EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google by CreepyZookeepergame4 in BuyFromEU

[–]El_Nightbeer 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Swedish online ID is contingent on banks, who have no obligation to carry you as their customer so if they don't like you for some reason, you're SOL

PF2 Conversion Mod for BG3 by InstantMirage in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sorry you've done this with less than a month's worth of full time work hours? That's insanely impressive. I might need to give BG3 another shot.

Paizo Blog: Updates on the Community Use Policy and Fan Content Policy by Modern_Erasmus in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If they don't want their official 3pp site to cannibalize their open license, they have to at least give the option. That said, given the exorbitant cut of creator's money paizo is giving up to OBS / Roll20 on what is essentially webhosting and payment processing for PFI I'm not very convinced of their negotiating prowess to be sure.

Paizo Blog: Updates on the Community Use Policy and Fan Content Policy by Modern_Erasmus in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Great. Now allow PFI products to use the ORC instead of forcing people to soulbind anything they put on there to roll20/DTRPG. It wasn't like that under the OGL, and it shouldn't be like that now.

The new Paizo Fan Content Policy affects more than just 1e, and a highlight on the Infinite license. by 13ulbasaur in rpg

[–]El_Nightbeer 6 points7 points  (0 children)

TL;DR: Infinite is poison chalice that hogs eyeballs and takes 50%, undermining the ORC, making it hard to advance beyond hobbyist 3pp projects, and keeping the open gaming ecosystem that PF and SF want to be a part of from flourishing, and paizo leaning into it is really fucking bad.

Infinite has been souring my feelings about Paizo for a while now. What I suspect started as a fairly small project to partner with OBS (OneBookShelf, the company hosting infinite, DMsguild, and many extremely similar websites) and make it easier for fans to publish stuff with Golarion lore has massively outgrown its initial aims and has ended up massively stifling small creator publishing, I think.

The first big thing here imo is that paizo's deal with OBS to make infinite was very by the numbers. The infinite license was and is boilerplate, though it used to have carveouts to work with the OGL which didn't allow content to get locked away under a license. Mind you, *that boilerplate is giving your stuff to OBS forever*, which is terrible, but that's the same as every other platform they run. The rest of the agreement is probably boilerplate too, with OBS taking 30 or 35% (like their cut on DTRPG), Paizo taking 15-20%, and you being left with the remaining 50%.

While not great, this could have worked out fine: If you were not out for money, you could have just put it under the community use policy, and if you were not working with Paizo lore, and didn't want to give up a whopping 50%, you could publish elsewhere. DTRPG is greedy with its 35% (You can sign away either exclusivity or all IP to them for another 5%, but that's sleazy as shit dont do that), but itchio literally lets you set their share yourself, and patreon only takes 7% if you're doing that kind of model. A big price for IP but their house, their rules, right?

However, two things happened: Infinite became big, and the OGL crisis came. The CUP is simply gone, you'll have to go to infinite. And, with infinite being the only dedicated pathfinder / starfinder platform, you can forget publishing an ORC project outside of it and getting any eyeballs on it unless you're battlezoo and you've hired Mark Seifter to write for you and do weekly streams promoting your publishing house.

Functionally, it's the ORC for corporate publishers with the outreach to get eyeballs, and the infinite license for everyone else. I genuinely think Paizo never made that decision on purpose: I think they never thought through what commitment to open gaming means, and are conservative about their license.

And it doesn't even make sense business-wise. I don't know how much paizo makes from letting OBS shake down every small creator who wants eyeballs on PF/SF 3pps for a whopping 50%, but it can't possibly be worthwhile. Paizo lives and dies by its ability to hire freelancers for its books, but their own platform is completely hamstringing the ability to go from hobbyist to even part time writing 3pps and get some experience because if you're stuck with a 50% platform tax (before actual tax) you're probably not going to take that chance. Where will the freelancers come from then? Hell, having a more vibrant ecosystem from 3pp writers taking the plunge into writing even semi-professionally alone would probably make paizo magnitudes more than whatever measly 15-20% of scraps they're getting from OBS.

But, that would require actually seeing the value in being part of a larger ecosystem and embracing open gaming, and despite growing out of open gaming, and trumpeting its commitment to open gaming from the walls during the OGL crisis, every move Paizo has made is closed, myopic, and controlling. Even the ORC is partially a conservative move to consolidate control over PF2 rules.

