Dungeons & Dragons SRD 5.2 Is Officially Live

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The new System Reference Document (SRD) for Dungeons & Dragons' revised 5th Edition is officially live. The new SRD was officially released and is available for download on D&D Beyond. A FAQ detailing changes from the previous SRD was also released.

The SRD provides a version of D&D's rules that can be used and referenced in third-party material and form a framework for publishing material compatible for D&D's latest edition. The newest version of the SRD contains a mix of species, backgrounds, subclasses, and feats from the 2024 Player's Handbook, along with statblocks from the 2025 Monster Manual.

One other interesting note is that the new SRD purges references to creatures and characters classified as D&D IP. The previous SRD released under a Creative Commons license contained reference to Strahd and Orcus, both of which were removed in the new SRD. Additionally, the SRD renames the Deck of Many Things as "Mysterious Deck" and the Orb of Dragonkind as "Dragon Orb" to allow for both to be used in third-party material while not infringing upon D&D IP.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

I mean the notion of an alternate world from which Fairy creatures originate is hardly original to D&D. Even a lot of Feywild lore isn't exactly original to D&D, like Titania and Oberon.
 

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Damn it, you had me in the first half. Now I'm just disappointed. ;)
Me too.

I like the orcus-ogre-orc etymology inspiring a 5e blend of Shadowfell, Giant, and Orc. Probably it works best a Necromancy faction, but not necessarily Evil.
 
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It is interesting that the SRD 5.2 is issued only under Creative Commons, sidelining the OGL. Don't know what the wider implications are, but it seems to be a creator-friendly move.
You could licence it under the OGL yourself, if you wanted to. Similar to what kobold press did with Tales Of The Valiant. They used the ORC licence and made the changes the content. But I can't see why you could just re-licence it under OGL as long as you included the attribution. You could also include the 5.1 content to put references to the deck of many things back in (maybe).
 


This does seem to be a far more intentional document than the 5.1 SRD. WoTC have thought carefully about what should be included and what shouldn't. Some gaps can be filled from the 5.1 SRD, so no great loss there. The lack of Bastion rules is sad considering I was interested to see what other companies would do withbthem. Overall, it hits me that the selection of material does lean towards what is useful when creating adventures rather than rules expansions. Is this what WoTC sees as the primary role of third-party publishers?
 





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