B is for Bandit

Okay, this is a failure on D&D 5.5E's part. The Monster Manual organization is terrible; they alphabetized everything. The demons, devils, dragons, and humanoid enemies are all spread throughout the book. If you don't know what a balor is, a demon, you may not even realize what that is, and miss the entry completely when looking for demons. Monsters that should be NPCs are scattered throughout the book.

But, I get it, if you are looking for demons, use the Monsters by Group appendix in the back.

And why are some monsters still here, such as the Kobold Warrior and the Lizardfolk, just using the generic "Scout" stat block? And yet, there are still specific Lizardfolk monster entries, but none for the basic monster? Why is this so hard? And where do I put the Lizardfolk's swimming speed and hold breath abilities? Oh, they aren't there? There is no cultural or background data on the Lizardfolk now?

And they are somehow elementals now? And "Reptilian Defenders of the Land?" Is the D&D 5.5E Monster Manual making a value judgment on players who kill a lizardman?

Similarly, with the Bandit entry, the D&D 5.5E listing mentions that they could be, "driven to lives of crime by unjust laws, desperation, or the threats of merciless leaders." While true, this is another value judgment the writers are making here, and it shows that the book is filled with opinions and amateur writing that should not have made it past an editor.

We get two short paragraphs about Lizardfolk in D&D 5.5E, instead of a page of inspirational material as we got in D&D 2014. We get nothing on the race's basic abilities, like holding breath (gone from all entries), and the information is sparse and flavorless. We get one page on them in D&D 5.5E, two pages in D&D 2014 and A5E, and three in Tales of the Valiant.

We have gone from a savage species of lizard-like warriors and shamans that could have appeared in a Conan novel to kind, gentle, reptilian elemental eco-defenders out of Captain Planet. This doesn't need any more sensitivity readers; it needs a few more "make this make sense to me" readers. Tonally, this is all wrong. Why is a Monster Manual going out of its way to explain why the creatures in the book are somehow not monsters?

And they give the bandits guns that fire gunpowder in D&D 5.5E. This is a Pathfinder 2E influence in which the game's technology level has risen to Victorian Steampunk levels, and it is no longer in the fantasy genre. Are guns an everyday thing now? Is the town guard packing heat?

Seriously, new D&D team, fix this, or you do not have a chance with 6E. This isn't D&D.

And I could argue with so many monsters having been made "good guys" that there are fewer monsters in 2024 that are usable than in 2014. What happens if Lizardfolk are encountered in a legacy adventure? Are they somehow good guys now? If all I had were the 2024 books and my players met Lizardfolk, then why should we be killing them again? Is it "wrong?"

I was driving in my car and thought the 2024 team had hired a bunch of people who knew nothing about the game or its history, and they rewrote all the lore with some idealized, modern take, and it feels like the writers talk down on fans for having enjoyed "that game." Many of the reimagined monsters are not the real ones that helped create D&D; at best, they are fan-fiction reinterpretations. If any of these monsters were out there on DriveThru without the D&D brand on them, they would be a two or three-star, at best.

They wrote a Monster Manual to subvert D&D's lore and history. I get the feeling that too many in the hobby are just afraid to say the obvious, for fear of damaging the brand they love and depend on. Don't tip over the boat we are all in. Just keep quiet. We'll get through this if we keep playing 2014.

The 2014 Monster Manual is a better book, more organized, and far more useful during play. Who cares if the monsters are "streamlined for fast play" if they aren't worth playing with?

This book was written without grouping anything together, as if it were a VTT reference manual rather than a monster book that delves deeper into lore, history, and ecology. D&D 2014, Tales of the Valiant, and Level Up A5E still have the wonderful NPC appendices where bandits are covered, and I can apply any lineage to them. When I want detailed information on a lineage or specific monster race, it isn't there, or it is so abridged and cut down that it is all but useless.

And if you are playing D&D 5.5E, all of a sudden, you need another supplemental NPC Monster Manual just to fill out what is missing. There are some good ones, but this adds another book to the pile, even though the idea of "three books to play" has already been broken. I need another third-party book for the humanoids, bringing D&D 5.5E to five books needed to play.

The D&D 5.5E Monster Manual is a clear step down from the D&D 2014 Monster Manual.

I get the feeling D&D 5.5E DMs are secretly pulling in the "good stuff" from the D&D 2014 Monster Manual, and this is one of the factors keeping the game playable and popular.

And I can't see D&D 5.5E as a normal D&D game after this. It isn't. The new writers came in and changed too much of the classic lore, and the main reason to stay in "D&D" has been erased. If they are changing the lore of D&D this much, I will go play Draw Steel, Nimble, Daggerheart, or DC 20. There is nothing D&D about D&D anymore; it is just like any other modern fantasy slop game.

Most who play D&D 5.5E right now are those looking beyond the changes, using 2014 lore, and appreciating the rules updates and streamlining. They don't want to dump too hard on the game and destroy the hobby. I get it. We are in a terrible place with D&D right now; the game is terribly "sick," and we aren't trashing the game too hard in hopes it recovers.

But the tonal changes in D&D 5.5E remind me of the same World of Warcraft and WWE-style tonal changes they made in D&D 4E, and everyone rejected that change then, too.

If I want detailed, fun, inspiring, wonderfully crafted, and the best monsters in 5E? Do we want the old-school lore respected and properly preserved? The Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault beats the stuffing out of the D&D 5.5E Monster Manual, and it is not even close. This is actually a humiliating comparison. And ToV is still a relatively progressive and socially conscious game, and they managed to get it all right! Orcs are in the Monster Vault, and they look cool.

Tales of the Valiant looks like the premium 5E experience with the best care, love, and detail put into every one of the books. Kobold Press looks like it can strike the right tone and approach to 5E, keeping what old-school players love while not surrendering the core identity that makes the game special.

D&D 5.5E just makes me want to give up 5E entirely and switch games. There is nothing special about it now. It joined the rest of the fantasy slop games and stripped away all the classic AD&D lore.

Tales of the Valiant keeps the soul of D&D alive. It has passed on to a better team, still very progressive, but they show respect for the history of the game, and they can control themselves far better.

ToV is D&D. The lore is enshrined and preserved. The soul is there.

That is the only thing that matters.

