If you play Pathfinder, you almost certainly have Archives of Nethys open in a browser tab right now. Last week the free, volunteer-run rules archive looked like it was about to lose its official standing. It is staying put.
Stop juggling Meetup, WhatsApp, and spreadsheets. One platform for your gaming group's events, RSVPs, and member management.
See how it worksPaizo and the Archives of Nethys have published a joint statement confirming a new agreement, after the two sides announced the end of their commercial licence and ran into what Paizo chief executive Jim Butler calls "an outpouring of community confusion, concern, and displeasure". The Archives will remain an official rules archive for both Pathfinder and Starfinder.
The replacement deal is deliberately looser. Paizo describes it as "much less formal than a commercial license", which cuts the oversight work on Paizo's side and removes the requirement for the Archives to report royalties. The volunteer team will keep receiving PDFs of new books ahead of street date, on the same schedule as Paizo staff and freelance contributors, although not as early as the full printer files they used to be sent. They also carry on hosting the original Pathfinder First Edition rules document at legacy.aonprd.com.
Run game nights? Backseat Gamer handles RSVPs, waitlists, date polling, and game voting so you can focus on playing.
Start organising for freeThere is one genuine loss. Any art not covered by Paizo's Community Use Policy came off the site by the end of Friday 24 July 2026. Paizo says it plans to release more art into that policy soon, which would widen what the Archives and every other fan project can use. Changes to lore and flavour text are expected to be minimal, if any are needed at all.
"Open access to our games has always been a core tenet of Paizo and will remain so," Butler said in the statement. Blake Davis, who owns the Archives of Nethys, thanked players for their support and said he hopes the agreement lets the site keep serving the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities "for years to come".
For a game whose whole pitch is that the rules are free to read, keeping that archive official matters rather more than the artwork on it.
