statement of royalties missed. AoN has brought a major part of the community together and most likely caused a good deal of your sales with regards to the online games. Numbers? I don't have them. All I can say is that good faith and trust is worth more than trying to squeeze out by neglecting these community fueled projects.

Your support to AoN was one of the biggest motivations for many people to consider you very cool. Especially consider you to not be like WotC and their money grabbing actions. Don't go there in moments of desperation due to the warehouse issues. You're a company with employees. Sure. But just be transparent with us. I'm sure that there'd be a lot more understanding if you just own up and be honest.

[Gorgo Primus]

I can’t think of a single good reason for to do this that isn’t some misguided and mistaken belief that AoN somehow costs them sales (it does the opposite).

This decision feels openly hostile to their customer and fan base who rely on AON to get instant easy access to the rules with all the official images, terminology, names, etc without having to fumble around in their books or PDFs when running games online.

[moosher12]

Remember everyone to send emails where you can. Also Gen Con is around the corner, and anyone visiting Gen Con can talk to Paizo representatives directly.

[Dunwright]

I'm curious here- does anybody know how early AoN had actually been receiving these new books to target updates for street release date? That is to say, how much will this actually delay updates compared to the way they've been doing things? Will they come a few weeks after street date? A few months? Paizo doesn't pay AoN and is encouraging them to still keep the site running and updating in accordance with their Community Use Policy, so I can only conclude that somebody at Paizo has calculated that the amount of money they lose from people just going to AoN for their rules in whatever timespan will be created by these delays is significant enough that it was offsetting the money they gain from AoN bringing players into the game and needed to be corrected. Presumably the idea is that if AoN takes weeks or months to update after a new release then a significant number of people exist who really want the new rules *immediately* and have the money to buy new releases immediately but don't otherwise care enough to actually buy them if they're available on AoN will be compelled to buy these books in that timeframe because they just won't be able to wait for AoN to update. How many such customers actually exist, I wonder? Paizo probably has better data on this than any of us can speculate but it feels like it must be a small niche to me. Maybe my intuition here is wrong though.

[Dr. Aspects]

I try to be a positive Peter for Paizo but... damn, this one blows. Frankly I don't see where this came from. I'm hoping you guys will have a statement on this because AoN and Pathbuilder were what got me and my group here in the first place.

This decision sucks hot donkey...

[Ian Bell]

Does this mean that they will have to genericize all the Golarion-specific content, like other SRD sites do?

A frustrating and anti-consumer decision by Paizo.

[moosher12]

Really that's not an issue, because if Paizo wanted to create an embargo delay in time, they can simply mandate that AoN cannot put content out until a month (or other calculated delay time) after release. If anything, it gives AoN staff more time to ensure content is put out without error, especially if they still get books early. You don't have to revoke a license for that, you can simply set an embargo timer.

[thistledown]

This is a terrible decision from Paizo, and those at Gencon will suffer as the books released there won't yet be on the site.

[Squark]

Ian Bell wrote:

Does this mean that they will have to genericize all the Golarion-specific content, like other SRD sites do?

A frustrating and anti-consumer decision by Paizo.

Not unless the current Community Use Policy changes. They're allowed to use that content *if* they don't make money.

[StarlingSweeter]

This is a real shame and genuinely feels like a gut punch. It costs paizo almost nothing to keep providing the archives with pdfs and art. I just cannot see how kneecapping community effort and all the publicity the archives get you helps your bottom line in a meaningful way. I hope that whatever authority made this happen sees reason.

[moosher12]

Good, because it would be very confusing if we could not access things like Deities anymore. How am I even supposed to teach my players about Deities if they cannot even access them without buying a book for themselves.

[Vaporstrike]

I find this REALLY disappointing, I'm running and playing in multiple paizo games and even get called out online for being kind of an evangelist for them. One of the biggest things I use as a way to try to onboard folks is to show them AON and letting folks know the game can be tried for free. Paizo games have a huge reputation for being loved and shared by its players in a way other games wish they could have. AON was a big player in making Paizo games accessible and easy to share with others. I'm really upset by this decision and does make me reconsider how much I'm willing to share and spend on this game knowing that they are screwing us over like this.

[Askenogen]

Yeah, AoN is a pretty invaluable reference. It's one of the nice things about pathfinder and starfinder because it's so much easier to search the site for specific rules as opposed to sifting through a huge number of books. I get that Paizo is struggling from the Diamond fallout, but this will make their products less accessible.
If they absolutely need royalties from AoN, then renegotiate the agreement. Ending the partnership is a bad move.

[redeux]

Very sad news, and I'm yet again disappointed in Paizo. I understand times are hard but decisions like this make me really question how much I will continue to support Paizo.

The irony in suggesting Community Use Policy is that not too long ago Paizo wanted to get rid of it. It's not an irrevocable license, it's a policy they can change at any time. The threat of removing that policy was enough to make me not trust it anymore.