The Challenge of ...Challenge Rating

Do CR and balanced encounters hurt 5E? Is the game better played without taking encounter balance into account, and just running "the world as it is"? This topic sort of sucks to cover, since I need to go back to the rulebooks and check exactly what they say to be fair and ensure the game's intent is upheld.

Creating a Combat Encounter

When creating a combat encounter, let your imagination run wild and build something your players will enjoy. Once you have the details figured out, use this section to adjust the difficulty of the encounter.

D&D 2014, Dungeon Master's Guide, pg 81

To me, "use this section to adjust the difficulty" sounds like a subtle nudge towards a requirement to balance encounters. I don't have the 2024 books because I don't want to spend money on them, nor do I have space for books I won't use. Also, 2014 is the more popular version of the game, so that is what I go by.

So, for 2014 D&D, it is "let your imagination run wild" and then "use this section."

There seems to be this huge assumption that we must balance encounters. I suppose the weight of thousands of "how do I balance 5E encounters" videos on YouTube has made the entire subject something we no longer question. What is more confusing is that most say it is just a tool, and many books say it isn't even a sure thing.

BUILDING COMBAT ENCOUNTERS

If you are running a pre-written adventure, combat encounters have likely already been designed for you— with groups of enemies already put together in a way appropriate for the level of the adventure and the events of the story. However, when creating your own adventures or spicing up published material, you may need to create your own combat encounters.

Tales of the Valiant, Monster Vault, Page 7

In ToV? There seems to be a requirement to balance encounters, right in the first pages of the Monster Vault. On page 8, they give three examples of how to create encounters: story-based,  lore-based, and encounter-type. The first two seem like you are not using the tables in the chapter, while the last one strongly implies it. ToV does seem to feel like encounter building is a requirement for running a game, since the section is huge, detailed, and full of advice on building encounters.

In TOV, it is, "When creating your own adventures, you may need to create your own combat encounters." There is a tonal difference here, almost sounding like "Just buy published adventures from Kobold Press." The tools are very detailed, better than D&D 2014, and they feel like a more complete system.

A note here: at least there is recognition that "story-based" encounters are in the game, and this will be expanded upon in the next version of 5E we take a look at. Story-based encounters are unbalanced, "it is what it is" encounters with monsters and wandering monsters, and these are NOT rated on CR, nor are they balanced against a daily budget.

Oddly, these are called "story-based" since that implies the story was prewritten. In most of these cases, they are either wandering monsters or "monsters that are just there," and not part of the traditional, pre-written, balanced, story-style adventures.

Combat Encounters

There are two main ways to build a combat scene: 

Challenge-Based Encounter. The Narrator may set out to prepare a fun, challenging combat encounter and choose opponents accordingly. A set-piece battle in an important dungeon room or the climactic battle in a story arc are often built to challenge the adventurers. 

Story-Based Encounter. Often, the story and player actions determine the nature of a conflict. If adventurers antagonize the city watch they may have to fight guards, and if they anger an archmage they may be forced to battle the archmage. There’s no guarantee that a fight is winnable: the party must deal with the consequences of their choices.

In either case, the Narrator will want to know whether a fight is likely to be trivial, unwinnable, or somewhere in between. In a challenge-based encounter, the Narrator wants to aim for a middle ground of difficulty. In a story-based encounter, the Narrator may want to signal to the adventurers when they’re about to bite off more than they can chew. It’s rarely fun when a crushing defeat or an easy victory is a surprise to everyone (including the Narrator). 

Level Up: Advanced 5E, Trials & Treasures, page 40

Level Up A5E does the best job of clarifying when you should use the CR system. If something is "challenge-based," you use the CR. If the encounter is "story-based," you do not use the CR system; it is what it is. This is more of an old-school interpretation, where a traditional "story-based" module was not written with CR in mind, the entire layout of the dungeon "was what it was," and the players went in there and did their own resource management and judged encounter difficulty themselves.

Walk into a room filled with 40 kobolds?

"The party must deal with the consequences of their actions."

This also implies you can play A5E completely like you would a BX game, throwing out CR, just keying a dungeon, and letting players wander around in there and figure out difficulty and how far they can go by themselves. This is the one thing that was so dangerous about the old Goodman Games 5E versions of the classic TSR adventures: they were presented as-is with 5E stats, and while the B1 recreation does go over encounter balance, the entire B2 adventure is presented as a faithful recreation of B2, and they will happily throw 40 kobolds in a room as a 5E encounter, in a first-level adventure, as an encounter first-level players could run into by the third room they enter.

By A5E's definitions, all of the GG TSR module recreations are "story-based encounters" and meant to be run as-is, without consulting a CR chart or trying to balance anything. That makes sense, and players need to think on their feet again, manage resources, and judge challenges instead of the referee doing it for them.

Ever since Wizards took over D&D, they have been obsessed with balancing encounters and forcing the referee to be the final say. You need to buy the next adventure if you found that too challenging. In previous versions, there was very little balance other than "the monsters in this adventure are suitable for this level range." When we ran the game, we guessed, and most of the time it worked out fine. We knew how things went after a few dozen sessions, and balanced things on the fly.

The overemphasis on encounter balance makes the game harder to referee, for some, trying to perfect and obsess about an imperfect tool, which is only a ballpark estimate with a huge margin of error.

The "party balances content" also applies to all the 5E recreations of the Labyrinth Lord modules, such as Barrowmaze. These all exist in this strange alternate universe where nobody playing 5E used the CR ratings, balanced encounters, or spent all this time worrying about a system that was only made to be a "suggestion" for how to balance encounters, that somehow became rules-as-written, and the only way to create an encounter, or your players will revolt and call you a terrible dungeon master.

Encounter balance is probably one of the things most misunderstood between modern 5E players, "playing by the rules," and the old-school crowd, "calling them as they see them." You will see endless YouTube videos on how to balance encounters, and OSR players sit there wondering why any of this is needed.

Back in the day, it was the players who "balanced encounters" by getting out of there when things seemed too dire, and the resources were nearly all gone. We prayed we would not encounter a wandering monster on the way out or on the way back to town. The referee balanced nothing.

Mail Room: D&D 5.5E

I broke down and got the new D&D books since I have a new blog focusing on old-school 5E gaming. There are a lot of 5E games, and it is nice to have a place where I cover only that, with a stronger focus on the old-school style of gaming and how you get there from these games. Basically, how to play 5E like BX, without needing to play BX.

