What If the Free Basic Rules WAS the SRD and What If WotC Already has a System in Place to Distribute 3rd Party 5e Products?

Think about it.

Everything beyond what will soon be in the freely distributed Basic Rules for 5e is, essentially, optional. If the core books are optional, they do not constitute the SRD.

Official adventures from WotC will use the Free Basic Rules - anything else required to run the adventure will either be included in the adventure book itself or available as a free download.

The SRD would include character generation rules, making it not just a System Resource Document, but also a full set of playable rules. Being available as a downloadable PDF, I suspect it will be updated and added to over time.

With the relationship WotC has with OneBookShelf via the DnDClassics webstore, I suspect it wouldn't be too hard for them to distribute the rules as a print on demand softcover or hardcover if the demand were there.

It also means WotC could have a system in place to distribute 3rd party 5e products under a controlled license through the DnDClassice webstore, and take a percentage of sales right off the top. Probably better than the GSL, not a loose as the OGL and ensures WotC gets a piece of the pie. Larger publishers could probably purchase a license to publish directly and not go through the WotC webstore.

Food for thought...

It's Official - Free 15% of Player's Handbook (and MM and DMG) is "Basic D&D"

The clues were there, and I wrote about some of them, such as the Free Player's Handbook covering the core four classes (check) and core four races (check) and levels 1-15 (actually 1-20). I also brought up the idea of free material form the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide rolling out to supplement the free 15% of the Player's Handbook. Link to What If the Freely Available 15% of the 5e Player's Handbook includes Core Advancement Thru 15 Levels? and http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2014/05/peering-into-taverns-scrying-pool-what.html

This morning, Mike rolled out the exciting details: WotC Basic D&D Announcement

"Basic D&D is a PDF that covers the core of the game. It’s the equivalent of the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia, though it doesn’t have quite the same scope (for example, it won’t go into detail on a setting). It runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each. It also provides the dwarf, elf, halfling, and human as race options.

But the best part? Basic D&D is a free PDF. Anyone can download it from our website. We want to put D&D in as many hands as possible, and a free, digital file is the best way to do that.

If Basic D&D is the equivalent of the classic Rules Cyclopedia, then the three core rulebooks are analogous to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Want more character options? Pick up a Player’s Handbook. Looking for more critters for your campaign? The Monster Manual has you covered. Want to sculpt a unique campaign? Pick up the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Still, Basic D&D is the true heart of the game and could easily provide a lifetime of gaming.

At the launch of the D&D Starter Set, Basic D&D will include the material needed to create characters and advance to 20th level. In August, with the release of the Player’s Handbook, Basic D&D will expand to include the essential monsters, magic items, and DM rules needed to run the game, along with the rules for wilderness, dungeon, and urban adventuring. (The Starter Set already covers the aspects of these rules that you need to run the included campaign.)

As we introduce new storylines like Tyranny of Dragons, we’ll also make available free PDFs that provide all the rules and stats missing from Basic D&D needed to run the adventures tied into the story. The adventures released as part of Tyranny of Dragons are playable without requiring any of the core rulebooks or the Starter Set. With just the Basic Dungeons & Dragons rules, you can play D&D for years.

Basic D&D makes it easier than ever for new players and DMs to jump into tabletop RPG play. We’re involved in the greatest gaming hobby ever invented. It’s time to bring that hobby to everyone who wants to take part."

This could very well be a game changer...

What If 5e Doesn't Need to be OGL to be Served by the OGL (and the OSR)?

Word on the street, or in certain circles of the RPG Community, is that 5e is fairly close to 2e in nature with some new bells and whistles, and with options that can make it more like 3x and even a little 4e.

Now, 2e and all of the earlier editions have been retrocloned to death, and pretty much anything from 0e to 2e, Labyrinth Lord to Swords & Wizardry to OSRIC and all of the clones between are 95% compatible. I frequently mix editions and clones when it comes to adventures or monster sources when I run my Swords & Wizardry games.

So, if 5e is, in effect, a 2e retroclone (the edition when D&D was on everyone's lips and in all of the stores and boxed sets galore before the implosion of too many damn settings) does it need to be "open" or OGL? If the point of the OGL (or at least, the original intention before the genie in the bottle was fully realized) was to give a legal framework to create adventures, monsters, settings and the like with a communal base set of rules, don't we already have what is needed?

WotC went to 4e in large part to break away from the OGL. The system changed enough that 3x and 4x were different games and just not compatible. The OGL couldn't find space in a 4e world.

If 5e is going back to some sort of 2e / 3e hybrid (at least in it's core, and especially in it's free 15% of the Player's Handbook), you don't need the new rules to be OGL to create products that are compatible with the OGL - you just need to get "close enough" to be "compatible with the latest edition of the world's most famous RPG."

