Announcing: Open Gods

Open Gods is a push by One Bad Egg to create an open resource — a pantheon, complete with the attendant channel divinity powers — that other 4E publishers can make use of, at no cost.  One of our frustrations when working on our own products has been that none of the Player’s Handbook gods (nor the powers that come along for the ride) are available to us when writing up our own products.  Whether it’s a minor annoyance like a sample Paladin and its god to be mentioned in passing, or a bigger hurdle like a Cleric NPC for an adventure with all the fun power stuff, it came down to us needing to cook up our own pantheon if we wanted to smooth out the bumps.  We figure other publishers shouldn’t have to do that work if they don’t want to.

Curious? Learn more about it at our Open Gods page!

1. David A. Kot, March 10, 2009:

   Quick Question: If I created an adventure or guidebook centered on some aspect of…say a Paladin of the Pale Wanderer, AND I agree to all One Bad Egg’s Open Gods policies, won’t I still have to buy the GSL to reference a Paladin, or their daily powers, etc.? Thanks in advance!
   Dave

2. justin, March 10, 2009:

   Did you mean “buy into” the GSL? Because you don’t need to actually buy anything to use the GSL. Assuming that was your actual question, it’s too broad for me to actually answer. It is possible to use the Gods material without actually using the GSL, either by traveling under simple copyright law or by eschewing WotC’s material altogether. (See Kenzer and others.) OTOH, it is possible that, given the nature of the product you want to make, that you would need to use the GSL. Without knowing exactly what product you were trying to create and how you were planning on using the material, I can’t answer.

3. David A. Kot, March 10, 2009:

   Thanks- you helped clarify some things!

4. David A. Kot, March 30, 2009:

   I recently posted my positive reviews on The Gods and the open agreement at Paizo.com and RPGNow.com. Enjoy!