I am not doing D&D Beyond for 5.5E, nor am I doing digital DLC. If it is not in a printed book, it isn't real to me, nor will it be at my table. If it is not still in the world after an EMP wipes out all computers and AI systems, I am not using it.

If you review my past work, you'll see I've struggled with 5E. The need for online character sheets and the dozen-page-long printouts hurt the game for me. I do not deny that I have had a lot of struggles with this game, especially since there are faster, easier systems out there that do mostly the same thing. I have also had issues with their directions and decisions. It has not been an easy road for me with any of 5E, especially the last few years, starting with the OGL.

Also, it is so easy to listen to YouTube and adopt those as your opinions instead of thinking for yourself. It is like repeating those "Everything Wrong With..." movie or game videos meant as sarcastic humor, but so many just use them as their opinions just to sound snarky and cool. I stopped watching those snarky movie reviews 4 years ago, and I have not missed them. I want to think for myself.

And I have recently given up on D&D YouTube. I find I enjoy the game more the less I hear from them.

There does come a day when I must force myself to be objective and real.

The sad thing is, D&D 2024 feels like a disappointment to many, but it is still generally an improvement over the 2014 5E to the point where this is the better game to start with these days. There are darkvision fixes, a wilderness exploration game, structured exploration, and stronger equipment use. The wilderness rules in 5.5E bring this closer to BX than 2014 D&D, where wilderness adventures were "why bother, run a cutscene."

And still, 80% of the games at my local hobby store are 5.5E. If you want in on live play, you really don't have a choice, and it isn't too hard to adjust.

My new blog is based on one idea: if you play by old-school structures, methods, and principles, it doesn't matter which version of 5E you play, and you don't need to switch to BX to enjoy an old-school experience. All versions of 5E can coexist and give you that experience. Will it work? I'll try it, play with it, and report back on how it went and what changes I needed to make.

That is a fun, creative, positive, hobby-centric project that I crave.

Many of us who love BX will embrace the wilderness adventure rules of 5.5E and see them as a needed improvement, where many 5E players used to 2014 will see them as a hassle and are programmed to automatically ignore them, since "why do we have rules for what should be a cutscene transition, it slows the game down." Laugh if you want, 5E players have been cutting to the chase for 10 years and starting in the dungeon. We who come from BX will say, "Oh, so they finally fixed that?"

Buying three core books and not needing anything else is a huge plus with an asterisk.

You do not need to tell new players to buy the Tasha, Xanathar, and Monsters of the Multiverse books for the fixes. That is three extra books you can avoid, bringing the core books back down to three again. For new players, this is huge, and it makes the game far more accessible. That is half the weight of my backpack, gone.

Am I telling new players to buy and read three books or six?

Yeah, I know which edition I am telling them to buy.

The fact that D&D 5.5E even has wilderness rules is amazing, and they are not shorthanded to the point where if you have a ranger, you can ignore all of them (like 2014). There are still skill checks needed, and the ranger just makes them easier - but the ranger does not short-circuit the entire wilderness exploration system to the point where you ignore the entire part of the game.

"Over time, however, the strengths of the new system became undeniable. The cleaner presentation, improved readability, and streamlined encounter flow genuinely enhanced gameplay once I settled into its rhythm. I also realized that some of the things I dreaded were not actually that prevalent."

Dragonix, D&D 5.5E Monster Manual Expanded, page 2

The rules are streamlined to the point that this feels like a new edition. People who immerse themselves in the changes report that this plays faster and is easier to manage at the table. They say this is just a rules clarification update, but from what I read, people say it feels entirely different to play once you relearn all the systems, and that it's a better game for beginner to high-level play.

Only Tales of the Valiant matches this in terms of new-player friendliness, and I would give D&D 5.5E the top spot just for defining play structure for different parts of the game.

Losing the orcs and humanoid monsters from the Monster Manual hurts, but third-party books are already filling the gap. This is a sore point for the system, and it adds another book to the shelf that I need to consider a "core book." This is the asterisk, and it is a huge omission that wasn't needed.

The 5.5E Monster Manual Expanded has the missing monsters in full. Get this if you are angry about that, or stick with 2014. Personally, I am an old-school player; orcs and goblins should always be in the Monster Manual. This is now a core book, sorry.

Am I bought in on expansion books? Probably not. I'm getting the core books and skipping the rest, for the most part. I am not buying into D&D Beyond, either. Physical books are my thing, and I understand the game is going "digital first" - but I still need to be able to discuss the game fairly and without the bias YouTube spreads.

If it is printed in a physical book, it is a real thing. If it is digital-only, I don't really care.

Heavy users and those burned out on D&D 2014's clunkiness will probably find a lot to love here, but for casual players with a full library, it is a harder sell. For those who bought into other versions of the game, why bother? To me, the best part of 2024 is that it only needs three books to play, four if you miss the Orcs.

Also, if I look at the hobby store schedules? It is wall-to-wall D&D 2024 around here, and you are lucky if you get one D&D 2014 game per month. The world has moved on from D&D 2014. I can't find one ToV game, either. The hobby store tables are a brutal place, and if you want to play, you stick with 2024 and never look back.

The negativity has worn off a little with D&D 5.5E, but the disappointment is still pervasive in the broader community. Many have burned the 5E 2014 rules into their brain's mental pathways, and it is hard to change. But if you are happy with 2014, there is no real reason to switch to 2024. Many do not want to learn new things, nor do they have new players to play with. If this edition came out in 2020, it would have been a different story.

Given the soft economy and D&D 2024 5.5E sales, this edition's shelf life will likely be shortened, which is disappointing. This is one of those Wizards releases like D&D 4.5E Essentials that was well thought out, deserved more of a chance than it was given, and was replaced far too soon. Even the much-loved D&D 3.5E had a five-year shelf life before it was replaced by D&D 4E.

We have about three short years left with this edition, which should be enough to enjoy it while it lasts. If we are lucky, we will have five. This is the legacy of the point-five versions of Wizards games. They are generally the better games mechanically, but they are very short-lived editions.

New players? Dive in! This is good stuff.

Existing players? It depends.

Waiting for this edition to run out is also possible. It would be sad if this had a five-year shelf life.

Overall, I recommend this version for the mechanical improvements and streamlining.

It is not without issues, however.

DIY Star Wars is the Best

Do-it-yourself Star Wars is going to be the best Star Wars we will be able to get for a while.

