AD&D Alternatives

If you want to play AD&D for the street cred, play OSRIC instead. This is a better place, full of community support, and the game is better organized and laid out. People write indie adventures for this game, and while this game is still in the OGL shadow, that storm seems to have passed, and we are back to where we were in that uneasy peace between the open-source community and Wizards.

This game is the closest you can get to AD&D without the books.

If you are spending time in a game and community, supporting one where people can independently make a living from what they love is better. You will be another player in this circle, add buzz and excitement, and support people who share the same passions. AD&D is not an open game - OSRIC is.

Regarding open games, Swords & Wizardry is another incredible option for the AD&D-like space. This has been completely rebuilt for the Creative Commons license, meaning the game will continue forever with zero legal worries. Conceptually, S&W is the more accessible game of the two, with far fewer tables, less page count, and roughly the same experience - minus the AD&D complexities.

If you like the AD&D fiddly bits, especially the "you go on segment X" flipped initiative system in OSRIC (where your party rolls 1d6 for the other side), damage versus size, and the delayed casting times - go with OSRIC; you will be happy.

If you want instant casting, one saving throw number, one damage rating per weapon, fewer tables, and want to mod and hack the game - go with S&W; you will be happy.

Of the two, OSRIC limits magic power with segmented casting and makes casters more vulnerable when standing there frantically waving their arms and trying to make a spell happen. In S&W, spells happen when melee does, so there isn't that waiting game. OSRIC also preserves material components, verbal and somatic (but many entries lack the specifics, forcing you to make those up).

Both have essential AD&D-isms, like magic resistance, the progression of spells and powers, and the character choices. S&W will be the more accessible game, whereas OSRIC will be closer to the AD&D metal (but with more reference).

And speaking of AD&D-style games, there is another...

Castles & Crusades is my go-to for a modern, 2.5E-style AD&D-like game. Some spells take rounds to cast, the three components are preserved - and the material components are given for each magic spell. So, C&C, if played by the rules, is a more challenging game for casters since a spell such as consecrate takes 3 combat rounds to cast.

C&C removes even more tables than S&W, and I can play this game from a character sheet the size of a 3x5 index card. Saving throws are built into the ability score system. As-played, The game feels a lot like AD&D and is insanely hackable. I added a very generous one-per-two-level feat system (called advantages) to this game, and it felt just like 5E with those overpowered characters.

I can swap out the character races for 5E races out of a book like Tales of Arcana. As long as all of them come from this book (use the elves, dwarves, and humans from here), they work just fine with C&C. The ability score modifiers apply, racial special abilities can be noted, AC mods work well, and things like cantrips can be easily added in. The feat/advantage system in the C&C Castle Keeper's Guide needs to be used but set a per-level rate, and you are good to go.

C&C plus this book? All the wild 5E races you could ever imagine: Dragonborn, skeletons, demons, tieflings, giants, orcs, goblins, and so many others.

Any extraordinary power you want to add? It is a feat; even 5E feats convert well, like 5E feat guides. The above race book plus the feat book? This is 90% of my interest in 5E hacked into C&C. Fun ancestries plus superpowered characters? That is the 5E secret sauce, done easier and with far more options. C&C plus these two books? This is a far better 5E 'power fantasy' experience, and it feels like AD&D if I want it to. It can easily play any OSR or classic module - no 5E version is needed.

Multi-classing in C&C is fantastic, and while it is not a 'cherry pick' system like 5E, you craft a multiclass combo for your character during character creation and level with that. I can create class designs and unique combos that are impossible in 5E. The multiclass system in C&C beats 5E's limited 'what we give you' subclass system in the 5E game easily.

Class-and-a-half illusionist-bard? Dual-class barbarian-cleric? Multiclass paladin-ranger? An assassin-druid? Of any of hundreds of races? Yes, please, all of the above!

5E's subclass system is a bad design (and only exists to enable specific multiclass builds and sell books). C&C's multiclassing gets you way more mileage than a 5E subclass pick.

C&C's multiclassing is fantastic and puts 5E to shame.

Sometimes, I feel the 5e 'secret sauce' exists to keep papermills and toxic ink factories for 400-page low-content books running. Three thousand pages of 5E books still don't do what C&C (or GURPS, for that matter) can do with far fewer pages. 5E is turning consumerist and predatory. Every week, it is another 400-page Kickstarter to make the game do things other games do with one core book. With Wizards, it is a giant, expensive adventure expansion with fewer new character options than I have fingers on a hand. Companies trying to enter the 5E market just want in on the revenue model.

C&C can be played to feel like AD&D or 5E; given a few mods and options, the game can go either way. That is an incredible range and expressiveness. It is a game that kills both Pathfinder 2 and 5E for me, along with replacing the need for other OSR games.

Would I still play S&W or OSRIC? Yes! Do I need to? No, not really.

The answer doesn't feel the same with 5E and Pathfinder 1e and 2e. Would I still play them? No, not really. Do I need them?

No.