OGL 1.0a Guide
Glossary
Plain-language definitions for every term this guide uses, in one place.
- Open Game Content (OGC)
- Game mechanics and rules text licensed under the OGL. See Open Game Content vs. Product Identity.
- Product Identity (PI)
- Trademarks and copyrighted non-rules content — characters, locations, organizations, deities, events, art, maps. Never licensed by the OGL, even alongside OGC in the same book.
- Referenced Product Identity
- A field on the Forge's attestation section: protected names your content references — yours or a third party's — that are not part of the Open Game Content you're releasing. It's a disclosure that goes into the declaration text, not a claim the site records or a designation it grants. Contributor-owned PI designation (formally reserving your own names) is a separate feature that isn't built yet.
- Section 15
- The part of the OGL requiring a derivative work to carry the copyright notice of every prior OGL work it incorporates. See What Is Section 15?.
- Declaration text
- The generated Section 15/PI statement this site's Forge produces at publish time, permanently snapshotted into the record's own attestation — never re-generated live afterward, so it stays a true point-in-time record.
- Chain-of-title / chain-walk
- Following a record's own references back through everything it was derived from, so a compiled Section 15 notice includes the full chain, not just the first source you looked at. See Multiple sources and duplicate notices.
- ORC
- A separate, similarly-shaped license from the OGL. Cannot be mixed with OGL content in the same work. See OGL 1.0a vs. ORC.
- Compatibility License
- Paizo's separate license for using their official compatibility logos/trademarks to signal "works with Pathfinder" — distinct from, and not included in, the OGL itself. See Compatibility and trademarks.
- Fan Content Policy
- Paizo's separate policy for non-commercial fan works (streams, wikis, personal-use merch) that needs no OGL/ORC license at all — but explicitly excludes game products like rules compendiums. Not what this site's compendium publishing uses; see the Guide Hub's own boundary note.
- Homebrew (on this site)
- Private draft content, visible only to its owner (or a shared World) until published. Always private — this site has no intermediate "fan content"-shaped public state; content is either private homebrew or real attested OGC.
- Publisher (on this site)
- A named, claimable imprint identity a creator can publish content under instead of their own name — a paid-tier feature layered on top of free OGC attestation, not a different license.
This is a guide, not legal advice. It's a drafting aid and checklist, not a certified or guaranteed-compliant legal review. Rules and policies (including Paizo's own licensing pages) can change — check the reviewed date below and the primary sources it links to. For anything beyond routine attribution, consult a qualified attorney.
Reviewed by Eco, 2026-08-26.
Reviewed by Eco, 2026-08-26.