ToV Player's Guide 2 Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deepmagic/players-guide-2-new-power-for-5e-and-tov-players

Color me interested after sorting through dozens of videos for D&D 2014 house rules and balance fixes. From the preview page:

Three new base classes including the Vanguard, dozens of subclasses, new lineages, hundreds of new spells, and more for TOV and 5E D&D.

I am interested in dozens of new subclasses, which would single-handedly fix one of ToV's most pressing issues at the moment. I am tracking this.

Fixing 2014 D&D is tiring, and making lists of house rules overwhelms and scares off players. I am tired of the "house rule culture" that D&D fosters, and I would like to buy a game that works.

I Fell Back Into D&D

I found some interested in playing D&D as a group, so I fell back into it. Initially, I wanted to keep my Level Up A5E books and a small subset of those, and keep the rest of my D&D books in storage. This group wanted to play D&D, and any amount of redefinition would have ruined the moment.

I love A5E but can't call it D&D and confuse people.

I am sticking with 2014, though. Some in my group have 2014 books, and the economy isn't letting them upgrade or buy new books. Asking people to buy books will kill interest. Asking people to buy 2024 books will kill interest for others.

How do I feel about the entire A+B character creation method with background and species? I am fine with this method in other games; in those games, it goes A+B+C and even more. Mechanical benefits for backgrounds are a bitter pill to swallow, and while those are fine in other games, they aren't D&D. There are intelligent farmers just as there are strong city folk; you are deflecting the old "racial essentialism" argument and putting that into "social essentialism" and it is just as dumb.

D&D is supposed to be easy: race plus class and go.

Let players come up with their own backgrounds.

And they don't have mechanical benefits.

Besides, Tasha's 2014 book cleared the whole issue up and let you put bonuses where you wanted them. If you are just going to argue, let people say where the bonuses go and be done with it. I am fine with the A+B+C systems in ToV and Level Up; those are "boutique D&D" and get a free pass. Basic D&D is supposed to be easier and more straightforward, just like the older games, and race + class is all I want players considering.

Otherwise, all fighters come from these subsets of backgrounds, and all wizards are in that set. We are back to square one. ToV did its best by putting the "extra points" into ability score creation and removing them from the A+B+C choices, which I prefer. The simpler system lets the A+B+C choices focus on options, not mechanical benefits.

ToV wins this round. Sorry, 2014 and 2024 D&D, and even A5E. Give players more points to generate characters, and stop adding them later.

Another +1 for D&D is the ease of creating characters. Finding a free character creation tool in Level Up A5E or even Tales of the Valiant is nearly impossible. Especially one with character storage and a good web UI. Kobold Press and Level Up cancelling ToV Roll20 support hurts. I want character designers, importers, and a free and open system for character creation support.

And Wizards is far too stingy on their books. I want my PDFs. Not having them sucks. I feel a step removed from the game. With ToV and Level Up? I have my PDFs. It is 2025, and forcing people onto gated websites or physical copies to read a book is unthinkable.

Another loss for 2014 and 2024 D&D. No PDFs? It is 2025, stop acting like it is 2008.

So, 2014 D&D is for my group. I would like to swap out 2014 D&D for Tales of the Valiant, and people in my group could own PDFs. ToV and D&D are interchangeable, and I would like to standardize the core rules and classes on a modern, sane set of options (that isn't 2024). The ToV classes are better designed than the 2014 ones by a long shot, and are more fun to play.

Monks are fixed. Rangers are fixed, and the mystic mark feature is solid (and combine that with Ranged Weapon Mastery's bonus action). Rogues feel like rogues. Every choice is good without all the exploits. There are fewer headaches and house rules here. They are not overpowered and feel like they have the "dry and realistic" 2014 power levels.

The classes in ToV are better than the D&D 2024 ones.

There are fewer subclasses in ToV (for now, they have new ones in The Old Margreve and the Dungeon Builder books, and are working on more) than in 2024 D&D, but they are higher-quality choices than quantity. They are working on more, so we can give Kobold Press time. You can port old ones in, too, since compatibility is very high.

The only honest criticism is that casters seem favored over martials. That is an easy problem; be more generous with magic items for your martial classes and give them parity through loot. Also, consider using the Expanded Special Melee Attacks rules in the GMG (page 73) and the Parry and Defensive Combat rules (page 77), and the game allows stunts like this to replace the need for 2024's weapon masteries and tracking special weapon properties. The parry reaction is a nice rule that expands ToV's action economy.

ToV has weapon options, plus the rules from the ToV GMG feel better than 2024's weapon mastery system, where a few classes have the "learn them" in a slot system and "unlearn them" on a long rest. In ToV? Everyone gets them with being proficient in the weapon; they don't use slots, nobody needs to track them on a character sheet, and they are just "there to use." Plus, the GMG's extra combat rules add more options.

Will it break the game if a wizard wants to use their quarterstaff to bash something in an emergency? No. This is a fun option and should be opened up to everyone. Wizards aren't in melee enough for this really to affect the game, and having it as a tool is a net plus to "fun at the table."

D&D 2024 is, in many ways, overdesigned. All these tracked resources did not need to be added to the character sheet. 2024's weapon mastery is a mistake.

Tales of the Valiant got it right.

ToV also gives you more options regarding ability score improvements and feats; you always get at least a point when you choose a feat. There are no dead levels in ToV, either. ToV is the best of the "modern 5E systems" at this point, and it leads D&D 2024 by a mile in design, function, and usability. If I play with others, ToV would be my ideal choice since I am not posting pages of house rules for 2014, the power levels are the same as 2014, and every choice just works out of the box.

Magic item crafting? ToV also offers that as a downtime activity. I love these YouTube channels acting like crafting magic items is some new thing that D&D 2024 invented. Oh, and we have a price list for magic items, too. No automatic bastions, which is a plus, but Kobold Press has books on running kingdoms, so the subject is well-covered.

We have more wins for ToV, which is managing to be a complete and well-thought-out design. Kobold Press listened to playtest feedback, and it did not disappear into the nether like a marketing campaign.

