D&D 5E 5E Spin offs?

Back in the 3E days they made a few spin offs of the d20 system such as d20 Future, d20 modern, Star Wars Saga Edition and the various 3pp also did the same thing.


Anyway would you be interested in anything like this. I doubt they will do it any time soon if ever (dilutes the brand etc) but there seems to be some fan based work out there. The things I would be interested in are.

1. Using 5E to clone a previous edition. This is mostly 5E mechanics with smaller numbers rather than plugging in a lot of 5E classes, spells etc into a clone. For example if you clone AD&D with it or plug the round system and BA into an existing clone.

2. Star Wars Saga 5E.
Here the numbers would be smaller, use the force would not be as broken/useless and you could tweak the rubbish talents and feats and use disadvantage/advantage. You would still have NADs, SWSE equipment, piloting rules etc although NPC stats would get overhauled (CR wise, HD as well), along with defence bonuses from p[prestige classes, and ship stats.

Some thing I like in other d20 games better/ (AD&D saves, 3E armor, SWSE build you own classes etc,3E expected encounters per day, 1E-3E healing rates) or sometimes just feel like something different (Ye olde LG only Paladins, Rangers must be good etc, SWSE talent system).

And after The Last Jedi I kind of miss some of the old Star Wars Legends material (the good parts anyway).

There's a snowball's chance in Hades that an "official" 5E Star Wars will happen now that FFG has the Star Wars license and is fully committed to their own system.

A generic space fantasy/space opera 5E-based game could be interesting though, for the reasons you suggested. You can file the serial numbers off fairly easily and recreate the Star Wars feel.

I wouldn't be against it. That said, there are a number 3rd party products out there that use the 5e chassis.

As for Star Wars, I think Fantasy Flight (going off memory, I could be mistaken) currently holds the license, so I while I would love to see a 5e Star Wars (simply because I enjoy both 5e and Star Wars) I agree that it won't be any time soon, if ever.

GlassJaw said:

There's a snowball's chance in Hades that an "official" 5E Star Wars will happen now that FFG has the Star Wars license and is fully committed to their own system.

A generic space fantasy/space opera 5E-based game could be interesting though, for the reasons you suggested. You can file the serial numbers off fairly easily and recreate the Star Wars feel.

Click to expand...

Licenses run out though, I don't know when FFG one runs out but they are the 3rd company to make a SW RPG game and there have been 5 editions of a Star Wars RPG game, 7 if you count revised editions. I don't expect a WotC SW RPG game anytime soon but I was talking more about a homebrew revised SWSE. I have not picked up the FFG version because I have all the SWSE books and a good chunk of D6 ones.

I'm currently having fun running a 5e cyberpunk campaign using code::2050 by Legendary Pants, which has just launched a Kickstarter. They've made it nice and accessible by making all the extra elements fit on top of the standard 5e rules, rather than changing any of the existing game mechanics.

There are two projects I have seriously been considering converting to 5e. One is my B/X western, Westwater. And the other is my futuristic Sentient Steel campaign setting.

That code::2050 SRD is amazing! Very well done. Backed.

Here's another one that's kickstarting soon: https://5thevolution.com/
It promises a lot, but unfortunately there's not a lot of info yet.

Then, there are some fan creations on this very forum:
Fifth Age: A Hard(er) Science Fiction conversion for 5e DnD
D20 Cyberpunk
There are probably more that I'm missing. I'll bet if you search the greater interwebs you can find other similar projects.


Would WotC ever produce an official 5e spin-off? I wouldn't rule out the possibility, but it doesn't seem likely in the short term. D&D is all about branding now, so it would need to be something heavily D&D-branded, that integrates well with the rest of the game. I could see an Urban Fantasy thing, trying to cash in on Twilight and Dresden Files and that sort of thing (maybe bring back Urban Arcana setting, but with some tweaks to make it not stupid). But it would really need to say "Dungeons & Dragons" on it, in big letters, right on the front, and probably be a season of organized play. (Maybe portals open between the Forgotten Realms and the modern world...?)

I'd like a take on d20 Final Fantasy. Its strange that the concept behind the games (high adventure, character classes etc) are so similar but its still really hard to make 5e, with its classic tolkien-esque european medieval feel, fit the thematic/gameplay of FF games.

Pathfinder 2.0?

Shots fired!