Alternatives to 5E (I ask for no particular reason...)

[CapnZapp]

What? I'm reading reviews and no one remotely mentions 4e as a source of inspiration. It's basically B/X race-as-class with a modified d20 OGL and weird random naughty word happening all the time.

I find the 4E mention completely unfortunate, but the rest of the post remains true. It actually "is" a reimagining of old school D&D rather than some kind of faithful clone.

 

[CapnZapp]

I gave it a quick look at the gaming store a few years back. It felt like an OSR game. Elf as a class is very B/X. It's the reason we switched to AD&D.

I'll give DCC a deeper scan the next time I visit the place.

Please do!


By the way, the true GENIUS of the module I mentioned, Death-Slaves of Eternity, isn't actually the adventure itself - it is merely very evocative and cool.

No, it it how it suggests the demi-human classes are reskinned into the classes Cultist, Soldier and Pirate.

Not only is this perfect for a humanocentric S&S world, it is GOLD for anyone that understandably thinks race-equals-class is a wonky concept!

 

[darjr]

DCC also has a ton of GG support and 3rd party support. Not to mention it’s broadly compatible with their Mutant Crawl Classics and Lankmar stuff.

I’d you want to run a quick zero level funnel this comes in handy.

Purple Sorcerer Games: 0-Level Party & Tourney Generator

Purple Sorcerer Games is your source for exciting, affordable, fun-to-play adventures compatible with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games.

purplesorcerer.com

 

[DarkCrisis]

AD&D is great. Plan to try The One Ring 2E soon

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I was looking for resources to hexcrawl campaigns and was guided to the OSR game Worlds Without Number. There is a free version available to download on DrivethruRPG. It definitely has tools to help build out a hexcrawl sandbox campaign for any system, which I have started using for my 5E game.

Reading through it I have been really attracted to how the setting doesn’t shy from an unbelievably-far-in-the-future vibe that is filled with lost technology that might as well be magic like in Vance’s Dying Earth, or Book of the New Sun. Imagines a standard fantasy, but as if it’s thousands of years after a transhumanist post-apocalypse. And OSR, so plugging in old BECMI monsters and adventures slot right in.

 

[CapnZapp]

DCC also has a ton of GG support and 3rd party support. Not to mention it’s broadly compatible with their Mutant Crawl Classics and Lankmar stuff.

I’d you want to run a quick zero level funnel this comes in handy.

Purple Sorcerer Games: 0-Level Party & Tourney Generator

Purple Sorcerer Games is your source for exciting, affordable, fun-to-play adventures compatible with the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games.

purplesorcerer.com

That generator even supports the specific adventure I'm talking about

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

DCC is nothing like 4E in the mechanical sense.

(For people like me 4th edition was a rotten apple and I need to make sure nobody gives up on DCC because it's compared to 4E. If you like 4E you should definitely check out DCC though I must confess I haven't the slightest clue why)

Mod Note:

Even though “edition warring” isn’t really a thing anymore, did you HAVE to stir the pot? Be better going forward, please.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

You had me at hello most of the covers look like they should be painted on the side of a van!

 

[Parmandur]

I gave it a quick look at the gaming store a few years back. It felt like an OSR game. Elf as a class is very B/X. It's the reason we switched to AD&D.

I'll give DCC a deeper scan the next time I visit the place.

That is a particularly B/X move, and there are other exhies: however, a lot of the Sacred Cows that 4E slaughtered stay dead in DCC, such as Vancian casting which is entirely gone (spells are skill rolls that can be dangerous, meaning a Gandalf type is wise enough to avoid spellcasring if at all possible). The XP system is remarkably different from any used in D&D: sort of like milestones, but the milestone is every encounter giving 1-4 XP (by DM fiat of how cool the encounter went), the encounter possibly being a conversation with an NPC, trap or a puzzle.

The "die chain" core mwchanic is also really innovative: sort of like Advantage/Disadvantage on steroids.

 

[Parmandur]

DCC is nothing like 4E in the mechanical sense.

To clarify, it is a direct reaction to 4E, even more than Pathfinder, as Goodman took 4E as an invitation to imagine what he would do if he could rewrite D&D as radical ally as 4E did.