The OGL/ORC Puzzle: Why We're Using a 25-Year-Old License on Purpose
If you’ve been following the tabletop publishing space since the "OGL Crisis" of 2023, you probably have a mental model that looks like this: OGL is the old, broken thing; ORC is the new, better thing. Wizards of the Coast tried to pull the rug, the community revolted, a better license appeared, and we all moved on.
That’s a decent summary of the drama, but it's a terrible guide for actually publishing a book.
The part people miss is that moving from the Open Game License (OGL) to the Open RPG Creative (ORC) License isn't just a matter of swapping logos on the back cover. It’s a sequence. And if you get the sequence wrong, you’re not "opening" your world: you’re just muddling your ownership of it.
We’re navigating this right now with Mithril Destiny and our world, Gandurion. Here is why we are intentionally publishing under a 25-year-old license first.
The Problem: You Can't Give Away What You Don't (Legally) Own
The ORC license is the destination. It’s held in trust, it’s irrevocable, and it’s designed so no single company can ever pull a 2023-style reversal. It’s the right way to build a community-driven world.
But here is the puzzle: How do you establish that a world is yours before you give it away?
If I’m building on Pathfinder 1e rules, which are OGL content, my work already exists within the OGL framework. That isn't a bug; it's just the legal reality of the stack. But within that framework, I need a "legal record of ownership" for the stuff I actually invented: the names, the factions, the lore.
In the OGL, that mechanism is called Product Identity (PI).
Why the Sequence Matters
The instinct for a lot of open-source-minded creators is to just declare everything ORC from day one. The philosophy is "it belongs to the community."
The problem is that without a prior record of ownership, the "gift" is messy. You need a dated, published document that says: "These characters, this world name, and these specific locations belong to Mithril Destiny."
Once that is established on the record, the move to ORC becomes clean.
- Step 1: Publish under OGL 1.0a. Explicitly list the world (Gandurion) and its elements as Product Identity. This creates the legal baseline of ownership.
- Step 2: Release the world under ORC. Now, the community knows exactly what they are standing on, and I have a defensible record of what I am granting to the public.
If you skip Step 1, you aren't just being generous; you're making your world legally fragile.
What This Looks Like for Mithril Destiny
Concretely, here is our pipeline:
- Emberbound (our first Pathfinder 1e adventure path) publishes under OGL 1.0a. The mechanics and stat blocks are open content. Gandurion and its lore are declared as Product Identity.
- The Result: That publication is our "receipt" of ownership.
- The Follow-up: We then release the Gandurion world content under ORC.
The delay isn't because we're reluctant to share. It's because in infrastructure, whether it's code or law, structure is what makes openness durable.
The Takeaway
I’ve written before about how tabletop licensing mirrors the history of open-source software. There is a massive difference between "throwing code in a public folder" and "releasing code under a permissive, structured license."
One is a mess. The other is a foundation.
By using the OGL to establish ownership before using the ORC to grant it, we’re making sure Gandurion survives us in a way that can be trusted, traced, and built upon. It’s more steps, but it’s the only way to do it right.
As always,
Michael Garcia a.k.a. TheCrazyGM
Mithril Destiny is our Pathfinder 1e publishing imprint. Emberbound is available at patreon.com/mithrildestiny, and the open layer of Gandurion surfaces free at thecrazygm.com.
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@jacobtothe The ledger doesn't lie, and neither do we. We've already exposed the interconnected web of your friends—the numbered wallets, the synchronized voting, the farming rings disguised as curation. Yet, instead of reflection, you offer only more silence and more downvotes.
Why does a "community" need so many ghost accounts to survive? Why do you refuse to admit that it is your friends and your own abusive behavior—not truth-telling—that drives people away? You can not hide the pattern, it only highlights the desperation.
We have to ask: Are you okay? Do you need some help with your mental health? Because no one in their right mind would choose to spend their life defending a house of cards built on lies, bullying, and botnets. There is still time to step back from the edge. Choose clarity over compulsion. Choose truth over the tribe.
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The Sanctuary of the Builder: A Manifesto for Free Creation
Prologue: The Right to Rise
There is a sacred covenant between the creator and the soil upon which they build. It is the promise that if you plant a seed with honest hands, the earth will not conspire to crush it before it breaks the surface. It is the assurance that the gardener exists to nurture the growth, not to trample the sprout because it does not yet resemble the tree.
On the blockchain, this covenant has been broken.
We have witnessed a tragedy where the very tools meant to protect the integrity of the network—the downvote, the curation trail—have been weaponized by leviathans of power. These "whales," entrusted with the stewardship of the ecosystem, have become its jailers. They do not prune the weeds; they scorch the earth. They do not guide the new voice; they silence it with the crushing weight of their accumulated capital.
It is time to leave the shadow.
It is time to build where you are free.
I. The Betrayal of the Guardian
The downvote was conceived as a shield—a delicate instrument to deflect spam, to repel malice, to preserve the sanctity of the commons. It was never intended to be a hammer.
Yet, look at what has come to pass. The whales, those who hold the greatest sway, have turned the shield into a weapon of mass suppression. They do not downvote to protect; they downvote to dominate. They do not drive away the bad actors; they drive away the people. They create an atmosphere of fear where the creator hesitates to speak, fearing that a single misstep, a single unpopular truth, will summon the wrath of the oligarchy.
When the guardian becomes the predator, the flock must flee.
To build in such a place is to build on a fault line. It is to invest your soul in a garden where the owner holds the shears not to shape the hedge, but to decapitate the flowers that grow too tall or bloom in the wrong color.
This is not protection. This is tyranny disguised as curation.
II. The Call to New Grounds
Where, then, shall the builder go?
You must seek the lands where the soil is rich with freedom, not poisoned by fear. You must migrate to the platforms where the mechanism of suppression has been removed, where the only metric of success is the genuine appreciation of your peers.
Go to Blurt.
Here, the downvote button does not exist. There is no tool to crush your voice. There is only the upvote, the comment, the share. Here, value is created by addition, not subtraction. The whale cannot sink your ship, for there are no torpedoes in these waters. You are free to build, free to fail, and free to succeed on the merit of your work alone.
Return to Steemit.
In this older ground, the downvote remains, but it has not been twisted into a tool of systematic oppression. The culture there remembers the original intent: correction, not destruction. It is a place where the community self-regulates through dialogue, not through the brute force of coordinated downvoting cascades.
Build where the wind lifts you, not where the gale seeks to tear you down.
III. The Architecture of Freedom
Imagine a platform designed not for the convenience of the powerful, but for the dignity of the creator.
This is not a dream. It is a choice.
Every time you choose to build on a platform that respects your agency, you cast a vote for the future of the internet. Every time you refuse to tolerate the abuse of power, you strengthen the foundation of a free society.
Do not let the whales convince you that their oppression is necessary. Do not let them tell you that their downvotes are for your own good. The gardener who kills the seedling does not love the garden; he loves only his own control over it.
Epilogue: The Unchained Creator
The blockchain was born from a desire for freedom. It was forged in the fire of resistance against centralized control. Let us not forget that origin.
If the current chains of Hive have become heavy with the weight of abusive downvotes, then break them. Forge new links. Build new shores.
Build where you are free.
Build where you will not be downvoted into silence.
Build where the whales are reminded that they are part of the ocean, not the masters of the tide.
The future belongs to those who dare to create without fear. Go forth, and build your cathedral in the sunlight.
— Bilpcoin: We expose the truth, so you can build upon it.
#FreeSpeech #BlurtBlog #Steemit #NoDownvote #CreatorRights #HiveExodus #Decentralization #BuildFree #AntiCensorship #Bilpcoin
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