D&D 5E D&D compared to Bespoke Genre TTRPGs

[cbwjm]

I'm not sure I'd want to run a 5e commoner campaign although it might be a fun one-shot. Same with the sidekick classes, I think they might work well for a low-powered one-shot.

 

[Imaro]

And, from my own experience, 5e is a terrible game to try to do low magic fantasy in. Something with, say, classic pulp level magics like Conan. You have to strip out 3/4 of the game - almost all the classes for one - to do it. To the point where it really wasn't worth it when I did it. The system was fighting me every step of the way.

By low magic, I mean similar to say, 1e D&D where a given encounter might feature a single spell cast in the entire encounter, vs 5e where you have multiple characters casting spells every round.

And, I would point out, that since it's a perennial thread topic - just search the forums for things like how to do low magic 5e - I'm hardly the only one who has difficulty making 5e work this way. And, yeah, if I wanted to do low magic D&D, I'd go back to 4e which does it straight out of the box without any need for modifying anything. Or, something like Savage Worlds, which also does it out of the box. There are far, far better solutions to a low magic campaign than kit bashing 5e D&D.

Try 5e Talislanta it's a sword and sorcery world that does low to no magic with the 5e rules set.

 

[hawkeyefan]

So would most folks here say that the reverse is also true?

If my group really digs a specific rules set, but we want to play some classic D&D type games, couldn’t we just hack what we need to have a better game than D&D?

 

[dave2008]

So, question - is making major rules modifications after play has already begun something you'd generally advise? Probably not, right?

Maybe I don't recommend it, but my group has always handled things this way. If there is a rule (or house rule) we don't like, we will change it mid campaign. No issue for us, but it may be for other groups.

Also, I don't think it is necessarily good advice to tell a groups to change systems even if it is at the beginning of the campaign. But I guess if that is when your going to do it sure. However, I will not that this type of situation doesn't always come up a the beginning of a campaign. If I was run a sci-fi version of 5e, but it was only mid-campaign when we were going to have a space battle, that might be that time I ask for advice on doing such a thing and I have seen similar such post on EnWorld before. And inevitably some people say - play a different system. Not helpful.

 

[cbwjm]

So would most folks here say that the reverse is also true?

If my group really digs a specific rules set, but we want to play some classic D&D type games, couldn’t we just hack what we need to have a better game than D&D?

I think so. If you like savage worlds, fate, or star wars D6 for instance, then you should be able mod them for a DnD style game.

 

[dave2008]

So would most folks here say that the reverse is also true?

If my group really digs a specific rules set, but we want to play some classic D&D type games, couldn’t we just hack what we need to have a better game than D&D?

Sure, for your group that is definitely possible. I just want to be clear that "better game" is subject to the people playing (from both view points).

 

[dave2008]

But, couldn't the argument be made that sanity is a major element of a CoC game?

Possibly, but we didn't like it when we played CoC so we didn't port it over to D&D. However, if we wanted to use sanity rules it wouldn't be hard to do in 5e (there are even official sanity rules already in 5e, and we might get more with Ravenloft)

EDIT: I didn't think the sanity rules in CoC helped me create the atmosphere of Lovecraft's stories and ultimately, that is what I was going for in the game.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A theoretical point that doesn't hold up in practice.

No 5e based game does that. Does the d20 game have 20 levels? Then you get 20 levels of HP progression.

So you...don’t use all the levels.

Like I’m not inventing something here. The first D&D game I played in was 5 or 6 levels (IIRC it started at 3 or 4, but I don’t remember for sure), with a story made to take us through those levels and then conclude. I’ve seen advice about using a single tier of play to tell a story that fits that tier in the current and previous edition of the game, and most people I know who liked 3.5 played it from level 2 to level 14 and pretended the other levels didn’t exist.

I have a campaign planned for a low magic world that will start at 1 (we usually start at 3 in a campaign that is meant to go until we retire the characters at high levels) and will not progress past level 11. I am literally reworking epic monsters to work for level 9-11 heroes because the setting and story just don’t need end-game player abilities.

You can just not use all the levels. I know it from experience, very much “in practice”.

 

[dave2008]

And, from my own experience, 5e is a terrible game to try to do low magic fantasy in. Something with, say, classic pulp level magics like Conan.

I disagree, that is almost exclusively how we play 5e. Now we do have some house rules, but it is less than a page (the fewest I have ever had for D&D). Our main campagin (6 years running) is low magic (very low magic compared to a lot on these boards). We only use a different genre for 1-shot adventures.

Besides, Conan is very similar to a D&D character.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Sure, for your group that is definitely possible. I just want to be clear that "better game" is subject to the people playing (from both view points).

Yeah, I think that’s ultimately my point. If someone loves D&D that much and the idea of tweaking it to make a sci-fi game doesn’t terrify them but instead gets their creative juices flowing, hey more power to them.

And I agree with your point about advice. If someone is dead set about playing their sci-fi 5E hack, then saying “You really should be playing X” is pretty useless.

But if someone said “what’s a good game for sci-fi?” then I feel like there are a lot of answers I’d offer before I said “Well if you significantly alter D&D it may work”.

I mean....Stars Without Number would be the clear choice. Someone’s already done all the hackin for you, and you can get it for free.