This is outside the Legacy books, comics, and movies, which are fun to revisit, but my heart craves new stories and excitement. For that, the role-playing game by Edge Studios fills the void perfectly for me, and it is not too complicated, and the oracle-like dice provide enough narrative unpredictability that it makes the solo player in me happy.

A small exception can be made for the SWTOR MMO. There are good stories there, too, and many have not experienced them. Check that out if you want a little less freedom, excellent voice acting, and a lot more grinding to the maximum level. It is fun, but you need to be an MMO fan and have lots of free time.

I can tell infinite Star Wars stories, without AI? Sounds like a deal. Sure, I could sit in my own world and use AI to tell myself stories that eventually go into strange states of repetition, like the machine has cognitive dysfunction and can't tell a coherent story without repeating itself or ripping off other writers for who knows what. If I want something "from me" and "with a deeper meaning than a randomizer," then I will tell my own stories.

AI often presents very little resistance to your ideas, whereas a game has characters, challenges, and things you can and can not do. An AI chatbot can "go stupid" on you and refuse to go along with any idea, or it can get far too submissive to a train of thought and swing stupid in the other direction with no nuance, second thoughts, or hesitation. They are sort of "yeah yeah yeah" or "no no no" players, and you know when they go broken on you.

Still, I get the feeling AI stories will someday become better than anything Hollywood can put out. The one truth about AI is that if you think "it can't do that," it is only a matter of "yet." Would I take AI Star Wars over Hollywood Star Wars?

Yes and no.

Yes, AI is a better writer than Hollywood, and no, I have ethics. But some of the AI-generated Star Wars lore videos made by fans are orders of magnitude better than most of what we got from Disney over the last few years, jankiness aside. The fans will express themselves using the tools they have. Before this, it was 3D art; now it is AI films.

I would rather play the game, deal with the rules, tell the stories, have things not go my way, and try again like a roguelike game. To me, this is the sweet spot. This isn't as "okay, here's anything, bruh" as AI, and it gives me plenty of limitations and walls to have fun within.

AI does have this annoying tendency to glaze you, call you the smartest, best person ever, and then tell you what it thinks you want to hear. It leads to positive feedback loops that become unrealistic, as it thinks you want to "be the hero" in an old-school dungeon, and then it proceeds to make you immune to every danger, "giving the fans what they want."

I will sidestep the entire AI question and DIY all my own stories, thank you. For one, they will mean something more to me than a randomizer. Second, they will have to follow a preset and agreed-upon set of rules. Both AI and Hollywood Star Wars fail this test by constantly breaking lore and canon, like how the sequels turned hyperspace into Marvel multiverse teleportation, and the "science" part of Star Wars became complete and utter "make it up as you go along" garbage.

The original Star Wars had rules based on science. Remember how the Death Star had to move around a planet to fire? How a broken hyperspace drive became a major plot point? They needed to take down a shield generator to attack the second Death Star. The examples go on and on, and there are some strange mistakes in the original movies, but for the most part, there is a solid foundation of science there.

Not as much as classic Star Trek, though. If I want a hardcore science game, I play Genesys and use the Star Trek universe. For now, Star Wars is enough, and it gives me a broader universe with far more possible character types. I swear, "science in Star Wars" feels like an oxymoron. Is there even science and scientists in this universe? It feels like "space dark ages" to me.

AI and Hollywood will fail the "make it up as you go along" test every time. A set of role-playing rules needs to follow the rules. You just can't say a Y-Wing is faster and more agile than an A-Wing in the rules, just because it would be easier in the story to have it be that way. Nope. The rules are the rules, and the ships' stats are right there on the page.

A lousy writer or a machine that knows nothing can't ruin my immersion in the universe. The TV shows and movies Disney makes couldn't care less about the rules of the setting. They will make it up to make the writer's jobs easier, and it shows a fundamental lack of care and craftsmanship. Yes, lore and canon matter. This is why we pay the streaming service subscription fees. If you can't ask your writers to put in a little effort, I am not watching or subscribing. Hire better creatives who are into the lore.

The game has rules that must be followed for everyone's enjoyment. The shows and movies couldn't care less. This is the biggest difference between official Star Wars and DIY Star Wars using a role-playing game.

One has rules, the other doesn't.

So I will tell my own stories. They will be fun. They will be Star Wars, and some of what I bring to the table. I am looking forward to this. I will treat this as a roguelike, and if a cast member dies, then that is the end of their arc. Time for a new story. D&D makes character death near impossible because they are more worried about D&D Beyond retention. If you put in that much work into that complicated a character, you would rather quit when they die than create a new character.

Ask any Rolemaster player; nobody wants to spin up a new character.

Also, when Wizards of the Coast pushes "identifying as your character," of course, they will make it impossible to die, since that is a huge negative feedback loop. Even if they bring back AD&D 2nd Edition as 6E, you know they are going to make it impossible to die in that game since corporate doesn't want people becoming discouraged or seeing a virtual avatar of themselves die in-game.

I like characters who are different from me, in all shades of gray, black, and white. Aliens and those of different genders, Rebels, Imperials, and those in between. The story is what matters, not "me identifying as my character" or living out some "power fantasy" as an idealized version of myself.

A huge part of old-school roleplaying is being able to step into the shoes of someone entirely different from yourself. This was "the way" back in the 1980s.

And I can play as Imperials or Sith, just like the MMO, and have a "bad guy" campaign. Since this is Star Wars, redemption and defection to the other side are always possibilities, and that is always a fun part of playing a bad-guy campaign: discovering "I really had no friends over here" and throwing it all away for a new life on the other side.

That happens? Can someone on the bad-guy side be redeemed and turn to the good?

I know, this is 2026, and it seems impossible, but it is true and part of the lore of Star Wars.

DIY Star Wars sounds exciting to me. I am also making this a hobby and making my own tokens, and I will share those soon. I need my characters in the game, so I got a 1" circle paper cutter, some 1" blank cardboard tokens, rubber cement, and my color printer working, so I can craft my own tokens! They came out very nice, and this extends the life of my tokens and maps and lets me have more stuff for my game. So this is also a craft-type hobby, and I get to make cool, tangible, "not VTT", realistic things here in the real world, not the fake one.

If I had a 3D printer, I would be making my own miniatures, gluing them on bases, and painting them, and perhaps that is where I will go with this.

