Quote from: Exploderwizard;752939Actually only character creation will be available with the launch of the starter set. Other content will be added as the core books are released, more play rules in Aug with the PHB, monsters with the MM and DM material with the DMG.

My reading of the article is that chargen will be released with the starter set, and the monster and DM stuff will be out in August with the PHB.

I'm curious to see how this would tie into an OGL.  Would they have one, and if so, only limited to the Basic version?

Quote from: LibraryLass;752947My reading of the article is that chargen will be released with the starter set, and the monster and DM stuff will be out in August with the PHB.

That's my understanding too. Practically speaking, the text for the MM and DMG will probably have to be finalised by the time the PHB comes out anyway and part of the point of Basic's MM/DMG content would be to allow people to get as much use out of the PHB as they can before the full MM and DMG come out.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;752951I'm curious to see how this would tie into an OGL.  Would they have one, and if so, only limited to the Basic version?

I'm guessing they will have a license that allows you to create content for D&D, but not reprint any of the rules, allowing you to only refer back to the Basic D&D PDF.  Which makes sense.  It allows people to create stuff for D&D, but not let people take over D&D (as with Pathfinder).  I think people that love the SRD will be disappointed, ultimately, in what WotC will offer with 5E.  But most of the fans will be plenty happy, because most fans really didn't care much about the SRD beyond having the basic rules easily accessible.

Yeah I think we're going to see a Basic edition OGL (that is expressly not combinable with the old OGL) making the content in the MM, DMG, and PHB that isn't released for Basic the proprietary content.

Which isn't much different from 3e.  There was always proprietary content in those books, it was just sort of a hodge-podge of in or out.  This way would be cleaner.

Good, now back to discussion of what actually matters for folks like us: the solidity of the rules and gameplay paradigms.

Quote from: Windjammer;752904I think this can't be overstated. Pundit et al's attempts to read WotC's tea leaves has led to some of the most misleading expectations about Next's product content yet.... blah blah blah .... .

On point 2) My argument is that gronards might want to pick it up to TEACH D&D to new players. I was not recommending it for the sake of nostalgia. I'm arguing that the complete game DOES NOT need to include character generation to start. The Starter Set is part of an RPG LINE, and as it's described is complete. You can play the game with it. Now you not only will be able to download character creation but a Basic game for free. I find, in this modern day, that griping about parts of game being downloaded versus in "the box" to be absurd. Hell, I have several board games with printed versions of updated rules.

It's a point of disagreement NOT some secret agenda to "sell D&D 5e at all costs". It is simply my opinion. Which I have stated at great length. Your childish attempts to restate it for me doesn't change my actual opinion.

Also, I don't speak for Pundit so I find it odd you included me in a long string of Pundit quotes. I make my own opinions. Sometimes different people here fall on different sides of those opinions. It's something I thoroughly enjoy about theRPGsite.

Further, if I can read tweets, press releases, and forum posts to come to a conclusion, certainly you (or the other throngs of RPG enthusiasts) can't be bound to The Pundit, or these forums for a singular source of news. How one person's opinions and conjecture become "misleading" is ridiculous. No one is trying to trick anybody. Are you suggesting you don't have your wits about you? Worse, are you suggesting the readers of theRPGsite need your "brilliant" finger pointing to keep theirs?

Quote from: Obeeron;752978I'm guessing they will have a license that allows you to create content for D&D, but not reprint any of the rules, allowing you to only refer back to the Basic D&D PDF.  Which makes sense.  It allows people to create stuff for D&D, but not let people take over D&D (as with Pathfinder).  I think people that love the SRD will be disappointed, ultimately, in what WotC will offer with 5E.  But most of the fans will be plenty happy, because most fans really didn't care much about the SRD beyond having the basic rules easily accessible.

I think it may allow some limited reprinting of monster stats for convenience but yeah, that sounds about right. They may even allow distribution of the unaltered Basic D&D PDF (to make good on the "free forever" promise) but not allow print products thereof, so people don't knock off third party basic rulebooks.

Ultimately this would only be an inconvenience if you actually want to make a full-blown game based off Basic 5th, and even then I suspect you could get reasonably close with the existing SRD anyway except for novel mechanics like advantage/disadvantage (and it's trivial enough to reword the explanation of those so that it falls outside copyright). So actually, the only thing it'd really stop you doing is producing something based off Basic 5th and use the Dungeons & Dragons name to promote it, which you've never really been allowed to do anyway.

This is the news that broke the haters at EnWorld.

I seriously have not seen this level of "Woah, cool!" at that message board in at least 5-6 years.

It got almost the same level of response at the WOTC boards also, though at least two haters did find a way to spin a free game as a negative.

Here are some sample haters, for anyone curious what I am talking about:

Quote from: Person_ManFree to Download Basic D&D does not equal OGL or SRD.

3rd party publishers and homebrewers will be unable to support 5E without infringing on Hasbro's copyright.

And "Basic" could be extremely stripped down version of the game that's basically unplayable unless everyone at the table is playing Basic D&D.  If 5E depends heavily on "optional" rules modules, and Basic 5E doesn't contain any of those modules, then it's very difficult to impossible for a new player to read the free Basic rules, and then sit down and play with a group of "Advanced" players that use multiple modules.  Basic 5E and Advanced 5E will essentially be two different games.

This is just a bone that they're throwing the old fan base in the form of a free giveaway that will be useless to most players new 6 months after it's released.  It is not a return to the glory days of the OGL/SRD, otherwise they would have announced an OGL/SRD.

Quote from: ChakravantWow. We've gone from "All classes are equal. Some are just more equal than others." to "All subclasses are equal. Some are just more equal than others.". How many times can we entrench the bias of a select few to the detriment of the IP before this kind of preferential treatment to their favorite classes is seen for what it is? How much pigeon holing and marginalization of people's playstyles is enough? 5E has gone from "big tent" D&D to "If you don't like it, tough" D&D before the product has even been released.

OK. THIS is total bullshit. The both of them.

No kidding. If online forums were broadly representative of the hobby I'd weep for the future of humanity.

Quote from: Bobloblah;753043No kidding. If online forums were broadly representative of the hobby I'd weep for the future of humanity.

I don't think there would be any humanity left to have a future if that were the case.

HA! Too true.

Quote from: Mistwell;752827Mearls tweeted today he is considering it.

link? If this happens, then yea, the starter set is not even on my radar. I'll give this out. OK, OK, mayabe together with the starter.

Quote from: dar;753058link? If this happens, then yea, the starter set is not even on my radar. I'll give this out. OK, OK, mayabe together with the starter.

Here is the quote (4:51 PM - 25 May 2014)

@solodug  any chance the online free pdf of 15% of the PHB will be avalable for POD at cost? I would love to have a copy at the table.
‏@mikemearls  good idea - we'll look into it