D&D launches DM’s Guild and 5e Open Game License

Wizards of the Coast dropped some big news today that’s exciting for D&D players.

First, they launched the DM’s Guild, an online shop where DMs can sell adventures, monsters, classes and other homebrew stuff they’ve created. Yes, that’s right. Share your adventures and creations with the world (and maybe make some money doing it).

That news coincides with the release of the System Resource Document, the guidelines for publishing content under D&D’s Open Gaming License.

Together, both pieces will allow for the creating, publishing and sale of a host of new D&D content.

That’s awesome news for us gamers.

Wizards of the Coast only has the manpower to be able to create a certain amount of content. So far, that’s been a couple storylines and large adventures per year.

The OGL will provide for publishers to create a host of new content. It takes the burden off of Wizards to create everything and puts a ton of content in the hands of players.

As an added bonus for Wizards, it also silences the people who have been complaining about the lack of enough D&D 5th edition adventures and classes.

So here’s the big question: What companies will step forward to use the OGL? Paizo has famously used the OGL for D&D 3.5 to create the massively popular Pathfinder world and system. Maybe they’ll adapt Pathfinder content to 5e or create a whole new 5e world.

On a smaller level, the DM’s Guild will allow literally anyone who has the desire to upload and sell their own content. All you have to do is follow the rules. (One of those rules is that it has to take place in the Forgotten Realms.)

There are slightly different rules for the OGL and the DM’s Guild. You can read them here.

Speaking as a DM, I’ve run my own adventures for 5e rather than play the official stuff from Wizards, so I’m excited to see if anyone is interested in my stuff.

On Friday at noon Central, D&D’s Mike Mearls and Chris Lindsay will host an AMA on Reddit’s D&D channel to speak directly with fans about the DM’s Guild.