# Library — retrievable rules reference Rules the DM **looks up** rather than recalls. > ## ⭐ THE SRD IS PORTED — 2026-08-27 > > **[`srd-5.2/articles/`](srd-5.2/articles/) — 588 articles, one file per > thing.** 301 spells · 229 magic items · 41 tagged rules · 17 feats, with > `index.json` and schemas in > [`srd-5.2/articles/README.md`](srd-5.2/articles/README.md). > > **Class progression for all twelve classes:** [`2024/core.md`](2024/core.md). > > ⚠️ **Still out:** mundane equipment, backgrounds, untagged glossary terms. > ### ⚠️ The note this replaces was wrong, and it is worth saying how > > **Rescoped 2026-08-24:** *"This directory was specified as 'port the SRD' — > chunked spells, chunked monsters, items, tables. **That job is much smaller > than it looked**, and most of it is already done elsewhere."* > > ⛔ **It was not smaller.** It was 588 articles and three separate extraction > faults, each of which produced output that **looked complete** — a rarity > value missing from an enum dropped seven magic items including Spell Scroll, > a wrapped parenthetical dropped six feats, and `pdftotext -layout` dropped > table cells. > > ⭐ **The estimate was made by looking at the dump and judging it sufficient. > Nobody tried to use it for anything until SRD-10 needed a slot table**, and > that is when the holes appeared. **A corpus is not verified by being present.** --- ## ⭐ Species and content the SRD does not contain — ruled 2026-08-27 **SRD 5.2 has a limited species list.** ⛔ **Aasimar is not in it**, and two of the first play-test party are Aasimar. > ### The master sheet is the source of record, and traits scale by proficiency bonus. **Where two or more sheets independently assert the same trait, that agreement is the evidence.** Ser'en and Korth both carry **Darkvision 60**, **necrotic and radiant Resistance**, and **Healing Hands**. ⭐ **And the sheets encode the scaling without stating it:** Healing Hands is **4d4 at proficiency bonus 4**, so it is **2d4 at PB 2**. **The rule was derivable from the data all along.** ⚠️ **This is the point of this directory, applied to itself.** The alternative was serving the traits from training — **which is exactly the failure the section below describes**, and it would have been unverifiable. **Found by the first play-test session, before a die was rolled.** *(Jay took this option over re-speciesing the characters or dictating traits by hand.)* ⛔ **What this does NOT license:** inventing a trait no sheet asserts. **If the sheets are silent, ask the player.** ⬜ *Celestial Revelation is believed to arrive at level 3 rather than 1, and nothing in this repo can confirm it — that one is flagged, not ruled.* --- ## Why this exists at all The model has **far more 2014 content in its training than 2024**, and left to recall rules from memory it will serve 2014 rulings fluently — which is worse than serving them badly, because fluent wrong doesn't announce itself. Live examples, all present in our own roster: | | 2014 | 2024 | |---|---|---| | terminology | "race" | **species** | | inspiration | Inspiration | **Heroic Inspiration** | | social checks | ad hoc | **Influence** action | | unarmed strike | attack only | **Damage / Grapple / Shove** choice | | grapple & shove | contested check | **saving throw** | | weapon properties | — | **Weapon Mastery** — Vex, Nick, Sap, Slow, Topple, Cleave | | Wild Shape | forms by CR, stat replacement | uses per level, temp HP | Underneath the same thesis as the rest of the architecture: **the model is handed facts, it does not supply them.** Rules are another kind of state. --- ## The distinction that sets the scope **Not all drift matters equally, and the difference is who can see it.** ### World-side drift is functionally invisible A 2014 goblin and a 2024 goblin differ by a couple of hit points and some ability wording. **The player never sees a stat block** — they see "it lunges at you." You could run 2014 monsters indefinitely and nobody at the table would know. ### Character-side drift is fatal **The player is reading their own sheet.** If the DM runs Wild Shape as 2/short-rest with CR caps while Ser'en's file says otherwise, the DM is contradicting the player's own document. That isn't a rules quibble — it's the moment the player stops trusting the system. ### And character-side is already solved **The 14 files in [`../characters/`](../characters/) ARE the retrieval layer for character rules.