ToV is also far better regarding access to the base rules. I can point everyone to the Black Flag SRD, which has the game's rules for free. People can own PDFs. Most legacy 2014 books and player options are compatible. Yes, the art is a little cartoony, but there is a charm to that. The rules are why I play.

If you are one of these people, like me, defending 2014 as the better version of D&D, and will never buy into 2024, you need to give ToV another look.

ToV is better designed than 2024 D&D, is easier to learn, more open, is a modern game, and retains the charm of D&D 2014.

For my home games and solo play? I will play Level Up A5E. This system just clicks for me and provides the depth and options I like in a hybrid 5E and old-school game. If I want "overdesigned for good reason and great effect," I will play Level Up.

But if I am stuck with 2014 5E?

I am looking at ToV, the fixed version of 2014, for which I don't need to maintain a list of house rules and patches.

ADAD: Legitimacy

A group of goblin bandits are holding the quarry outside of town.

I played this scenario in 5E, and I felt this sense of comfort. It will be no problem; I have an unrestricted power that lets me toss magic bolts every turn, we can heal, this one gets an advantage on many attacks, and we are all doing super significant damage with maximum ability score modifiers. Every magic character can fling damage as if we were playing an MMO.

In fact, the entire encounter felt like an MMO. I had this "bored sense of it being a waste of time" running through my head as I played it out. Just get me to the boss fight to finish this and turn in the quest rewards.

In 5E, I had so much power before level five that I was tired of the game and uninterested in whatever stories I could tell with it. This was the ultimate easy mode, and I quit the system.

5E is over-reliant on false empowerment, where they double the hit points and make daggers do 1d4+5. There was no damage scaling in the original game, so we did not need all these fixed modifiers. B/X started these out-of-control modifiers, and I prefer 0e or 1e games where those modifiers are scaled way back and kept under control.

You could not infinitely blast away with cantrips. You did not have feats that added damage to attacks. Your ranger had 20 arrows and a melee weapon. That is what you have to deal with the situation. Do you have a mage? Do you want to expend magic to solve this, or is there another way?

Swords & Wizardry was like this: The game did not hand out bonuses like popcorn and candy, and only fighters thoroughly enjoyed the STR bonus for to-hit and damage. Other classes, even the fighter sub-classes, did not get the bonuses. Swords & Wizardry gets it right like Shadowdark gets it right by keeping the numbers under control.

You start throwing fixed modifiers into everything, and they take over the game. A fixed modifier of more than half the dice size, like a 1d4+5, is a sloppy game design that invalidates the meaning of the dice. It is a significant mistake in 5E's math. For all the vaunted 'bounded accuracy' 5E hyped (and later tossed out) in the design, they did nothing on the damage dice and let those numbers get out of control.

In ADAD, to-hit modifiers for STR start at 17, and damage starts at 16 - which is only a +1. Most characters will never see a melee damage modifier unless they use magic weapons or are fighters who selected weapon specializations. You need to understand the rules and where your fixed modifiers come from, and you aren't just given everything.

I can play a character who does flat weapon damage; it is not a problem, and the game is designed that way if the monster hit points are low and kept under control. The polyhedral dice mean more if hit points are lower, and when Wizards' D&D starts scaling hit points two to four times and you lean on fixed modifiers far too much, the game breaks hard.

Dungeon Crawl Classics has replaced D&D for me. Shadowdark is still the best 5E, but if I want super-heroic fantasy with many character powers and toys, then DCC fills the need. It is far less complicated than D&D, with its mess of actions and complex builds, and I can run DCC character sheets by hand.

ADAD is perfect for first-edition games. I want characters to do without and have limited powers and options in the first five levels. They need to work together during this time and think smart, use gear, leverage skilled classes, and play smart.

In my 5E game, the party rarely needed synergy or cooperation. Everyone was an “army of me,” and healing did not need to be shared; everyone could heal themselves or rest it off later.

ADAD hits the serious game notes perfectly for me while providing new options to explore.

In DCC, monsters can be deadly, and my characters must work together. At first level, they have quite a bit of power, so they are capable and potent. The world can hit back hard, death is easy, and healing relies on a cleric and a god’s benevolence, which can run dry.

With ADAD, I am playing stories again, and characters must make hard choices when taking risks. Sometimes, there is no choice at all, and fighting is unavoidable. The fewer powers and abilities characters have, the better the stories become. What they get means something, and being a thief in these games is fun; since few have repeatable powers, your thief skills begin to shine, and you are doing all sorts of sneaky things to get away with the crazy plots the party thinks up.

Your weapon speed matters, your armor matters, your encumbrance matters, and the few powers you have matter. Your party composition matters, along with your hirelings. How you travel matters. Rangers can make a journey where you are lost and lose party members to wilderness encounters into easy navigation, and a few times, you make camp. Did you take enough hirelings, pack animals, and carts to haul your treasure back home? Do you have a home?

DCC, S&W, and ADAD all have this style of gameplay. Some are a little more rules-light than others, and some are more gonzo fantasy. They all have that legitimate game loop, where you need to be careful about how you approach situations and think beyond an encounter, and the game forces you to consider the entire journey.

Mail Room: Cepheus Universal

Cepheus Universal (CU) is one of the most impressive science fiction games I own. The Lulu book arrived yesterday, and it's significantly better than the previous print-on-demand (PoD) I received (I think it was from DriveThru); the book is gorgeous.

The game is also awe-inspiring. The original Traveller Little Black Books promised a universal science fiction game, but ultimately delivered only upon the Imperium. The Cepheus Universal game delivers on the one-book, any-universe promise. You can build Star Destroyers and Constitution-class UFP cruisers using the capital ship rules. You have mechs. You have vehicles. You have star-fighters. Everything Traveller forgets to include, you get in CU, including classic Traveller.

CU is the closest thing we have to the original Space Opera game, and that says a lot since that game was a legend in our group.

Hostile, from the same publisher, is a custom-built version of the same 2d6 rules, but tightly tied into the setting. Hostile is better suited for those who enjoy the corporate sci-fi genre, such as Alien, Blade Runner, and Outland, as well as industrial hard-science settings. You can also throw in "underwater" movies in here too, like The Abyss or Deep Blue Sea. Where CU is a toolkit that allows you to create settings ranging from Star Wars to Star Trek, or any other science fiction setting you can imagine, Hostile is built exclusively for the hard-science setting.

