D&D 5E Best D&D 5e alternate ruleset?

[Arilyn]

I tried 13th Age, but it turned out to be too focused on narrative mechanics and balance to suit my preferences, much like its ancestor 4e. Cool bestiary though.

Bestiaries are usually books I just have on hand for reference. I read the 13th Age one cover to cover.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Still waiting for Cublicle 7 to see if they'll release something (sadly, I bet they wont). ToV felt a little flat to my taste and FateForge has way too much setting element built-in.

Dragonbane is splendid, as are most of Free League books.

 

[jayoungr]

I hate that we have to have this conversation.

 

[Parmandur]

Shout-out to Dungeon Crawl Classics being a genuine blast, and an excellent re-thinking of the D&D concept from first principles rather than being a mere old rules retro retread.

I donned an "alternative" to 5E, but it is hard to beat DCC for classic pulp action fantasy.

 

[mamba]

Nimble

There is a Nimble 5e KS for a more full featured version of it

Nimble 5e: A Fast, Tactical, 5e Compatible, RPG

Eliminate the slog in your 5e combat, speed up play and maximize interesting, tactical choices for players and DMs.

www.backerkit.com

 

[Malmuria]

I think Gavin Norman said it best about about b/x:

About B/X, my feeling is that the reason the game is so beloved is that, while the rules are certainly not “perfect”, it encapsulates the iconic D&D experience in a perfectly formed package. In just 128 pages you get the foundational D&D content, enough for years of play with no further books: the classic 4 core classes and races; a great selection of the most iconic 100+ spells, 200+ monsters, and 150+ magic items; rules for dungeoneering, wilderness exploration, sea travel, stronghold construction. And what's more, everything is presented in a pretty clean and coherent way, quite unlike the baroque style and organisation of AD&D.

It's not even my favorite OSR game but it perfectly sets/captures the tone of dnd-style fantasy, and in particular can do low-fantasy settings better than 5e.

 

[Burnside]

Love Dungeon Crawl Classics and Level Up: A5E.

Level Up feels very close to 5E but plugs a lot of “holes” by providing solid exploration rules and making combat more interesting for martials without getting bogged down in cumbersome mechanics. Some very fun subclasses as well, and GREAT magic items. Also, versions of a lot of ideas introduced in Level Up seem to have made their way into official D&D in the past few years.

Dungeon Crawl Classics for me combines the best of old school aesthetics with good modern but stripped-down design to great effect.

I have played a few sessions of Pathfinder 2E but found that what is gained in terms of tactical versatility doesn’t make up for what’s lost in terms of fiddly mechanics and tracking situational +1/-1/+2/-2 modifiers. It’s just not what I’m looking for.

Hoping to try Shadowdark soon.

 

[Stalker0]

My group played 13 age 1e for a campaign and liked it, is the 2nd edition really "5eish" or is still more like its roots?

I will also agree with some earlier posters that 13th age having 4th edition dna is NOT a bad thing. There was a lot of really cool improvements that unfortunately were mixed with some real stinkers and terrible presentation. While 4e was ultimately not a successful edition, there is a lot of meat on the old bones to pick clean for good ideas.

A5e my group did for a campaign and then reverted back. Ultimately for us the juice was not worth the squeeze, most of the extra complexity my group didn't find really translate to better gameplay for what we were playing.

 

[Zaukrie]

My group played 13 age 1e for a campaign and liked it, is the 2nd edition really "5eish" or is still more like its roots?

I will also agree with some earlier posters that 13th age having 4th edition dna is NOT a bad thing. There was a lot of really cool improvements that unfortunately were mixed with some real stinkers and terrible presentation. While 4e was ultimately not a successful edition, there is a lot of meat on the old bones to pick clean for good ideas.

A5e my group did for a campaign and then reverted back. Ultimately for us the juice was not worth the squeeze, most of the extra complexity my group didn't find really translate to better gameplay for what we were playing.

It looks like 13th age is a lot of clean up and fixing of cludgy things, and is more like 5.24 is to 5.14, as it were. A fix, an update, lots of math fixing.

 

[Vince Snetterton]

I have been told that 5 Torches Deep is a great alternative, as well as Shadowdark.
As for Pathfinder 2e, I am playing that (one of 5 gaming systems I am currently either DM'ing or playing), and it is NOT a good alternative for 5e. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy PF. But it is a complicated game designed for power-gamers. If you want simple, what 5e apparently aspired to be, it is not a substitute for 5e.