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Almost 30 sessions into my 13th Age campaign. Eyes of the Stone Thief expanded to cover all 10 levels. Five player characters now at 4th level. I've not been posting regular updates, but we are playing on the regular. Since I last posted, a lot has happened. The characters: Infiltrated a koru...

I'm getting a strong sense that Mike and Ray had very different jobs, despite the superficial similarities. Mike's job was to save a dying game. Simple. But not easy. Ray's job was to not kill the golden goose while parrying a bunch of half-baked ideas from corporate execs desperately trying...

College of the Moon: This seems to me like a jumble of lore and mechanics. I prefer that a subclass do one thing and do it well. Not a fan. Knowledge Domain: Mr Spock. I like this subclass a lot more than I thought I would. Thumbs up. Purple Dragon Knight. I like it. Not generally a fan of gem...

I think Mike nailed it. This is a good, practical definition -- games that are 5E vs games derived from 5E (or with 5E elements).

I presume there's general agreement that Tales of the Valiant (which I don't own) and Level Up (which I do) are 5E-like?

I didn't mean to put words in your mouth. Sorry about that. I've played 50 sessions of Shadow of the Demon Lord. Liked it a lot. It's kind of a leaner version of 5E with some 4E elements plus Warhammer-style character progression. I have only played one session of Shadowdark. I know it plays...

I think this is a deeper conversation than what makes 5E different than 4E or 3E or B/X or whatever edition of D&D you're into. It's also about the numerous games that have come out in the last 10 years that are in response to or adjacent to or borrowing from 5E. Reynard mentioned Shadowdark...

Yeah, I was about to say that 13th Age has more than a little 4E in its DNA. I'm currently 25 sessions into my first 13th Age campaign. Really interesting system.

You're probably thinking about this in a more sophisticated way than I am. If I can take my 5E players and say, "It's a lot like 5E, you'll figure it out as we play" then that's "like 5E". And Shadowdark fits into that category for me, yes.

Very cool. I personally like a more grounded version of Gamma World. I think that's one of the points of divergence in the GW community -- gonzo vs grounded. I'd love an edition that has the sandbox aspect of Mutant Year Zero with 5E character building and 4E monster design.

Exactly this. D&D is fighting monsters and looting magic in a medieval fantasy post-apocalypse. Gamma World is fighting monsters and looting tech in a science fantasy post-apocalypse.

Really? I'm not so sure about that. Robert Schwalb has a hidden gem called Punkapocalyptic. It's his Gamma World-like game built on the Shadow of the Demon Lord engine. It's different than 5E...but not that different. And it's great. I could see how you could build a very elegant 10 level game...

I'm a sucker for a book of magic items. I think the monster-themed books like Fizban's and Bigby's (Lords of Madness, Libris Mortis) would be better if they came with a campaign. Not the short encounters they currently have. But 50 or 75 pages of adventure. I'd LOVE a book like that. And I'd...

GAMMA WORLD

I love cities for a sandbox campaign. 3E Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk would be a nice complement to a Greyhawk campaign. 3E City of Splendors sourcebook (on DMsguild) would work great for Forgotten Realms and also be lootable for Greyhawk. Paizo has great "starter towns". Absalom is...

I'm not trying to be pendantic, I just want to give a constructive answer to your question. I've been toying a lot with a map-inspired sandbox campaign set in the Forgotten Realms, mostly because Schley has so many great maps on his site. One of those maps plus a few of the old FR setting...

By "sandbox" I assume you do not mean a "hexcrawl". I define a hexcrawl as a blank grid that players have to explore to discover what's out there. They are literally mapping the world. I define a sandbox as a map where players have a general sense of what's out there and can go where they...

I voted for the 11-13 range. Having DM'd a few long campaigns, I've come to understand my personal preferences. It's hard for me to invest in any campaign shorter than 1 year. On the flip side, I get the urge to try something new if it lasts longer than 3 years. As I can play about 30 to 35...

I hope the chase rules are good.

I started with 1E. Good counter-example with 3E. Who knows, maybe I'll be wrong about the 2024 DMG.