D&D Updates Core Rules, Sticks With CC License (arstechnica.com) 19
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Wizards of the Coast has released the System Reference Document, the heart of the three core rule books that constitute Dungeons & Dragons' 2024 gameplay, under a Creative Commons license. This means the company cannot alter the deal further, like it almost did in early 2023, leading to considerable pushback and, eventually, a retreat. It was a long quest, but the lawful good party has earned some long-term rewards, including a new, similarly licensed reference book. [...] Version 5.2 of the SRD, all 360-plus pages of it, has now been released under the same Creative Commons license. The major change is that it includes more 2024 5th edition (i.e., D&D One) rules and content, while version 5.1 focused on 2014 rules. Legally, you can now design and publish campaigns under the 2024 5th edition rule set. More importantly, more aspects of the newest D&D rule books are available under a free license:
- "Rhythm of Play" and "Exploration" documentation
- More character origins and backgrounds, including criminal, sage, soldier, and the goliath and orc species.
- 16 feats, including archery, great weapon fighting, and seven boons
- Five bits of equipment, 20 spells, 15 magic items, and 17 monsters, including the hippopotamus
There are some aspects of D&D you still can't really touch without bumping up against copyrights. Certain monsters from the Monster Manual, like the Kraken, are in the public domain, but their specific stats in the D&D rulebook are copyrighted. Iconic creatures and species like the Beholder, Displacer Beast, Illithid, Githyanki, Yuan-Ti, and others remain the property of WotC (and thereby Hasbro). As a creator, you'll still need to do some History (or is it Arcana?) checks before you publish and sell.
- "Rhythm of Play" and "Exploration" documentation
- More character origins and backgrounds, including criminal, sage, soldier, and the goliath and orc species.
- 16 feats, including archery, great weapon fighting, and seven boons
- Five bits of equipment, 20 spells, 15 magic items, and 17 monsters, including the hippopotamus
There are some aspects of D&D you still can't really touch without bumping up against copyrights. Certain monsters from the Monster Manual, like the Kraken, are in the public domain, but their specific stats in the D&D rulebook are copyrighted. Iconic creatures and species like the Beholder, Displacer Beast, Illithid, Githyanki, Yuan-Ti, and others remain the property of WotC (and thereby Hasbro). As a creator, you'll still need to do some History (or is it Arcana?) checks before you publish and sell.
Wow.. (Score:2)
Unfortunately, they didn't use CC-BY-SA (Score:3, Interesting)
The Open Gaming License is a superior license for anyone who wants to make use of the open gaming content that already exists, including all the materials Wizards has released using that license (which includes most of the 5th Edition) because it is a share-alike license. Wizards has chosen not to use the Share Alike version of the Creative Commons license and has thus created the very bad situation where people can take from the community of open game content published by anyone who chooses to use that fork then make the resulting work closed so that whatever they do with it does not convey the same rights & freedoms.
Re: (Score:3)
IANAL but I don't see anything in the CC license that prevents content creators in the community from publishing their own stuff with a share-alike license.
you are being attracted by an patent troll! (Score:4, Insightful)
you are being attracted by an patent troll!
Re: (Score:2)
you are being attracted by an patent troll!
... carrying an absurdly expensive set of cookbooks with one hand, speed-dialing the Eastern District of Texas courthouse with the other, and wearing a sticker on his lapel that reads "Hello, my name is Nathan and I am not a patent troll".
Don't be misled (Score:3)
Don't be misled by the summary quote that implies that monster stat blocks are copyrighted. While the presentation of a stat blocks can be copyrighted, the rules of a game are not subject to copyright. Publishing the exact same rules with your own wording and presentation is fine. Game rules can be patented, but D&D is not covered by any patents I know of. Names can be trademarked, and that's why you won't see a "beholder" in third party materials. But you can take the beholder stats, reskin it as land squid with tentacle powers and you're good to go.
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Oh man. KOL. That's something I haven't heard in decades. Glad to see its still around in some form.
We Had Dragons And Dungeons (Score:1)
Long before this game was a twinkle in anyone's eye. Fuck copyright.
Here's a secret (Score:3)
The basic concept can't be controlled, and the fewer rulebooks you have the better the game gets.
It's storytelling. You need a main storyteller who can allow some randomness via dice to affect the details of the story. You need players, who are basically subordinate storytellers who are responsible for individual characters... and they can also have dice to add some random factors.
Ultimately, you will have far more fun improvising your characters while the DM keeps things on hidden rails than you will spending hours rolling dice and checking rulebooks. When you're remembering gaming sessions after the fact, you're not going to remember those item tables you poured through, you're going to remember that awesome heroic stunt your character pulled that saved the party from the demon.
Put down the rulebooks. Have fun.
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Once I was capable of following the complexities of rulebooks the structure they provided made everything more fun. This is the reason I stopped playing rule bookless "pretend" as I did when I was a child but picked up table top RPGs.
As long as it's a well thought out rule set and the design is strong the more content the better if you ask me. Makes for a bigger sandbox for my imagination to play in.
Creative Commons is chaotic good not lawful good. (Score:1)
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Not to split hairs but it says this is a win for lawful goodâ¦
Mmm...lawful gouda...
Oh, great... (Score:2)
I have to buy my niece more books?
She refuses to play Avatar* with me, and it's 'free'.
* - Avatar, originally a game on NovaNET, a PLATO derived platform. Now can be found on Cyber1. My current characters are over 22 years old, the ones on PLATO were a little less than 10 years old. Ages are IRL. You will find it retro, rudimentary, or pointless. You have been warned.