Personally if I were AoN I'd just take the whole site down until (if) Paizo comes running back. Either they value you or they don't, but you'd at least have your answer. I don't see much reason to continue enslaving yourselves to Paizo's insane publishing schedule if they fundamentally don't value you (or know how to value you). The fact that Paizo are questioning the volume of AoN direct sales is absurd given the clear, unquestionable benefit AoN has for the community that do lead to sales.

Then again we continously need to have these discussions with Paizo to try to remind them that the community helped build them up and things like revoking CUP and revoking AoNs license breaks a lot of community good will.

[Thaney]

Ill be canceling my subscriptions and not going to be buying any Paizo products until we hear something from Paizo and hopefully have this decision reversed.

[BotBrain]

Echoing that sentiment. I will not be purchasing any products until there is a satisfying resolution.

[Crouza]

I get a lot of my books on Demiplane, so I have a digital library for things. But even someone like me who can still get the images from a digital source can recognize how much of a pillar AoN is to Paizo's games success. Talk to anyone whose playing Pathfinder or Starfinder and they'll point out how Archieve of Nethys has helped them in running games, getting into the game, or getting others into the game. And yes, showing them how cool the artwork is for things like creatures, character options, and items is part of that wow factor to get people into the door.

I find this decision incredibly baffling as it does nothing but damage paizo financially and reputationally, at a time where they are already being battered as it is.

[moosher12]

Oh, a brief message to Maya Coleman, I heard you're the one processing all of this. Hang in there, no one blames you specifically, though I definitely don't envy your position having to digest this fallout.

[Gwernoc]

I got into playing Pathfinder when I was a broke student. I could read the rules and learn the system and theorycraft characters endlessly all because of the archives.

Now I have money I have subscriptions to Paizo books despite the fact that I don't have anybody to play with IRL because supporting Paizo was something that felt right now that I can afford it.

I live in NZ so the exchange rate and postage really don't help when it comes to justifying that spend, and now I am looking at it and wondering if I want to keep it up as decisions like this one tend to herald a general slide into what I consider unethical business practices.

[Justnobodyfqwl]

Chiming in to say that I'm one of the many, many Paizo customers that got into the game with AON, and use it to get other people into the game as well. AON directly made me give you money.

You sell a very rules heavy, information dense game. People are already reluctant to try your game when the competitor is so much more popular and seemingly more approachable than you. Without AON, there is literally no way I could get any of my friends to play this game.

I genuinely think people would be x10 more critical of PF2E and its design without the 1-2 punch of Pathbuilder and AON to make it more approachable. Those are the two most important platforms to getting people into the game and it's not even close.

Demiplane is your closest comparison (and not coincidentally, more monetized for Paizo) and...i don't want to be rude but it's a kind of uniquely awful experience to use. It's so slow and clunky that it's barely even in the conversation.

[namenottaken]

The Masked DM wrote:

The absolute majority of my buys have been in relation to AoN. I've paid my fair share to Paizo. Knowing that the rules and other elements will see a delayed entry there? I'll wait out of principle to see what AoN offers before buying. All this has done for me is that they'll get their money later now if I still want to buy at that point. I don't like decisions like these with absolutely no information towards the community.

@Paizo: You've always been transparent with your community. Don't make the mistake of ignoring what's happening here and now and hide behind the statement of royalties missed. AoN has brought a major part of the community together and most likely caused a good deal of your sales with regards to the online games. Numbers? I don't have them. All I can say is that good faith and trust is worth more than trying to squeeze out by neglecting these community fueled projects.

Your support to AoN was one of the biggest motivations for many people to consider you very cool. Especially consider you to not be like WotC and their money grabbing actions. Don't go there in moments of desperation due to the warehouse issues. You're a company with employees. Sure. But just be transparent with us. I'm sure that there'd be a lot more understanding if you just own up and be honest.

Could agree more, what we need more than anything else is a bit more transparency. Is this a reluctant choice needed to survive a rough financial situation and does Piazo plan on revisiting thie change once the company is more stable? Is this an emergency tourniquet or amputation?

[shooshosha]

A long parternship terminated,
several subscriptions suspended.
Reverse this course of action
less you see your support upended.

I hope this will lead to a better deal for Archives of Nethys. Yet recent events may have already written on the wall the end of Paizo

[Alayern]

I am greatly saddened to hear this. The relationship between Paizo and the Archives has always been a strange one-monetarily speaking-but Paizo's willingness to support a fan venture that makes their game more accessible (at minimal cost to Paizo) was a solid entry in the "more ethical and better for the hobby than their larger competitor" list. I know Paizo lost a devastating amount of revenue they'd been counting on in an already tight profit margin. Terminating this partnership feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the new financial situation even if AoN had never performed as well as Paizo had hoped in generating sales.

I suspect, and fear, that this will lead to renewed promotion of their partnership with Demiplane, which is nearly as toxic and paywall-inducing as DND Beyond. If that happens I will be reconsidering my subscriptions.