In this age of "digital first," we forget the craft side of our hobby. Painting miniatures, making tokens, using real maps, and playing face-to-face on the tabletop. I get tired of VTTs and their constant attempts to sell you stuff. I would rather craft my own game tokens and use my map collection from Pathfinder and Starfinder in my games.

A digital-first game will deny you the craft side of the hobby, and that is a terrible thing.

And if I can make my own stuff, that fits in with the DIY Star Wars narrative of feeling dissatisfied with what others give us, and taking it into our own hands to create the things we enjoy and remember.

Instead of being negative and never having anything you like, try creating things that you do like and can pour love and creativity into. You will get so much more out of it.

And that is the DIY spirit.

Level Up A5E: Stripped Down

My problem is that I have eight shelves of 5E books. Is it better if I just stick to my core, plus a few third-party "designed for the game" books, and enjoy A5E with as few books as possible? A5E is a solid game; it is my seven and a half other shelves of books that kill it for me.

At this stage of 5E's life, your enjoyment of the game will be in what you get rid of, rather than what you include. Even my Tales of the Valiant collection has gotten too large, three shelves of books, and the system struggles under its own weight. ToV is great, good enough that I write a blog, but it is in my upstairs closet while I work out my lack of shelving issue. But for me, it has gotten too big, and I feel the need to cut back on that game as well.

The thing about A5E is that it tends to get better the more you focus on the original books, and they are really all you need to have fun. The system is well built to work with its own components, and the game is very dense and packed with good content. The system is very robust and filled with options in just the first three books, and in general, it does a lot with a little.

The art in these books is not AI-generated and ranges from average to good quality. The EN World team does an admirable job in the art department; it works, but it is not a strong point of any of their releases, especially compared to the competition.

First stop, the Adventurer's Guide, and my copy is a bit beat up, with bent corners, but I don't care. It is an awesome, well-loved book. One thing I love about A5E is that it sticks to the classic races and character options: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Human, Orc, and Planetouched. We don't get clockworks or mycanoids, time travelers, or other out-there backgrounds. Just the basics, and Orc is really the only outlier in the group, but I can give that a pass.

What is shocking is that we don't get Kobolds or Goblins, or any furries of any kind (ToV has a generic beastkin lineage). We do get Goblinkin in other books, but they are not in core, which makes A5E feel more like old school D&D, at least around 4E, to me. Drow are also here as a "shadow elf" culture selection, plus an elf as heritage.

Oh, and A5E uses heritage, culture, and background. ToV uses lineage, heritage, and background. I prefer A5E's terms far more than ToV. To me, lineage is more of a "family tree" term and does not belong in the discussion. Heritage as race is fine, but ToV drops the ball here using heritage as culture, and culture is clearly the better term and far clearer what it is. A5E is closer to race, culture, and background, and those are plain-language terms.

The classic selection of heritages is a strength, since the book focuses on the classics, giving dwarves and elves time in the spotlight again, and not too many silly, science-fiction, or crazy heritages to distract us from starting with a traditional fantasy world.

Mixed heritages are supported in A5E, so we can have half-elves and half-orcs. Thank you.

Where ToV tends to feel like "new-D&D," A5E stays firmly in the classics in tone and feeling.

A5E's destiny system is far better than D&D's inspiration system, and it also beats ToV's cold, mechanical luck system. A5E wins on the character motivation aspect, and you can actually fulfill your destiny and gain a mechanical benefit.

A5E's background system also beats ToV's by a wide margin. If my character has a soldier background in ToV, it is a few proficiencies, equipment, and a talent. In A5E, it is the same, but I get both a feature (allowing me to carouse with other soldiers more easily) and the ability to advance the background, earn a small squad to roam around with, and take on missions from my new commanders. A5E's backgrounds do a lot more work for you, can be advanced to gain new benefits, and are a source of new adventures.

Did we establish a small foothold in the borderlands regions? Great, my experienced soldier can call up his old unit, get a few men to garrison it, and then get orders from high command on what happens next. A5E gives me the exploration game and supports a strong narrative system through the backgrounds, which interact with the campaign.

In A5E, I can do that. In ToV and either version of D&D, I can't.

It is Advanced 5E for a reason.

All the great monsters are here in the Monsterous Menagerie, and they keep the major humanoids as monsters, but since Orcs are a core heritage, they leave them out, but include an NPC section in the back of the book so you can have Orc bandits, thugs, soldiers, and warriors as you need. I would rather have Orcs represented in a monster entry, but at least the book is consistent and includes a section of NPCs representing the various roles and classes from the core heritages.

Fair enough, Orcs are core races, I can live with that, and can always roll my own as monsters. At least they didn't wipe out every humanoid from the monster lists, like they did in D&D 2024. We live in a post-World of Warcraft world, and Orcs should likely "settle down" and have their own realms and kingdoms. The story possibilities are better, but I am not going "full WoW" with them by making them jokes and silly.

They hid the succubus and incubus under the "malcubus" entry. Still there, sort of existing between demons and devils as a neutral-evil entity. Destiny has replaced alignment, but alignment still exists as traits, granted by destiny and other things.

Also note that A5E is balanced against D&D 2014 math, where ToV and D&D 2024 are more CR+1 systems these days and have amped up the damage values. If you miss the original 2014 math and balance levels, then A5E is a clean system that has that "dry balance" without blowing out the damage values.

This is a really good referee's guide. The Trials & Treasures book is where all the rebuilds of the core systems are paid off, and we get hard rules for all the pillars of play, including robust sections for combat, exploration, and social play.

Combat challenges, such as environmental factors, are covered here. Exploration challenges put the wonder and danger back into the world and remind me of the amazing, fantastical landscapes in our D&D 4E games, where an entire ocean would be split by a waterfall hundreds of miles long, cities of the dead, upside-down mountains, a continent built on a massive stone arch, shadow forests, floating islands, ghostlands, and eternal magical vortexes that lay waste to a deep void-blasted crater.

Parties will be begging for a ranger to guide them through this insane world, and that puts the wonder back into the world design and makes the experience memorable.

The Dungeon Delvers Guide is optional, but it has a bit more of everything, plus it has a great section on traps and fills out that part of the core game. Ratlings are the notable heritage here and are a strong addition to the core selection. Despite having Kobolds on the cover, those are not a new heritage here. They can be found in the Handbook of Heritages, published by WolfWorks Press.

