Builder's Manual · Chapter 1

What You Cloned

This project is the D&D fifth edition (2014) SRD rebuilt as working data: 1,595 files across 26 types — every class, race, spell, monster, condition, and copper piece as a record the game can read, write, and reason about, stitched together by a character sheet that computes itself.

The layers

Each layer answers a different question:

  • Rules/ answers what do the rules say? @Missing file first, then the Core Rules chapters, a 130-entry Glossary, and reference sections for equipment, magic items, monsters, and the GM's Gameplay Toolbox. Reference only — nothing operational hides here.
  • The file types answer what is stored, and what is derived? The character type alone carries 196 fields, 115 of them computed (chapter 2). Classes, races, weapons, armor, and magic items are not descriptions — they are the inputs those computations read.
  • Game Master Instructions/ answer what does the GM actually do? A standing core plus event-triggered procedures — the runtime, as opposed to the reference (chapter 4).
  • Content records are the nouns: 334 spells, 331 monsters, 633 items, 12 classes with their SRD subclasses, 9 races, 4 backgrounds, 15 conditions — and one worked setting, Emberhollow, wired to a playable pregen.

A real rule change usually touches a pair: the rule text players read and the schema or instruction that makes it true in play. Change how exhaustion works and you edit @Missing file and the formulas that read exhaustionLevel — one without the other gives you a game that says one thing and does another.

The license, precisely

The rules text comes from the SRD 5.1, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 — share and adapt, including commercially, with the attribution statement this project carries in its settings. What the license does not cover: the Dungeons & Dragons and D&D trademarks, artwork from any published book, and everything outside the SRD — named settings, iconic monsters like the beholder, and most subclasses beyond the one-per-class the SRD grants. Build and publish freely; just don't trade on the marks or import unlicensed content.

This is the 2014 edition — on purpose

A sibling project carries the 2024 rules; this one deliberately does not. The load-bearing 2014 facts, enforced throughout schemas and instructions: ability score increases come from race, backgrounds grant a feature (never a feat or scores), weapons have no mastery properties, Inspiration is classic advantage, exhaustion is the six-tier ladder, and subclasses arrive at class-specific levels (Cleric 1, Wizard and Druid 2, most at 3). @Missing file is the standing guard on that line. When you add content, add 2014 content — the chapters ahead show where everything goes.

Manual updated Jul 29, 2026.