Paizo Announces Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite Publishing Program

09/19/2021 09:59 am EDT

Paizo has announced a new publishing program that will allow RPG designers to use official Pathfinder and Starfinder IP in their own published RPG adventures and supplements. Paizo has announced the Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite programs, a new publishing collaboration with DriveThruRPG that allows for third-party content using the characters, creatures, and settings of the Pathfinder and Starfinder tabletop roleplaying games. "Beginning on October 13, 2021, content creators will be able to sell adventures, fiction, setting supplements, rules expansions, maps, art packs, and more using Paizo's intellectual property," Paizo's Director of Brand Strategy Mark Moreland wrote in a blogpost about the announcement. "That means that you can, for the first time, write an RPG supplement set in the official Pathfinder or Starfinder settings that references our locations, organizations, characters, deities and more, and sell it to your fellow players and GMs."

The new publishing initiative is similar to the DMs Guild program that Wizards of the Coast uses, which allows smaller RPG studios and individuals to publish material using Dungeons & Dragons IP on a website managed by DriveThruRPG. DriveThruRPG and Wizards of the Coast collectively retain 50% of all sales from DMs Guild material, with the publishers of the material keeping the other 50% of sales proceeds. The Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite programs will operate with a similar 50/50 revenue split. Other RPG publishers have similar community content publishing initiatives, which allow for individuals and small press publishers to use their IP in exchange for a share of the revenue.

The DMs Guild has become a popular source of third-party material for Dungeons & Dragons since its launch and also acts as something of a talent incubator for Wizards of the Coast, as Wizards regularly hires DMs Guild creators as freelancers for their publications. 

Notably, the Pathfinder Infinite program supports both Pathfinder 1E and Pathfinder 2E material and there are fewer restrictions as to what IP creators can use when publishing material to Pathfinder Infinite or Starfinder Infinite compared to the DMs Guild (Wizards of the Coast only allows material from a handful of campaign settings, with settings like Dragonlance, Spelljammer, and Greyhawk off-limits.)

You can find out more information about the Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite programs by signing up to their newsletter. The program will formally launch on October 13th.

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