What is the Ruleset lifecycle?

A user-owned ruleset has three states: Draft, Published, Archived. The base Core SRD 3.5 ruleset and its sourcebook extensions stay Published — they're maintained by us and have no lifecycle.

Campaign access is independent of lifecycle state. If you invite players into a campaign linked to one of your rulesets, those players get character-creation access to the ruleset — even if it's a private Draft. The campaign membership is the access grant. Forking is a separate permission and still requires the ruleset to be Published.

Draft

The starting state when you fork or create a ruleset.

• Add, edit, and delete any entity. An entity that's already been picked by a character on this fork or a descendant fork can't be deleted — the platform blocks it.

• Install and uninstall extensions. The same in-use rule applies: an extension whose content is picked by a character can't be uninstalled.

• Not visible in public listings. Only you and invited contributors find it through your own ruleset list.

• Forking requires Published, so other users can't fork it.

• You can build characters on it while iterating.

Published

Click Publish when ready to share. Owner-only.

• Other users can find and fork it (subject to its public/private setting).

• Editing rules don't change. You can still add, edit, and delete entities, and install or uninstall extensions — gated by the same in-use check as Draft.

• The new responsibility is social: deletions and uninstalls now affect anyone who's forked you. The in-use check accounts for descendant forks' characters too, so you can't silently break a downstream fork.

• Publishing is one-way. There's no Published → Draft transition; archive then unarchive if you need to.

Archived

Click Archive to retire the ruleset. Allowed any time, from Draft or Published.

• Fully read-only. No edits, installs, or entity changes.

• Existing characters and campaigns linked to it keep working — the entity data stays live, so they keep resolving and can still be played and leveled up.

• Click Unarchive to return to Draft. Owner-only.

• Unarchive counts as a new fork against your plan cap. If you're at the cap on Free, the unarchive is blocked until you free a slot or upgrade.

Transitions

• Create or fork → Draft.

• Draft → Published (Publish, owner only).

• Draft → Archived or Published → Archived (Archive).

• Archived → Draft (Unarchive, owner only).

There's no direct Published → Draft path. To take a published ruleset back to Draft, archive it then unarchive.

Deletions are permanent — there's no undo. Use Archive when you want to step away from a ruleset without losing it.