NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8072996" data-attributes="member: 5142">There is a remarkable cluster of fantasy TTRPGs that came out primarily post-2010 that are basically d20 derived variants, including the elephant in the room: 5e D&D. These "d2010" games, in part, likely exist as a reaction to not only 4e D&D, but also 3e D&D. But what I would like to discuss are the commonalities that exist between these systems regardless of their mechanical differences. Because I suspect that the mechanical differences exist mostly as differences in "how" to address the changing Zeitgeist in d20 game design. Dragon Age RPG (2010): Green Ronin published Dragon Age RPG, which became the basis for their Fantasy AGE system (2017). Sure, it's 3d6 and not d20, but it nevertheless feels rooted in D&D. It has three classes that go up to 20th level and uses a sort of feat/specialization (subclass) hybrid system. 13th Age (2013): A co-production between Jonathan Tweet (3e lead designer) and Rob Heinsoo (4e lead designer) that some have described as the love-child of the two systems. Numenera (2013): Monte Cook quit WotC and his work on D&D Next to found Monte Cook Games and create Numenera, a game that uses d20 for task resolution. Characters are generated modular way through a "I'm (Descriptor) (Type) who (Focus)." D&D 5th Edition (2014): In some regards it exists apart from these other works given its commitment to being D&D - which is something the others are not necessarily trying or required to be - but at the same time it feels like it would be amiss to not include it. Shadow of the Demon Lord (2015): Robert Schwalb also did a bit of work on D&D Next before going his own way and creating Shadow of the Demon Lord, which may reflect some of the different choices he would have made for 5e. It also features a modular design where players choose an Ancestry, but then also choose a Novice Path (e.g., Rogue, Magician, Priest, Warrior), an Expert Path, and a Master Path, which can be mixed and matched. I almost feel like I probably missing some obvious games that belong to this "d2010 family," but I'm not sure.</blockquote>

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