D&D General So...How many D&D clones/SRDs are we going to see?

[Cadence]

Not as many as one would expect as a lot of the ones I've seen bandied about are 1) lots of creators coming together instead of going alone and 2) the D&D fanbase will call 'not D&D'..

NDD vs. DND?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They certainly can, but I’m not sure PF2 is really the game to capture the current player zeitgeist

It doesn't need to be. An OGL just needs to be a framework people can freely build upon or modify, including stripping things away.

 

[overgeeked]

On the negative side, with too many options, no one gets noticed in the pile.

That's what will happen.

IMO, in order to be successful, it needs to be one or two systems that everyone else uses. Only a unified system is going to leave any lasting mark and allow that system to grow and be successful. As much as I'd love to put out my own CC system, I know collaboration is the key.

I doubt that will happen. 5E was a big tent holding several distinct groups together artificially. Each of these groups wants different things out of the game and want different levels of complexity and have different preferences re: simulationist, gamist, narrativist, OC-focus, etc. No one game is going to appeal equally to all players of all preferences. Not even 5E did that. It was name recognition, critical mass, and all the OGL 3PP that propelled them.

We designers all have things we love, so in order to be successful, you'll have to set pride aside and leave your favorite mechanic on the cutting room floor if necessary for collaboration.

So what do we have out there?

There's the FKR. Savage Worlds. Fate. Etc. There's not likely to be a D&D killer. We're in the fantasy Heartbreaker 2.0 era.

 

[hojulation]

Year Zero Engine has an SRD, I think they host it on the Free League Forums.

 

[Vckp1974]

With the whole 1.1 debacle, even if WoTC backtracks, it seems like everyone and their grandma's dog will create their own SRD/attempted clone of D&D using either their own license, or Creative Commons.

I wanted to try to compile a list of the biggest efforts. On the plus side, it gives a lot more choice. On the negative side, with too many options, no one gets noticed in the pile. IMO, in order to be successful, it needs to be one or two systems that everyone else uses. Only a unified system is going to leave any lasting mark and allow that system to grow and be successful. As much as I'd love to put out my own CC system, I know collaboration is the key.

And that's the hard part. We designers all have things we love, so in order to be successful, you'll have to set pride aside and leave your favorite mechanic on the cutting room floor if necessary for collaboration.

So what do we have out there?
IIRC Mark Borg doesn't use the OGL but it's own system.
Same with Chaosium
A handful of industry professionals and I are working on a CC system.

Have you checked out Core d20 at core-d20.ca and reddit.com/r/cored20/ ? It is a Creative Commons licensed system, to be backwards compatible with D&D 5E. Its current beta release is 0.45, with new updates every day or so.

 

[ph0rk]

There's not likely to be a D&D killer. We're in the fantasy Heartbreaker 2.0 era.

And the term is important - those games were not that good (in the original heartbreaker period) and were not terribly successful. I suspect many of these new systems will go the same way.

It is already the case that people are refusing to consider pathfinder (too crunchy). Perhaps some storytelling or social intrigue system will be able to capitalize on the turmoil and the subgroup of 5e players that really don’t want to play a dungeon crawl game of any type will move to that. But other, additonal, dungeon crawl systems? The market space looks overfull already to me.

 

[Steampunkette]

Have you seen Level Up! yet...? >.>

The Designers have been De-OGL-Ifying it and mostly aiming at naming conventions since everything was rewritten. And now the core mechanics are going into Creative Commons (which honestly they practically already were but now WotC is acknowledging they can't defend it and won't sue people over it) the workload just got -way- lighter.

It'll probably be the most "5e" game on the market, and be ready to go as soon as the lawyers say 'okay' if they do...

MIGHT have a leg up on some of the competition.

 

[ph0rk]

Yeah, it would probably be my pick, but I imagine it would be hard to stand out among all the others.

At least, for someone that doesn’t find their way here!

 

[overgeeked]

And the term is important - those games were not that good (in the original heartbreaker period) and were not terribly successful. I suspect many of these new systems will go the same way.

It is already the case that people are refusing to consider pathfinder (too crunchy). Perhaps some storytelling or social intrigue system will be able to capitalize on the turmoil and the subgroup of 5e players that really don’t want to play a dungeon crawl game of any type will move to that. But other, additonal, dungeon crawl systems? The market space looks overfull already to me.

That speaks to one of the things I've been saying for a little while now, 5E is a big tent holding in several distinct factions together. Once the tent starts to collapse, the people inside are scattering. They're not going to all shift en masse to one other system. As you say, PF2E is too crunchy for a lot of 5E folks. So they'll go elsewhere. If Kobold's Black Flag is compatible with 5E (and it looks like it will be), then some of the people who know about Kobold and like their stuff will go there. If MCDM's game is good and people like the funky dice, then some people who are aware of it will go there. Repeat that for all the various publishers. The one exception, I think...well two...would be if Critical Role publishes their own RPG then a heap of people will jump on that. Talk about free advertising. They put out a half-way decent RPG and they're immediately the 3rd or 4th largest RPG publisher considering their millions of loyal fans. The other exception would be if the folks behind ORC do the unthinkable and put out one system and everyone starts supporting it like they did with 5E. It's far more likely CR will take up the slack than the whole of the 5E ecosystem simply pivots to one new system. Or both. CR publishes and the whole 5E ecosystem goes with them.

 

[DarkCrisis]

There is already a lot out there. For Gold and Glory. OSRIC. White Box. Basic Fantasy. Etc etc etc