In addition to automatic copyright on all the D&D content, Wizards has explicitly forbidden you from using many terms which are determined to be “product identity”. For example, you cannot publish a module where players fight against a Mind Flayer, which is not in the SRD, because the copyright for the Mind Flayer is owned by Wizards of the Coast and not licensed for you to use.
You are not welcome to copy any of that copyrighted content in your own published work. So, anything which was created by Wizards of the Coast and is not in the SRD (which is explicitly licensed under the OGL) is covered by copyright law.
They were cool enough to license a smaller set of that content (the SRD) under special terms (the OGL) so that you can use it. Wizards of the Coast has written the rules and content for Dungeons and Dragons 5th, so they automatically own the copyright on all the content. You can read what the government of Canada has to say about it here: The creating individual or company is usually the copyright owner. I will only address how it applies to practical D&D publishing.Ĭopyright is the exclusive legal right to produce, reproduce, publish or perform an original literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work. You’ve heard of copyright before and there has been a lot written about it online so I won’t get into it too deeply here. TL DRĪ subset of the official D&D 5th Edition rules called the System Reference Document (SRD) are licensed under Open Game License (OGL). A surprising amount of content from the official books is in the SRD. Everything that you need to create a new character, play that character, and run the game are included in the SRD. It’s like a pruned version of the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide in one. It contains all the rules that you need to play a simple game of D&D. You can read the whole thing in a few minutes. The OGL is only a few pages long and it clearly outlines the usage rights.
For example, Monster Cards includes only creatures and statistics which appear in the SRD, which is fewer than you can find in the official 5e Monster Manual. You can read the entire thing here: Īny parts of the game which are not included in the SRD are not “open source” and you cannot use them in your self-published content. Conveniently, Wizards of the Coast publishes both the OGL and SRD together in a single document for your reference. The parts of the game which are covered under the OGL are contained in the Systems Reference Document (SRD). These ideas and content are covered by standard copyright and cannot be used Additionally, the OGL does not cover large portions of the D&D books. Under the OGL you are allowed to use D&D content in your products only in certain ways. However, that does not mean that you can do whatever you want with the game. The OGL is one type of “open source” license. This allows anybody to make content and share for the game. Wizards of the Coast has published much of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition under the Open Game License (OGL). Please (Please!) get real legal advice if you’re taking any serious risk. I am trying to share my understanding of how the law applies to D&D and the rules laid out by Wizards of the Coast. Hopefully, this post makes it easier for the next people.
I’m writing this blog post because it was hard to find any information online when I was looking. While building Monster Cards, we had to figure out the legal implications of publishing D&D 5th Edition content on our site. We had to copy the exact statistics for hundreds of monsters into a publically available database. The site shows creature statistics for quick reference. My own experience with publishing 5th Edition cont ent comes from creating Monster Cards. Great idea - we want to see it! But first, how can you make sure that you’re allowed to publish and share your content? And how can you make sure that you’re not breaking the law? So, you’ve created some tremendous 5th Edition content and you want to share it.