But if you are looking for that flavor of industrial, hard-science, dark universe, life is worthless to corporate greed, gritty and dirty science fiction, go straight for Hostile and don't try to emulate it through CU. You could, but Hostile is a complete universe and game built to support the concept.

Hostile reminds me of the Traveller 2300 and 2300 AD we always wanted to have. We played this in a campaign, and it didn't resonate with us. We leaned more into Alien, and that salvaged the game. Still, 2300 was not interesting enough to us on the low-level, humanistic, grease-and-gears level of science fiction gaming.

Traveller 2300 always had that identity problem. What was this game? It was somewhat of a "not Aliens' setting, and beyond that, it didn't fully take off with our group. To be a great setting, it needs to move beyond the xenomorph. Hostile has your standard 2d6 animal and creature generation, and just replacing these with "strange variants of Earth creatures that want to kill you" works well. Featherless, bat-like vultures that swoop in and rake hooked claws from packs that hunt from the air, squid with ripping claw-like teeth, horse like maw-beasts that look like undead lizards, and if you put a little effort into it and possibly a book on insects and worms, you can come up with things a hundred times more scary than a xenomorph.

There is an excellent Xenomorph expansion that turns them into all sorts of creepy monsters, such as snakes, spiders, runner dogs, and many others. The game is more unrestricted to run with the concept and turn it into something truly terrifying, and it also opens the doors for the referee to take this in many different directions.

If the corporations of the universe want to kill you, then none of the alien creatures you encounter will be something out of a D&D cozy RPG. Everything wants to kill you, tear you into steaks, and feast on your flesh and internal organs. I dislike this "cutesy sci-fi" that assumes a standard distribution of cuddly animals throughout the universe. Sorry, planetary ecosystems activate their creatures, which serve as white blood cells to hunt down and consume colonists, miners, explorers, and anything else the planet sees as "alien" to its billion-year history. Even the rocks and geology will try to get in on the act, trying to kill you.

Roll 2d6; if you roll low, the planet gets to try to do something to kill you.

The game is called "Hostile" after all.

Just assume everything is.

Back to CU. Eliminate Traveller and Alien from your thinking. Although this game does those things, other games do them better, such as OG Traveller and Hostile.

For everything else, CU is going to win. Star Trek, Star Wars, Star Frontiers, Firefly, Pitch Black, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010, and the list goes on. This also wraps up the Cyberpunk, Battletech, and Blade Runner genres quite nicely, along with a fair number of non-gonzo post-apocalyptic genres. CU does all that in a simple, fast, and quick 2d6 format that gives you a heroic option for play.

CU is the best "everything else" science fiction game there is.

It is challenging to review a game like this without discussing the alternatives. Part of my problem with this game is that the first time I saw it, I thought it was "alternate Traveller rules" or "another Alien game"- both of which were incorrect. I saw Cepheus Deluxe (the black and white printing) as a better generic Traveller game, since "Why should I change?" I have a lot of current-edition Traveller books, so that game is the king of that setting.

I didn't understand this at first, which is why I initially discounted it.

I know now not to.

This is one of the best universal science fiction games of this generation.

D&D 2014 Survival Guide

Playing D&D sucks right now.

The company split the player base into two sides with the 2014 and 2024 versions.

When someone remembers D&D and "wants to play that, " I need to explain the differences between editions of 5E. You make my darn job HARDER, Wizards. Most people, when I start explaining 2014 vs. 2024, walk away.

This is too complicated for me! If I buy the old books, will I be able to play? Will they be a waste of money?

Some say 3rd-level 2024 characters are equivalent to the power level of 6th-level 2014 characters. So we are dealing with a potential power-level change.

And here I am calling 2014 5E, "Closer to classic D&D." And you know what? It is true. Orcs and goblins are still bad guys. I am not explaining weapon properties. Racial ability score modifiers are there. The art is closer to the classic game.

I have players with 2014 books who don't have the money for new books or want to buy them. They are happy with their game. I have to keep them in the group. If the group is a 2014 group, it is a tough sell to get them to re-buy what they already have and like.

And with the OGL and other mistakes, many won't give the company another dime.

And I am explaining that to new players, too.

The team that designed 2014 was a far better class of game designers. They made a ton of mistakes, but that design pedigree shows. 2014 5E was the perfect game (with a few fixes). The Wizards team even said so. 5E was supposed to be "evergreen." I would rather have had a new edition of the 2014 books with as few changes as possible to clean up a minimal scope. Keep the game the same with no new rules or features, and just give us an updated book to play with.

What a mess.

Another version split.

A divided community.

They did this to themselves.

I can see why some give up and go to an Open 5E clone. But, to the average person who has never heard of them, it isn't D&D. Tales of the Valiant, Level Up Advanced 5E? What are those? They aren't D&D. Not to the average person, 20 years removed from the hobby.

Get your hands on a good set of 2014 books with the character options, and call it quits.

Or go Open 5E and call it "D&D."

Mutant Crawl Classics plus Mutant Future

My first game from Goodman Games was Mutant Crawl Classics (MCC), as we were big fans of Gamma World. I discovered DCC later, dismissed it as being "too much," and then spent a little more time understanding the game, falling in love with the system.

Once you understand that everything in the DCC book is optional, including the tables, the game plays like a rules-light 3.5E, functioning as a streamlined, generic, and quick system that handles a wide range of scenarios and genres.

Once I understood why the spells had so many tables and how spell-burn and spell duels worked, the floodgates were opened. Then, lay Rule Zero over the game, and all of a sudden, you have a fantastic toolbox for rules-light 3.5E.

I came to MCC looking for more of my other favorite post-apocalyptic fantasy game, Mutant Future (MF). This is another classic Gamma World-inspired retro-clone, and it still holds up well today. This game is also cross-compatible with Labyrinth Lord, providing you with even more options for reskinning and use in your game.

