Other D&D Variant Let’s list the 5E variants

[Bae'zel]

I'll ditto Adventures in Middle Earth. Even though it's a variation of D&D 5e to better support a specific fantasy setting, it makes significant changes - very low magic restricted to specific cultures, complete reworking of the rest system, a Shadow play-mechanic, journeying system. Those can be used for other fantasy settings - the journeying system in particular tends to get mentioned in threads here and on other forums.

We liked it so much it was our go-to for "low magic" D&D frameworks. Not a single class with spells (some minor "abilities" but no Vancian system at all.

It was fantastic, really.

 

[Belen]

• Crooked Moon
• Symbaroum 5e
• Doctors & Daleks
• LOTR 5e
• Blue Rose 5e
• Plangea
• Heroes of Tara
• Everyday Heroes
• Mass Effect 5e
• Star Wars 5e (SW5e)
• Exodus
• Arcana of the Ancients (Numenera 5e)
• Tanares
• Brokenweave
• Midnight 5e
• Adventures on Rokugan
• Auroborous
• Diamond Throne

 

[DammitVictor]

Phantasy Star and Esper Genesis.

 

[Jahydin]

• Odyssey of the Dragonlords - Greek Setting/Rules/Adventure by two ex-Bioware directors.
• Inferno - Setting/Rules/Adventure set in Dante's Inferno.

 

[jian]

I know there’s a few out there these days, especially since the OGL crisis, but I haven’t really kept up with them all.

Obviously I know Level Up: Advanxed 5th Edition and Tales of the Valiant. There’s a bunch more though!

What else is out there, what is it, and by who?

(I’m talking standalone 5E games designed as a ‘replacement/variant’ of D&D 5E)

I think it depends a little bit what you mean. There are quite a few lighter versions of 5E that have been doing the rounds that I’m interested in, but they might not meet your criteria, such as:

• Bugbears and Borderlands: A lighter simpler version with some idiosyncratic choices and additions based on Izegrim Creations’ other games such as GEAS.
• Nimble 5E: More a set of house rules for 5e (such as no AC, roll weapon damage dice to hit, 1 is a miss, dice explode) but now of course its own game, Nimble. Available on the Nimble website.
• Shadowdark: A OSR themed version, with PCs generally less powerful and with fewer character generation choices, some nice touches (such as halflings turning invisible).
• Five Torches Deep: Pretty similar to Shadowdark in some ways, aiming for the same sort of gameplay and aesthetic.
• D&D Story Mode: A nice fun little system with streamlined skills and a point-based spell system which you can adjust on the fly. Only on itch, I think.

There are also variants that have mostly mentioned such as Esper Genesis (space opera), Hyperlanes (ditto), Vault 5E (steampunk), Doctors & Daleks, Capes & Crooks (supers), Lasers & Liches, and Anime 5E.