** Every feature is written out with its 2024 uses, recharges and semantics — that's what the 2026-08-24 JSON audit produced. The player's sheet and the DM's reference are **the same document**, so drift cannot occur there structurally. **That removes the largest chunk of what this directory was going to hold.** --- ## Scope — what actually needs building | piece | status | why | |---|---|---| | **`2024/core.md`** — the digest | ⬜ **the real job** | Shared rules the DM adjudicates that no character sheet carries. See below. | | **Monsters** | ⬜ import from SRD 5.2 | Data, not authoring. And drift-immune per above. | | **Character rules** | ✅ **done** | Lives in `characters/`. Do not duplicate it here. | | **Spells** | ⬜ minimal | PC spells are on PC sheets; monster spells arrive with the monster. Only DM-improvised casting is left, and that's small. | | **Magic items** | ⬜ minimal | SRD items on demand. Homebrew shapes are in [`homebrew-items/`](homebrew-items/). | | **Improv tables** | ⬜ | Encounters, weather, rumours. Nice to have, blocks nothing. | | **2014 partition** | ❌ **dropped** | We run 2024 only. A parallel 2014 tree is exactly the hazard this directory exists to prevent, and nothing needs it. | --- ## `2024/core.md` — the digest spec **Six to ten pages. Not a system port.** The test for inclusion is one question: > **Does the DM adjudicate this, and is it absent from every character sheet?** If a character sheet carries it, it's already retrievable. If the player never sees it, drift doesn't matter. What's left is the middle: | section | why it's in | |---|---| | **Conditions** | Highest-traffic lookup in the game. Short, and constantly wrong from memory. | | **Action economy** | Action / Bonus Action / Reaction / Free, and what 2024 changed. | | **Weapon Mastery** | ⭐ **The single most important entry.** Vex, Nick, Sap, Slow, Topple, Cleave, Graze, Push. **New in 2024** — a DM defaulting to 2014 won't know it exists, and half this roster is built around it. | | **Grapple & Shove** | Now a **saving throw**, not a contested check. Constant, visible, and the player will notice. | | **Unarmed Strike** | Damage / Grapple / Shove as a choice. | | **Rests** | Short and long rest rules, and what recovers on which. | | **Spell preparation** | 2024 changed how preparation and swapping work. | | **Death saves & dying** | Rare, high-stakes, must be exactly right the first time. | | **The Influence action** | New in 2024, and it's how social encounters resolve. | **Explicitly out of scope:** class features, subclass features, species traits, spell descriptions, individual magic items. All of those are either on a character sheet or retrieved as data. ### We are allowed to copy this **SRD 5.2 is CC-BY 4.0 and irrevocable** — released 22 April 2025, including 2025 Monster Manual stat blocks, weapon mastery and crafting. **This is the one corpus in the entire project we may legally reproduce**, with attribution. The digest is therefore an **extraction job, not a writing job** — pull the relevant sections, attribute properly, done. > ⚠️ **Unverified:** SRD 5.2 reportedly excludes some content — Artificer, > Beholder, and **Aasimar**. Aasimar matters here because **Ser'en and Korth are > both Aasimar.** Not confirmed from a primary source; **check the SRD document > itself** rather than commentary about it. Survivable either way — their traits > are already written into their character files — but it constrains anything > Seren ever ships. --- ## Version discipline **Every file carries its version in frontmatter.** Retrieval must never return a 2014 passage into a 2024 ruling invisibly. ```yaml --- ruleset: "2024" source: "SRD 5.2" license: "CC-BY-4.0" --- ``` **And homebrew is partitioned, not mixed.** [`homebrew-feats/`](homebrew-feats/) and [`homebrew-items/`](homebrew-items/) are **inspiration, retrieved as shapes** — never as truth. SRD is truth. Keep the line or the whole retrieval guarantee is worthless. --- ## Status ⬜ **Nothing acquired yet**, and it blocks nothing — this can happen in parallel with any other work. The job is now: **extract one digest, import monsters once.** Not port a system.