Mutant Future is one of the best "stuff books" for MCC, offering an impressive selection of equipment, weapons, vehicles, robots, monsters, and other items to utilize in your MCC game. As a resource and a game in its own right, Mutant Future is indispensable for the realism and grit of the setting. The MF game assumes a feudal, long-gone postapocalyptic world, but has that classic Thundarr and Gamma World vibe, where the ruins of the old world are still recognizable. MCC is more fantastical and alien, with the lost world being even farther back in time and relegated to myth and twisted legends.

MF is an excellent, B/X-style science fiction game. It is compatible with Gamma World (1st and 2nd editions) and Labyrinth Lord. By itself, it is a fantastic game.

As an expansion for MCC, it significantly enhances the game. You receive all the low-level details that MCC overlooks, including gear lists, prices, treasures, weapons, primitive water travel, and all the necessary components to support a feudal society, as well as an explanation of how "all the civilization" works. If you want to barter for an oil lamp and a mutant beast of burden, you can find them here.

These two are my "peanut butter and chocolate" post-apocalyptic games, which pair perfectly together and blend seamlessly, or are wonderful on their own.

The Joy of the SDC Palladium Games

c. 1983, 1996

So many have fond memories of any of the SDC-based Palladium games. Palladium FRP, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas and Superspies, TNMT/AtB, Dead Reign, and many more. I am avoiding Rifts in this conversation as that is the obvious one to focus on, but my interest lies in the games without MDC, and the Palladium system working to its fullest on the low end. I am just looking at the SDC-games, with no mega damage, and the damage systems and character stats are still meaningful and working in the base rules.

c. 1984, 1998

Anyone who has given them a chance generally loves them. They reward creativity and inspire passion. Part of this lies in the high degree of character customization in the rules; even the Fantasy game lets you pick and choose so much, and Heroes Unlimited is still one of the best superhero games ever made.

Once you understand character creation, the game is a B/X level of simplicity and fast play. The characters take time to design because you are doing "game design" for the role you will play in the game. It is well worth it, and rules-light games fail to fill the investment you get after you finish Palladium character design.

Remember, do all physical skills FIRST! These often change your attributes. After that, weapon skills to figure out combat bonuses, and then everything else. Print out the physical skills page or find or make a summary. Do this, and your speed at character creation is faster and more straightforward.

The games utilize asymmetrical balance, with classes not on equal power levels, but the specialists excel in their area of expertise. This makes a game that naturally needs a group, where you get this "team of specialized experts" who are not each good at everything, but the individual members can shine at what they do best.

c. 1984

You have a system that builds a group like facets of a diamond. Everyone specializes and is the absolute best at what they love to do. They all have weaknesses and must rely on others. Because you are the best at what you do, you feel fantastic when you finally get to shine. Then, you step back and rely on others for everything else.

Games that design-in everyone's powers into everyone else are boring and anti-group. Why do I need anyone else if every class has self-healing, damage, stealth, magic, defense, social abilities, and so on? You aren't playing D&D with a group; you are playing with a group, alone.

This "playing with others, alone" design mentality has killed interaction in MMOs for years and is the death of many games. Nobody needs a group; everyone is a solo-er, and few play together. We live in an age of "me, not us," and we put influencers on pedestals, and everyone wants to be one. As a result, our games become "what I do" each turn instead of "what we do."

c. 1988, 2005

Palladium is an entirely different design rooted in classic party dynamics. In this model, everyone has a well-defined strength and a collection of weaknesses they must rely on others to fill. What happens in this model? There will always be a moment for every player where they "save the day by being the most awesome." The party cohesion will be powerful. The moments you were allowed to use your class's OP powers will be remembered for the rest of the player's days.

c. 2008

Unlike B/X or most D&D-style games, you aren't a wimp when you begin. 5E tried to up the starting power level to about 3rd level, but you are still weak, and you don't really shine in your role versus everyone else. Nobody needs your abilities in most situations; everyone can do almost everything. D&D also has this terrible thing where casters have all the powers of rogues, and they eventually do everything better than them.

c. 1995

The core seven SDC games, the ones Rifts pulls from for dimensional beings, are all amazing and stand up independently. You can make a "non-Rifts mega-verse" just out of these games, say "Rifts never happened," and have an amazing, multi-versal, cross-dimensional game with many options and diverse character types.

c. 1985, 2001

And they are worth playing on their own. The TNMT-inspired After the Bomb game can be a post-apocalyptic or gritty street-level heroes game. The TNMT RPG is also being reprinted this year, and you can still get a pre-order in. This is still the best "fighting humanoid animals" game ever designed, and it is the king of this niche, no matter how many animal-cracker "all the same" shapes D&D 5.5E wants to say it has. In AtB, you have it if you can dig, tunnel, use sonar, claws, tusks, hooves, fly, glide, or any other remarkable ability! It isn't just, "oh, a plus to a few ability scores and pick some feat" or some other weak-sauce, water-it-down, make-it-pedestrian, nobody-gets-anything-special mass-market game design D&D is so good at.

I can be a badger-man in AtB with digging claws, poison resistance, brute strength, extra mental and physical endurance, and night vision. I can get tunneling if I want. I can pick a few weaknesses, like musk glands, to balance my points. In D&D, if they had a badger race, I would allocate ability score points like everyone else and look like a badger, but do nothing like a badger. It would be pure cosplay, vapid and meaningless, with no powers given.

We live in this false age of pretend, where Wall Street companies tell us they are giving us something, peer pressure us into saying X is Y, and they deliver nothing. Palladium games are more complicated, but you always get the real thing.

And this badger would work in any of these seven worlds just fine. He could fight alongside superheroes, survive zombies, exist in a fantasy realm, fight ninja clans, be a suave super-spy, investigate mysteries, or have any other adventure you could imagine. The powers, tunneling, claws, and every other power would still work in any other sister-world.

You can do this in GURPS, too. But in Palladium, a lot of the work and base idea-crafting has been done for you, at least for character archetypes, and you are not starting from scratch. Palladium games have been played so much that the designers hone in on the best character options that provide the most fun and significant party synergies, and ship those with the game as the default options.

If people malign Palladium games, it is usually third-hand or later knowledge. People talk trash about these games to pretend they are an influencer with a popular opinion. Many who have played them still stand by them to this day. I find a deep sense of loyalty and love for these books that transcends even decades of being away from them, like they were a part of someone's life, and they still hold that close.

Even those who have moved on to other games remember these games fondly.

Yes, they are dated, but some of the best music ever made is dated, too. We just don't know what we had when it first came out, and the fact that we can still play these brings me back to a better time. The fact that they have not changed keeps them rooted in those better days, like an original recording of a song you love.

For many of these games, you can build a soundtrack for the year they were released, including a two or three-year period before. I put that soundtrack on, pick up the game, and am instantly taken back like a time machine.

Today's games don't do that for me. They play like highly processed "food in a box"—too slick, commercial, and full of salt and preservatives (anger and platform lock-in). They aren't "real food" to me. Are Palladium games perfect? No. The songs I love from those days are not perfect creations either.

With Palladium games, I have 40 years of time machines on my shelf.

I can go back.

I only have to open a book.

Off the Shelf: Palladium Fantasy

If you are going to go as far as RuneQuest or Rolemaster, then Palladium Fantasy is another classic. This is still a good game, but it's older than the OSR, and it's another game we played back in the day.

The love and nostalgia for this system are real.

This is without Rifts or any other Palladium game. Just fantasy.

Every character class is a mini-game. Every system of magic works differently. It feels on the level of a Pathfinder 2, where a player plays one character class and becomes the expert in that class for the group. It uses a d20 for combat (roll high) and percentage rolls (roll under) for skills. That does not bother me and feels natural. The characters take a while to craft, since there are many choices.

The level of depth and customizations to each character class blows 5E away.

Some classes are wildly more combat-capable than others, but it does not matter since advancement is based more on story and choices than killing and treasure. You can be a clever and resourceful "peasant farmer OCC" and out-think and out-play Conan and rocket up the levels faster.

The XP system rewards defeating enemies and avoiding violence equally. Ideas and plans of action get you XP far faster than killing rooms full of enemies. Putting yourself in danger and self-sacrifice gains you XP. Skill use and daring actions give you XP. Helping others gets you XP.

Finding a thousand gold in a dungeon and donating it to the local down-on-its-luck town so they can rebuild their aqueduct will probably gain you more XP than the adventure itself. Sure, you could keep it for yourselves and be rich, but the love and adoration of the entire community are worth so much more.

The game rewards action, daring, ideas, clever play, helping others, playing in character, saving lives, avoiding violence, and roleplaying. Combined with the radically different alignments, this creates a different play dynamic where character motivations and actions come first, and treasure and killing are far behind.

Print out that XP chart and keep it handy.

This is playable with just the core book, and the only other books I recommend getting after this are the Monsters & Animals book as a bestiary. If you want "dark elves, " start with an elf, change their skin color to anything you want (ebony, white, blue, violet, gray, etc.), and give them an evil alignment.

Another handy book is Adventures on the High Seas, which is perfect if you want to include bards and other entertainers in your game. The core game does not have "magical music," it keeps the traditional magical traditions as pillars of the world's magic system. I like that, as it keeps magic from being too much like high-fructose corn syrup, and in every character class imaginable.

If you wanted a "magical bard," that would be a Mind Mage (core book) with a few performance skills. Looking this over, it would be a much more enjoyable (and powerful) bard than the ones they have in most games, including 5E.

Again, power is not everything. Even if you have extraordinary powers, that does not make you invincible. The entire game is built on the idea of asymmetric power, but puts advancement on gameplay and creativity, not power and loot.

This is still a worthy, fun, fantastic game that challenges you to think outside the box, create detailed characters, do something different, and enjoy a game that isn't D&D.

Or one that retains the same old D&D loot and power sensibilities and focuses more on character actions and creative gameplay.

Stripped Down A5E

The mistake I made with Level Up A5E was buying too many third-party books. You can dilute your game into this sloppy collection of cartoony books, serious books, strange settings, piles of magic items, so many monsters and spells, cute books, evil books, and books you like that don't match the tone of your game.

My game became a mess.

Add to that a second version of the game with Tales of the Valiant (ToV). I liked ToV a lot, but it wasn't for me.  ToV has it all: tons of monsters and magic, solid rules, and great support and adventures. The setting is fantastic. The adventures are numerous and all well crafted. If you just want a well-supported version of 5E minus Wizards, play ToV. I tried it, I liked it, but it was not the game I wanted or expected.

ToV was good, but it still wasn't as good as A5E. The mix of 5E game rules and the best ideas pulled from 3.5E and 4E in A5E was spectacular. The martial classes were terrific. I liked the support for exploration and social encounters a lot. Rangers did not suck. The old-school, deadly play, combined with multiple fixes for all of 5E's problems, made me miss A5E.

So I put all my books in storage. My shelves were cluttered with two games, multiple sourcebooks, piles of unused items, and an unfocused game that occupied five shelves of space.

More is nothing. I hated it all.

So I came back. Why?

When I started, I had a good game going. The setting and rules worked together very well. Other games struggled to tell the same story. This wasn't a D&D thing; it was a classic hero story that relied on the super-heroic elements, not the invincible ones. I have other games more closely tied to GURPS, the system of advantages and disadvantages, which describes the characters best. A5E told this story the best, since this is how I started it

I asked myself, "Could I limit the game to the best parts?" By getting rid of books, could I make this game fun again?

It is a hard thing to do. In my opinion, all my Kobold Press books needed to be excluded. That is a massive library with thousands of spells and monsters. Those books are for Tales of the Valiant. If I ever play with those rules, I will save them if the character and system options improve. Some excellent Roll for Combat books needed to be excluded; they are great and highly recommended, but not for the game I want to play. Most of my random magic items and class books must be removed.

Many books intended to "fix" 5E are worthless and can harm the game if used. Some books are designed to supplement D&D classes and offer options that can break the fixes A5E implemented. Some books intended for the original 5E will be better with Tales of the Valiant instead of A5E.

I just did not want to deal with other books. They were extra complex campaign settings I did not want to use, or subsystems that would detract from my core inspiration.

