Top Alternatives to D&D 5E

This video is going to be invaluable to many people leaving D&D

“If dnd 5e were to just magically disappear overnight” this in the biz is what we like to call foreshadowing

this vid aged like wine

Considering the OGL right now it’s really funny this is showing up on my feed

Seeing as I completely moved off of 5e to go to Old School Essentials for my fantasy itch I will have to say that.

I'm currently running Symbaroum and loving it. I'll also never stop recommending Blades in the Dark as it's wonderful.

This video just got WAY more relevant

Dungeon Crawl Classics and Forbidden Lands!! You should check out "Old School Essentials" and "Worlds without Number" 😎

OGL leak drops and look what is popping up as a suggested video. Nicely done sir, your video was better timed than you may have even realized.

If it were to "magically disappear overnight." Or on January 13th.

Given the current events I feel like this video is going to be extremely valuable to folks like me who are looking for alternatives to 5e but don't have much experience in other TTRPGs. Great video good sir

After running a lot of Pathfinder 1, 2, and 5e, Pathfinder 2 has been one of my favorites. A different feel from Pathfinder 1, but overall streamlined. It gets complicated in Pathfinder 1 to look up a chart and say “what provokes an attack of opportunity again?” Instead, about 90% of creatures don’t even have AoO, and all players need to do is figure out what to do in 3 actions.

Hey! Thanks for the breakdown of Fantasy AGE, we appreciate the mention!

For now, my favorite system is Savage Worlds, adaptable to any setting. So it'll be the one I'll choose to replace DnD.

Never heard of that "Basic Fantasy", so I checked it out on Amazon. You're right! VERY affordable, and appears to have an OSR vibe that appeals to me. Thanks for the heads-up!

In getting away from D&D5e, I also got away from class and level systems for many reasons. My go-to's for a good fantasy TTRPG are Savage Worlds - Adventurers Edition (which has an excellent cross-over with Pathfinder that was just released,) RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha for the incredibly detailed world and the quick and deadly combat, and HarnMaster for low-magic gaming again in a very detailed setting and with a unique combat system that generates actual injuries. You don't come out of combat with a loss of arbitrary hit points, but with a collection of cuts, bruises, oh, and the concussion from when that mace bounced off your helmet.

Try Mausritter! It's an OSR-style rpg where the players are all mice. Definitely a lighter fantasy tone, but even just the charts and tables are worth it!

Honestly, I love the generic way the HERO System is implemented so that my friends and I have played it across many different genres, even official ones: Traveller HERO and Shadowrun HERO, both mostly home brewed in terms of plugging in HERO mechanics into those systems. That said, it’s a more crunchy approach than many will want to mess with it.

Other D&D(5e) replacements The Dark Eye ( Der Schwartze Auge ) : German fantasy game with dense background lore and detailed fantasy world. Symbaroum : Swedish Dark Fantasy OSR game set in a giant mysterious forest. Lamentations of the Flame Princess : Scandinavian Dark Weird / Surreal Fantasy OSR (Rated Adult for mature content and controversial gory full color artwork). It's usually set in the historical Netherlands in the early 17th century (roughly about the time of the Thirty Years War). Interesting rework of the classic D&D core classes (Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User and Specialist), skill proficiencies (2d6 rather than 1d6 / d100 or d20), and the alignment system (both Lawful and Chaotic are minority opinions and both are tragically metaphysically wrong). Magic system is backwards compatible with D&D Classic and other OSR games. The Black Hack : D&D Classic Heartbreaker OSR. Zweihander : a customizable open source Heartbreaker version of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game (2nd Edition) without the Warhammer cosmology and game lore. Conan - Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of : "Blood & Thunder" Pulp Fantasy game set during the Hyborean Age of the Conan novels; uses Modiphius' 2d20 RPG system. Zeb's Fantasy Roleplaying System (ZeFS) : an open source version of the variant AD&D system crafted by David "Zeb" Cook for use with the Conan the Barbarian (CB) movie tie-in modules for AD&D.

Having played both of these systems in the past, I would probably go back to Runequest or GURPS Fantasy. Both of them were really fun! Both were somewhat complex, but the complexity of GURPS is front loaded, once you have created your character, it is simple to play. Honorable mention to Savage Worlds. all you need is the core rules and one of the two world books.