WotC 2024 D&D Core Rules Will Be Added To SRD In 2025

The 2024 version of the D&D core rules will be included in an expanded version of the System Reference Document, and available to third parties via Creative Commons (though there is no mention of thr Open Gaming License). The new SRD 5.2 will be available early 2025 after the new Monster Manual has been released.

The new SRD will be localized in the languages which WotC supports.

Regarding the long-awaited SRDs for previous editions, WotC says that they will start reviewing those documents once the 2024 rulebooks are out.

 

[mamba]

Published under the OGL it does, but not under CC. Granted, i don't even know if games like OSE even bother with a designation. They might just be going with the "So sue me" tactic.

Why? OSE is basically a 1e retroclone, what is in the 3.x SRD that they need that they cannot also get from the 5e SRD under CC? And yes, they use the OGL...

 

[mamba]

Untested in a courtroom. There are people with a lot more legal knowledge than I who have opined both ways. There are small publishers who have stated that even if they are most likely in the right legally, they don't have the resources to fight it against Hasbro in court.

all true

And there's the fact that CC felt the need to add that clause in between v2 and v3, and they likely had a reason for thinking so.

it makes it less likely to end up in court, other than that it is not really needed

Regardless of if I agree with you, that aspect is untested in a courtroom and has at least a shred of ambiguity.

a tiny shred, it's not like courts never make mistakes...

 

[kenmarable]

I'd argue that releasing the 5.2 SRD under the OGL isn't "moot" in the sense that it makes it much easier for anyone easily release derivative material that also takes advantage of existing OGC without having to juggle two overlapping licenses. The entire point of open gaming is to reduce FUC (i.e. the aforementioned fear, uncertainty, and doubt), and requiring publishers who want to use existing materials with the 5.2 SRD materials to finagle two different licenses makes that much harder. Ease of use counts for something.

What is there to juggle??? The CC-BY license would literally just require putting the text:

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of
the Coast LLC and available at Systems Reference Document | Dungeons & Dragons. The
SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

And there, one license has been "juggled." You're halfway there. That's all you need to do. Period. WotC even tells you right in the SRD document itself what you need to do.

 

[mamba]

Yes it does. The stats do, at least, and given that "warg" and "rider" are both in the SRD, I'm pretty sure the name does also.

I am not finding Warg in the SRD at all... even if they had both names, unless they have a Warg Rider they got nothing. It's not like I cannot have any dragons just because the SRD has the word dragon in it...

Again, I can put the stats in my Product Identity and then we are done with OGC

 

[Alzrius]

What is there to juggle??? The CC-BY license would literally just require putting the text:



And there, one license has been "juggled." You're halfway there. That's all you need to do. Period. WotC even tells you right in the SRD document itself what you need to do.

Hey, you're the one saying that most publishers can't even use the OGL correctly. Now you're saying it's easy to use that in conjunction with the CC?

 

[Alzrius]

I am not finding Warg in the SRD at all...

They changed the "a" to an "o," but close enough. Even then, if you call it a "warg," you'll likely have the Tolkien estate on you, and I doubt you have a license to use their content.

even if they had both names, unless they have a Warg Rider they got nothing. It's not like I cannot have any dragons just because the SRD has the word dragon in it...

They don't have "nothing." Far from it. That would mean that you can declare "barbarian warlord" or "evil cleric" or any other combination of terms Product Identity, ruling it out for everyone else. There's a reason why the OGL doesn't work how you're saying it works.

Again, I can put the stats in my Product Identity and then we are done with OGC

No, you're wrong. The OGL explicitly states that material derived from existing OGC cannot cease being OGC, and the stats of your creature are derived from OGC material. Ergo, it's not Product Identity even if you say it is. End of story.

 

[kenmarable]

Hey, you're the one saying that most publishers can't even use the OGL correctly. Now you're saying it's easy to use that in conjunction with the CC?

Sure! People are failing at OGL but that's because there's no official explanation out there on how to use it.

The CC-BY SRD has right on the first page how to use it (cut and paste this text). So OGL + CC-BY is not more complex than OGL alone.

Ideally, publishers would explain how to use their OGC like Necromancer Games used to do in several of their products. But either way, OGL + CC-BY is not more difficult than just OGL alone.

 

[Reynard]

No one said otherwise. What I said was that if someone wants to use existing Open Game Content (i.e. a product that used the OGL to release a 5.1 SRD-based book) in conjunction with material from the 5.2 SRD, it's much easier to have both SRDs under a single license, i.e the OGL.

You can use the OGL and CC in the same book, but it's a lot more complicated, and so it's be easier for publishers if they didn't have to do that.

I misunderstood. No worries.

 

[Parmandur]

interesting since IANAL and a plain reading already tells me that it is not / has loopholes

Their is a common opinion thwt game rules don't count as Intellectual Property, but one of the deeper dives I listened to from an IP lawyer last year is that the reality is that nobody knows where the line is in Common Law for game rules because game companies really, really don't want to set a precedent ao settle before any judge really analyzes the situation and creates a precedent thar could disadvantage everyone in the games industry (or at least, force absolutely everyone to change business as usual). The Product Identity language was relying on the understanding that rules couldn't be IP, but a huge number of creators have ignored that opinion and gotten away with it for decades...and basically nobody involved would want to force a judge to carefully examine that situation.

 

[Parmandur]

All of the wonderful things released under the OGL by non-WotC publishers are all going to also be released under CC? Even the publishers that have gone out of business? Or no longer have the license for the IP so aren't allowed to republish? All of the fan-made content released under the OGL will be under CC?

Sadly, many won't. Some will, but much has been put out by people who aren't WotC that was only allowed under the OGL at the time and will never be republished under CC.

Well, first, the OGL is safe now because WotC has nothing to gain. Second, how many people were making use of that material for building further work?