Roll20 has a good character sheet for the game. I found this after I decided to return, which was a pleasant surprise. This will help me with my digital conversion and save my games online. I have cleaned my place considerably by removing my gaming table, which may sound like heresy.

What do I have left? The core books, plus some 3rd party books written for A5E that provide options. The collection is very tight and focuses on the core books, plus the books strictly written for A5E to offer options in that framework.

The MOAR Complete book is fantastic, adding many options to the game. I have a few multiclass guides that provide synergy feats, and I have the homebrew and hacking guides written for A5E. For rules, that is about it. The A5E Monstrous Menagerie gives me detailed monsters with some mechanical interest.

If D&D 2014/24 is B/X, then A5E is full-blown AD&D. The complexity and detail are welcome for a game that glosses over far too much and lacks exploration and social mechanics.

I have a few Dante's Guides from Yellowbyte Studios, just for some Diablo-like monsters. There is an excellent Sandy Peterson Cthulhu book, but too many bad guys ruin the game, so that is sidelined. Classic D&D had Hell and demons as the ultimate bad guys, and after the Satanic Panic happened, this went in a hundred "family-friendly" directions, and we got mind flayers, drow, dragons, evil gods, and so on. D&D still has too many "junk drawer" big bad guys.

You could play AD&D and assume most of the monsters and humanoids were "touched by the blood of Satan" or a god, and even dragons were that way and wrestled with their sinister side. Classic Greek Mythology plays into this with one drop of blood spawning an entire etymology of creatures.

Sorry, modern interpretationists, my monsters are classic monsters and not reflections of West Coast street culture. What you see around you is not the world, nor history, nor the classics these games were based on, nor any facet of meaningful truth regarding fantasy gaming. Hiring great writers for these games is becoming more challenging as the education system implodes and classics and history are no longer taught. Anyone with a traditional education can get a better job elsewhere since these skills are in demand and getting harder to find.

Once fantasy gaming "reflects the modern world," it is no longer fantasy gaming.

It is meaningless self-reflection based on vanity.

There is another nice demon guide written by Robert Schwalb (of Shadows of the Demon lord) for 5E, and this is another nice resource for a Diablo-like game. If 5E mainly resembles an ARPG like Diablo, then that is how it plays the best. This was my original A5E game, and I missed it since D&D does ARPG play well, and all of the other pillars of play horribly. With A5E, I get the pillars of play covered, so I have a complete game that covers everything, plus ARPG combat. I also get a fixed game with balanced math and numbers, where D&D or its clones still have terrible balance and scaling issues.

My world books? The best I have are the Frog God Games "Lost Lands" settings, and I have a bunch of old-school adventures converted from S&W to 5E. This good old-school world doesn't carry Wizards' baggage, the Forgotten Realms GMNPCs, or sci-fi elements. It works as-is with enough depth and detail that it feels old school without being tied to anything else that could wreck my game.

I have a mega-dungeon converted to 5E (Rappan Athuk), and plenty of other smaller adventures to toss in everywhere else. This is one of the better "generic 5E worlds" you can get since it flies under the radar of many, has extensive adventure support, and lets you do what you want. Nobody expects that characters from Baldur's Gate 3 will show up here to steal the show and act like GMNPCs in this world, and I am free to shape this however I want.

The world is old-school and traditional, feeling like a medieval fantasy world. Lords rule fiefs and kingdoms, peasants till the land during the seasons, and life continues. Parts of the world are in the early Renaissance, but you can change these and make the world in your vision. No starships are flying overhead. We don't get much in terms of jarring pop culture. The entire setting feels serious.

Also, the setting doesn't try to rewrite the base 5E rules like a few others I have (Brancalonia and Arcanis). Those are excellent settings, but they would work better with a base system closer to D&D, like Tales of the Valiant. I just want a setting that gives me 5E stats and adventures, and isn't trying to rewrite the fighter class or give me entirely new spell lists.

I am down to one and a half shelves of books for my game.

There is nothing on there that is a distraction, nor do I have cute monsters running around.

I am happy with this version of 5E, finally.

PoD Prices Going Up 50% or More?

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2025/03/rpg-drivethrurpg-warns-publishers-of-rising-print-on-demand-costs-in-the-us.html

This will drive a stake through the heart of small and indie publishers. There have been a few reports of PoD prices increasing by 50% in the US due to tariffs.

I hope this is a temporary thing.

If not, prepare for many price increases and the closure of many smaller companies. If this goes on long enough, not all the games we love may survive.

My Last 5E

There are times I wonder, "Why would I ever go back to 5E?"

I have far better fantasy games, and ones that speak to me more than 5E's soft, power fantasy, super heroic, broken past level 10 mush. I have Dungeon Crawl Classics, which does that power fantasy far better, and with much less predictability. I have GURPS Dungeon Fantasy for the fantastic character builds. I have Rolemaster for the crit charts, and HARP for a version that actually plays smoothly. I have Swords & Wizardry for the 0e game, and I have Adventures Dark & Deep as my classic first-edition style game. Castles & Crusades and 3.5E are good games.

I have enough fantasy games.

If I had to keep one before selling the eight storage crates, what would it be?

It would not be Wizards D&D. That is getting sold. I can understand wanting to stay with 5E, but not D&D. Get the CC 5.1 SRD printed if you need a rules reference for play.

Tales of the Valiant is also being sold. Despite this being the best-supported and produced Open 5E versions out there, the game is too cartoony for me. Additionally, there are very few differences between ToV and 5E; the two are essentially the same game. This was done for maximum compatibility, which is a plus for some with a lot of 3rd-party content. This may be the game for you if you fall into that category.

It still has the same flaws! I can't support a game that is very similar down to the things I dislike about 5E. What is the point? A slight difference in character options and a CL+1 power level? It isn't made by Wizards? That is enough for many, but I wanted more. I am still holding onto my library and hoping things change for the better.

I wanted structural improvements, drawing on past versions to incorporate the best features in terms of rules, classes, content, and systems. There are still excellent rules from past versions of the game that could be incorporated into 5E. Why do we have to lose all that hard work and progress?

