Last year I listed some things I like in 5e that I would adapt to Beyond the Wall. Very nice to see the D&D 5th edition SRD released under the OGL. But 398 pages… of those these are my highlights:
- Unified advancement with a single Proficiency Bonus
- Saving throws rolled into Attributes
- Advantage/Disadvantage in the dice rolls
- Monsters statted with 6 attributes
With the new SRD is that now D&D 5e is another OSR resource. I don’t think I’d ever go for the whole thing, it’s still way too crunchy for me… but it’s even easier to pick out the bits I like and blend them with Beyond the Wall and Whitehack.
But… 398 pages
(less keen on the level based spells, and I’d prefer just d6 for Hit Dice — using Dice Clocks, natch. Also I don’t see any roll-under mechanics for Attribute checks.)
Is this the same business move as the 3e OGL? At that time WotC wanted to grow the market with 3rd party supporting material and build the d20 brand. That’s got to be part of it… but the difference now is we have the OSR. People who want the official, corporate D&D will buy it. But this means there’s a lot of scope to claim that “old school” products are now “5e compatible”, which can only help build the 5e brand. Whatever the strategy, this is really nice to have.
But still… 398 pages.