overgeeked
Dragonbane
The D&D 5.1 SRD is released under the CC-BY license. Anything contained therein is fair game as long as you give attribution. You’re in no way limited in what you use the material in the SRD for as long as you give attribution.
Note that simply mentioning a name in the SRD does not mean all the associated lore is also released unless it’s also in the SRD. So just because Strahd is mentioned does not mean Ravenloft, Barovia, the Mists, etc are also fair game. They are not. The name Strahd appears, but none of his lore. So if you write a novel using Strahd the vampire prince of Barovia who lives in the castle Ravenloft, in the demiplane of dread…you’re going to be visited by more than just Pinkertons.
So if you want to write a generic “D&D” novel using D&D concepts, monsters, classes, races, etc (and even mechanics), you can. You just can’t use copyrighted material not found in the SRD nor anything trademarked. So calling your novel a Forgotten Realms novel would get you sued as would calling it a D&D novel.
Note that simply mentioning a name in the SRD does not mean all the associated lore is also released unless it’s also in the SRD. So just because Strahd is mentioned does not mean Ravenloft, Barovia, the Mists, etc are also fair game. They are not. The name Strahd appears, but none of his lore. So if you write a novel using Strahd the vampire prince of Barovia who lives in the castle Ravenloft, in the demiplane of dread…you’re going to be visited by more than just Pinkertons.
So if you want to write a generic “D&D” novel using D&D concepts, monsters, classes, races, etc (and even mechanics), you can. You just can’t use copyrighted material not found in the SRD nor anything trademarked. So calling your novel a Forgotten Realms novel would get you sued as would calling it a D&D novel.
Last edited:
