Ouch.
A tough comparison today.
If I were to play 5E, what stand-alone 5E-like game would be my go-to?
Level Up Advanced 5E
If I wanted to play a complete stand-alone 5E replacement that matches and improves on the original game, feature for feature, my game is Level Up Advanced Fantasy 5E. Level Up's three main books replace the need for the 5E core books entirely, acting like a better version - and it cuts out the expansion classes and variants in books like Tasha's. For me, just starting with 5E is a considerable benefit. I don't want all that fluff and crunch, just the base game, improved and in the OGL, and compatible with adventures and monster books.
This is the whole 5E core experience reimagined, with the exploits and one-level dips taken out. You pick a class, and your choices mean something; you have role protection in that other classes aren't coming in and taking your signature powers just for some OP Frankenstein build. Yeah, I have an action surge! I have a smite power! I have an eldritch blast!
Hey, buddy, don't mind if I come in from my class and, you know, borrow that signature power because, you know, we are all friends here, and you won't mind if I make your character look like a single-class tool while I do this fantastic OP build I found on an Internet forum? I knew you wouldn't mind, buddy.
It's in the rules, you know.
No, players who used to use those exploits designed the classes of this game. Wonderful. Perfect. My choices matter. The classes matter. They are no longer Legos used to OP build mutant classes. You play a warlock here; it means you are a warlock. They still have strong multiclassing here and even multiclass feats - but these are designed into the game to work well and be great thematic choices.
Better yet, Level Up has a way better character creation system that ties your character to the world and the local factions. There is a cost of complexity; it took me 2 hours to go through my first character creation, but what I came out with excited me. It felt better than a stock 5E character or even a Pathfinder 2e character - more grounded and connected to the story of my world.
If I play 5E for the whole experience, plus more, this is my game.
Low Fantasy Gaming
This game is like a version of 5E with cinnamon sticky buns with nuts and maple syrup. This game is a simplified 5E, with pulp-action, luck saves, exploits, dangerous magic, deadly, OSR resource management, and many excellent combat mechanics. It stays 5E but drops all the complexity around character generation and combat mechanics. If you love the OSR and love the 5E rules, this game is fantastic. You get to use adventures, spells, magic items, and monsters made for 5E - but not classes or class variants from the 5E expansion books. And this one book replaces the need for 5E core books too.
If Low Fantasy Gaming is taking away from my Savage Worlds fantasy gaming time, it is a fantastic game that feels very similar. A simplified pulp-action version of 5E is impossible to say no to.
I love Low Fantasy Gaming's 5E take on the OSR. The designers understood that the 5E audience likes tracking numbers, playing dice roll games with recovery, managing pools, and those sorts of fiddly mechanics that 5E players like. Many 5E players are uncomfortable with "the group making a ruling" so they struck a middle ground with the more OSR-ish parts of the game simulated through mechanics and minigames.
Resting and recovery, long a problem in 5E, has been turned into a resource management minigame.
Luck, both used for exploits and saves, is a burnable resource that recovers slowly.
Rerolls are another burnable resource and tie into the skill system.
Even death has been turned into a minigame rolled at the end of combat.
And the art is fantastic.
Where Level Up tries to completely replace 5E, LFG takes 5E and turns it into an OSR-sim style game. Where Level Up is an ambitious rebuild, LFG is a vision of playing 5E like an OSR game. The rules are massively simplified, and there are systems to manage resources built in that appeal to the "rules fan" side of me. LFG, by default, says, "do things like the OSR," but it has systems created to smooth the transition and pay tribute to the more rules-dependent sides of 5E.
Since LFG tosses away so much 5E cruft and designs in minigames for lots of OSR-like tropes, it really is its own hybrid game. Where Level Up patches and simulates a complete 5E, LFG reimagines the 5E experience as an OSR game. LFG is also a lot less concerned about strict rules balance and adhering to rules as written since every three levels, your character gets a unique feature class ability that you can pick from a list or come up with yourself - and these can be of varying power levels (from low to high).
LFG allows every player to be a game designer and build a custom set of class abilities. Want your magic user to have succubus wings (flight) and a charm ability for their level 3 and 6 unique features? Get an okay from your game master and have fun. In this sense, LFG is more customizable and flexible than base 5E or Level Up.
Want dragonborn and tieflings? Mod them in. Want another spellcasting class (druid or warlock)? Use the LFG magic user or cultist (cleric) as a template, and mod them in.
Want cultists (clerics) to have spell lists? Mod it, or make the cleric spell you want a unique feature for your class. Or just rule a cultist blessing can simulate any power on the cleric spell lists, given the character is high enough level to cast it in 5E/LU. Done. You have full cleric powers now modded into the game.
Rules as Guidelines. The GM is the final authority on all LFG rules, which are expected to be tweaked to fit table preferences.
LFG is an open book. Even more than 5E or Level Up.
And combat and adventuring in LFG are fun, on the level of Savage Worlds style pulp action fun. Minor exploits can be used with any attack to use a bow to knock a goblin off a ledge, trip an opponent, disarm them, or do all sorts of unique actions in combat. Where 5E/LU needs set rules and combat moves for these actions, LFG makes it a part of the game for anyone. Major exploits can do even more, like insta-kills or impose conditions until the end of combat, but they cost luck. Rescue exploits (also costing luck) can be used at any time to save other party members from certain death, such as rushing over to grab a magic user's hand as they fall into a spike-filled pit or pushing a dwarf out of the way of a dragon's lightning breath.
And LFG opens the door to inventing more uses of these mechanics. Want to use a rescue exploit to save a party member from making a complete fool of themselves? Instead of a DEX check to rush over to make the save and then a Luck check to pull it off - make it CHR to step in and Luck to pull off. Ability checks are always there, roll equal or under. Want to use a major or minor exploit with a skill check? Let's talk it over, and I can see trying to "push your luck" in negotiation and making that luck check for an extra helpful benefit.
LFG invites you to experiment and have fun inside the traditional 5E rules structure in an OSR way, giving you the mechanics to make it happen. I know, in the OSR, just say it or do it; no mechanics are needed, but for 5E players unused to this freedom, it is constructive to have a structure and framework for spontaneous action and narrative control.
Benefits of Both
Both games are compatible with monsters, settings, items, magic, and adventures for 5E. They are incompatible with the class options and character creation rules in 5E. Unlike the OSR, where the base games are primarily compatible; in the 5E world, picking a base set of rules is like picking an operating system for your computer. Base 5E is like Windows, Level Up is Linux, and LFG is a Mac.
With both of these games, you could box your core 5E books, keep all your expansion material (adventures, monsters, and stuff) out, and still be able to play. Level Up is more a reimagining of classes and creation, whereas LFG is a complete replacement, including gameplay.
Who Wins?
Level Up wins if I had a way to create characters that did not take 2 hours. I tried creating five, but I got it down to 45 minutes. Without automated tools, making any 5th edition character is a pain. I think Wizards uses this fact to lock you into 5E, and they purposefully keep character creation tedious to lock you into online tools and prevent you from playing other games. In the end, I wonder if creating Rolemaster or Palladium characters is more manageable, and I am probably right.
OSR games? Five minutes and you are playing.
LFG? Five to 10 minutes to begin enjoying 5E.
Winner.
But seriously, LFG gives me a simple and fast entry point to 5E. It also shares many of my OSR sensibilities and ratchets down the out-of-control superhero magic setting that 5E has morphed into. The rules and changes feel like a Savage Worlds-style pulp game, and the amount of creativity you can put into combat and task resolution wins me over. The resource management games they have in here help teach you how OSR resources work, but in a game-like subsystem that is actually kind of enjoyable.
Also, the power level in LFG can be higher if you want it to ramp up a little. Give out more magic items. Allow a few more spells. Be generous with unique features. Add a feat system to the game. Add a unique features system for ancestry - at level 1 and every 4th level - and allow your Dragonborn to get wings, breath weapons, extra armor, and other fantastic abilities.
You could play this as "Average Fantasy Gaming" if you really wanted to.
Where Level Up is a structured 5E replacement and feels like a "new game+" for D&D 5E players too used to the same-old and gives them a new system with new challenges to master.
LFG feels like it is made to tinker with. They tell you to invent unique features, not in the book. Every rule is open for tweaking. LFG is also rolled far back enough in the fantastic that you can create your own fantastic things. The one thing I do not like about stock 5E is you have to take the whole thing, and you don't feel free to build your own world. It is hard to say something doesn't exist, be it a class, option, spell, or ancestry.
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