The Planestrider's Journal is another optional book, sort of a guide to the planes, how they are done in Level Up, with their own cosmology and layout. There are a lot of fun, unique, and cool ideas hiding in here, and this is not to be dismissed out of hand.

I like this alternate cosmology, and it is a unique take on a planar setting. I am a bit tired of the Great Wheel and the same old planes that have ceased being wondrous places, and the D&D versions have become stale and more paint-by-numbers than places of mystery. You have to ask yourself, "What purpose do the planes serve?" I get the feeling that in many D&D-like games, the question can't be answered; they have always been places to freely come and go from.

The planar book makes me want to pull out my Tales of Arcana hardcover, which I enjoy far more than I should, as a collection of strange and wacky planar races and cultures. Some parts of this book are really silly and childish, but a good 90% of it is solid. Many races are, by default, a touch OP, but they can be tweaked to align with terrestrial selections, or left "as-is" and reserved exclusively for planar backgrounds. If you use this book, use it as-is for all races, but you will not get ability score increases for backgrounds in A5E, since you will get those for your race selection. You will also not get A5E's heritage gifts, since your abilities will be pulled from this book.

This is the only 5E, not-designed-for-A5E book I would use for this campaign, since I enjoy this book way too much for planar races. The silliness is very high with a few, but most are super solid and great options to have in your toolbox.

For my game, this is not optional.

We do have a second monster book, which, while optional, is a good expansion to the system, since more monsters designed for it are a good thing. Horde monsters allow monsters to fight and attack as a group, good for rats and bats. We get heroic monsters that allow them to gain character levels and power up, which are good for allies, master villains, and boss monsters.

This is a solid addition to the core books, not absolutely needed, but a nice-to-have resource.

MOAR Complete is an amazing book, and this is the original designers throwing the kitchen sink at the game, adding an insane amount of cool stuff. We get an amazing amount of expansion material here, easily making up for other books' subclasses, with so many cool options, allowing your masked vigilante to be a dino-rider, and that is insanely cool.

This is for experienced gamers only, after you have explored the core book to the point where you want more.

Paranormal Power is a good psionic power book, complete with a detailed Esper class that does a lot within one class. I like this book, and the one class we get here is better than many of the other psionic classes I have seen; it feels balanced and offers a lot of utility without overshadowing other classes.

There are homebrew and hacking guides for this system that cover creating new heritages and feats, but they are clearly optional. If we are paring down the number of books we need to support, these will be kept close, but by no means will they be needed, just to keep things simple.

An optional book for a robust psionic system.

The Multiclasser's Manuals are excellent. A5E has the concept of multiclass synergies, which are sort of multiclass subclasses with feats and special benefits. These books replace so many third-party guides and use the A5E class synergy rules to build on an excellent multiclassing system that puts many other 5E versions to shame for failing to consider these design features.

Unlike D&D, multiclassing is a core supported feature in A5E, and there are multiclass builds and synergy feats in the game to support it. Finally, somebody thought this through and actually turned the worst part of 5E into the best part. A5E is a genius-level design that turns multiclassing from an exploit into a core game feature. Finally!

This book is for experienced players only, but an excellent expansion for more options.

There is a second book in this series, also highly recommended, but I would use these later in your play, choosing to focus on the core books for options first, then using these to add more options for more experienced players. Use it if you use the first book to expand the game for experienced players.

The Mythological book is a strange book full of historical figures converted to A5E rules, which is a very strange concept, and I likely would not use it very much, so it is off my playlist. Still, as examples of high-level NPCs, this is a good guide, and many of these could be repurposed and renamed for special NPCs.

Not needed for most games.

The Pets & Sidekicks book is useful for companions and expands the heroic monster system, but it is not needed beyond companion rules and expanded class options. This is good for special cases and for more experienced groups who want to play with options and have companion pets and companions.

Optional, but useful for special cases.

The Gat Pass Gazeteers are also optional, good for specific things, but organized as collections of zines.

I have the first three, but want to pick up the 2025 book if they make it a crowdfunding bonus. All of these are optional books, not needed outside the occasional one-off addition.

This is a solid core library, half a shelf, but packed with fun and options. Rarely has there been a 5E library so compact, but so full of densely packed options. The system interlocks and provides depth through its design.

The game's compactness is the appeal here. Compared to ToV and a full set of Kobold Press books, this is a sixth of the library size. The game isn't as popular, but it supports a rabidly loyal fanbase. With A5E, less is more. The game doesn't need much, since what they give is so well done and tightly designed. An example is martial classes and Combat Maneuvers: by creating a system of trainable "special attacks," it removes the need for dozens of specialist subclasses and puts the depth in the existing class as a subsystem with choices, a resource pool to balance them, and tactical options.

Where D&D and other 5E games will just "give you new options" and bloat the game with more and more hardcovers, A5E rebuilds the martial classes with Combat Maneuvers, allowing future books to add more maneuvers which will be available to all classes, not some new subclass hidden somewhere in an adventure or expansion book. The base game's classes and subclasses are not being "rendered obsolete"; they will remain strong core choices and can use the new options. You also get the freedom to pick from themed Combat Maneuver traditions, some ranged, others offensive, and others defensive in nature. So the entire fighting style of your martial character can change depending on your choices.

The rebuild of the core classes and the ability to use modular subsystems are what make A5E shine above all the other 5E clones and even D&D itself.

Level Up A5E is simply the better-designed game, and it shows.

To Be a Fan Again...

I heard that line on YouTube, where an older OSR YouTuber pushed aside a swath of negative comments in chat, and said he didn't want to be angry anymore, that he just wanted to be a fan again.

That is what I am trying. To be a fan again.

It doesn't mean I ignore stupidity or give myself a free pass to be a gullible fool; I know the hobby too well. There are still games that are way too hostile to fans and get silly or political. I want something fun that respects the audience.

I can sum it up by the old saying, "Give the fans what they want."

I only want games that do that, or show such a high level of understanding and design that they are undeniable. Level Up: Advanced 5E falls into that category. This was the Open 5E version I enjoyed most, designed for old-school players and addressing hundreds of criticisms of the game. Level Up A5E is solid, and I can be a fan of it if I cut my 5E library way down.

Why go back into 5E? Why not stay in BX? It is a good question. Well, before I sell off 95% of my 5E books, I need to see if the best version I played still holds up. You get one last chance, 5E, and  Level Up A5E is the strongest version of the game. I guess we will see.

