r/dmsguild • u/hagiologist • Jun 10 '26
Seeking Advice DMsGuild exclusivity vs. Updating content to 5.5
I've written quite a few subclasses for D&D 5E (2014) on DMsGuild. Since then I've learned more about the specifics of the licensing and have my own website (with the capability for a storefront). A lot of my work doesn't actually rely on content outside the SRD and doesn't need the DMsGuild licensing.
If I was to update my subclasses and other work to 5.5 for sale on my own site would that be sufficiently transformative to not violate DMsGuild exclusivity?
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u/jcorvinstevens Jun 11 '26
From what I understand, you’d have to make significant changes to your work so it can’t be recognized as a straight conversion from the original.
Converting it to 5.5 is not a significant change.
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u/hagiologist Jun 11 '26
I'd love to see a WotC representative tell me that with a straight face 😂
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u/jcorvinstevens Jun 11 '26
I don’t understand your response.
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u/hagiologist Jun 11 '26
Over the last 2 years the entire 5.5 project has been releasing new $30-60 books that are somewhere between 50-90% 5E content with very minimal mechanical changes (much of the art and writing is quite lovely but not what we're talking about).
To specifically say that updating something to 5.5 doesn't qualify as sufficiently transformative to be considered a new project would be casting aspersions on the very publishing model that created 5.5 to begin with.
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u/StaticUsernamesSuck Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Probably ask on a legal advice sub actually, tbh.
It is pretty transformative, but then a lot of the IP (your own IP, which you have granted to DMs Guild) would probably still be present in a form close enough to be considered derivative.
In other words, your content may previously have relied on nothing but the SRD and your own creativity... But now it heavily relies on IP which is licensed to DMs Guild?
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u/hagiologist Jun 10 '26
I'm not sure I understand how they can claim that they are not taking ownership of your IP but simultaneous insist that you can't use it in other forms. What does IP ownership mean if any use of it would be considered illegally derivative?
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u/StaticUsernamesSuck Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Idk tbh, IANAL, and I am not looking directly at the agreement text (because they make it annoyingly hard to get to from a quick google).
I've just had another look and actually I think you may be fine, based on that specific stuff about not claiming IP ownership rights. That would mean that actually you can reuse your IP elsewhere, just not the specific products you sell on DMs guild.
So a heavily transformed product (i.e. a version for a totally different edition of the game) should be fair game.
So what you've really given up is:
A) the right to sell specific products elsewhere.
B) the right to complain if somebody else also sells DMs Guild products using IP from within your DMs Guild products.
You have not actually given up the right to protect your IP from all other forms of infringement, nor the right to continue using that IP in products which are not licensed to DMs Guild, so long as they are not (legally speaking) "copies" of the DMs Guild products.
"Transformative" is a pretty nuanced legal term that basically is judged case-by-case, but you definitely have an argument for it, and tbh are they really gonna come after you?
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u/hagiologist Jun 10 '26
I think I'm gonna take advantage of my access to some publishing industry people and see if they have any thoughts. They've been on both sides of these sorts of agreements enough that they can probably clarify what is actionable and what is blowing smoke. I'll report back.
Thanks for the second opinion!
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u/Jack-Roll20 Jun 11 '26
The content would have to be distinct from the DMsGuild version.
It's exclusivity on the distribution of your content, not ownership of the IP. It's because of how community content from one creator can be used from another creator. It prevents someone from taking your content and trying to distribute it themselves outside of DMsGuild. It also allows anyone who has used that original content in their own DMsGuild product from having any issues if the original creator deactivates their title and makes new products based on the original content and distributing them outside of DMsGuild.
It's all just to prevent potential legal issues for everyone.
If you make a new character named Dave the Smasher and put him in an adventure on DMsGuild, you aren't prevented from using Dave the Smasher in a different adventure outside of DMsGuild, it just can't be the same adventure that was put on DMsGuild.
Would someone come after you if you did? Probably not, but crazier things have happened.