I've been building a campaign world for several years now and it's really coming together. Still a long ways off from completion, but writing as I run has given me lots of material prepared, I think over 150,000 words of content so far spanning dungeons, villages, cities, forests, maps, etc. With all the effort going into it, I've thought often of sharing it with the world, on DMsguild or DriveThruRPG, etc. However, the rules I've found for selling homemade D&D 5e campaign/adventure material is a bit nebulous and confusing. Does anyone have any personal experience with this that could answer a few questions?
My main sticking point is this: it seems Wizards of the Coast want you to stick to one of their world settings (Forgotten Realms, etc), and if you do, you can make and sell anything you want. However, my campaign takes place on a relatively small island (about half the size of Switzerland) off the coast of the mainland, with its own lore, histories, etc. However I still mainly stick to the D&D 5e content in terms of gods they worship, monsters, etc, though I do have a healthy dose of homebrew thrown in too (got to keep experienced players on their toes). Would this conflict with the approval process too much? It would be a nightmare to change everything, as a lot of the story and world is built around a particular monster's lore and there'd be no real way to make my own version that isn't clearly the same thing with a different coat of paint... That's even setting aside the insane workload that compiling and formatting the whole adventure would be anyways.
Anyone have insight they can share that would help? I'd love to be able to share this adventure with the world someday, even if just as a resource for people to pull some dungeon or city ideas from.
I personally have not tried to sell any home made content for 5e, nor will I. However, just avoid using their art that you don't own or don't have licensed is the main the thing.
Thanks that video was pretty helpful! Looks like there's still more research to do, but best case if I continue to use D&D material (beholders, etc) then I could make at most 50% of the profit and only sell on dmsguild. Still, better than nothing I suppose. Those references are helpful too, thanks!
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Hey guys, had a thought on my mind recently.
I've been building a campaign world for several years now and it's really coming together. Still a long ways off from completion, but writing as I run has given me lots of material prepared, I think over 150,000 words of content so far spanning dungeons, villages, cities, forests, maps, etc. With all the effort going into it, I've thought often of sharing it with the world, on DMsguild or DriveThruRPG, etc. However, the rules I've found for selling homemade D&D 5e campaign/adventure material is a bit nebulous and confusing. Does anyone have any personal experience with this that could answer a few questions?
My main sticking point is this: it seems Wizards of the Coast want you to stick to one of their world settings (Forgotten Realms, etc), and if you do, you can make and sell anything you want. However, my campaign takes place on a relatively small island (about half the size of Switzerland) off the coast of the mainland, with its own lore, histories, etc. However I still mainly stick to the D&D 5e content in terms of gods they worship, monsters, etc, though I do have a healthy dose of homebrew thrown in too (got to keep experienced players on their toes). Would this conflict with the approval process too much? It would be a nightmare to change everything, as a lot of the story and world is built around a particular monster's lore and there'd be no real way to make my own version that isn't clearly the same thing with a different coat of paint... That's even setting aside the insane workload that compiling and formatting the whole adventure would be anyways.
Anyone have insight they can share that would help? I'd love to be able to share this adventure with the world someday, even if just as a resource for people to pull some dungeon or city ideas from.
This may or may not help you: https://youtu.be/8IZCZLDH6_Y?t=164
As for if you just want to have something online for reference (and free), you can make shareable links with google drive, or try https://www.gmbinder.com/ or https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/
I personally have not tried to sell any home made content for 5e, nor will I. However, just avoid using their art that you don't own or don't have licensed is the main the thing.
Thanks that video was pretty helpful! Looks like there's still more research to do, but best case if I continue to use D&D material (beholders, etc) then I could make at most 50% of the profit and only sell on dmsguild. Still, better than nothing I suppose. Those references are helpful too, thanks!