Pathfinder (periodicals)

Pathfinder (periodicals)

Pathfinder products are published by Paizo Publishing and are designed to be supplements to Dungeons & Dragons and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. There are four different lines of Pathfinder products.

All Pathfinder books are published under the terms of the Open Game License (OGL). While the magazines Dragon and Dungeon were both licensed to make use of certain iconic elements of Dungeons & Dragons intellectual property, including material drawn from official settings published by Wizards of the Coast and unique monsters such as illithids, the terms of the OGL forbid the use of such "closed" IP elements. Conversely, however, OGL material from other roleplaying game publishers (such as Necromancer Games or Green Ronin Publishing) can be used in Pathfinder, whereas the terms of Paizo's license with Wizards of the Coast had prevented them from using any third-party OGL material in Dragon or Dungeon.

The Pathfinder product lines use a subscription business model, in addition to being sold in book stores, game stores, and online retailers. All of the subscriptions are ongoing, and can be canceled at any time, rather than being initially purchased for a set length of time as many magazine subscriptions are.

Each Pathfinder product is published in both print and PDF.

The Adventure Paths published in Pathfinder and the adventures in the Pathfinder Modules are set in Golarion, the world of the new Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting developed by the Paizo staff, rather than in a Dungeons & Dragons setting owned by Wizards of the Coast, as were many of the adventures in Dungeon.