D&D (2024) [+] Future of The SRD Speculation Thread

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My primary speculation is that we won't see the new SRD until 2026. After all, we didn't see the SRD5 until 2016, and 3rd edition didn't have the official release of any part of it SRD until April 2001, and was not fully officially released until early 2003.

(Yeah, I fired up the Internet Archive and looked at http://www.wizards. com/d20/article.asp?x=srd [sans the space]. Spells show up in mid-2002, magic items late 2002, and the monsters sometime between the February and April 2023 captures.)

Sure, 3.5's SRD was released simultaneously with the three core rulebooks, but that was not only at the absolute peak of the influence of the "open gamers" inside WotC, but also a continuation of the release process that had just finally managed to get the original SRD fully released in 1Q2003.

 

[Parmandur]

My primary speculation is that we won't see the new SRD until 2026. After all, we didn't see the SRD5 until 2016, and 3rd edition didn't have the official release of any part of it SRD until April 2001, and was not fully officially released until early 2003.

(Yeah, I fired up the Internet Archive and looked at http://www.wizards. com/d20/article.asp?x=srd [sans the space]. Spells show up in mid-2002, magic items late 2002, and the monsters sometime between the February and April 2023 captures.)

Sure, 3.5's SRD was released simultaneously with the three core rulebooks, but that was not only at the absolute peak of the influence of the "open gamers" inside WotC, but also a continuation of the release process that had just finally managed to get the original SRD fully released in 1Q2003.

The difference is that the SRD is the loss leader powering D&D Beyond now: and they will want to onboard new players using the current rules. The SRD is way more important to WotC now than it was in 2014-2016.

 

[see]

The difference is that the SRD is the loss leader powering D&D Beyond now: and they will want to onboard new players using the current rules. The SRD is way more important to WotC now than it was in 2014-2016.

[Edit: The following was based on what apparently was my misunderstanding of what Parmandur meant by "loss leader", thanks to my unfamiliarity with DDB. The basic point that the SRD isn't particularly important for DDB going forward.]

The current SRD is the free content on D&D Beyond for 5th edition because that was the path of least resistance at the time; the SRD5 was released before D&D Beyond launched, and D&D Beyond was a third party anyway. But now, especially with D&D Beyond now being in-house, WotC can designate whatever subset of D&D 2024 they like as the "free" content for D&D Beyond, without having to decide what to put in the next SRD first.

Even if WotC explicitly intends to keep both the free stuff on DDB and the SRD aligned content-wise, it's incredibly easy for the actual release dates to be decoupled ("Look, sure, we need a careful review before we put anything out under CC-BY, but releasing it as free DDB content doesn't commit us to letting third parties publish based on it. So we'll just put it on DDB on September 17th to support the launch of the PHB, and wait for the reviews from the various departments to be completed before we release the new SRD.")

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Just put 4e into CC and we can both go on with our lives, WotC.

They said they'd do it, at this point the complete lack of update on that though is making me think they probably won't, and it was just an appeasement tactic, but we shall see.

 

[Reynard]

I'm really curious what an srd VTT might look like? I expect a premium all bells and whistles option, but a free SRD version to take a spin would be interesting.

Paizo does this on FG with Pathfinder 2E, including the new Player and GM Core for Remaster being available on day 1.

 

[Morrus]

The current SRD is the free content on D&D Beyond for 5th edition because that was the path of least resistance at the time; the SRD5 was released before D&D Beyond launched, and D&D Beyond was a third party anyway. But now, especially with D&D Beyond now being in-house, WotC can designate whatever subset of D&D 2024 they like as the "free" content for D&D Beyond, without having to decide what to put in the next SRD first.

Even if WotC explicitly intends to keep both the free stuff on DDB and the SRD aligned content-wise, it's incredibly easy for the actual release dates to be decoupled ("Look, sure, we need a careful review before we put anything out under CC-BY, but releasing it as free DDB content doesn't commit us to letting third parties publish based on it. So we'll just put it on DDB on September 17th to support the launch of the PHB, and wait for the reviews from the various departments to be completed before we release the new SRD.")

Do you mean SRD or the basic rules on DDB? They aren't the same thing? The SRD is a developer tool which tells you what text you can copy in your own publications.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

They said they'd do it, at this point the complete lack of update on that though is making me think they probably won't, and it was just an appeasement tactic, but we shall see.

No they did not promise that 4e would get a usable SRD and that it would be moved to OGL and CC. For 4e, they only ever said they would look at it. It is to much work to do a 4e SRR and then put it OGL/CC so I don't expect that to happen.

They have updated on there D&D Beyond posts that they are still working on the 3/3.5 SRD to CC.

 

[Reynard]

They have updated on there D&D Beyond posts that they are still working on the 3/3.5 SRD to CC.

This should take about an afternoon of work. The 3.5 SRD already exists. All they need to do is task an intern with searching the doc for important IP terms.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

No they did not promise that 4e would get a usable SRD and that it would be moved to OGL and CC. For 4e, they only ever said they would look at it. It is to much work to do a 4e SRR and then put it OGL/CC so I don't expect that to happen.

They have updated on there D&D Beyond posts that they are still working on the 3/3.5 SRD to CC.

I didn't say they promised, did I? They did however say they intended to look at doing it for other editions, and them backing out of that silently is obvious pretty crappy. Instead of you making up excuses for them, if they have no intention of doing an SRD for 4E, and/or putting it into CC/BY, they should come out and say so.

This should take about an afternoon of work. The 3.5 SRD already exists. All they need to do is task an intern with searching the doc for important IP terms.

Yup. That they're foot-dragging on this note-worthy. If there was actual will to do it, it would have been done already.

You might need to run it past some people to check for IP stuff - which is mainly going to be a word search on stuff like "Illithid", but it's already got an SRD, and it's dead edition.

It was a gratuitous promise (in the broadest sense of the term, not an actual promise) that it seems like they have little or no real intention of keeping to. They might do it, but it'll be because something embarrassed them, most likely.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

This should take about an afternoon of work. The 3.5 SRD already exists. All they need to do is task an intern with searching the doc for important IP terms.

The intern tasked with doing that got laid off in November, along with the others.