[ograx]

Voice your concerns but threats and bombarding a poor custom service member with emails is just childish. Buy products and support Paizo if you don’t wanna see them die out. I love AoN too but Paizo obviously needs to stay profitable to continue to be a viable company. Was this the best decision for them? Who knows but all this hostility is just asinine.

[Programming Bard]

Short sighted, self-harming, dumb, and very WotC-like.

I have been a part of this community since 2009 but they have been making some decisions that I kind of despise lately, and this one is the worst of them.

I am done with Paizo.

[MadamReshi]

So to clarify what's happening specifically, because I am seeing a lot of confusion in a lot of places, with some believing that 1e AON is going away entirely or that this is a beginning of a crackdown on fan content:
- most of the art will be gone, but anything in the CUP could be used.
- a legacy 1e SRD is going. aonprd.com is STILL going to be there.
- no early access PDFs etc. for AON's team.

---

Extremely baffled by this.

Is this all simply down to AON not receiving enough in donations to keep the agreement going? If so, why was there no announcement alerting the community? I wouldn't be alone in being more than okay with donating to AON to keep the agreement going, as the art is a very useful part of the site, the legacy 1e SRD has rules for the game not elsewhere, and anything that enables the volunteers to speed up content delivery is useful.

This really stinks that there's more bad news to come and that Paizo are in a bad shape, and are panicking. This doesn't feel like some malicious strategy or some broader plan to restrict the community, because it's way too... bizarre. It won't make money, hurts goodwill and causes confusion.

I'm hoping that the next time I check the site there's some explanation, and some way to keep the agreement going (since there's a two week deadline before AON losses the art etc.)

[GM Raymer]

This is ridiculous. I already spend hours every couple months having to pull the imagery myself from the pdf's because there's no digital distribution of all of the hundreds, thousands of environment imagery. What's next? Pathfinder Wiki? Do they not produce royalties?

This doesn't direct people to buying books and joining the few dozen of us ripping every bloody image and categorizing it, I always believed we needed MORE imagery on aon, foundry, licensed partners and to be less controlling of it because it allows people to more easily visualize the world of golarion and the setting of lost omens.

It's a little hard to capture people if we withhold the imagery and then we also don't publish or help people with that imagery. What's next is my worry, this feels like a slippery slope. I can handle decisions because there's a 12 million+ dollar loss with diamond, but I cannot get behind the idea of withholding art and slowing update material from the greatest community source that is really why the game is where it is right now.

I don't care about some perceived deal of giving Paizo a cut of profit or etc. I don't think anybody cared about that or that being the goal. And now we're going to get slower AON rules updates and no imagery. To who's benefit? Nobody wins from this. This is a bad move to look to quell profit loss. When we start going "we're quelling losses anyway possible, no matter what bridge burned." I'm more than a little worried. (And I hope I am wrong but IDK if I am.)

I do feel for Maya. But Paizo is the one deciding there's one person only, and I can only be so sympathetic to that so many times and I think more than ever a conversation is really needed of where we are heading, because this is one of the last things most of us figured would begin getting cut down.

[Swashbuckles]

Yeah does not sit well with me. Making the rules available without them being scrubbed of any lore was a huge advantage, GMs need this, players certainly find it useful, not everything has to be monetized in a vacuum. I've definitely book books because of things I've found on AON.

[saramarie otc]

The Masked DM wrote:

@Paizo: You've always been transparent with your community.

Well, not *always*.

[Twiggies]

redeux wrote:

The irony in suggesting Community Use Policy is that not too long ago Paizo wanted to get rid of it. It's not an irrevocable license, it's a policy they can change at any time. The threat of removing that policy was enough to make me not trust it anymore.

Yeah, I was someone who made a huge fuss about it on other sites with a big write up about it to get people's attention on it. It definitely is refreshed in my mind with this. I remember using a point that they would never get amazing websites like aonprd, that helped bring so many players into the game and buying books (myself included, and I use it to convince other people too, and art helps a LOT for this when you have obscure names for ancestries and I loved pulling the "and it's officially partnered which is super cool and awesome of the company" especially when my friends are jaded over certain other companies being really unsupportive), and that pulling up the ladder after kills a lot of good faith. I never would have thought they'd punt aonprd off the ladder, too.

[Twiggies]

Sorry double post just to add a different point.

I'm also just not sure what money this is hoping to make? I assume that's the motivation anyway. It's not like aonprd had the full art gallery, it's just a couple pics here and there to give a visual or two of ancestries and monsters. I'd particularly buy the books for the art (prior to receiving Rage of Elements as super low quality and support walking back on the promise to fix the quality... Still upset over that.) because i knew there's so much more in it. And my friends being able to glance at a web page and see a bit of art helps a lot to convince them to try. So making aonprd take most images down is just. ??? What is Paizo hoping to gain? Demiplane traffic?? Or has aonprd always managed to make enough royalties for Paizo this entire time and now was the strike where they failed and got the partnership cut off for it?