What to run when you are done with D&D?

[Parmandur]

Worlds Without Number would be another.

Habenplayed it myself, but it seems legit.

 

[Reynard]

I'm actually about to run DCC RPG after my one D&D campaign finishes up this weekend. It's weird, wild, and while close mechanically to D&D, has a flavor all its own.

Tell me about MCC -- Mutant Crawl Classics -- since much of my dungeon crawling is weird science fantasy post apocalyptica anyway, if you can.

 

[Voadam]

I had a great time playing WFRP 1e in a long-term dungeon-focused campaign. 2e has a big Dwarven retake the lost kingdom dungeon in Karak Asgal that looks like a fantastic dungeon setup.

I really like the elegant xp system I remember of d100 games like Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, and Elric! where at the end of the session you make a check against all the percentile skills you used that session, if you fail they go up a certain amount. This means you advance based on play but advancement slows as you go. Pulp Cthulhu could probably do an Indiana Jones archaelogical site delving game with Mythos stuff and Elric!/Stormbringer would do a lot of weird dark fantasy Not-D&D.

Shadow of the Demon Lord looks like it is designed to do quick advancing Dark Fantasy contained stories that are not exactly D&D with adventures like a Dungeon Magazine adventure path where it is zero to hero D&D and things keep escalating as an apocalyptic fantasy story (specifically thinking Age of Worms and the Demons one).

 

[Voadam]

If you also include very D&D like RPGs but not official D&D I would consider:

Hackmaster 4e. AD&D 2e with 20 bonus hp so fights can last longer with serious hacking even at 1st level. I find the monsters and modules fantastic with some judicious scraping of the specific humor I do not care for. I would have to homebrew it for PC rules as I do not have the PH, just modules and all the monster books and the DMG, but since I have 2e stuff that would be easy. B1 In Search of the Unknown is a really great dungeon once you take out the humor aspects you don't care for.

Dungeon Crawl Classics. Very cool weird fantasy dungeon modules. Wacky roll every time you cast a spell magic for horrific to amazing results, interesting patrons, lots of classic Chaos influence. Fairly Swords and Sorcery weird fantasy D&D in a way normal D&D is not.

13th Age and Fantasy Craft are excellent high octane high fantasy d20 based hero fantasy RPGs. 13th Age is more 4e influenced while Fantasy Craft is more action point boosted 3e D&D variant (my group has lifted the base Spycraft action point system for use in various d20 modern and D&D games to great effect). 13th Age has the 360 page living megadungeon Eyes of the Stone Thief.

 

[Jer]

Except I explicitly want those things I mentioned.

To expound since that was a bit terse: I want to run a dungeon fantasy game specifically. Not just a general fantasy campaign. But I am frustrated with 5e specifically and D&D broadly. That why my ask in the OP was for "D&D like" which may have thrown people.

What about D&D has you frustrated currently? And what do your players want in a game? Both of those would color my responses a bit.

It sounds like your players want crunchy bits. Are you looking for more tactical combat? Faster fights? More in the investigation/exploration end? Do your players want to be big heroes and you'd rather be running something more grounded? Or vice-versa?

I will always recommend 13th Age for a dungeon crawling game, but for my table it fits because we all want to do heroic dungeon crawling and so it fits our play style well. But without knowing what's got you frustrated with D&D dungeon crawling it's hard to make recommendations.

 

[Reynard]

But without knowing what's got you frustrated with D&D dungeon crawling it's hard to make recommendations.

I am broadly frustrated with 5E in general, but what I found when doing a session of OD&D was players unhappy with very stripped down characters. I want a not-D&D because I want to find an alternative that still silupports the dungeon fantasy playstyle with the associated expectations and baggage of some D&D variant.

 

[Cadence]

I am broadly frustrated with 5E in general, but what I found when doing a session of OD&D was players unhappy with very stripped down characters. I want a not-D&D because I want to find an alternative that still silupports the dungeon fantasy playstyle with the associated expectations and baggage of some D&D variant.

I was thinking 13th Age before (someone else suggested it above), but it felt too close to D&D to me. Where do 3.5/PF fall down in what you are looking for?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

With regrets, I have yet to pick that up or play it.

Tell me about MCC -- Mutant Crawl Classics -- since much of my dungeon crawling is weird science fantasy post apocalyptica anyway, if you can.

 

[Reynard]

I was thinking 13th Age before (someone else suggested it above), but it felt too close to D&D to me. Where do 3.5/PF fall down in what you are looking for?

Those are both D&D, IMO.

 

[Cadence]

Those are both D&D, IMO.

I was thinking so. But when you mentioned the lack of crunch in OD&D, my brain immediately went to PF.