Hey, I was wondering if there had been any updates on the updating the SRDs of older editions of D&D to Creative Commons. Its been around 3 years since they were announced in 2023, I know they were on the backburner whilst the new 2024 editions of 5e were being released but that has come and gone and there has been radio silence on the topic. 

I was wondering if we had heard are they being held back until each edition has been gone through rather than releasing one at a time as they are completed?

I'm disappointed that they haven't done so already. At this point I don't believe that they will. They've had plenty of time.

I don't remember them saying that they'd do old editions. They haven't really talked about it since, though. Even the 2024 stuff was delayed and people were unhappy with their pace with that, and the lack of communication on the matter.

If they are working on it, they've not said anything much, nor would I expect them to, and I'd expect it to be a long while yet. They were slow with the current edition, which is going to be significantly more pressing for them than previous editions.

Quote from Linklite >>

I don't remember them saying that they'd do old editions. They haven't really talked about it since, though. Even the 2024 stuff was delayed and people were unhappy with their pace with that, and the lack of communication on the matter.

If they are working on it, they've not said anything much, nor would I expect them to, and I'd expect it to be a long while yet. They were slow with the current edition, which is going to be significantly more pressing for them than previous editions.

Oh, but they did. Here's a post from 2024 where they list in what videos they mentioned this: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/187981-so-what-happen-to-3e-3-5e-and-4e-being-put-under

D&D's community manager, LaTiaJacquise, provided a small update back in August on this website stating: "Only to say that we are still aware of the community's desire for 3.0 and 3.5 to hit Creative Commons and we haven't forgotten about that, but nothing else on that score to share right now!"

While it does not appear she had much information to share or any estimated time of release, she at least confirmed it is on their radar.  I think it is important to remember that D&D just went through a massive overhaul, just had its creative leads retire (as they had signaled was their plan years in advance), and got a new set of leads for the development of the game.  Wizards and the D&D team have been super busy recently - it is not exactly surprising that something for earlier editions is not high on their priority list, particularly since licenses, albeit not creative commons licenses, already exist for that content.

Honestly, I'm not expecting much; producing a previous edition SRD is significant effort for no real benefit beyond a certain amount of goodwill.

Quote from LaTiaJacquise >>

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

D&D's community manager, LaTiaJacquise, provided a small update back in August on this website stating: "Only to say that we are still aware of the community's desire for 3.0 and 3.5 to hit Creative Commons and we haven't forgotten about that, but nothing else on that score to share right now!"

While it does not appear she had much information to share or any estimated time of release, she at least confirmed it is on their radar.  I think it is important to remember that D&D just went through a massive overhaul, just had its creative leads retire (as they had signaled was their plan years in advance), and got a new set of leads for the development of the game.  Wizards and the D&D team have been super busy recently - it is not exactly surprising that something for earlier editions is not high on their priority list, particularly since licenses, albeit not creative commons licenses, already exist for that content.

 This is still my answer, for the record :) I certainly have not forgotten what we said.

 Thanks for the response good to know its still going on in the background! Just to ask as it mentions 3 and 3.5 are 4e or the older TSR editions in the running for similar treatment in the future? It would just be very cool to see all the disparate D&D versions gain some new life with CC SRDs.  

Quote from ak318 >>

Quote from LaTiaJacquise >>

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

D&D's community manager, LaTiaJacquise, provided a small update back in August on this website stating: "Only to say that we are still aware of the community's desire for 3.0 and 3.5 to hit Creative Commons and we haven't forgotten about that, but nothing else on that score to share right now!"

While it does not appear she had much information to share or any estimated time of release, she at least confirmed it is on their radar.  I think it is important to remember that D&D just went through a massive overhaul, just had its creative leads retire (as they had signaled was their plan years in advance), and got a new set of leads for the development of the game.  Wizards and the D&D team have been super busy recently - it is not exactly surprising that something for earlier editions is not high on their priority list, particularly since licenses, albeit not creative commons licenses, already exist for that content.

 This is still my answer, for the record :) I certainly have not forgotten what we said.

 Thanks for the response good to know its still going on in the background! Just to ask as it mentions 3 and 3.5 are 4e or the older TSR editions in the running for similar treatment in the future? It would just be very cool to see all the disparate D&D versions gain some new life with CC SRDs.  

3 and 3.5 were singled out because they exist under the same OGL that 5e does/did, and at the time the primary problem was that the OGL was abruptly not worth the paper it was printed on.  The Creative Commons licensing was a way to restore what faith was left in the company after they torpedoed trust in their brand with a stunt that endangered the entire third party ecosystem surrounding 5e. 

4e does not exist under that license,nor do the earlier editions where largely nobody cared and I don't think formal agreements existed at all.  Older editions also had no System Reference Document; SRDs for those systems would need to be created from scratch, while 4e is largely incompatible with the idea entirely.  At least, to the best of my knowledge.  4e was reliant on digital companion tools that no longer exist and didn't play well with theater of the mind, which is generally held to be people's preferred way to play these days. 

Creative Commons SRDs for older editions is a pretty big lift for basically zero return, especially when most of the folks who most fiercely desire it do so because they despise Wizards and will never purchase anything from the company again.  They want "their" D&D in Creative Commons, where they can sever it completely from Wizards forever and hang the company the bird finger.  That is not really a pressing reason to commit significant resources to a niche effort with no return, especially when the company is already reeling and trying to find its footing after years of mismanagement.

It'll come.  But it won't be soon.

Quote from Yurei1453 >>

At least, to the best of my knowledge.  4e was reliant on digital companion tools that no longer exist and didn't play well with theater of the mind, which is generally held to be people's preferred way to play these days.

4e was more convenient with digital tools, but no more reliant than 5e; the digital tools were a character builder and lookup databases, quite similar in functionality to what D&D Beyond does. 4e definitely preferred using a map, but whether or not it's a majority, plenty of people use maps. Deciding on a SRD would be a PITA, though; a complete database of options from 4e is tens of thousands of unique items.

I can't understand how it takes years to make the 3rd edition SRD that was released under the OGL into a Creative Commons SRD. That's why I don't think they plan on releasing it.

Quote from Spellslinging_Sellsword2 >>

I can't understand how it takes years to make the 3rd edition SRD that was released under the OGL into a Creative Commons SRD. That's why I don't think they plan on releasing it.

 Before jumping to conspiracy, think about it:

Recent WotC staff shakeups
Dungeons and Dragons 5e 2024 no longer being a priority from Hasbro's end
Numerous public relations disasters
Other franchises & licenses make more money for shareholders

It's almost like those & so many other factors delay things.

Quote from Spellslinging_Sellsword2 >>

I can't understand how it takes years to make the 3rd edition SRD that was released under the OGL into a Creative Commons SRD. That's why I don't think they plan on releasing it.

 It takes time to reformulate it. Then it needs to be approved by the higher ups, which takes an indefinite amount of time as they bounce things back down when they're unhappy with an aspect. Then once they approve, it has to go to the lawyers to be precisely worded for the intent. Then it has to go back to the higher ups to be approved, and potentially bounced around again if the approval doesn't come and so forth. Then there's the work of actually releasing it.

That takes a lot of time and effort.

Meanwhile, WotC hasn't had higher ups as it's all been juggled about. They've had massive rollouts with 2024e plus the aftermath. Consider that they haven't even announced their roadmap for this year. That's slow they're moving - and rest assured, they're definitely releasing books this year, they're just been so lacking in spare capacity that they cant even get an announcement out.

SRD for a game that's been unsupported for two decades? That'll be low priority. Even the one for 2024e took months to do, and they needed that.

I'm not surprised it's taking this long at all.

The 3rd Edition SRD text was already created and approved by the company's attorneys and released under the OGL. The only thing needed is to swap the page that states the OGL license for the Creative Commons license. Just like they did with the 5E SRD. Again that is so ridiculously easy that it's an active choice to not release the 3E SRD. 

Quote from Spellslinging_Sellsword2 >>

The 3rd Edition SRD text was already created and approved by the company's attorneys and released under the OGL. The only thing needed is to swap the page that states the OGL license for the Creative Commons license. Just like they did with the 5E SRD. Again that is so ridiculously easy that it's an active choice to not release the 3E SRD. 

 If you think anything involving lawyers for a large organisation is as easy as just changing a name at the top of a page you've never dealt with either lawyers or large organisations

Quote from CunningSmile >>

Quote from Spellslinging_Sellsword2 >>

The 3rd Edition SRD text was already created and approved by the company's attorneys and released under the OGL. The only thing needed is to swap the page that states the OGL license for the Creative Commons license. Just like they did with the 5E SRD. Again that is so ridiculously easy that it's an active choice to not release the 3E SRD. 

 If you think anything involving lawyers for a large organisation is as easy as just changing a name at the top of a page you've never dealt with either lawyers or large organisations

 Or licenses, for that matter. There are key differences between the CC and the OGL that need evaluation before any "page swaps," especially given the age of the SRD under the former.

Have they ever mentioned anything about 2e and 1e being put into an SRD?

Quote from Mistwalker31359 >>

Have they ever mentioned anything about 2e and 1e being put into an SRD?

Not that i know of, and they would have to generate an SRD for those, since they didn't really exist. TSR did things very differently than WoTC does now.
Also, it was the 70s through 90's, if they did exist, they would be paper.  A few companies have made "Clones" of the 1st and 2nd Edition for "Trad-play" and "OSR" (Yes tradplay and OSR are different) audience. 

Quote from Mistwalker31359 >>

Have they ever mentioned anything about 2e and 1e being put into an SRD?

Only in the vaguest possible sense, and it would probably be a nightmare to actually implement.

For those wondering why I asked about editions other than 3.0 and 3.5, most communications have just said older editions placed into a CC SRD, with no specifications of what editions they include. 4e I know did not have an OGL SRD but a different gaming licence with its own SRD which is why I am interested if that is being considered also for a CC conversion.

As comments about the ease of converting the older 3.5 and 3.0 OGL SRDs into CC they did note they were having to go through them again to ensure that no IP based stuff is included meaning they wont necessarily be a 1 for 1 match hence why they can't just make it OGL to CC immediately and its taking time.