D&D 5E Which 5e Should I Propose to My Group? [Updated]

[Retreater]

"....And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights..."
"Subdivisions," Rush

My group has been bouncing from system to system for over a year now, not finding anything that really suits us. A player suggested we go back to "everyone's second favorite system" in an attempt to find stability.
My issue is that there are now varieties in that system. Which do I pick to suggest to the players?

2014
Pros: we own the books and are already familiar with it.
Cons: I've repeatedly run into issues with encounter balance, poorly designed enemies, little guidance about awarding treasure. My players complain that there's not enough combat options and that play is boring.

Level Up
Pros: I own the books, addresses treasure rewards better than 2014, supposedly better designed monsters. Presents tactical combat options.
Cons: I'm the only one who owns the books. I'm concerned that it might be too crunchy. Don't know how well I can use 2014 stuff with it (will the Level Up characters cakewalk through 2014 adventures? There's not a lot of published adventure content I can use specifically for Level Up.)

Tales of the Valiant
Pros: supposedly better designed monsters and treasure reward guidance. Tactical combat options (less than Level Up). More familiar to 2014 than any other edition.
Cons: I don't own anything from the system and don't know enough about it to promote it.

I'm not considering D&D 2024 because I would rather support other companies. DC20, Nimble 5e, etc. are out of consideration because they aren't finalized. Shadowdark and OSR games are too "underpowered" to please my players. Pathfinder 2 is too crunchy.

If you have any suggestions of which we should try, let me know.

Update:
We went with Level Up: Advanced 5E, with the option for players to use 2014 if they were more comfortable with that - or if the options weren't available in LU (such as many of the Eberron-specific options).
The campaign lasted about 3 months before it ended with an unceremonious TPK. I had high hopes, but alas, it was not meant to be.

Here are some issues we had, specific to Level Up.

1. I was the only person who owned the books, so no one really got familiar with how their abilities worked (despite my having shared the online tools with them.)
2. The massive book was difficult to navigate and just ... handle. One of the players repeatedly dropped my copy. (Multiple times a session.) [On the plus side, it's only a little scuffed - whereas a WotC book would be disintegrated.]
3. It's not really "compatible" as I understand compatibility to be. Trying to go from different versions of D&D (2014, Level Up, Flee Mortals, and OAR's converted B/X adventures) was just a mess.
4. If you're going to run B/X converted adventures, you better use characters designed to be thrown away. There's way too much time sink required to make characters in Level Up.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For the most part, you can settle on multiple answers here. What version the players use and which version the DM uses can be independently decided.

If the Level Up crunch is too much for your players, have them use ToV or 2014 or one of the others. (I own the ToV Monster Vault and I like it and will be using it in my ongoing 5E play by post game any second now.)

If you want your monsters to have more heft, ToV, Level Up or Flee, Mortals should take care of that for you. Note that you will occasionally need the 2014 Monster Manual still to fill in some of the gaps for IP monsters, which are not always 100% replaced by other critters in these monster books.

So what is your preferred level of crunch? And what's your players' preferred level?

 

[Retreater]

So what is your preferred level of crunch? And what's your players' preferred level?

I don't think my players are even consistent in what they want. Some players might be ok with Level Up, some might want to stick with 2014. I just don't want to lug around numerous systems to run a game.
While I was mixing systems with another group, I found that I was getting terribly confused when I was trying to use Level Up rules while helping a player run a 2014 ranger because those spells don't exist in Level Up.
And then there's Supply, Strife, and other keywords that don't translate between the versions.
So I suppose I could do monsters and treasure from Level Up, throw in minions and boss monsters from Flee Mortals, and everything else player focused from 2014?

 

[aco175]

I thought there was little difference between the 3. I thought a casual game could have PCs from each and none of them would be overpowering.

 

[Retreater]

I thought there was little difference between the 3. I thought a casual game could have PCs from each and none of them would be overpowering.

I think there are edge cases where the differences matter.
I have another very casual game that meets once every month or so. We usually eat a meal, catch up, and play for about 1.5 hours. That group is 5e. I wanted to experiment with Level Up on my end, since they were using all copies of my 2014 PHBs anyway.
We have 3 very new, very casual players (usually operating at some extent of drunkenness), and my wife (who knows the game but is also operating at some extent of drunkenness). So the ranger casts a spell, I can't look up the effects in Level Up because it doesn't exist. I have an enemy that bestows a level of strife, which is confusing because it doesn't exist in 2014. The monk wants to attack, but she's an adept in Level Up, so I have to switch gears and look up renamed abilities.
Or maybe I'm running an encounter from Where Evil Lives (the boss monster lair supplement for Flee Mortals) which handles minions differently or has action-oriented monsters that do lair actions and legendary resistances differently than my Sly Flourish lairs book I was using earlier in the session.
It's confusing "just enough" which in some cases is the worst kind of confusing because you think it's going to be the same.
Ideally, there would be one system to handle everything.

