Level Up (A5E) About the Future...

[Faolyn]

So, let's assume a best-case scenario: Level Up does well in its kickstarter and sales. What sort of hopes or plans do you guys have--if any--for the future?

Settings other than Zeitgeist? Do you have any interest in pulling a Pathfinder/Golarian and creating your own setting for LU? Would you put out a Monster Menagerie 2? Your own Xanathar's/Tasha'-style book with more archetypes or "prestige class" feat chains, more spells, and maybe even an LU artificer and/or psionicist class (possibly using some of the material from En5ider)? Will En5ider switch to LU format, will it continue to be 05e-oriented, or will you do a mixture of the two?

I know there's going to be a lot of unaffiliated people producing LU material--I am (6 illustrations complete!), @Steampunkette is likely going to be selling her S&S setting, other people have talked about producing regions, and I'm sure I've missed other plans. But I'm curious as to what is going to be "official." Even if you can't go into details about what you have planned--and I hope you do--it'd be cool to know that you have something in mind at least.

 

[Morrus]

Hopes or plans?

Well, WotC will continue to support our game as a 3PP, as will the entirety of DMs Guild. So we're not worried about support, adventures, settings, etc.

So, let's assume a best-case scenario: Level Up does well in its kickstarter and sales. What sort of hopes or plans do you guys have--if any--for the future?

So many hopes. As yet, no plans. We'll see how the KS goes.

Settings other than Zeitgeist?

There's Burning Skies and Holdenshire (the latter is where our starter adventure will be set).

Would you put out a Monster Menagerie 2?

We'll see.

Your own Xanathar's/Tasha'-style book with more archetypes or "prestige class" feat chains, more spells, and maybe even an LU artificer and/or psionicist class (possibly using some of the material from En5ider)?

We'll see. But if you listen to this week's podcast (out tomorrow) a third party talks about a big LU player-facing book they're working on.

Will En5ider switch to LU format, will it continue to be 05e-oriented, or will you do a mixture of the two?

We'll see.

I know there's going to be a lot of unaffiliated people producing LU material--I am (6 illustrations complete!), @Steampunkette is likely going to be selling her S&S setting, other people have talked about producing regions, and I'm sure I've missed other plans. But I'm curious as to what is going to be "official." Even if you can't go into details about what you have planned--and I hope you do--it'd be cool to know that you have something in mind at least.

All depends on the Kickstarter!

But let's say we have thoughts about two more core rulebooks.

 

[Morrus]

(though we were discussing EN5ider just yesterday. again, so dependent on so many things)

 

[Faolyn]

We'll see. But if you listen to this week's podcast (out tomorrow) a third party talks about a big LU player-facing book they're working on.

Unfortunately, I rarely listen to podcasts (attention span issues), but I'll try to listen to that one, because that's a good sign.

But let's say we have thoughts about two more core rulebooks.

And that's an even better sign! I want LU to be supported for a long time.

Thanks!

 

[Morrus]

And that's an even better sign! I want LU to be supported for a long time.

It's 5E compatible. As long as people make 5E products, LU will be supported. The magic part of our game is that it comes with an inbuilt support base.

So with that in mind, we don't need to do what they're doing already. You don't need adventures or spells from us. A thousand people are already doing that. We are free and clear to break new ground.

So if -- and this is a BIG IF -- the Kickstarter does well enough, one thing we hope we can do is do this all over again with fully compatible Modern and Sci-Fi core book/monster sets. But I should clarify that this is no more than an idea at this stage. There are no firm plans, no drafts, nothing. We'll see what happens in October.

 

[Faolyn]

Well, LU is just different enough from o5e to warrant it's own stuff rather than rely on directly using o5e things. Sure, I could use a written adventure with few tweaks, and it probably will be quite easy to assign all the new LU magic schools to the existing spells that you aren't including in the book, but your heritages and classes have so many new options that the existing 05e material feels kind of bland now. You can put an o5e fighter and LU fighter in the same party and they'd be roughly balanced, but I would much prefer making an LU fighter. (Which is why I hope someone comes up with an LU-style artificer or psionicist/psion/mystic/whatever).

So that's why I was asking.

 

[Morrus]

You can put an o5e fighter and LU fighter in the same party and they'd be roughly balanced, but I would much prefer making an LU fighter.

Sure. I agree. But our fighter is compatible with old and new 5E adventures just like the O5E fighter is. But you wouldn't write an O5E adventure differently to a LU adventure. We're replacing the core rules, but an important part of our approach is that the O5E stuff continues to support it. Play WotC's new feywild adventure with it!

As far as adventures go, our particular strength in adventures is in-depth advanced adventure paths for experienced DMs, like War of the Burning Sky and ZEITGEIST: The Gears of Revolution. But I think we'd rather introduce new fans to those than make another one -- they're colossal projects, and rare in the industry, scale-wise.

 

[Steampunkette]

Awww... s'nice to be mentioned, folks!

 

[Darkwynters]

So LU 5e is to create advanced rules for O5e. I am planning on running Curse of Strahd with the new rules. Very excited!

 

[Timespike]

So LU 5e is to create advanced rules for O5e. I am planning on running Curse of Strahd with the new rules. Very excited!

I remember "can this be used to run Curse of Strahd" was literally one of the metrics that got mentioned early on when all of us designers were chatting with the management team.

Also: Hi, I'm the designer that was on the podcast episode Morrus mentioned! I'm 1/6th of a team of 3 general and 3 lead designers from Level Up that are working on a big third-party player-facing product that we're hoping to have out early-ish 2022. More heritages, more backgrounds, more cultures, more destinies, more subclasses, at least one more base class, more spells, possibly a few more weapons, etc.

I'll have more to say as we get closer to our release (and figure out exactly when that is) but it's proceeding apace, and we're all pretty excited about it.