Nimble 5e Thoughts

Nimble is 5E, but it is small, dicey, and fast-playing. It is a quick, action-focused, and play-oriented system. The best way to describe it is Nimble is like 5E and Savage Worlds having a baby, and Nimble could be described as "the Savage Worlds of 5E."

The game started as a 5E mod, grew into a few books as a new way to play 5E, and is now becoming its own standalone game. The Monsters & More book is a watershed moment for the game, sort of where it went from being "alternate 5E playstyle" to "full 5E-based game." The monsters in this book have this amazing "D&D 4E" quality to them, where they are a mix of rules and special actions that impart a lot of flavor on each creature, and affect how they work in combat.

And this is still 5E, so you are meant to fight everything; the reaction roll does not exist, and drive interactions like it does in the OSR. That is one of the largest differences between 5E and the OSR. In 5E, it is generally assumed you will fight every encounter presented. In the OSR, 50% of all the encounters will be neutral or positive towards you (unless they are mindless oozes or undead). Roleplaying and negotiation are built into OSR gaming, and morale provides a way out of conflict. 5E does tend to assume every monster is there to fight, a combat-forward game, like this is a tabletop version of Diablo. Keeping this in mind will make you a better 5E referee, and adopting OSR reaction and morale rolls will improve your game and how you referee.

Since Nimble does away with D&D's atrocious, broken action economy and adopts a clean, industry-standard 3-action method, the speed of play increases dramatically. D&D wrote the game into a ditch by adopting all these special action types, and many of the rules now revolve around "what you can and can't do with different action types." The exploits are typically around abusing action types and descriptions to get away with cheese combos. If you keep the action economy simple and straightforward, you eliminate a few hundred pages of rules and infinite paragraphs of special "can and can't do" rules in every subclass ability and power.

D&D players are spending 10 minutes re-reading their character sheets every turn to check to see if the actions they chose this turn are allowed by the rules! Why is this in the game, again? Why are we forcing players to slow the game to a glacial pace just to see if a combo is viable? Why not just fix the rules, adopt an industry standard for actions, and get rid of all these problems and the flipping through pages of character sheets and rulebooks at every turn?

Nimble 5e fixes D&D's problems.

And it fixes them for good.

Even the resting system is fixed here, along with the constant revival and coming back from death that plagues 5E. The resurrection spell is a "secret spell" and insanely rare, and it makes death a motivating factor again. All of 5E's annoyances are addressed, and you are not getting a full rest in a dungeon closet anymore. You can't even fully rest while camping in the wilderness.

Finally, sanity comes back to D&D.

I don't mind the superheroic qualities of 5E as long as they are balanced with a realistic fear of death and balanced resting mechanics. Superheroes I can manage, superheroes with rules written in the game to prevent them from suffering any consequence, death, or needing to manage resources? I'm out; this superhero game sucks.

Even the death system is fixed, while keeping the zero hit points as a dying condition. There are no "death saves" in the game; if you gain a wound, you enter the dying condition, and someone must help you out, or you can drink a healing potion. You accumulate 6 wounds, and you are dead, and these only heal on a safe rest. Getting damaged, attacking, or casting a spell while in the dying state causes extra wounds. It is a clean, simple, elegant system that puts a real cost on zero hit points, and keeps resting and recovery important.

Healing potions are assumed to be standard equipment, so the default world is a little video game-like. Again, this contrasts with the OSR, where potions are in the realm of magic items rather than something you can buy at a shop. In a high-magic 5E world, I do not mind this as much as long as the death and wound mechanics are solid, which they are here. Go to zero hit points too many times, and the character is still dead, and there is no easy way back from that state.

This is one of the best death and recovery systems in 5E, and it beats my old favorite, Level Up A5E, in balancing costs and recovery. We have the heroic comebacks that 5E players love, balanced with the fear of permanent death. Resurrection is only possible in once-in-a-lifetime situations, and it is not something players can rely on - even at high levels.

Your level 17 thief can go out in a blaze of glory and die a hero. If they managed to save the day, then the legend is written in the annals of history; you accept the outcome and have a chance to start again as a fresh-faced character with a new story once again.

This is perfect.

This is what I wanted 5E to be. These are the "fixes" that I wanted in Tales of the Valiant, and only half-got in Level Up A5E. I wanted something fair but bold, allowing for heroic recovery while also carrying real and lasting consequences. The state of death remains a final truth for every character.

Now, how will you live your life?

Nimble 5e looks like "rules light 5E," but it's actually "fixed 5E." Who knew that fixing D&D involved removing 95% of the rules and adopting industry-standard frameworks and sensible rulings that fit the theme of the game? Oh, that's right, Shadowdark did that, too. While in Shadowdark, they set the theme to "dark and deadly," in Nimble, they set it to "heroic and legendary."

With the terrible parts of D&D fixed, what do we have left? Just the archetypal 5E adventure parts. The monster fights. The skill checks. The roleplaying. The epic hero feels. A rest-and-recovery system that does not create an invincible party. The flashy powers. Managing resources. Meaningful death. OSR-like play if you enforce it. A straightforward action economy. All the best parts of D&D, without any of the parts that make me want to pull my hair out.

While 5E started out well enough, by later books, it got so bad that I stopped playing.

Nimble 5e is a reset button for D&D. It is not "broken" anymore.

And Nimble 5e works very well.