Free5e: Using Creative Commons to Make D&D 5e Free

TTRPGs can be an expensive hobby. While playing a game like D&D is possible by borrowing books from friends or pirating content, the initial investments can be quite hefty. You have to buy the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Monster Manual, and any prewritten adventures you want to run. You will need at least one set of dice. (although most of us have more than one) To provide better immersion, you might have to buy physical miniatures and maps. If it’s an online game, then VTTs like Roll20 and Foundry are also tools that can seriously improve your game experience but may require additional supplements to work well. The list of accessories go on and on, making it an easy hobby to sink hundreds if not thousands of dollars into.

Wizards of the Coast has tried to offer tools to simplify that cost, including its Basic Rules which are available for free on DNDBeyond. But are they enough to play the game? The Basic Rules are well organized, but they’re pretty limited and make expansive play hard.

They’re also not necessarily accessible to those with dyslexia, those who are blind, or those who live in areas with limited internet access.

That’s why Wyrmworks founder Dale Critchley is trying to change the state of the game and provide these resources at little to no cost.

Critchley and his wife own Wyrmworks Publishing, a small 5e publisher that provides supplements for players. It’s best known for Limitless Heroics, a supplement for the 5e table to use to offer character options for those who want to represent their disabilities in the game. The topic of families with disabilities was particularly personal to Critchley, who said he had two children with rare disabilities himself.

“I saw how little disability representation there was just in tabletop role-playing games in general,” Critchley told TTRPG Insider. “I’d noticed how the combat wheelchair had been out for a little while, and people had been discussing providing assistive devices.” Critchley started working on creating supplements for various disabilities within the game so that folks could have assistive devices. The problem was that “there’s no such thing as disabilities in D&D.” That caused him to re-evaluate and create Limitless Heroics. This book provided an encyclopedia of disabilities, mental illness, and neurodivergence that can be used in the Fifth Edition. The book raised $85,000 in 2022, notably more than Critchley expected. However, the book also had the support and input of several people with disabilities alongside experts in the field. Critchley’s gone on to provide disabled NPC supplements and even STLs for disabled miniatures to use at the table.

The focus on helping those with less seemed to be quite viable, but Critchley became concerned after the Trump campaign won the election in November 2024 about the future for his community. Many in the disabled community were uncertain if they would get their disability benefits under the incoming administration or if those resources would become increasingly limited with Trump’s planned cuts to Medicare.

“How was this going to affect the poor?” Critchley asked himself. “I’ve had people reach out to us saying that they want to back our Kickstarter but didn’t have their disability check until three days later and couldn’t afford to back the campaign. That’s a reality for a lot of folks. I’ve been there myself.” He wanted to help those with less income and those who might live in areas with limited internet connections to get access to the rules.

Free5e: Expanding the SRD

That’s where Free5e, Critchley’s latest Kickstarter, originated. The goal was to create a set of D&D rules that are affordable, accessible offline and actually usable by the everyday person. When I first discovered Free5e on Kickstarter, my initial gut response was skepticism since it appeared at first glance that Critchley was recreating the Player’s Handbook in just another format. Why would someone want to buy a third-party copy of the PHB, and wouldn’t it risk pushback from WOTC? Hasbro has not always treated creators well when there were potential copyright breaches, after all.

That’s where Wyrmworks’ approach to Creative Commons comes into play. Creative Commons, for those who don’t usually deal in copyright law, means that anyone can freely as long as appropriate criteria are fulfilled, such as attributing the source. It’s a tool that has allowed thousands access to various forms of creative expression without paying copyright fees or risking getting into trouble in courts. It’s also the copyright category used within the Dungeons and Dragons Standard Rules Document, or SRD.

The SRD is the document at the center of the 2023 OGL debacle, where Wizards of the Coast threatened to charge third-party creators for using 5e rules only to walk it back after the public grew irritated with what this meant for the hobby and the excess cost it would place upon small content creators. The document contains the game's essential rules and is currently registered as Creative Commons, making it far easier for others to use during third-party content production without worrying about WOTC pulling the rug out from beneath them.

