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D&D 5e: More News is Bad News (for 3rd Party Publishers)

Mike Mearls released another tidbit on D&D 5e, this time supposedly answering some questions on D&D 5e.  Let me summarize some major points:

  • Basic D&D 5e won't be suitable for a basis for sharing material (adventures, etc).
  • DMG will be the book that explains the rules and how to generate your own stuff.
  • The licensing looks like it won't be addressed until 2015.
The comments on this announcement are worth a read, but basically can be summed up in a few short categories:  big fans saying hi, I hate/love GSL/OGL, I trust/don't trust WotC to get it right.  Clearly Pathfinder has been screwing with WotC's business model and the fans now have different expectations that before.

It is good to know that the expectation that Basic D&D 5e won't be suitable for creating stuff and distributing it.  It eliminates any false sense of hope that basic D&D 5e would be a basis for an SRD.  It is hopefully good news that the DMG will address how to make your own stuff.  Licensing uncertainty is a big problem.

Now, reading the tea leaves, this probably means that Basic D&D 5e won't be licensed to allow people to share their material based on it, at least not in a 3rd party publisher sense.  Though there is some hesitation on Mike to release the details, he seems to be purposely vague between the OGL and GSL approaches to licensing.  Maybe the decision isn't made yet; or perhaps the decision is made and he knows the community isn't going to like restrictive licensing.  Lawyers are in the way too, I am sure.  Maybe the conversation is still underway.  Only time will tell.  Leaving the community, which has already seen these rules for 2 years and which is already generating 3rd party fan content in legal limbo does seem like a recipe for backlash though.  This might be a big mistake, a 4e sized mistake for 3rd party content.

All of this slow progression seems to be part of the plan.  By slowing down releases and letting the community experience D&D 5e, maybe they are trying to let some positive momentum build after the disaster that was 4th edition.  I can understand that.  After all, I can't refuse to buy the 5e books because of their 3rd party licensing, if they haven't released the details yet.  They can make a lot of money off of just selling those 5e books, even if the licensing agreement deep sixes the entire 5e community.

This 5e announcement is bad enough that it makes me consider cancelling my preorders.  I guess I'll give WotC a bit more time to make things right and clear, since the books aren't out for a few more months.


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