Has the Codex Martialis Been Updated for 5th Edition?

[Dsurion]

I joined the forum a while back when I first heard about the Codex Martialis, but now I've long since given up on trying to make 3.5 work. Has anyone ever made the attempt? Has there been discussion on it at all?

[Galloglaich]

Hi Dsurion,

The reason Codex was originally pegged to 3.5 was because of a special contract Wizards of the Coast had starting with version 3 which allowed 3rd parties like myself to legally write add-on's for DnD, i.e. the OGL and D20 license agreements. I hadn't really followed developments in DnD since version 4 but I gathered that they had dropped D20 and either dropped or significantly restricted the OGL.

So Codex, for the parts of the system which don't yet have their own codex rules (i.e. character generation and magic and so on) we rely on the SRD, which is based on that OGL license.

This is also why Pathfinder was sort of stuck in 3.5 though that may have changed by now.

I have heard informally from several people that 5E seems to be more popular and functional than 4 was and I guess better than 3.X so I guess it's time I took a look at it. The only limitations on updating it for me are time and (especially) the OGL contract or some other equivalent. Without that I can't legally use any DnD rules. But I will look into it, should be able to figure out a lot just by googling.

[Galloglaich]

Looks like the OGL is still alive, good news! Apparently they killed it in 4E but it's back in 5E.

I will read through the fine print and see if I can get some idea how compatible 5E is and if I can make updated versions of the Codex for it. I'm still not certain if these legal rules allow for rules add-ons like the Codex or just adventure modules. That is what i need to figure out.

If I'm reading this right (below) it sounds like they take 50% of the money you make, so that's a bit odd too seeing as DriveThruRpg already takes I think 40% I'm not sure what that means precisely but I'll check into that too. I mean I never did make a ton of money from Codex but if I'm only making like $1 per download that's pretty extreme.

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/OGL%20License

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/01/ ... nd-online/

If you're a tabletop RPG player who has spent a lot of time building adventures and characters for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, you might be able to make a little money from your creations. The new "Dungeon Masters Guild," a partnership between D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast and online marketplace OneBookshelf, lets players self-publish campaigns, characters, classes, monsters, and all kinds of other fifth edition-compatible content for whatever price they want (including free). Sellers will receive half the money earned from their creations, as outlined on this FAQ page.

Players can rate user-submitted content, and Wizards of the Coast can "consider" especially well-rated or successful content for official publication or for marketing purposes. The primary restrictions are that your content can only be sold in the digital storefront and that any campaigns must be set in the "Forgotten Realms" setting used by all other official D&D content.

For those who want to create their own game worlds or for those who want to make entirely separate RPGs based on the fifth-edition rules, Wizards has also released a "Systems Reference Document" for the fifth-edition rules under the Open Game License (OGL). These adventures and games can't be sold in the official digital storefront, but publishers are free to print and digitally publish their own works as long as they adhere to the license.

The fourth edition of D&D was never licensed under the OGL, so games like Pathfinder continued to use third-edition rules instead; for those games, this is a chance to bring their games in line with the new rules for the first time in years. For vanilla D&D players, the online storefront is a quick and easy way to expand the official content offered in the fifth-edition Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide.

[novevite]

According to this http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd
you should be able to publish using OGL, not sure about what you can actually use (the published feats might be off the plate).

EDIT: ok, so, now I think I understand...
you seem to have two options:

1) you publish using OGL, on your own or through a marketplace (not sure about the second one), but you can only use material from the 5e SRD, which seems a bit restrictive but should work;

2) you publish through DMs Guild, which should be the official marketplace, and get to use most of the officual manuals as reference.

Seeing as you might only need the basic rules and a couple of classes, I think you should be fine with the SRD.

EDIT 2: aaaaaaand here's a decent explanation made by someone who seems to understand what he's talking about
http://shaneplays.com/understanding-the-dms-guild-5th-edition-srd-ogl/

[Thaeris]

Perhaps you should commit to what programmers often refer to as a "fork," where you separate the 3.5e and 5e versions into slightly different development groups. If you can format your document such that you can modularize the similar and dissimilar elements, perhaps you could easily make updates to older and newer versions simultaneously?

...I realize that sounds like a lot of work, and it probably is. But, it doesn't sound completely unreasonable, either.

[Galloglaich]

According to this http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd
you should be able to publish using OGL, not sure about what you can actually use (the published feats might be off the plate).

EDIT: ok, so, now I think I understand...
you seem to have two options:

1) you publish using OGL, on your own or through a marketplace (not sure about the second one), but you can only use material from the 5e SRD, which seems a bit restrictive but should work;

2) you publish through DMs Guild, which should be the official marketplace, and get to use most of the officual manuals as reference.

Seeing as you might only need the basic rules and a couple of classes, I think you should be fine with the SRD.

EDIT 2: aaaaaaand here's a decent explanation made by someone who seems to understand what he's talking about
http://shaneplays.com/understanding-the-dms-guild-5th-edition-srd-ogl/

Thanks that is helpful! What you described above is precisely one of the things i was trying to figure out. I will very likely go the OGL / SRD route which is what I did with 3.5. Simple is better. Sounds like I can still go through DriveThruRpg which Hasbro or whoever owns DnD now is working with anyway.

I ordered 3 5E books (DMG, Players Handbook and Monster Manual) from Amazon and have started skimming through them. Some of what I see I actually like so far, which is surprising. Some not so much which isn't (the weapons etc. haven't improved at all). But it looks workable overall so far.

[Galloglaich]

Perhaps you should commit to what programmers often refer to as a "fork," where you separate the 3.5e and 5e versions into slightly different development groups. If you can format your document such that you can modularize the similar and dissimilar elements, perhaps you could easily make updates to older and newer versions simultaneously?

...I realize that sounds like a lot of work, and it probably is. But, it doesn't sound completely unreasonable, either.

Right now I am planning to have separate 3.5 and 5E versions and leave both available. I'll probably bundle both versions together for free as PDF's, but sell separately as actual books.