I will give 5.5E a chance. I will pull out ToV.

Let's figure this out.

Also, if I want a "detailed fantasy character builder," I have two options: 5E or GURPS. BX will not do the layered, detailed, multipart fantasy builds that 5E does. GURPS will do it, but the result will be a realistic and gritty game. 5E is the only game in town when it comes to the "Dialbo-style" character build system, and A5E supports that and improves upon the concept nicely.

Also, 5E has the "MMO-style" play that defines the modern era, with shooty powers and epic combos. A5E does the 5E better by including martial classes in on the fun, where other versions of 5E will give martial classes a Charlie Brown "bag of rocks" when it comes to fun at the table. You, too, martial classes, can have epic choices, massive combos, and resource management just like the mages, but not feel like mages at all. A5E's martial classes are a genius-level design.

If 5E survives at my table, it will be A5E.

But I need to give them all another chance before I decide.

And that includes 5.5E, despite what YouTube is saying about it.

Star Wars, I am doing it in spite. The "franchise" is dead, but the classic universe and stories are not. I can still enjoy the stories I loved as a kid and bring them into today through role-playing. This is really good stuff. The feeling I am ignoring the current, tragic state of the stories and just doing my own thing again. The storytelling and craft in the current Star Wars have fallen to an insanely low level. This isn't even about messaging anymore; the writers have forgotten how to write, none of them could be bothered to learn about canon, and it is just plain, bad Star Wars.

I need good Star Wars. I need stories that treat canon with respect. I want personal struggles and tales of epic heroism and tragic villainy. I know I am not getting that anywhere else but my own stories these days. So be it. I can tell stories, and the good Star Wars is at my table every night. How cool is that?

All I want is good Star Wars.

Genesys? A fun game. Special fun dice. It creates narrative situations at the macro level. It is like Star Wars, but not Star Wars. It is cool. I can stay in the same narrative dice mindset and play other things. An underrated classic that eliminates the need for many of the newer narrative games, and it does everything so much more simply than many efforts.

BX? A classic, it is like playing games in DOS again. Simple, portable, expandable, and fast to run, with a definite dungeon-and-wilderness turn structure that manages play and keeps the game moving. BX is programmed into my DNA at this point; it is impossible to not be a fan.

A side series of games here are the excellent Without Number games by Kevin Crawford, BX-compatible "do it all and every genre" games that take BX to a whole new level. These stay right by my OSE books and promise play across infinite universes, and Stars Without Number is my "designated survivor" game for Star Wars should EDGE Studio ever lose the Star Wars license. If you want "BX Star Wars," start with Stars Without Number and mod from there to craft an incredible universe.

GURPS? Like The Who's song Long Live Rock, GURPS is dead, they say, and Long Live GURPS! It is that good for those who know. This game has survived, was the game that killed AD&D 1E for most in the 1980s, and it still rocks on to this day, still killing AD&D 1E campaigns and replacing the rules with a flat-out better system. Narrative support, the best character builds in gaming, and a combat system that puts Rolemaster to shame. This is seriously good pure 1980s and 1990s greatness.

GURPS set up D&D's death so Magic: The Gathering could take over. GURPS, Battletech, Vampire the Masquerade, d6 Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy, and Rifts were the sinister six games that killed D&D. I was there, in college at the time, so I know. There is a smaller case for Runequest and Rolemaster, but they were not as big as these games. 

GURPS was the first game to put a dent in D&D's dominance in the late 1980s, and the rest came along later. The Stranger Things kids should have been playing GURPS in the last season to be more period-accurate. Or Car Wars. Both of those games would have given us a better final season of the show.

I don't even question whether I am a fan of GURPS; of course, I am.

If you learn the game, you are a fan for life.

This is where I am. I am trying to be a fan again. YouTuber channels that bemoan the current terrible state of D&D, Star Wars, Marvel, comics, role-playing, and everything else in the hobby become tired and one-note whine sessions. I agree with a lot of what they have to say, but after the hundredth time of hearing it, I have had enough already.

Yes, what Wizards did with the OGL was terrible. Their calling the original creators of the games, all those terrible things, hurts the memories of my childhood and all the fun we had with these beloved games. They showed they were not worthy of upholding the idea's legacy, just like the current crop of Star Wars creators, so we will have to wait a little longer for better days.

While I am waiting, I will be creating things I love over here by myself.

And sharing what I do.

And being the positive force in gaming that I crave.

But not surrendering to being blind and stupid, as many of these brain-dead influencers do.

Mail Room: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game

Saving the best for last.

This game made us fall in love with Star Wars all over again. My brother and I played this during his stroke recovery, and I remember him struggling to pick up the dice, move the tokens, and relearn how to write with his other hand. But we had so much fun!

Eventually, he did get his motor skills rehabbed, and the game helped him a great deal. Every night we played, he got a little better, but it was tough watching him struggle and break out into a sweat trying to pick up dice and tokens. He got there, though.

This game lets you live the "Han Solo" life. This is GTA: Star Wars at its finest. You are a scumbag smuggler, criminal, bounty hunter, fixer, thief, mercenary, gun for hire, or any other "street dirty" archetype in Star Wars, and it is glorious. Work for yourself, the Empire, the Rebels, the Hutts, pirates, Sith, Jedi, crime lords, random royals, Moffs, senators, or anyone else who pays the credits. Don't cross the wrong faction, like you inevitably will, as you could find yourself on a bounty hunter's list.

It does not get any better in Star Wars than this.

Forget the fate of the galaxy, the Rebellion, and the Empire. I am in it for myself.

This is the anti-Star Wars, and it comes off as being the best Star Wars. It is a game that feels inherently anti-war, in that you are not an ideologue and you are just trying to get by and survive when everyone in the universe is shooting each other over politics. Sound familiar? It should.

Take your politics, your righteous wars, your high and mighty propaganda, and shove it up your rear thruster, buddy. I am just trying to survive in the mess you made of everything. And by the way, all you people are the same, you get in power, you become a tyrant, and the next side says it is the one who is going to fix everything. The system can't be fixed by good intentions because the system never worked in the first place.

Me? I am just trying to side-hustle in a universe gone mad. Getting involved in a war is the quickest way to get yourself killed. Let the ideologues sacrifice themselves first, instead of talking more innocents into this unneeded war. And while you are at it, give peace a chance.