The quality level of the ToV books is fantastic, and there is a wealth of content to enjoy. Thousands of monsters and spells await your use. The only issue is that character creation requires electronic tools, and there is a lack of player options in the core books.

I love you ToV, but you are not for me. I have a better version of 5E in my hands today. Despite the fantastic quality and support for ToV, my heart is with a better-crafted version of 5E.

And no, it isn't Shadowdark. I am keeping this because it is an S-Tier game in its own right.

This is a 5E to me, but the small shelf space is not a question. Additionally, it boasts the best "pick up and play" ability among all 5E games. The game has a great community, heart, and is well-supported. Shadowdark, I can play with anyone, and I can do so instantly, with about 5 minutes of prep.

Shadowdark is more of a competitor to "B/X OSR clones" for me at the moment. Having a game that plays like 5E, yet has the simplicity of OSE, is a winner, especially for pick-up games with new people. I am not describing the OSR, OSE, or any other conceptual "buy-in" sort of theory to new players.

This is a simplified, fast-playing, 5E version.

That is all I need to say.

Most of them will give Shadowdark a chance.

And we have a winner.

Level Up Advanced 5E is the only one that would make me dig through my "sell crates" again to pull just it out, plus a handful of the best third-party books, and I would sell the rest of my 5E collection. The designers dared to fix 5E, which they got roasted for at the time, but it turned out to be the right choice. There is a much drier balance to Level Up A5E; the math is fixed, martial classes have many great options, and the three pillars of play are supported and work well.

They incorporate many of my favorite rules from earlier editions, such as a warlord-style battle commander class and rules for sleeping in armor. If there is something about 5E that makes you say, "Isn't it silly...?" then chances are A5E fixes it.

I'm disappointed that I didn't back their second monster book or collected gazetteer hardback Kickstarter; I'll have to wait for that. I thought I was done with the game.

The game is deadly. They polled the play-testers, and they said, "Make the game deadlier." Turn up the challenge. Give us a sense of accomplishment when we complete a battle, like our characters could die. Don't let combats turn into boring "dice rolling dance breaks" from the roleplaying.

Drawing spell and steel matter. It is a dangerous choice.

Easy combat makes roleplaying meaningless.

You need a ranger for exploration play, and they don't suck here. The exploits have been mostly fixed. Martial classes are insanely fun and have fighting-style customizations. The monsters are scary and deadly. I do not have to multi-class. The characters have depth. The world is exciting and dangerous. Characters feel powerful, but not broken. I don't have much experience with high-level play, but the team made fixes there as well.

Supplies matter. Shelter quality matters. You can't comfortably sleep in your armor, like your character was some plastic action figure who can't ever remove it and wear comfortable, everyday clothing.

There is no such thing as infinite "pop-up healing."

Fatigue will kill you, and it won't be an easy resurrection. The spell is 7th level, takes an hour to cast, requires 2,500 gold in components, and requires approximately four long rests to recover from. Even the "death within one minute" revivify spell requires 300 gold in components to function and is only an in-combat option. The doomed condition requires 7th-level magic to remove it.

You can always house-rule in a hardcore death option and require a system-shock roll on resurrections. Make a DC 5 CON roll, with a result of 1 always indicating a failure. Failing means the soul never wants to return to the living and is happy in the afterlife, roll a new character. Increase the DC by one for every death after the first, and by one for every close friend or loved one you have lost in the mortal world.

You are not taking long rests in a closet in the Tomb of Horrors. Even short rests are not something you can depend on, nor will they restore fatigue. You can break down mentally. Obviously, some of the more egregious 5E tropes have been discarded. Dumb things people feel they have to defend "because it's D&D" are a thing of the past.

You can get "expertise dice" for skills. Destiny replaces alignment and controls inspiration, making it matter again. Inspiration has weight to it, and it isn't a meaningless flippable toggle that other classes can set on your character due to "mechanics."

Orcs and humanoids are still monsters here. Yes, EN World is very progressive, but they respect the hobby and its traditions. You can play an orc, if you want, and they can still be the bad guys. I wish forums and gaming sites could be less divided, but this is the world we live in, sadly. The game itself remains true to the hobby and gameplay, which I appreciate.

The fixes and improvements here render Tales of the Valiant unappealing to me.

Level Up is, hands down, the better-designed version of 5E.

Many LUA5E players skipped ToV, saying, "There's nothing new here. I don't see a reason to switch."

Third-party subclasses do have compatibility issues, but then again, LUA5E offers enough depth and options that I do not really need them. 5E NPCs and characters can "play alongside" characters built with this system, but to get the most out of the game, it is recommended to create them according to the rules.

Level Up A5E also has an excellent character sheet on Roll20. This works nicely with my "all digital" conversion going forward. I am no longer using a part of my house for maps and pawns. My home is cleaner, my shelves have more space, and I'm playing more using an all-digital format.

Level Up did a better job fixing 5E than the D&D 2024 rules do. They bring a game back to the table.

If I do keep a version of 5E, this one and Shadowdark will be the only two. Most of my third-party books, and those that distract from the core experience I want to craft, will be removed. What I keep will be a more focused, better game with fewer distractions, and nothing that makes the game "cute and stupid." I want a serious game.

Too many options can also be detrimental to a game. I don't need thousands of spells or monsters to play 5E. Too many books can kill a game. All I want is one-half shelf of the absolute best.

I own far too much 5E.

Owning less, with the best core game possible, will make me like it more.

Rolemaster FRP, The Best Version?

Sometimes, the Rolemaster FRP system was one of the most bloated games ever created; other times, it was the best-put-together version of  Rolemaster ever made. In every section, they provide the formulas, offer relevant charts, and clearly explain them on the page.

This isn't obscure. Nothing is hidden, like in the paragraphs of Rolemaster 2nd Edition. It is on a page if you need to find a rule or know what a chart and formula do. The 2nd Edition is straightforward and simple, but RM FRP is laid out like a fantasy wargame.

There may be a LOT of it, but nothing is hidden.

