Community created 5e clone?

[Yaarel]

I'm wishing I hadn't flunked Web design. I know superficially how to do it, but I don't think I could do it myself

It is kinda cool that alot of gamers are lawyers, alot of gamers are computer programmers, alot of gamers are historians, etcetera.

As a community, we can do a better job than any corporation can.

 

[wingsandsword]

"Fighter" is public domain too, but I would probably call it a "Warrior" anyway, since this name is closer to what the concept is. Or, I would split it into two separate classes: a tough heavy-infantry "Knight" versus an agile light-infantry "Skirmisher".

I suspect that most of the common character classes and races that exist would be public domain.

Most of the D&D races are from folklore long predating D&D, or are genericized versions of literary characters that also predate D&D.

You can show inspiration from literature, history and folklore for most of the major D&D classes. Amusingly, the 2nd edition PHB explicitly listed various sources from history, literature, and folklore all the core classes of that edition were based on. (For example, Archbishop Turpin from Song of Roland as a source for the Cleric class)

 

[xiphumor]

Might I direct your attention to Advanced 5th Edition, which is pretty darn close to a 5e clone and is supported by this very website?

 

[Yaarel]

I suspect that most of the common character classes and races that exist would be public domain.

Yeah, several lawyers mentioned this, but for me the implications are starting to sink in.

Most of D&D is a relatively straightforward import of public domain concepts and noncopyrightable systems.

By undermining the OGL 1.0a, and causing the gaming community to no longer sign onto it, WotC actually loses its own contractual protection of the SRD property.

All of the SRD is trivially clonable.



Compare the "Drow" that Gygax pieced together from disparate public domain sources:
• Norse Dvergar
• Scottish "Drow" (a kind of small troll)
• Jewish "Lilith" (whence Lolth)
• and curiously a Norwegian folkbelief that identifies "Lilith" as the mother of the hiddenfolk
• Greek Arachne (whence Spider)
• Tolkien adopted the scholarly speculation that some nature beings were tales about human ethnicities of flesh and blood

In my eyes, this particular "alteration" is distinctive enough that Gygax can copyright his own version of a drow.

But the elements that construct it are strictly public domain.

It is trivially easy to rewrite a new version of a "dark elf" or "unseelie elf", while drawing from the public domain.

 

[Yaarel]

I imagine that Pathfinder 2 and other non-D&D games will need to go thru a "scrub" to doublecheck to remove residual SRD copy-pasting, if any, so the versions of the concepts can stand on their own.

 

[Thourne]

I imagine that Pathfinder 2 and other non-D&D games will need to go thru a "scrub" to doublecheck to remove residual SRD copy-pasting, if any, so the versions of the concepts can stand on their own.

I would think PF2 being written from the ground up would make that a relatively quick task.

 

[Yaarel]

I would think PF2 being written from the ground up would make that a relatively quick task.

Yeah, theyve said as much, themselves.

 

[Krachek]

Making a clone won’t be that much difficult.
If they keep up with OGL 1.2 the core rules will be available by Creative common licence.
there is still a lot of work to do for classes, spells and monsters, but it’s a reasonable work.

and for a clone game, I won’t worry too much for problems by Wotc.
For now they seem obsess by improved VTT and recurring subscription.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’d be down to contribute to that.

 

[Yaarel]

Making a clone won’t be that much difficult.
If they keep up with OGL 1.2 the core rules will be available by Creative common licence.
there is still a lot of work to do for classes, spells and monsters, but it’s a reasonable work.

and for a clone game, I won’t worry too much for problems by Wotc.
For now they seem obsess by improved VTT and recurring subscription.

Presumably, future non-Hasbro-WotC VTTs will include clone content.