As reported by Dicebreaker, when asked if "Pathfinder" and "Starfinder" will have their own virtual tabletop (VTT) system, Paizo's marketing director, Aaron Shanks, gave a curt answer He replied: "No, not at this time.

This answer arrived amidst the background radiation of One D&D (a revamped, not strictly new, yet unnamed rule set for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition) and its imminent VTT playtest scheduled for the end of the year.

Wizards of the Coast's new virtual platform suffered a bumpy introduction to the public eye, thanks to an attempt at sorcery with the Open Game License (OGL) renewal. Some fans saw this as an attempt to inhibit what competitors (including VTT) could legally do with the TTRPG monolith by imposing new restrictions, while at the same time invalidating the previous OGL.

In a revision shared in January by journalist Linda Codega, Wizards stated that the original OGL "was never intended to allow people to make anything other than D&D apps, videos, or printed (or printable) materials used in the game OGL is not intended to allow people to make anything other than D&D apps, videos, or printed (or printable) materials used in games. We are partially updating the OGL to make that clear." Fortunately, this has all been withdrawn, but the specter of the OGL looms over all of One D&D for the time being.

According to Shanks, Paizo is employing a different tactic. He continued: "We prioritize the VTTs of our fans' choice, and we want to be in all the places they are, not just one," and cited Demiplane's deal with its "digital companion" app as an example.

This philosophy is also closely related to Paizo's recently announced "ORC," a far more generous version of D&D that does away with the OGL; Paizo's news article describes it as "a system-agnostic, perpetual, irrevocable, open gaming license that allows players to play on the same computer system they use for their own gaming, provides a legal "safe harbor" for shared rules mechanisms."

They call it "a legal "safe harbor" for the sharing of rules and mechanisms.

They are very clear about the "perpetual" part, as quoted from the linked "Answers and Explanations" document, or "ORC AxE": "The ORC license will never be renewed, modified, repealed, revoked or suspended in authority by anyone. Never."

Shanks, in discussing Paizo's VTT philosophy, comments on the ORC: "It's about making it easier for people to get involved by lowering the barriers to entry. We are focused on making the best tabletop product, not the best VTT."

We will have to see if One D&D's virtual tabletop does anything other than try to fill an already plugged market hole.

Paizo's response makes more sense to me: use what already exists, provide the rules for free, and work with community-driven spaces. Especially when there are big projects coming up, like the second version of Starfinder, which was also presented at Gen Con.

Dungeons & Dragons has been king of the mountain for some time. But as Paizo's market moves continue to bear fruit (Pathfinder ran out of eight months' worth of books in two weeks in early 2023), Wizards of the Coast's competition is only going to get sharper.