When Open Becomes Closed

What happens when an open source product becomes closed source? There’s a fascinating example of this happening right now in the roleplaying game industry, a field completely divorced from the typical software examples. Anyone interested in the economics of open source should take a look at what’s happened with the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons and the new upstart competitor Pathfinder.

How it all began

Back in 2000, Wizards of the Coast began an experiment in open source licensing outside the sphere of software. The latest edition of the venerable Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game was released under a new Open Gaming License which effectively allowed anyone to use the rules, game items, creatures and so on in derivative products. The OGL has a special prevision for “Product Identity” items which allow contributors to retain rights for their unique character and story material. Additionally, a second trademark license, the d20 System Trademark License, allowed for third party publishers to indictate compatibility with the specific D&D 3rd edition rules.

The d20 System and the OGL were a clear success. D&D is already the market leader, but with the OGL in place, a large new market of third party d20 publishers emerged. In fact, the license was so successful that many blamed it for near disappearance of rival game rule systems.

And then came 4th edition

In June 2008, Wizards released the 4th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game with completely updated (and backwards incompatible) rules. However, Wizards had apparently “learned” for 8 years of open gaming and decided to create a new license, the Game System License, rather than use the OGL. While still allowing for third party publishers, the GSL is not an open source style license.

The decision to abandon the very open gaming movement Wizards had created left many publishers in a difficult position. The original license forbade publishing works under the GSL and OGL thus requiring companies to choose sides (it’s since been revised somewhat). Considering that D&D represents the biggest vendor in a small market, what would you do with your business? Some understandably dropped their OGL and d20 lines and began work on new 4th edition supplements under the GSL. After all, 4th edition is the hot new thing and 3/3.5 edition are almost a decade old.

But not every company chose to follow Wizards of the Coast. One such is Paizo which had previously published the popular Dungeon and Dragon magazines before Wizards revoked their license. Rather than proceed under Wizard’s shadow, Paizo made the bold and risky move to fill the vacuum in the open gaming market.

Since the original Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (and the 3.5 update) were released under the OGL, Paizo could embrace and extend the system as its own. In the software market, we call that “creating a fork.” Yep, Paizo forked D&D 3.5 to create a new role playing game called Pathfinder.

Pathfinder is effectively D&D 3.75. That is, Paizo started a massive, open beta testing period during which anyone could download various iterations of the ruleset as the game designers took the old 3.5 OGL system and applied patches and feature enhancements. The goal was to maintain some level of backwards compatibility, thus still supporting all the existing customers and supplements, while at the same time fixing bugs and polishing the product.

This week Paizo releases the final version of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game under the OGL. The initial printing has already been sold out through the distribution chain, so if you want a copy, you’ll have to check your friendly local gaming store to see if they have a book in stock. Despite this early success, it’s still uncertain whether Paizo’s gamble will pay off. Is there really a market for supporting a ‘legacy’ gaming system? Will it attract new players? Is this the beginning or the last stand of the open gaming movement?

Regardless of the outcome, watching the market respond to, first, the original open gaming movement and then secondly to Wizards closing up D&D has been an interesting study in open source economics. Those in the software market might well take notice.

Plugging Pathfinder

As a gamer myself, I’m interested in Pathfinder beyond the academic case study. However, I initially found Paizo’s marketing a bit confusing, so here’s the run down for anyone interested:

• The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a complete rpg system based on the OGL 3.5 D&D system. The core rulebook contains everything one needs and a monster manual will be available soon.
• The Pathfinder Adventure Paths are monthly adventures which follow a full 1-20 level campaign over 6 issues. The campaigns are set in the world of Golarian.
• The Pathfinder Modules are individual, one-off adventure modules set in Golarian.
• The Pathfinder Chronicles detail the Golarian campaign setting and are primarily for game masters.
• The Pathfinder Companion series are Golarian supplements designed for players and work well with the Adventure Path series.
• The Pathfinder Society Scenarios are adventures designed for the official Golarion-set “organized play” campaign.

Up to this month, all of the Pathfinder products were based on the D&D 3.5 edition rules. Starting this fall, new Pathfinder products will begin using the new Pathfinder RPG rules. If you’re simply looking for the game rules, all you need is the Pathfinder RPG books. If you’re looking for a campaign setting that works with 3.5 edition, Pathfinder or even 4th edition, then check out the Pathfinder Chronicles. If you’re looking for complete published adventures, then check out the Adventure Paths and the Modules.

The Pathfinder RPG is available for order now and the PDF version will be available for purchase online for only $10 starting Thursday.