 

[Chaltab]

Level Up
Pros: I own the books, addresses treasure rewards better than 2014, supposedly better designed monsters. Presents tactical combat options.
Cons: I'm the only one who owns the books. I'm concerned that it might be too crunchy. Don't know how well I can use 2014 stuff with it (will the Level Up characters cakewalk through 2014 adventures? There's not a lot of published adventure content I can use specifically for Level Up.)

Fortunately, the mechanical aspects of everything eventually ends up on A5E Tools so not owning the books isn't a barrier to their entry. It's definitely more crunchy and complicated than 2014 5E, but the power level is comparable. Regular 5E Adventures should work just fine.

 

[Retreater]

Fortunately, the mechanical aspects of everything eventually ends up on A5E Tools so not owning the books isn't a barrier to their entry. It's definitely more crunchy and complicated than 2014 5E, but the power level is comparable. Regular 5E Adventures should work just fine.

Yes, I guess that would help. I also have access to the Gateway from being a KS backer.

 

[Micah Sweet]

"....And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights..."
"Subdivisions," Rush

My group has been bouncing from system to system for over a year now, not finding anything that really suits us. A player suggested we go back to "everyone's second favorite system" in an attempt to find stability.
My issue is that there are now varieties in that system. Which do I pick to suggest to the players?

2014
Pros: we own the books and are already familiar with it.
Cons: I've repeatedly run into issues with encounter balance, poorly designed enemies, little guidance about awarding treasure. My players complain that there's not enough combat options and that play is boring.

Level Up
Pros: I own the books, addresses treasure rewards better than 2014, supposedly better designed monsters. Presents tactical combat options.
Cons: I'm the only one who owns the books. I'm concerned that it might be too crunchy. Don't know how well I can use 2014 stuff with it (will the Level Up characters cakewalk through 2014 adventures? There's not a lot of published adventure content I can use specifically for Level Up.)

Tales of the Valiant
Pros: supposedly better designed monsters and treasure reward guidance. Tactical combat options (less than Level Up). More familiar to 2014 than any other edition.
Cons: I don't own anything from the system and don't know enough about it to promote it.

I'm not considering D&D 2024 because I would rather support other companies. DC20, Nimble 5e, etc. are out of consideration because they aren't finalized. Shadowdark and OSR games are too "underpowered" to please my players. Pathfinder 2 is too crunchy.

If you have any suggestions of which we should try, let me know.

Level Up, 100%. Feel free to allow 2014 options for players if you're concerned about crunchiness, because they are compatible, but honestly I'd just walk your group through it in session 0 and jump in with the A5E core. The full rules are available online at the A5e Tools website, so everyone should have access.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think there are edge cases where the differences matter.
I have another very casual game that meets once every month or so. We usually eat a meal, catch up, and play for about 1.5 hours. That group is 5e. I wanted to experiment with Level Up on my end, since they were using all copies of my 2014 PHBs anyway.
We have 3 very new, very casual players (usually operating at some extent of drunkenness), and my wife (who knows the game but is also operating at some extent of drunkenness). So the ranger casts a spell, I can't look up the effects in Level Up because it doesn't exist. I have an enemy that bestows a level of strife, which is confusing because it doesn't exist in 2014. The monk wants to attack, but she's an adept in Level Up, so I have to switch gears and look up renamed abilities.
Or maybe I'm running an encounter from Where Evil Lives (the boss monster lair supplement for Flee Mortals) which handles minions differently or has action-oriented monsters that do lair actions and legendary resistances differently than my Sly Flourish lairs book I was using earlier in the session.
It's confusing "just enough" which in some cases is the worst kind of confusing because you think it's going to be the same.
Ideally, there would be one system to handle everything.

Use the Level Up spells for everyone. They're better balanced anyway, and it avoids the confusion.

 

[Retreater]

I've been deep-diving into my LU books today. There's a lot to like.

Does anyone know if there's a fan-created cheat sheet that covers the biggest changes between this and 2014? I'd like to have something for my players but I don't want to reinvent the wheel.