I first reach for the FRP books if I need clarification on a Rolemaster rule. There are times when I play 2nd Edition, and I simply default to the FRP rule because the 2nd Edition rule is either nowhere to be found or is intentionally overlooked. RM FRP will clarify it; the procedure will be straightforward, even if the math is slightly different.

Yes, characters need four pages of skills. It's insane, but GURPS has hundreds of skills as well. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and this game share many similarities, including their shared "detailed characters and gritty combat" genre style. Rolemaster has more class direction and adjusts skill point costs depending on the chosen profession, whereas GURPS has a flat cost that remains the same for everyone.

Is there a difference between GURPS and Rolemaster?

Rolemaster features critical hit charts and a degree of role protection in skill costs per profession, enabling rapid progression in a few favored areas. GURPS features tactical hex combat, an open-ended skill system that allows you to develop your character however you want, and a detailed system for building advantages and disadvantages.

Both feature complex characters and intense combat.

If you think of RM FRP as "Advanced AD&D" that only uses a 1d100, you will be better prepared to understand it. It has less in common with GURPS than with a massively mutated, house-ruled, and extra rules-added version of AD&D that leans into Tolkien and classic fantasy novels.

Once you complete character creation, the in-game systems are more straightforward than those of D&D. It's all just 1d100. The charts are easy. Download the PDF and print out your weapon tables and critical hit charts. Every player is responsible for their own.

Best of all, the first book is all you need to play the basic game. They took the best of the best, including combat, magic, and spells, and you just need the first book to get started and support campaign play. Spells only go up to level 10, but then again, Rolemaster games rarely reach that point unless it is a hardcore group.

Rolemaster United is a bit wordy, much like the HARP expansion books, which often write essays on a subject and worry about the rules later. I appreciate the clarity and straightforward nature of RM FRP; it provides the charts and game rules, keeping the chit-chat to a minimum. I do not want a term paper or an explanation of "why this is" - I want the rules because I am in the middle of a game, and please do not waste my time.

RMU needs an editing pass by people who do not play the game and understand nothing. Every page needs a "top 10" question list written, and we must ensure those are answered before moving on. I've read the books, and I still have questions; it's tough to find answers quickly.

I like the new Rolemaster United, but it needs improvement in terms of clarity, conciseness, and artwork. It needs a "tightening up" pass, and all the formulas and charts should be pulled out and placed on the page first, with a short box explaining the rule and how it works, similar to RM FRP's 250 pages of tightly organized game rules. Writing a great rulebook is a lost art, and so far, only Shadowdark and Old School Essentials have managed to knock it out of the park.

I have high hopes for this version; I need to see the bestiaries and others. Until then, my heart is with RM SS/FRP. RM FRP is a complex system, but it is also very transparent about everything. I still have a few questions as I read through the book, but most everything is well laid out.

The Gamemaster Law book is excellent and included rules for "kingdom events" decades before other games recognized their existence. Like HARP, the RM FRP game contains numerous books and things to discover. This is a GM book written before the modern era, and it delves into many great world-building subjects and ideas. The GM book also includes race creation, perfect for building your campaign worlds with unique cultures and character backgrounds.

A hidden gem in the series is the book At Rapier's Point, which offers roleplaying in classic 17th-century Europe during the era of the Three Musketeers. The game's combat system and even HARP are ideally suited to this sort of swashbuckling game.

Whenever I pick up Rolemaster, I am conflicted. I like to support the new version and that vision. I like RP FRP and how complete and well-supported this version is. I get that "Unified" is trying to bring together fans of both versions and have one core, supported game. I also understand that the 2nd Edition is the easiest to play (once you know it) due to the lack of skills, in-depth calculations, and sub-calculations.

Rolemaster Classic will always be my AD&D of the system, the best-supported, earliest edition.

HARP has always been my B/X version; it is simple, fast, and fun. It is a complete game and a worthy D&D replacement, as the systems are simple yet offer an authentic Rolemaster experience. It features a ten-book core collection, all presented in hardcover editions. This is the game closest to Against the Darkmaster, but it's more suited for generic dungeon adventures. The "stuff collection" in this game is significantly more expansive and complete.

RM FRP is akin to my AD&D 2nd Edition, where the game offers more options and is complex, yet it still retains its charm and expanded play options. This is the "roleplaying" edition of the game, as its extensive skill coverage and numerous templates and build options allow you to play any character you can imagine. It is a comprehensive game with multiple books to purchase, so support is excellent and superior to HARP. This includes a 21-book core rulebook collection, but none of the books are in hardcover or print.

That is my wish: to see a Kickstarter campaign to collect all these books in hardcover, perhaps even premium editions with leather covers. This is also my first version of the game, which introduced me to Rolemaster, so it will remain one of my favorites.

Rolemaster United still needs to prove itself, and the game is incomplete. I support this, but I am holding off for now. Once the monster books are out, then we will see. All of these are offered in hardcover.

HARP SF is an anomaly. I have this, but I don't know what to do with it. It is sort of like B/X science fiction and exists as its own thing. You can get these in hardcovers.

Spacemaster is an SF game closely related to Rolemaster Classic. We actually played this back in the day, and it was a strange, fun, out-there experience. This is the more expansive "space opera" game style with battleships, tanks, power armor, and all sorts of tech and science fiction tropes. These are PDF-only.

Spacemaster Privateers is the RM FRP version of science fiction, and it is better suited for those who are more comfortable with RM FRP and the design concepts used in that game. I discovered this one recently, and I wish we had played it. It diverges in its own direction regarding the universe, and there is a recommendation to use Silent Death as the ship combat game for SM Privateers, which would be interesting since this would limit ship tonnage in the universe to 10,000 tons or under, with a focus on starfighters and small ships. Most are offered as PoD, with two exceptions.

We were big into Silent Death, and the rules are still available on DriveThruRPG. This would be fun to play on VTTs. It is also very playable with any Spacemaster or HARP SF games. The universe here is fascinating and varied, and many sleep on this for both a "Battle-tech style" divided universe and an interesting science fiction setting in its own right, with a faction for everyone. There are 22 books here, but they are all in PDF format.

I need to follow my heart in this regard, as I watch the new books and support them as they come out.

RM FRP is my game.

HARP is always a strong second choice.