Yeah, it's Nimble 5e

I am keeping Nimble 5e. The rest of 5E is going in the garage. I still have adventures I want to run. I just do not have room for the library that comes with them anymore.

I want books the size of an OSE core. One set that does the job. No twenty volumes open on the table. No character builder. No chasing the latest broken build. I am done with that. Give me a damage track I can balance against, a sheet that fits on one page, and a game that starts and finishes in the time I actually have. It should still feel like 5E when I open one of the old modules. It should not feel like 5E when I am prepping or flipping pages in the middle of a fight.

Nimble does that. You do not roll to hit. You roll the damage die. A 1 misses. The highest number explodes, and you roll again. Armor reduces damage instead of setting a target number. Three actions a turn, spent on whatever matters. Four stats. Skills that map well enough that a 5E adventure still runs. The books stay thin. Core, Heroes, and a Game Master’s Guide. That is the set: a nice box with the books and a map.

It reminds me of Dragonbane, in a way, a compact, fun, and fast game that does what it says it does. This is a game I can travel with, and it goes where I go.

I am not saying it is better 5E. I am saying it is small enough that I can still use the 5E material I want without the rest of the library coming along. The adventures stay. The character options, the software, the twelve-page sheets, and the optimization chase do not. Encounters are easier to read and easier to adjust because the numbers sit on a tighter track. Once it starts, it moves like an OSR session. The classes and the spells still read as 5E to the people at the table.

Maybe I will grab a hardcopy SRD; it is a good resource with plenty to play with. Just skip the characters and use everything else. Magic items, spells for scrolls, and a ton of monsters? It all works. Use it.

That is the trade. Plenty of 5E left in the modules. Almost none of it left in the rules library. Nimble is a few thin books that let me keep one without the other.