Atlas Games announces its support for Paizo’s ORC License system
With an unknown future concerning Wizard of the Coasts’ Open Gaming License, numerous other companies are stepping up with their own gaming license. Paizo recently released its ORC licensing system.
Atlas Games has announced its plans and where its company stands in the shifting and unknown future. Read their full statement below:
Written by John Nephew, owner Atlas Games
You’ve probably heard about the Open Game License controversy. In brief, after 23 years of consensus over what the OGL is and how it works, Wizards of the Coast appears to have planned to revoke and replace it with something else (an “OGL1.1”) going forward. Linda Codega at i09/Gizmodo broke the news, and they have been staying abreast of the story as it develops.
As we wrote in an update to Planegea backers, though Planegea is published under the OGL1.0a and the SRD5.1, we do not see this having any effect on our delivery of rewards for that campaign.
But suddenly a lot of people are anxious about what the OGL means, after relying on it for 23 years. In the face of this uncertainty, a group of publishers led by Paizo Publishing and Azora Law are working to the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License, designer to service the needs of the RPG community and to be assigned to a non-profit entity rather than a single corporation and its potential future changes in ownership and agendas. We have great confidence in Azora Law (they handled our trademark registrations for AtlasGames and Open Upon a Time), and a long history of collaborating with many of the game companies involved.
Atlas Games support the ORC. We have already released the WaRP System SRD under the OGL 1.0a, for Over the Edge; we expect to also release it under the ORC License as soon as it is finalized.
Going forward, we are considering other RPG rules and content that we can release under the ORC. We have long had internal discussions about how to open up licensing of Ars Magica. We will look closely at the ORC License as the means to do so. Nothing is firmly decided, but we intend to deliberate in public and in conversation with the game’s community as we move forward. And we will be looking to the community for help with the work of making it happen.
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