Rob Bowes of Lone Wolf Development spoke to one of my favourite podcasts, the Round Table on The Tome Show, recently. Amongst the many things discusses was the likelihood of D&D 5th Edition support in HeroLab (character building software) and Realmworks (campaign management software), and the possibility of a 5E SRD. The short version is that officially licensed support for both is very likely this quarter. Also, interestingly, he seems very, very sure that WotC is going to release a System Reference Document (SRD) for D7/D 5th Edition in the very near future. Here's what he said.
"...Liz is often very cautious with what she says, and rightly so. From our perspective, obviously as Liz has said, we would very much like to work directly with Wizards to support D&D 5th Edition, and our objective has always been to do so through both HeroLab and Realmworks. We've actually been in licensing discussions with Wizards since around the time 5th Edition was launched. Around the time when everything... first there was the Codename: Morningstar stuff, and once the wheels started to fall off that we renewed discussions with them. But the path to securing a license has been fraught with hurdles.
With that change, we're now very bullish on the prospects for a D&D license in the near future for at least one, if not both of the two products. Once we decoupled them from each other, we can treat them differently, and that will create some problems from our end, but that is the nature of anything to do with licensing, especially with a huge, hot property like D&D. So we're looking to make those adjustments."
What he goes on later to say, however, makes it sound like their plans are based not on an individual license, but on the possibility of a public System Reference Document:
"An important variable to keep in mind in all of this is that Wizards has said they'll be releasing something similar to the SRD for 3rd Edition for the 5th Edition. At this point, we're actually anticipating that release to occur some time relatively soon, within the next few months at least. That's gonna be a game changer in many ways for 5th Edition, just as it was for 3rd Edition. We're already poised from that standpoint. For HeroLab, we're basically ready to go as soon as the new SRD, or whatever name it's given, I don't know if Wizards is going to call it an SRD or something else. When that's released by Wizards, we'll be able to get HeroLabs put out for that SRD in very short order. What the SRD actually consists of remains to be seen. However, our assumption - and it's important this is just a guess, this is an assumption - it'll be somewhere between the Basic Rules and the full rules of the Player's Handbook and the DMG. Once we know what it is, and that also means what isn't included in the new SRD, we'll make the necessary adjustments to what we include, and then we'll get HeroLab support out."
It does start to sound a little less certain, however:
"I think it is a pretty safe bet that HeroLab support for D&D should be out some time this quarter. That is my.. again, that is a guess, obligatory disclaimer, all of this is predicated entirely on what the SRD does and does not allow, which we don't yet know. Wizards has not divulged any of that information to us, so we're going based on reading the tea-leaves, comments made by Mike Mearls, and that sort of stuff, in interviews he's done, where we're pretty sure that we will be able to do something and we've invested all the time and effort to make sure that, assuming we can, it'll be very very quick for us to get support out whatever the constraints are of the SRD. I'm just calling it an SRD because I don't know what a better term for it would be."
Of course, the possibility of an OGL (Open Gaming License) with an accompanying SRD has been talked about for a long time now. Back in November 2014, WotC's Chris Perkins said that "It is our intention to bring back the OGL. We just don't know when we are going to do it yet."[/h] And right here on EN World a discussion thread has been going on for nearly 2 years and nearly 1,400 comments!
What's an SRD? Well, it's a document which details which parts of a game are available for use by 3rd party developers under a license such as an Open Gaming License (OGL).
Be sure to listen to to the full podcast! It's about about an hour long, and also covers Mike Mearls' recent Unearthed Arcana article on bringing back 2E kits in some details.
Find HeroLab and Realmworks here.
"...Liz is often very cautious with what she says, and rightly so. From our perspective, obviously as Liz has said, we would very much like to work directly with Wizards to support D&D 5th Edition, and our objective has always been to do so through both HeroLab and Realmworks. We've actually been in licensing discussions with Wizards since around the time 5th Edition was launched. Around the time when everything... first there was the Codename: Morningstar stuff, and once the wheels started to fall off that we renewed discussions with them. But the path to securing a license has been fraught with hurdles.
One key complication has been that we've always focused on securing a license for both HeroLab and Realmworks together, yet the two product actually present completely different hurdles from one another. We only recently came to that conclusion, came to that realisation more accurately, and split them apart within our licensing conversations. That should actually clear the path for licensing at least one product, if not both now, because we're not trying to lump them under the same way. They need to be treated differently for a variety of reasons both on our side and on Wizards' side.
With that change, we're now very bullish on the prospects for a D&D license in the near future for at least one, if not both of the two products. Once we decoupled them from each other, we can treat them differently, and that will create some problems from our end, but that is the nature of anything to do with licensing, especially with a huge, hot property like D&D. So we're looking to make those adjustments."
"An important variable to keep in mind in all of this is that Wizards has said they'll be releasing something similar to the SRD for 3rd Edition for the 5th Edition. At this point, we're actually anticipating that release to occur some time relatively soon, within the next few months at least. That's gonna be a game changer in many ways for 5th Edition, just as it was for 3rd Edition. We're already poised from that standpoint. For HeroLab, we're basically ready to go as soon as the new SRD, or whatever name it's given, I don't know if Wizards is going to call it an SRD or something else. When that's released by Wizards, we'll be able to get HeroLabs put out for that SRD in very short order. What the SRD actually consists of remains to be seen. However, our assumption - and it's important this is just a guess, this is an assumption - it'll be somewhere between the Basic Rules and the full rules of the Player's Handbook and the DMG. Once we know what it is, and that also means what isn't included in the new SRD, we'll make the necessary adjustments to what we include, and then we'll get HeroLab support out."
"I think it is a pretty safe bet that HeroLab support for D&D should be out some time this quarter. That is my.. again, that is a guess, obligatory disclaimer, all of this is predicated entirely on what the SRD does and does not allow, which we don't yet know. Wizards has not divulged any of that information to us, so we're going based on reading the tea-leaves, comments made by Mike Mearls, and that sort of stuff, in interviews he's done, where we're pretty sure that we will be able to do something and we've invested all the time and effort to make sure that, assuming we can, it'll be very very quick for us to get support out whatever the constraints are of the SRD. I'm just calling it an SRD because I don't know what a better term for it would be."
Of course, the possibility of an OGL (Open Gaming License) with an accompanying SRD has been talked about for a long time now. Back in November 2014, WotC's Chris Perkins said that "It is our intention to bring back the OGL. We just don't know when we are going to do it yet."[/h] And right here on EN World a discussion thread has been going on for nearly 2 years and nearly 1,400 comments!
What's an SRD? Well, it's a document which details which parts of a game are available for use by 3rd party developers under a license such as an Open Gaming License (OGL).
Be sure to listen to to the full podcast! It's about about an hour long, and also covers Mike Mearls' recent Unearthed Arcana article on bringing back 2E kits in some details.
Find HeroLab and Realmworks here.
