WotC To Give Core D&D Mechanics To Community Via Creative Commons

Wizards of the Coast, in a move which surprised everbody, has announced that it will give away the core D&D mechanics to the community via a Creative Commons license.

This won't include 'quintessentially D&D" stuff like owlbears and magic missile, but it wil include the 'core D&D mechanics'.

So what does it include? It's important to note that it's only a fraction of what's currently available as Open Gaming Content under the existing Open Gaming License, so while it's termed as a 'give-away' it's actually a reduction. It doesn't include classes, spells, or magic items. It does include the combat rules, ability scores, and the core mechanic.

 

[Cadence]

Or one could develop an actual Vancian magic system*, as opposed to the many-times-removed interpretation used in D&D over the decades.

I'm all in if they use just the first three volumes of Dying earth for inspiration! (I'd probably leave out Rhialto et.al.).

 

[Remathilis]

That is not what I said, if you read the whole post. They own none of these concepts, but they do probably (never been in front of a judge, so no one knows) own parts of their expression (the other being more mechanical).

That is why I said a fireball doing 8d6 damage might in the aggregate, ie if you take a lot more than just that, amount to enough to violate their copyright. Just like two songs sharing one note do not violate copyright, but the more similar they get, you eventually cross a line (probably, much better defined for music than TRRPGs…)

Which was my point before people started "nuh-huh"ing everything.

WotC does not have a copyright on the concept of a holy man rebuking unclean spirits. It is arguable that they own the right to a class called cleric getting the ability to channel divinity once per short rest and make undead make a wisdom save or flee (and possibly explode). Even if you change the mechanics to a rolling 2d6 on a table to determine the hd of undead affected, you're still probably treading too close to wizards specific expressions. Whereas Paizo's channel energy mechanic is a unique enough expression that I think it doesn't tread on WotC's, even if they do end up covering the same concept.

As for what that line is from when things sharing a similar structure starts looking like infringement, I'm going to say that it's not a very clear cut decision. In fact, when it comes to music, I think they are rather Blurred Lines.

 

[Haplo781]

Shudders. I mean third party arbitrators are needed but maybe some less currently biased ones than SPLC.

Can you explain why you think the SPLC is "biased"?

 

[Cadence]

Anyone can use Open content. That is what open means. Anyone who uses the CC license is required to make the derivatives Open. The CC lacks protected Product Identity that partially derives from open content.

By using a CC "open license", you sign away your right to keep your creative content closed.

I'm a bit confused by how you are phrasing that.

Going from Frequently Asked Questions - Creative Commons , are all of the following true?

If you apply a CC-BY license to your work then you are signing away the right to have any of the licensed part closed (although you could have specified that some parts were not under CC-BY).

You cannot put anything from someone else's more restrictive CC license, or copyrighted material not under a non-CC license that allows it, under CC-BY.

If your work adapts someone else's CC-BY materials, you do not need to apply CC-BY to your adaptation. You must give attirbution and you may not use something like DRM that would cause the original work you adapted to run into trouble. For example, per the "Adapter's license chart" you could choose a narrower CC license for your work if you wanted (if you adapted a CC-BY work, you could release your adaptation under BY-NC-ND). I find nothing that says you must license your work using CC at all if it adapts CC-BY material, yours just has to attribute it and not apply some DRM like restriction to the CC-BY covered parts. (Attribution is commonly suggested to be: provide the original work's authors ID, original work title, that it was under CC-BY, where person X's work is hosted, and mention that you adapted it).

On the other hand, if you are adapting something under a CC-SA license your work must be under that CC-SA license or something stricter.

Is any of that off?

 

[Haplo781]

I'm all in if they use just the first three volumes of Dying earth for inspiration! (I'd probably leave out Rhialto et.al.).

So you have a cantrip that gives the target disadvantage on everything for a day, and a single spell slot that nukes everything in sight, probably including yourself?

 

[Cadence]

So you have a cantrip that gives the target disadvantage on everything for a day,

Which repeatable cantrip did that? (I can picture an item doing that but don't remember a spell).

and a single spell slot that nukes everything in sight, probably including yourself?

Sadly, in the current age you only have four of those spells, and if you only take the big ones that do things like putting someone in a cage and have a demon fly them across the planet, or prismatic spray, or imprison, then you might find yourself short of useful things you need to do. At mythic levels you might have five or even six!

 

[Haplo781]

Which repeatable cantrip did that? (I can picture an item doing that but don't remember a spell).



Sadly, in the current age you only have four of those spells, and if you only take the big ones that do things like putting someone in a cage and have a demon fly them across the planet, or prismatic spray, or imprison, then you might find yourself short of useful things you need to do. At mythic levels you might have five or even six!

I'm getting all my knowledge of Dying Earth from a single quick perusal of the RPG corebook. I just remember "cantraps" being a bad-luck curse that lasts for like 24 hours.

 

[Cadence]

I'm getting all my knowledge of Dying Earth from a single quick perusal of the RPG corebook. I just remember "cantraps" being a bad-luck curse that lasts for like 24 hours.

I've never seen the RPG books, so I'll go googling and see if I can find a reference or a place to buy the .pdf.

 

[Haplo781]

I've never seen the RPG books, so I'll go googling and see if I can find a reference or a place to buy the .pdf.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Cadence]

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

How can I avoid work by googling if you just sent me to a link for something very affordable!

(I guess I need to order and download it...)

EDIT: Did the ordering... resisting downloading until I check all the urgent deadlines.