What if 5e was designed to be compatible with 3x and prior, and maybe with some work, even Pathfinder, while still being a "closed" ruleset?

WotC get's to keep control of it's newest child, and at the same time reap the benefits of the editions and clones that have come before.

What If the Freely Available 15% of the 5e Player's Handbook includes Core Advancement Thru 15 Levels?

We know that Hoard of the Dragon Queen (first part of the two part Tyranny of Dragons storyline) is playable without the Player's Handbook itself. +Mike Mearls said so, but he also said that it would require the use of the free 15% of the Player's Handbook. This kinda makes sense, as each part of Tyranny of Dragons is only 96 pages long, and including rules to run as well as the adventure would lead to the use of a really small font ;)

The two parts of Tyranny of Dragons take players from levels 1 to 7ish and 8 to 15ish respectfully.

So, where are those rules for advancement? The expo table? The spells known and spell lists? Not in the Starter Set - that only goes up to 5th level with pre-chosen advancement.

So they HAVE to be in those 48 pages that constitute the 15% of the Players Handbook. I expect it will be core classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard and Thief) and core races only (Human, Dwarf, Elf and Halfling). I strongly suspect the 15% will skew heavily towards what we in the OSR would refer to as "Old School Gaming", as more options would, by default, require more space to cover. (the Starter Set includes 5 pregens, which may put a 5th class in play)

48 pages for six ability score tables, four classes, four races, 15 levels of advancement, 7 levels of spells, combat rules, healing, weapons tables, equipment tables and the like. Monsters and treasure to be found in the adventure itself.

It might be the most OSR of recent OSR releases, if economy of page count is added to the equation, as it will cover the same levels as B/X ;)

What if 5e Leads WotC to Change DnDClassics to Print on Demand, Bringing the Old Adventures Back in Print?

This summer, 5e, the latest and greatest version of Dungeons & Dragons will release. Yes, whenever there is a new version of D&D, it is ALWAYS the greatest edition. It's part of the boiler plate, so bear with me.

What do we know so far? WotC has stated there will be options in the Dungeon Master's Guide to allow DMs to emulate earlier editions of D&D. We also know that the first official adventure released for D&D 5e, Tyranny of Dragons, will be self contained. All the rules needed to play the adventure will be included with the adventure. No Starter Set, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual or DMG required to play. In effect, Tyranny of Dragons is emulating a theoretically unique variation of 5e tweaked for that adventure.

This means that there is no true, one way to run D&D 5e. It can, theoretically, be used to emulate any previous edition of D&D, depending on the dials / twists / adjustments / assumptions the DM sets for the campaign.

Lets take this a step further.

WotC has been releasing products from it's out of print collection in PDF for what, about a year now? Redone PDFs. Reprinted and re-typset AD&D rules, OD&D rules, AD&D module collections and later edition reprints of core rules.

We also know that the Caves of Chaos, from the classic B2, Keep on the Borderland, was the default adventure for the early D&D Next playtests. So, the older adventures are already on the radar for possible conversions to D&D 5e. Or non-conversions, depending on the emulation settings used.

Take the original T1-4, Temple of Elemental Evil. Takes PCs from 1st to 7th or 8th level in AD&D 1e. Tweak it and package it with a version of 5e emulating AD&D 1e. Offer it as a PDF and Print on Demand version at OneBookShelf or / and via Amazon's POD service. Minimal effort, and it tests the waters for more print versions of (A)D&D Adventures. Or do it without testing the waters, and rely on DMs using the DMG to make the necessary teaks

Turn on Print on Demand at OneBookShelf for the adventures and rulebooks that have already been converted to PDF and you have instant library of product for D&D 5e. Ravenloft, Birthright, modules, settings and more. Classic authors. Classic credibility. Little expense or risk.

Almost too good to be true.

What if... the OSR were assimilated?

"What If?" - A New Series of Posts Coming Up Here at The Tavern

I remember the "What If?" comic book series from Marvel Comics very well. I wasn't a Marvel fanboy, but I really enjoyed that amazing series. It introduced me to more Marvel characters than I care to count - some obscure, some bizarre, some mainstream but all interesting. Linking it all together was The Watcher.

Now, I've been doing a bunch of What If? posts for years now, but never labeled them as such. They aren't predictions. Never have been, never will be. They are often thought exercises. Sometimes they are wishes. Occasionally they are dreams of the "coulda been but never was".

Now they will be part of their own series of posts. The first one will be a future "What if?"

"What if 5e leads WotC to Change DnDClassics to Print on Demand, Bringing the Old Adventures Back in Print?"