D&D 3E/3.5 Hypothetical complete 3.5 wiki (à la d20pfsrd)

[Altamont Ravenard]

Hypothetical complete 3.5 wiki (à la d20pfsrd)

I've been playing Pathfinder recently and I really like it, especially since all (ALL!) the rules and reference matter are online at www.d20pfsrd.com. It makes it so much easier to play the game with the material conveniently hyperlinked and accessible.

It would be as great to have a complete 3.5 site as well, as the material is now finite.

What do you think would be Wizards' reaction if an equivalent site was built for official 3.5 material? I know of one european site in particular that has a lot of info on it, but it's not set up as nicely as PF's site (in said site's defense, it seems to be a volunteer, collaborative effort whereas for PF's site, I'm pretty sure people got paid to work on it).

And for people in web site development, how long (man-hours?) do you think it would take to make such a site, if we're considering rules material from offical (Wizards) books?

 

[Tovec]

You mean something like:
http://www.d20srd.org/

 

[Cadence]

You mean something like:
http://www.d20srd.org/

Unfortunately most of the WotC stuff isn't OGL (just the core books and UA, right?) I think Crystal Keep used to have indices of all of the WotC books (summaries of the classes, spells, monsters, etc...), but the site says WotC asked them to take it down.

Something that had the 3rd party OGL stuff could be very useful though.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

You mean something like:
http://www.d20srd.org/

Like that, but with all the official 3.5 material (the "complete" splat books, spell compendium, all the monster manuals, etc.)

AR

 

[Cadence]

Like that, but with all the official 3.5 material (the "complete" splat books, spell compendium, all the monster manuals, etc.)

How does copyright work on all the non-OGL stuff? Is it worth putting all the effort in only to have the WotC legal department come out to crush you?

 

[Jester David]

Like that, but with all the official 3.5 material (the "complete" splat books, spell compendium, all the monster manuals, etc.)

AR

Even now, with WotC unable to make a dime on the books and content, such a project would be shut down in days.
PFsrd lives because Paizo made their game more open. The rules are all OGL and thus sharable. WotC chose to release very limited content into the SRD, and their current method is the Compendium that requires a monthly subscription.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Crystalkeep did do this, and it stayed around for a while, and it was shut down.

Where WotC is at right now is that they're competing against themselves in some sense, and losing. Opening up content to be posted online for free would be great for the community, but it would make it even harder than it already is for them to sell stuff. I don't see it happening, unfortunately.

 

[silvermane]

Let's set some facts straight:

I think Crystal Keep used to have indices of all of the WotC books (summaries of the classes, spells, monsters, etc...), but the site says WotC asked them to take it down.

...and they resurfaced at another site which exists to this very day. Regardless, the original indices can still be easily found on the Web (but they have become obsolete).

Even now, with WotC unable to make a dime on the books and content, such a project would be shut down in days.

There are at least two sites which have posted complete WotC feats/spells/classes/monsters (stat blocks only) for several years now and WotC is apparently in no hurry to have them shut down. Not to mention dozens of private sites (wikis and others) where some of this material can be found.

Speaking of OGL, the Grand OGL wiki at www.purpleduckgames.com contains a fair share of third party material, especially Mongoose's.

Finally, there are dozens fan-made variations of WotC classes. There is nothing preventing you from posting your own version of a warlock/samurai/ninja/whatever. They can even have the same abilities, you only need to phrase them differently.

Unless you hold WotC material to be the supreme standard, it is not really necessary any more. The total volume of homebrew found on the Web far exceeds the official material, and most importantly, people are still producing it at a steady rate - 3.5 homebrewing is more popular than Pathfinder's on most forums.