It’s also the basis of Free5e. The Free5e Player’s Handbook, which TTRPG Insider received a copy of, is built around the SRD and features common classes, spells, abilities and mechanics that most Dungeons and Dragons players would use at an everyday game.

Critchley and his fellow authors (including PJ Coffey of EN World and Chris Hopper of MCDM) have tried to amend some of the game's elements that critics found culturally questionable. The druid, for example, was changed to “Primal” after Critchley received feedback from readers that it was disrespectful toward IRL druidism, an ancient Celtic faith practice. While WOTC was right to change class names like the monk to adept, Critchley argues, it was inconsistent for them not to do the same to the druid.

Critchley and his team also hope to add new material alongside the SRD, such as new sections detailing how DMs and players can incorporate and represent disabilities at the table. That material will also be available under Creative Commons, a practice that Critchley embraced after Mike Shea the Lazy Dungeon Master released all of his blog posts under a Creative Commons license.

Critchley is confident in the project, noting how similar it was to Kobold Press’ Tales of the Valiant and EN Publishing’s Level Up: Advanced D&D. Both books are projects by third parties that build upon the SRD and provide an ‘alternative’ version of D&D for those who don’t want to give WOTC their money. Free5e is just Fifth Edition D&D, albeit with some slight semantical changes and additional rules that reflect Critchley and his community’s view of the world.

If everything goes according to plan, Critchley hopes that a physically printed copy of Free5e’s PHB, DMG and MM will cost the equivalent of a single book by Wizards of the Coast. (Note: TTRPG Insider’s conversation did occur before the announcement of Trump’s latest tariffs. While many industry leaders believe that TTRPGs will not be affected by tariffs, the materials may increase the cost.)

Free5e is doing more than create low-cost alternatives, however. It’s also trying to convert the game into a format usable for various people in the disabled community. For example, Critchley intends to use a braille writer to transform the PHB into a form that blind players can use. He’s also used an AI-generated version of his voice to create an audiobook of the PHB (The model in question is ethical, Critchley claims, and the only use of AI in the product’s creation.)

He also hopes that others can use the Creative Commons version of his game to create copies of 5e in languages that WOTC might not sell copies of, such as Esperanto.

“I really want someone to translate it into Klingon and then do an actual play in Klingon,” Critchley said jokingly.

One particular aspect of Free5e that caught my attention is how the product is already available. Anyone can download copies of the PHB, DMG, and MM’s manuscripts via DriveThruRPG if they so desire. It also allows others to review the planned updates and texts and send Wyrmworks feedback so they can ensure it’s the best version of the game.

Critchley has no plans to print the book directly. Instead, he hopes to have players get copies for themselves and print them locally or have third parties like DrivethruRPG do so for them at cost. Any costs raised will go straight into product development, not toward Critchley's profit margins.

“The largest expense is page layout and artwork,” Critchley claimed, although he’s done his best to work with public domain and Creative Commons resources to minimize costs and still create a quality book. It’s also a community project, where Wyrmworks Publishing’ team are collaborating with people around the world and across the country to edit the book and flesh it out in a way that will help players to find an accessible, enjoyable, and affordable version of the “World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game.” Several of the company’s supporters have been vocal in their praise and feedback for the manuscript, which has helped Critchley to flesh out the book.

As of this article’s publishing date, Free5e has successfully reached its funding goals and is striving to achieve stretch goals that will allow Wyrmworks to flesh out the Free5e DMG (which will include Creative Commons content produced by Mike Shea and other writers.) and the Monster’s Guide. It’s uncertain if they’ll be able to reach the goal during this campaign, but Critchley intends to get those projects funded later if he’s unsuccessful with the current campaign.

“We want [Free5e] to be as accessible as possible so that anyone anywhere can use it,” Critchley emphasized. “And the only way to do that is to put the whole thing into the Creative Commons, the finished product. And so that includes everything that we're doing.”

Thanks to Critchley for talking to us. If you want to learn more about Wyrmworks Publishing, visit their website. The Free5e Kickstarter and digital copies of the game’s manuscript are also available.