What happened to Gigier's 5E Dnd Wiki?

[Phhase]

It's my go-to for quick reference, as well as the source of one of my warlock subclasses. It suddenly went private with the Tab tag "goaway". Does anyone know what happened??

[Hytheter]

I seem to remember that Giger's had some houserules mixed in with the text anyway and was imperfect as a reference. I'd suggest another site to use but I don't think the forum rules allow that.

[Phhase]

I seem to remember that Giger's had some houserules mixed in with the text anyway and was imperfect as a reference. I'd suggest another site to use but I don't think the forum rules allow that.

Yeah, but it was marked as such, and was lightly formatted, so useful in a pinch.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

That sucks, I was just looking at it the other day.

This is what I just got:
Private content This area of the website is private and you don't have access to it. If you believe you need access to this area please contact the web site administrators.
If you already have an account, please sign in.


Maybe they are doing an upgrade. Maybe the big government copyright cops have flexed their not always wrong muscles.

What's funny thought is I own several of the books and prefer many of the free online listings to them or D&D beyond.

[Slipperychicken]

Dunno, though I recommend 5etools for references.



What's funny thought is I own several of the books and prefer many of the free online listings to them or D&D beyond.

It is funny, but as reference tools, a well-designed application or website will dramatically outperform any book. Even a PDF reader with a basic search function will put paper books to shame. I've hardly touched my books since buying them.

Find a book and manually flip through it, or type a web address and pick a dropdown or a search? There's just no contest there. The digital interface wins every time.

[Rynjin]

I seem to remember that Giger's had some houserules mixed in with the text anyway and was imperfect as a reference. I'd suggest another site to use but I don't think the forum rules allow that.

Why wouldn't they? 5e is still OGL, as I recall.

[Hytheter]

Why wouldn't they? 5e is still OGL, as I recall.

As I understand it the OGL only applies to the SRD stuff, which is pretty limited (one subclass for each class, one subrace for each race, only one feat and it's Grappler). Hence why most sites (such as Roll20) only have that small selection, and why other sites (such as a wiki I once used a lot) have had to take all their non-SRD content off.

I could be mistaken about that or how the forum rules regards 5e content, though.

[Rynjin]

As I understand it the OGL only applies to the SRD stuff, which is pretty limited (one subclass for each class, one subrace for each race, only one feat and it's Grappler). Hence why most sites (such as Roll20) only have that small selection, and why other sites (such as a wiki I once used a lot) have had to take all their non-SRD content off.

I could be mistaken about that or how the forum rules regards 5e content, though.

Ah, I wasn't aware 5e had neutered the OGL. Or maybe I'm just too used to Pathfinder's approach.

[Great Dragon]

Ah, I wasn't aware 5e had neutered the OGL.

Yep. SRD/OGLs = 3e > 4e > 5e.

@Slipperychicken: Website/app Searches are faster. But with WotC cracking down hard about SRD/OGL content, it's actually easier to just have a PDF/Book for information. Especially outside the PHB.

D&D Beyond is - ok - but requires membership to get real access to non-basic information.

[Beleriphon]

D&D Beyond is - ok - but requires membership to get real access to non-basic information.

Which I rather suspect is the point.

[Great Dragon]

Which I rather suspect is the point.

Oh, yes. It was totally their goal!
(A) Buy as many Physical books as you want.

(B) Rent the basic books online, or {hopefully} buy what you intend to use the most.

(C) Both: Get all the Physical Books and the maximum PDFs and pay rent to access all the new cool stuff.

Even the "shared" info can only be viewed (PC Creation using it is allowed, but only six max!) and if you want to personally use any of the "Homebrew" information, pay at least Rent.

Now, whether or not this is something that helps you, depends on, well, you.
If you're not interested in Physical books, but have lots of online access - D&D Beyond is great.
When you're this kind of DM, snagging DdB and Paying for everything can be helpful, especially if you can share it with your Players.

But, if you're more offline, buying only those (physical) Books you actually need is (IMU) where most of the D&D fans are.

I honestly don't know how many fans will do (C), but between (A) and (B) WotC gets enough $$ to keep trying for (C).

[Slipperychicken]

@Slipperychicken: Website/app Searches are faster. But with WotC cracking down hard about SRD/OGL content, it's actually easier to just have a PDF/Book for information. Especially outside the PHB.

I was including PDFs as a digital interface. My point was basically digital > analog.

They still haven't touched 5etools either

[Great Dragon]

I was including PDFs as a digital interface.
My point was basically digital > analog.

They still haven't touched 5etools either
I'm not as familiar with 5eTools, but I'll see if I can check it out.
Edit - Just popped over and wow!
Checked out the Bestiary and it has pictures that D&D Beyond doesn't!!
Not for every Monster - the Animated Statue of Lolth didn't have a picture - but still.
I am (very) surprised that WotC hasn't sent a 'Stop! Right now!' message to them.

WotC has forced Donjon into only listing what is available (No UA),
and all the Pop-up info is limited to the SRD.

[FabulousFizban]

so, short answer: no one knows what happened to Giger's

[Great Dragon]

so, short answer: no one knows what happened to Giger's

Sadly, I wasn't even aware of the site's existance, until this query.
Sorry.

[Psyren]

Yep. SRD/OGLs = 3e > 4e > 5e.

Did 4e even have an OGL? IIRC it had some bastardized version that turned off a lot of 3PP.

[False God]

Did 4e even have an OGL? IIRC it had some bastardized version that turned off a lot of 3PP.

No I don't believe it had one at all.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Did 4e even have an OGL? IIRC it had some bastardized version that turned off a lot of 3PP.

Yep, it had the GSL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_System_License), which was much more restrictive than the OGL. The first version published basically said "You can't publish 3e and 4e versions of the same thing side-by-side" which forced 3PP to decide before 4e even came out whether they wanted to jump ship to it; the updated version, after everyone cried foul, still didn't let you copy text from the core books like the OGL did, making the creation of plug-and-play 4e material much harder and "alternate PHB"-style splats impossible.

Basically, it was an attempt by WotC to have much more control over third-party 4e material than they did over third-party 3e material, and it backfired pretty badly. Hence why 5e tried to strike a balance by going back to the OGL but restricting what was part of the SRD instead.