Hello dear Pen & Paper fan,
you probably haven't missed the unrest that has been going on in the roleplaying community for the last 14 days due to the events surrounding the OGL and ORC license announcements. If you have, you can find all the information you need in the video to at least get a rough idea of the situation. And what's happening right now is nothing less than contemporary history playing out right before our eyes in real time.
Through insider leaks, a plan by Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro and the company behind Magic: The Gathering and D&D) has become public to end the Open Gaming License (OGL) and replace it with a new, more Hasbro-friendly version. This change would be a massive challenge for large parts of the pen & paper creators, for many probably even the economic end. For over 20 years, the OGL was the legal foundation through which publishers could dock their products to the rules core of D&D, for example. A foundation on which Pathfinder, for example, but also the numerous 5E products are based.
Here you can see the first video
Besides considerable fan protests, numerous companies, large and small, from our industry have already reacted to this changed situation. After all, until 14 days ago, OGL 1.0a was considered to be a secure foundation and irrevocable. In this wake, Paizo (Pathfinder/Starfinder), as the largest pen & paper company after Wizards of the Coast, has taken a decisive step and announced that they will create a new open game license that will be made available to the entire industry.
Click here to read Paizo's blog post
The Open RPG Creative License (ORC) is intended to be everything the OGL once was, while avoiding its inherent flaws to ensure that a situation like the one we're currently experiencing can never arise again. Thus, while the ORC will be funded and created by Paizo, it will be overseen by an independent law firm until it is finalized, after which it is to be turned over to a non-profit organization for administration.
Further, the ORC is intended to be not only perpetual, but also irrevocable. As we have learned in recent weeks, a small but important word in this context.
Last but not least, Paizo has teamed up with other industry giants for this move, including Chaosium and Kobold Press. All other publishers have been invited to become part of this initiative as well.
And now for the big announcement ...
Ulisses Spiele has also decided to join this movement, which is for the good of the entire pen & paper community. We will do our part and make sure that the ORC works under German law as well and, if necessary, convert it into legal German (this all depends on what our lawyers say). Ulisses Spiele will pay for all costs arising from this and then make the ORC available to all German publishers, content creators and interested parties.
And then we will go one giant step further! Ulisses will place all rule systems of its own roleplaying game lines, for which we are legally able to do so, under the ORC and, if necessary, create an adapted version compatible with German law. This means that after the publication of the ORC and our joining, everyone who does so under the rules of the ORC may freely use our rules systems. Explicitly also for the development of own, commercial roleplaying material. Everything completely free of charge, everything as legally secure as possible. And for all times.
In order to separate the rule systems 100% clearly from the copyrighted world content, we will create System Reference Documents (SRD) for the individual rule systems, which contain everything that can be used under the ORC.
Unfortunately, I can't give you an exact schedule for this at this point in time, because as written above, there is still a lot of work to be done. Especially all legal aspects need a maximum of care, because there simply must not be any mistakes. But I promise you that we are working with full commitment to implement this venture as soon as possible and to make the ORC also accessible to the German community. Unaffected by this and still usable under the established rules are our fan platforms like the Scriptorium Aventuris, the Scriptorium for HeXXen 1733 or the Infiniverse Exchange.
Finally, I would like to invite all Pen & Paper publishers, creators and hobbyists to use the possibilities of the ORC. Ulisses would like to start a new movement in Germany, which will bring more openness and commonality into our scene and hopefully lead to a new blossoming of our common hobby and also of creativity in this area. We are experiencing nothing less than a turning point in time and this is only the beginning!
P.S.: I am aware that you have a lot of questions about this topic. I will try to answer all of them as soon as possible, but this also takes some time. Therefore, I would be glad if you would send me your questions to
Feedback@ulisses-spiele.de. Colleagues there will collect all the questions so that we can answer them in a bundle so that the whole community is informed.
Also, to understand exactly what the ORC is and what it is not, I can recommend you the following video. Yes, it is long, but I promise it is worth it!
