The core of the new Dungeons & Dragons rules have been released into the Creative Commons so you can use them when you publish your own D&D material

Last year, Wizards of the Coast announced that when the three core books that formed Dungeons & Dragons' updated 2024 ruleset were out, the essence of those rules—the System Reference Document, or SRD—would be made available under a Creative Commons licence. And now, it has.

This is a big deal because, while D&D's 5th edition rules SRD was previously available under the terms of the Open Gaming Licence, or OGL, it was potentially subject to revision. Letting the basics of the most popular tabletop RPG be used by third-party developers—who could sell their creations and retain the rights to them—had made more niche publications like Weekend at Strahd's and the Uncaged series possible. But when a draft of a possible restriction to the OGL leaked a couple of years ago, the community reacted with outrage.

Releasing this new SRD, version 5.2, under the Creative Commons—specifically the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY-4.0)—means it can't be taken back. And third-party publishers citing it only need to include a single sentence rather than the whole chunk of text the OGL required.

SRD 5.2 also includes more stuff than SRD 5.1 did. It contains multiple feats rather than just one, for starters. It also includes the 2024 update's weapon masteries, 20 more spells, 15 magic items, rules for playing a goliath or orc, and a bunch of additional monsters—the 2024 version of the Monster Manual added a fun rule where a troll's arm or leg could get cut off mid-fight and keep attacking you, which is now part of the SRD, as are rules for Bugbear Stalkers, Swarms of Crawling Claws, Vampire Familiars, and more.

What's not in the SRD are rules for trademarked monsters like illithids and beholders, or the artificer class, rules for bastions, or for playing an aasimar (a person who is part-celestial being, and a counterpart to the tiefling's part-fiend). "These exclusions are based on brand identity protection, licensing strategy, and intellectual property rights", Wizards of the Coast explained in its FAQ.

It's still a chunky 361-page PDF. If you're not looking to create your own D&D material but would just like to learn how to play, Wizards of the Coast also uploaded the new D&D Beyond Basic Rules to give you a way in if, say, you've put 100 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and would like to take this thing out for a spin around a table with your friends.