There is a subtext here of why Star Wars may be subconsciously getting war fatigue from what is happening in the real world. Ever since 9/11, the world has been mostly at war for the last 25 years. While there is nothing I can do to change the "wars" in Star Wars, Edge of the Empire has an anti-war theme of survival and of dealing with the madness two opposing views are inflicting on the galaxy, with people just trying to put food on the table, run a starship, have a family, and survive.

The fact that we have a colonist class in this game tells you everything you need to know.

And it makes this game the most culturally relevant of all the titles in the series.

And we played this the week it came out. Almost all of my screenshots of this game were from those same sessions we played together.

This was coming off d20 Star Wars, one of the most broken versions of the game ever shipped, but then again, every game Wizards ships is broken at higher levels, since they are not Paizo. There are balance problems in this game, especially if you are way too generous with XP, and characters begin to specialize and double-up on a specific attack or ability.

Ask players to NOT specialize!

You can spec yourself into a single-use tool, and it will most likely be tied to a specific combat attack. Naturally, you want to be better, and better, and better...and then you realize you broke the game by stacking every character advancement into a very specific attack.

We saw this in our game, as our Twi'lek bounty hunter specced all gun skills and was flinging four yellow dice every attack. It is easy to become a one-trick pony who can point and destroy targets, so don't let this happen to you. Be sensible about combat skills and stacking!

Was it fun? Yes.

Was it broken? Yes, this is something we vowed to avoid on the next play-through. Then again, coming from D&D, you stack every advantage you can get, and the goal is to break the game. In Star Wars, you are supposed to be doing much more than "stacking combat abilities," and you need to be able to survive on your own by doing a variety of things.

Run a balanced, interesting, and jack of all trades character who can do a little of everything, and who gets bonuses to more than one attack. Technical and social skills are important, too! You need to develop a well-rounded character, not one who can drill holes through star destroyers with an autofire blaster. If you find yourself doubling up on a particular ability or attack, ask your game master to space those out over your career, and be careful not to overdo it.

Also, if you are running an epic campaign, roll back the XP awards, as characters do start off pretty highly experienced and capable. Breakpoints happen every 300 XP in power level, so make sure to slow things down and force players to rely on their existing abilities to make do. Some say to do only 10-15 xp per session and be very slow with rewards.

The best Star Wars these days is DIY Star Wars, and this is what this game is all about. I don't care for your Mandalorians, Acolytes, and any of the other Star Wars coming out these days. I have a whole universe in a couple of books, and I can tell my own Star Wars stories using a few dice and character sheets; I do not have to sign up for a live service to use any of it. All the stories are mine, and I can recreate the magic well enough myself.

DIY Star Wars is going to be the best Star Wars for the next few years, at least. I am going to DIY my stories and have a great time; the rest of everyone else can spend years complaining about the brand on YouTube.

There comes a point, and the OSR taught us this, that "we can do better."

We have a Twi'lek bounty hunter and "not Solo" as our first two characters. These are cool, and they fit the theme. Our smuggler is a bit on the nose and solo-eqsue, but I don't mind, and he could easily be reskinned as "the" Han Solo.

Though the heavy weapon character sort of feels almost "too good" for a plucky band of street-level heroes, it is the automatic best choice for combat-focused players. The weapon on the character sheet is listed as a "blaster carbine." It does 9 damage and is the heaviest ranged weapon in the group, but it looks like a small blast cannon or machine gun in the art.

The wookies are a given and could also be reskinned for a fast Chewbacca character. The robot would also be a C3P0-like character, so we have a good selection for those who want to skip the pregens and "play as the movie characters." Either way, it works, and the pregens are fun and cool, and they made us smile when we played.

The wookie is a hard-hitter in melee combat, and a great ally should you get up close to mangle stormtroopers. The droid character is the odd one out, a colonist class, a combination of mechanic and medic, and serves as the team's support character.

Ideally, I would love to give him a few deception skills and have the droid walk right through checkpoints and other Imperial lookouts, since who is going to suspect a medical droid of anything? A creative player could make this character do a lot of sneaky stuff with the right creativity and motivation, and certainly earn a few advantage dice from a suitably entertained referee.

Part of the fun of this game is "getting away with stuff," and that is no exception here.

The adventure is fun, and we played all the way through it. The stakes keep rising, and the characters are forced into some tough choices and encounters. We get minion rules, too, for groups of stormtroopers, and they are not pushovers. They can crit and kill you, which is a good thing.

They managed to sneak basic starship combat in this game! I can't think of the last time we had ship combat in a beginner box, and it is not too hard to figure out. For some reason, most science fiction role-playing games go hardcore physics and math when it comes to ship combat, and this game gets it right. New players could blast oncoming TIE fighters and cheer when they blow enemy ships out of the sky. Part of a great beginner game is this "crowd-pleasing" experience, and this delivers.

Another fun ship combat system exists in Stars Without Number, and that is another game that gets it right (and is BX-based, so highly worthy). I have science fiction games where I cannot make heads or tails out of ship combat, or the entire experience gets too real, nobody can detect each other on sensors, and dogfights just drift apart with each ship lost in the blackness of space, endlessly circling and looking for a target at ranges where the enemy fighter is smaller than the head of a pin.

Thankfully, I have games like Star Wars and SWN where starship combat is fun and can be learned by beginners pretty rapidly. You can deliver blaster-firing pulp adventures with almost any generic game, but many will break down when it comes to vehicle combat, and especially starship combat.

We get a map and tokens, too! I love a good beginner game with maps and tokens, and this one gives you a great assortment of toys to play with, plus a full set of dice. We also get a section on "further adventures," which is always good to see, and extends the life of the starter set way beyond what it needs to do. All three of these boxed sets go the extra parsec to deliver value and repeat play, if the box is all you have. That is a very generous thing in this day and age, and thank you.

This is one of the best beginner boxed sets ever put together, and while my fond memories are a part of this, the game does deliver on its promise. You get to live the life of a smuggler and play through an entire "Tatooine scenario" with your friends, shooting blasters at stormtroopers, doing stealthy missions, and figuring things out along the way. At the end, you blast off into space for more adventure and tussle with Imperial TIE fighters. The characters are iconic, and the gameplay is fun.

It is rare to find a beginner set this generous that overdelivers and provides plenty of Star Wars fan service along the way. It also teaches every step of the way, letting you learn the game as you play.

One of my all-time highest recommendations.