Again in July, Paizo Inc. changed their Neighborhood Use coverage with a brand new Fan Content material coverage. This was a controversial transfer because it drastically altered and restricted what gamers and creators may do with fan-created Pathfinder materials. Paizo is now taking steps to strolling again this coverage, together with reinstating the unique Neighborhood Use Coverage.
The Paizo Fan Content material Stroll Again
In an official weblog submit, Paizo introduced they’d be making modifications to their Fan Content material coverage whereas reinstating their authentic Neighborhood Use Coverage. As well as, updates and clarifications will likely be applied, making the insurance policies simpler to parse.
For these unaware, Paizo’s authentic Neighborhood Use coverage was in place for over 15 years. In broad phrases it allowed gamers to create authentic content material for Pathfinder and Starfinder. The one catch was you could not cost for entry. This was a boon for fan tasks because it permitted using named characters and areas.
A model of this coverage was additionally in impact for various Pathfinder 2e supplies. This included Foundry VTT help
With Paizo shifting to the ORC license, the corporate applied their Fan Content material coverage. This was a extra restrictive coverage because it required creators to take away setting particular characters and phrases to adjust to the ORC and restricted the publishing of labor to authorized platforms like Roll20 or Pathfinder Infinite.
The submit additional particulars the coverage modifications coming with the Fan Content material and Neighborhood Use insurance policies. First, the Accredited Merchandise Listing and Neighborhood Use Registry have been eliminated. For the latter, you need to embrace contact info in your product.
With these modifications, followers can nonetheless monetize their creations via the Fan Content material coverage, simply with the freedoms permitted beneath the Neighborhood Use coverage. Paizo has confirmed they are going to be refining these insurance policies to obviously outline what business makes use of of their merchandise are allowed.
The submit concludes with Paizo apologizing to the group for his or her misstep with these insurance policies, promising to tell the group as quickly as these revised insurance policies go into impact.
