D&D 5E So, 5e OGL

[Kramodlog]

Interesting. This means it will require some work.

 

[Nylanfs]

It does need to accompany the work that it covers. That's why the rulebooks themselves were never OGC - what was OGC was the separately published System Reference Document (SRD).

Which was a damn pain because that meant that the errata for the books weren't OGC until it was put into the SRD.

 

[Morrus]

Which was a damn pain because that meant that the errata for the books weren't OGC until it was put into the SRD.

I found the SRD to be a wonderfully convenient way of handling it from a publishing point of view. Very useful and clear.

 

[Nylanfs]

Yes I agree, but we all had to wait for any errata for the books to be applied to the SRD by what ever intern they had doing it that month. And there are still some changes that haven't been put into the SRD.

 

[Morrus]

Yes I agree, but we all had to wait for any errata for the books to be applied to the SRD by what ever intern they had doing it that month.

That didn't affect anything, unless you were doing a Mongoose and simply reproducing the SRD as a rulebook. It's the only terminology you need from the SRD, not the mechanics.

 

[Nylanfs]

Or a character generator like we are.

 

[Morrus]

Or a character generator like we are.

I don't see how, unless your character generator needed to reproduce rules text word for word. It's calculations can be changed in the background just fine, and any errata that actually necessitates front end textual replication from the SRD (and replication shouldn't be critical for a decent generator) can be reworded.

As long as you know the maths and have access to the terminology, you're golden.

 

[BoldItalic]

<snip>
I just need a fan site/community licence that says I can use WotC's stuff so long as I don't charge and follow whatever restrictions they want. Like disclaimers, links to the Basic rules, not mimicking the trade dress, etc...

Do you mean this one? http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/fan-site-kit It's been up on the WotC web site for about a month (the date at the top is 01/01/2014 but that's unreal). The kit itself is just some 5e-related images but the terms of use are the interesting thing.

 

[Morrus]

Do you mean this one? http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/fan-site-kit It's been up on the WotC web site for about a month (the date at the top is 01/01/2014 but that's unreal). The kit itself is just some 5e-related images but the terms of use are the interesting thing.

It's the old 4E one updated with some Tyranny of Dragons art, that's why. Still refers to the GSL, bizarrely.

It's not really a community policy. It's a license to use a small package of images under certain conditions. Not really of much significance, honestly.

 

[Jester David]

I think it would be super cool, but if you simply paired it down a bit to mostly combat stuff you could easily fit it in the WotC approved monster format and be aok...

There is NO WotC-approved monster format for 5e fan use. Nope, nothing, nada, zilch. That's Jester's point.

That's the catch.

I could do the NPCs. It'd be easy since I'd just be designing monsters using PC powers and reformatting specific PC class options. But I'm not sure how WotC feels about copying and reprinting class features from the PHB.

Similarly, the layout and presentation of 5e monsters is part of the trade dress of their books. There's a reason Necromancer/Frog God Games presented the monsters in Fifth Edition Foes so differently. So far WotC has shown no interest in shutting down sites that produce their own content, but I'm not comfortable not knowing where the line is.