Playtest (A5E) Level Up Playtest Document #1: Origins

Welcome to the first Level Up playtest document. This playtest contains a candidate for the game’s Origins system—the initial building blocks of your character.

Are you ready to level up your 5E game? Welcome to Level Up, the standalone 'advanced 5E' backwards compatible tabletop RPG coming in 2021!

A crunchier, more flexible version of the 5E ruleset which you know and love. If you love 5E but would like a little more depth to the ruleset, Level Up is the game for you!

Level Up is a standalone hardcover roleplaying game brought to you by EN Publishing, the company which brought you EN5ider Magazine and Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters!

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What this is
This is a playtest document. We’d love you to try out the rules presented here, and then answer the follow-up survey in a few days.

What this is not
This is NOT the final game. It’s OK if you don’t like elements of these rules; that’s the purpose of a playtest document. Be sure to participate in the follow-up survey in a few days. All data, positive or negative is useful.

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Your survey responses help form the direction of the game as it goes through the development process.

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[Stalker0]

It's certainly possible that there are weak heritages & cultures but those need to be discussed as a whole rather than focusing on just one isolated part of the things various they give while pretending the rest don't come with it. I fail to see how focusing on only the weakest of two or three abilities given by each human heritage You need to talk about each heritage & culture as a whole if you think it's underpowered.

Its a fair point. I can say that my opinion on humans being on the weak side comes from a detailed review of all heritages and cultures so far (so I had to chance to compared them all to each other), my thoughts are in the nitty gritty threads I made.

 

[tetrasodium]

Its a fair point. I can say that my opinion on humans being on the weak side comes from a detailed review of all heritages and cultures so far (so I had to chance to compared them all to each other), my thoughts are in the nitty gritty threads I made.

"humans" still isn't saying much of anything though. Is profiteer probably a little too niche & capable of being improved by drawing more from the dragonmarked houses or something sure... but "humans"covers three heritages & four cultures with some being quite nice so just saying "humans" is not useful & leaves iy up to others to decipher what you are talking about specifically.

 

[Zardnaar]

There's a generic cultural thing granting a feat so humans can still take it.

So can anybody else though.

 

[tetrasodium]

There's a generic cultural thing granting a feat so humans can still take it.
So can anybody else though.

Indeed, you could be a sage background ingenious focus human heritage high elf culture... Although that's a good reason to maybe split some of the racial names away from cultures
I think there will be a ton of lone wanderers though, a feat is a good step up from most cultures unless they rebuild feat chains & even then it will be iffy since a lot of feats are almost always useful & bringing a feat based concept online a few levels earlier is huge.

 

[Xethreau]

Indeed, you could be a sage background ingenious focus human heritage high elf culture... Although that's a good reason to maybe split some of the racial names away from cultures

Is there information that could go into a heritage's culture that would make it more conceivable to have such a person raised in that culture? Surely there are humans under the rule of the Aldemeri Dominion and humans raised in Aerenal.

 

[tetrasodium]

Is there information that could go into a heritage's culture that would make it more conceivable to have such a person raised in that culture? Surely there are humans under the rule of the Aldemeri Dominion and humans raised in Aerenal.

Some settings even do racial breakdowns by country/region/continent like so

Maybe I'm not understanding the problem? I brought it up simply because it seemed confusing as heck to say "sage background ingenious focus human heritage high elf culture". For argument's sake lets say the setting makes the combo a nonissue

 

[CubicsRube]

Some settings even do racial breakdowns by country/region/continent like so
View attachment 125713

Maybe I'm not understanding the problem? I brought it up simply because it seemed confusing as heck to say "sage background ingenious focus human heritage high elf culture". For argument's sake lets say the setting makes the combo a nonissue

I miss books having these kinds of breakdowns.

I'd buy a setting book for 5e like this in a heartbeat.

 

[Undrave]

There is so much stuff in this playtest, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

Especially the Dragonborn section is a LOT to digest...

They definately feel stronger than regular race, there's tons of stuff. And they also feel like they synergize with classes a bit TOO much? Like... you can see "Oh, this culture would be great for a weapon user, and this one with a caster and this one with a skill monkey..."

 

[glass]

2. I assumed that there was going to be an OGL product, but there is no OGL in the playtest packet.

Quoting myself because this just got weirder. According to another poster on another forum, the OGL is on pages 75-76. The PDF I downloaded only goes up to page 74! Anyone else in my camp?

_
glass.

 

[Rabulias]

Quoting myself because this just got weirder. According to another poster on another forum, the OGL is on pages 75-76. The PDF I downloaded only goes up to page 74! Anyone else in my camp?

Probably Morrus has updated the PDF since the missing OGL was pointed out earlier. Have you tried downloading the PDF again?