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Since the playtest kit is no longer available, what is the best way to still get a copy of the rules. My being old school, 1e AD&D, and having seen some videos on the new system I think I'm really going to like this version and I want to get a jump on working up material for a campaign.
Ghost of Dragonspear Castle (released at GenCon last year) has D&D Next rules from around that date. I'm not sure how much the play test rules changed from what was printed there. Might be worth a look though: https://www.dndclassics.com/product/...Castle-DD-Next It includes 140 pages of the adventure and chapters on how to play, magic, equipment, DM guidelines and Bestiary. It doesn't have much on character creation and levels though - only coming with 6 pregens with details of levels 1-10 for each.
Thanks Trenloe. I saw that and wasn't sure how outdated it might be so hesitated on getting it. Might still have enough info to get the ball rolling so may end up getting it anyway.
It hasn't changed much so if you grab that it will be a good start, any changes were minor and not enough to change what you might work up before you get them.
They never gave much on character development past a certain level anyway.
I have liked everything I have seen and the scaling back of the uber-feated/skilled characters helps balance play as the levels start to mount. That is my main complaint with Pathfinder, after about 10th level characters can get stupidly overpowered especially with guys maxing out builds.
The latest incarnation that you can legally get is included in the two Encounters modules Scourge of the Sword Coast and Dead in Thay (Dead in Thay has the most revised Spell List, Scourge of the Sword Coast and Dead in Thay together have a fairly unique and updated beastiary but NOOOOO XP values whatsoever). Its not meant to replace any of the playtest packages and I believe they only go from levels 1 - 10. Dead in Thay has beasties with Legendary Actions, which is fairly exciting and something to look forward to if you are a DM and looking for new ways to punis...err keep things exciting for your players.
Come August when they release the PHB they will also release a Basic D&D PDF with all the rules to play any published adventure. https://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article....d/4ll/20140527
"Basic D&D is a PDF that covers the core of the game. It’s the equivalent of the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia, though it doesn’t have quite the same scope (for example, it won’t go into detail on a setting). It runs from levels 1 to 20 and covers the cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, presenting what we view as the essential subclass for each. It also provides the dwarf, elf, halfling, and human as race options."
https://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article....d/4ll/20140529
OGL plans discussed, announcements scheduled for November and release planned for 2015. Looks like no OGL before the core books are released.
Mearls uses a lot of words to not actually say much. (I'm also guilty of this sometimes). But now that the OGL has been namedropped, and considering the openness that 5e has bathed in so far, I think it doesn't look bad at all. And I'm thinking that the intarweb will remain abuzz with DnD 5e licensing speculation for the next half year :p.
I wonder if this will go the way of the OGL (as hoped) or whether WotC will cash in with a online D&D Store that 3rd parties can publish content to?
Might be both, Zeus. I think they do want more 3rd party publishers than they had for 4E, while holding some things closer to their vest than the OGL route.
Their first goal seems to be they are angling to get "everyones first RPG" to be "Basic D&D" again. IE grow market share with free (but copyrighted) products aimed at new and casual players. They want to maintain control here under the lessons learned from people selling the SRD. They likely will prevent distribution for re-sale but allow distribution for free under reasonable rules if I read them right.
Their second goal seems to be sell to the faithful, their own products and third party licensed products. We'll know a lot more when we see WotC releases for next year. Mearls used so many weasel words about up coming 3rd party products they have to be, at least, in discussion with someone.