New D&D rules are being given to creators for free, reflecting "the lessons we’ve learned and the steps we’re taking to rebuild and strengthen our relationship with our players"

An open Player's Handbook on a wooden table with dice to one side, showing two Paladin subclasses.

It's been a wild few years for D&D. The game welcomed its 50th anniversary, produced a fresh slate of core D&D books, and dusted itself off in the aftermath of controversial changes to the Open Game Licence (which were then dropped thanks to fan backlash). The latter two have arguably changed the landscape more than anything else in the past decade, and both paved the road to something that should shape the game's future – a new version of the System Reference Document, or SRD 5.2.

This allows fans and third parties to create their D&D adventures, sourcebooks, classes, monsters, and settings for publication (paid and free). This already existed, so what's different about SRD 5.2? Well, I was able to catch up with Jess Lanzillo – VP of Franchise and Product for Dungeons & Dragons – over an email interview to find out.