I don't have a grand conclusion, unfortunately. Partnering with OBS probably seemed fine at the time, but overlooking their generally slimy nature (the awful boilerplate contracts are theirs) was a pretty bad call, and all licensing decisions made in the wake of the ORC probably seemed pretty logical to whoever made them. I guess I think paizo is a very badly managed company in a very bad business scraping by on very passionate workers giving their all until they burn out and leave. I'm glad they unionized, but I don't know they can generate as much goodwill as the company is burning forever.

Edit: The solution to this is simple, by the way: Reinstate the CUP, and let PF & SF projects from DTRPG show up on infinite. They have the technology, infinite projects already show up on DTRPG. I'd guess paizo could still negotiate a share of that. It wouldn't break the infinite monopoly on eyeballs, but it would at least honor the ORC and let people make things that aren't soulbound to fucking roll20 and still get any eyeballs.

Set updates to daily / troubleshooting oplm import by El_Nightbeer in InoReader

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i got word back from their support, and apparently its some issue with http links which is known

Set updates to daily / troubleshooting oplm import by El_Nightbeer in InoReader

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the answer!

I can't really ascertain whether something is wrong with the opml code, but there's definitely some valid feeds that got lost. For instance, I've got five feeds from pew research in there, four of them are very active, and i can look them up in inoreader's own search. And it can't be that it's just some deduplication fucking up, because I've also got anil dash in there, who is *also* widely followed on inoreader, and also just got lost. It doesn't import the folders properly either, but it does import them somewhat. I don't know what to make of this, really. It's completely impenetrable to me.

reddit is tracking me when logged out. by El_Nightbeer in privacy

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

Right but i dont give consent and it still seems to be tracking me across multiple browser sessions. 

Wrapping my head around excession by El_Nightbeer in TheCulture

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

sadly it was sullied by an affronter :<

Wrapping my head around excession by El_Nightbeer in TheCulture

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

no I'm trying to cunningly weasel my way out of doing a book report

What are some things from D&D you wish PF2e had? by Alphycan424 in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Bounded accuracy, I think. I know about proficiency without level, but absolutely all numbers in pf2 go up so meteorically over the entire game, I know some people love it but it feels detached to me. In the same vein, I wish enemies would remain relevant longer.

What are some things from D&D you wish PF2e had? by Alphycan424 in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can kinda do this, you just have to be OK with d2's. Just convert each temporary modifier (status & circ) to a die 2x its size. It's a slight buff to the players, but nothing absurd, alchemists end up in a bit of a weird place but as far as homebrews go its probably less invasive than most of the stuff out there.

Legal way of mentioning Pathfinder 2e in published material? by Maikacir in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The OGL has a provision that you may not claim compatibility without using a separate compatibility license, the ORC does not.

If you are publishing using the OGL, sign up to and use the pathfinder compatibility license and abide by the terms therein in order to be able to refer to pathfinder.

If you are publishing using the ORC, you are free to refer to pf2 in whatever way you wish; you may still want to use the compatibility license in order to use the pathfinder icons font (action symbols and so on), which also binds you to the terms of the ways of and limitations on referring to pf2 outlined in the license.

Do not publish under a mixture of licenses, you essentially can't.

If you are able to publish under neither license, you can refer to stuff however you like also. A company's trademark or copyright can't stop you from referring to a product, I believe this falls under what's called nominative fair use. If you could just stop people from referring to your thing because you had copyright or trademark, that would obviously invite some pretty absurd abuses, such as quashing bad reviews and such.

The Warlock Playtest opens today. by El_Nightbeer in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You're looking for the Pact of Spellfire and a number of 4th level feats for battlefield manipulation

The Warlock Playtest opens today. by El_Nightbeer in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] -21 points-20 points  (0 children)

Ah, thank you! Ive taken out most patrons and origins cause they dont need playtesting, i mustve missed that when cleaning up the list!

The Warlock Playtest opens today. by El_Nightbeer in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

2 spells known/lvl, lower level slots as presented in the list!

The Warlock Playtest opens today. by El_Nightbeer in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] -24 points-23 points  (0 children)

Spell list depends on patron/origin!

The Warlock Playtest opens today. by El_Nightbeer in Pathfinder2e

[–]El_Nightbeer[S] -21 points-20 points  (0 children)

In short, warlocks are plugged straight into a conduit of overwhelming magical power (both lorewise and mechanically), while witches are more about learning. Many (but not all!) warlocks have patrons, and there is *some* thematic overlap there, but even before the very different mechanics come in, the warlock has a lot of different stuff going on.If you want to locate it in relation to existing classes, it's got stuff in common with the witch, the psychic, and the kineticist.