List of potential post-OGL 5E replacement RPGs

[mhd]

It seems we're getting into people and organisations already planning and talking about their replacements for D&D 5E. So I thought we'd keep track of them.

Note that I'm talking about games that at least seem closely related to 5/5.1E, not replacing D&D with other systems like OpenD6 or BRP, as much as I'd want that to happen.

Kobold Press, Project Black Flag:
Source: Blog Post "Raising Our Flag"
Details: Not much, supposed to be "available, open, and subscription-free"

MCDM (Matt Colville), Unnamed Weird Dice RPG:
Source: From live stream, as reported on Enworld, Reddit

Others already in the pipeline?

 

[JEB]

Cubicle 7's "C7d20 System": Cubicle 7 Also Announces A New 'C7d20' System

 

[VenerableBede]

An already-existing RPG I’m quite fond of is EZD6. Rules-light, but with enough crunch to satisfy.

 

[kunadam]

Level Up (probably less known around here... )

 

[Steampunkette]

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

Welcome to Level Up, the standalone 'advanced 5E' backwards compatible tabletop RPG!

www.enworld.org

Forums is good.

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

The standalone 'advanced 5E' backwards compatible tabletop RPG!

www.levelup5e.com

Level Up is great.

Home | Level Up

a5e.tools

Tools Site is incredible

Advanced 5E System Reference Document

a5esrd.com

No-OGL SRD is being put out PDF by PDF as the OGL is stripped away so we can use Creative Commons or ORC, instead.

The guy who runs these forums bankrolled and published the best 5e replacement RPG there is. And the designers who worked on it hang out on these forums. The 3rd party publishers, too. Freelance writers as well.

Everyone looking for Post OGL 5e Replacements should be looking over at the Level Up forum, because it's awesome!

 

[dave2008]

Bugbears and Borderlands by @Sacrosanct is a simplified 5e that is being reworked to remove the need for the OGL (available now under OGL). It takes the opposite approach from LevelUp in providing a simpler vesion of 5e. This is more my groups speed, though I do love LevelUp myself.

PS it is incredibly cheap at $1.00 USD for the PDF (print versions are reasonable too).

 

[Strider1973]

Level Up! Is absolutely great!

 

[Jadeite]

Fateforge will continue on its 5.5 branch. The core books are also currently pay what you want:

Fateforge - 1 - Corebook: Adventurers - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 1 - Corebook: Adventurers - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 2 - Spell book: Grimoire - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 2 - Spell book: Grimoire - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 3 - Monster Compendium : Creatures - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 3 - Monster Compendium : Creatures - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 4 - Lore Book & Toolbox : Encyclopedia - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 4 - Lore Book & Toolbox : Encyclopedia - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[dave2008]

Fateforge will continue on its 5.5 branch. The core books are also currently pay what you want:

Fateforge - 1 - Corebook: Adventurers - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 1 - Corebook: Adventurers - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 2 - Spell book: Grimoire - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 2 - Spell book: Grimoire - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 3 - Monster Compendium : Creatures - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 3 - Monster Compendium : Creatures - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 4 - Lore Book & Toolbox : Encyclopedia - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 4 - Lore Book & Toolbox : Encyclopedia - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

I am always interested in new ideas, what does FateForge bring to the table?

 

[Jadeite]

I am always interested in new ideas, what does FateForge bring to the table?

I haven't really checked them, I'm currently rather occupied with digesting PF2. I got the monster book from KS and it's pretty.
But the books are PWYW, so you can check it yourself. It's close to the SRD, with subclasses, etc added. It also already referred to races as species.

 

[ART!]

Fateforge will continue on its 5.5 branch. The core books are also currently pay what you want:

Fateforge - 1 - Corebook: Adventurers - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 1 - Corebook: Adventurers - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 2 - Spell book: Grimoire - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 2 - Spell book: Grimoire - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 3 - Monster Compendium : Creatures - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 3 - Monster Compendium : Creatures - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fateforge - 4 - Lore Book & Toolbox : Encyclopedia - Agate RPG | Fateforge | DriveThruRPG.com

Fateforge - 4 - Lore Book & Toolbox : Encyclopedia - We bring you the Fateforge Tetralogy in Pay What You Want. This four-book collection won a silver ENnies Asward for Best

www.drivethrurpg.com

Just flipping through that first book's preview, the art is really excellent. If the other previews look as nice as that, I might be sold on the lot!

 

[Yaarel]

I understand these systems are "not D&D". Are forumers doublechecking that these systems have solid "open licenses" to use them as a foundation for independent development?

 

[Horacio]

Bugbears and Borderlands by @Sacrosanct is a simplified 5e that is being reworked to remove the need for the OGL (available now under OGL). It takes the opposite approach from LevelUp in providing a simpler vesion of 5e. This is more my groups speed, though I do love LevelUp myself.

PS it is incredibly cheap at $1.00 USD for the PDF (print versions are reasonable too).

Bugbears and Borderlands is my current favorite 5e-lite. I have been looking for a 5e-lite ruleset for years, I have found systems that I loved (Machiato Monsters, Index Card RPG...) but none was exactly the shade of 5e-lite that I was looking for, and I was too busy (lazy?) to write mine. And then I read Bugbears and Borderlands, and I was like "it's just what I was looking for!"

 

[Jadeite]

I understand these systems are "not D&D". Are forumers doublechecking that these systems have solid "open licenses" to use them as a foundation for independent development?

Fateforge uses the OGL (and continues to do so in their current Kickstarter), Black Flag will use ORC.

 

[mamba]

I understand these systems are "not D&D". Are forumers doublechecking that these systems have solid "open licenses" to use them as a foundation for independent development?

Fateforge is essentially D&D and I am pretty sure uses the OGL because of that (haven’t checked). Whether they added any OGC, no idea

There won’t be any games under ORC yet and what Kobold Press and Cubicle 7 use for their new one, who knows. With the SRD now being under CC they certainly now have options they did not originally envision

 

[dave2008]

I haven't really checked them, I'm currently rather occupied with digesting PF2. I got the monster book from KS and it's pretty.
But the books are PWYW, so you can check it yourself. It's close to the SRD, with subclasses, etc added. It also already referred to races as species.

I checked a preview an ancient dragon from the bestiary, always my go to, and I wasn't impressed. I am less interested at the moment, but I might check out the core book. Thank you for the suggestion!

I also have an issue with PF2 dragons, but that is not my big issue with that system.

 

[dave2008]

Fateforge is essentially D&D and I am pretty sure uses the OGL because of that (haven’t checked). Whether they added any OGC, no idea

There won’t be any games under ORC yet and what Kobold Press and Cubicle 7 use for their new one, who knows. With the SRD now being under CC they certainly now have options they did not originally envision

Fateforge is OGL

 

[Jadeite]

I checked a preview an ancient dragon from the bestiary, always my go to, and I wasn't impressed. I am less interested at the moment, but I might check out the core book. Thank you for the suggestion!

I also have an issue with PF2 dragons, but that is not my big issue with that system.

In my opinion 3rd edition perfected the dragon designs, so I agree. D&D 5 did well in bringing those designs back.