Sandboxed 5E

I can run a sandboxed game using the base three D&D 5E books. However, these days that is a tall order. The game has moved on; people have favorite builds in newer books from Wizards, rules have changed since the original books were released, and people expect the more recent features.

This is a lot like late phase Pathfinder 1e for me - I didn't want to play with anything else than an entire shelf of books. There is so much cool stuff to play with! Why just play with the core books? Are you crazy? Rogues suck!

In the PF 1e book, they fixed rogues, but this highlights the problem; as in D&D 5E, the base-book ranger sucks as well (so I hear). So I play with quite a few things broken and live with it.

This is also the appeal of One D&D, three base books with fixed classes. We must wait two years for that if the Earth lasts that long. Well, what to do in the meantime?

Go 5E, Blue Pill

One option is to collect tons of 5E books from Wizards and jump in. There is a lot of fluff and stuff I won't use, and the quality level of the builds and classes feels low overall - outside of the few rules in each book. Still, this doesn't address a lot of the issues the base game has; just sort of patches over them. Rangers, warlocks, and a bunch of other classes have a lot of issues and require multiclassing to be interesting.

Still, I am a little turned off by the crowd of hardcore optimizers out there who have created the optimal builds for everything to win the game, and a part of me feels 5E has been "beaten" and not really worth learning or starting this late in the game's lifecycle.

I built a party of 5E characters, and they feel uninspired and plain.

OSR, Red Pill

The obvious option is the OSR; let's get that out here. Castles & Crusades is so attractive when I compare it to any version of 5E. I look at 5E character sheets and see the same bloat many modern games have. The character sheets are long, with particular special abilities that apply to things that come up rarely or combat abilities that fit into particular places into the combat system, and need a paragraph of rules per ability on the character sheet.

I have seen entire sets of rules shorter than a printed mid-level 5E character sheet. Seriously 5E players and game creators, has no one noticed your character sheets are worse than Rolemaster or Palladium in terms of complexity? Love the game, but hate the bloat. I am leaving the tax forms of Pathfinder 2e out of this discussion too. Love that game too, but appalled they think of players as computers that can fill out excel spreadsheets and branch conditions in their heads.

Some games are just made to sell digital character sheet subscriptions to online services. Very little thought is put into simplifying rules because it would hurt profitability and retention.

And some games resemble a pen-and-paper computer game way too much.

With Castles & Crusades, I get everything on one 4x6 card that covers an entire character with the same depth and cool factor as a 5E character. It is easier than a typical OSR game, too; no lists of thief abilities, turning charts, attack numbers vs. AC, skills, proficiencies, or saving throws are needed on my character sheet. No huge paragraphs of rules printed on 4-6 sheets of double-sided paper for a single character.

Castles & Crusades is the game that sits in the back of your head, saying, "I can do that easier, faster, and with less record keeping than what you are playing now. And you can focus on story, not rules."

It even says that when I am playing other OSR games, "Why are you writing down thief skill percentages and all those specific saving throws? When did you ever save versus wands?"

Yes, C&C is annoying, but I love it and cannot live without it.

Yes, C&C is one of those games once you understand how much cruft it throws out, everything else feels clumsy and antiquated. Part of Wizards' 5E problem is that the game was designed across many books by many writers, and it kept sticking things on the giant sticky ball of rules with each new release. Again, 6E is a reset, but I do not want to wait.

5E Clone, Purple Pill

My final option is to play a sandboxed version of 5E. There is no sticky ball of rules spread across multiple books because the games are stand-alone complete versions of the game.

Low Fantasy Gaming, Into the Unknown, 5 Torches Deep, and Level Up Advanced 5E are perfect 5E clones that act as sandbox worlds insulated against outside changes from the official Wizards books. These are all great ways to still play 5E but play in a sandboxed environment where you can focus on a few books and have a clean and focused experience.

I like Level Up Advanced 5E a lot, and it is a wholly cloned version of 5E with tons of improvements. The game is just three books, created with the latest changes to the core 5E rules in mind. Tool proficiencies and other changes are in here, and this is a core set of rules I would like to learn. I know base 5E is more straightforward, but this game feels like it will preserve the 5E mechanics as played in 2014 to 2022, just like Pathfinder 1e preserved D&D 3.5 mechanics and still does.

Game preservation is essential! People grew up playing 5E, and we should keep the game around as-is for future generations to enjoy. I know, for 5E players, this sounds strange; just keep going with 6E and One D&D, and then Two D&D, right...?

Welcome to the OSR, 5E.

We preserve experiences for future generations to enjoy here.

We are a living museum of gaming.

One of the strange parts about being in this museum is your game needs to be "open source" and OGL and not really under the stewardship of Wall Street or other companies that want to "lock down" the game, hence why the 5E clones are so crucial to preservation. And the words "One D&D" have a double meaning in that Wizards only wants one D&D to exist. The one they control.

I want everyone to play, to be able to create a 5E game, and for what people love to be preserved.

Level Up is essential because it is the most complete and similar to how people play the 5E version of the game we have in the OGL community.

Low Fantasy Gaming is a fantastic set of rules with pulp-action and dedicated resource management mechanics. This, to me, feels the most like OSR, but also with some excellent 5E-style design and thought put into resource management. Where Into the Unknown and 5TD do "5E-like" sims of OSR games, LFG takes OSR concepts and codifies them into game rules.

This game also introduces several great "hardcore" rules that fit right into a modded hard mode 5E game.

That is the most "5E" way of doing things, strip mechanics you do not need and give players new mechanics to enhance and enforce flavor and genre.

Mail Room: Esper Genesis

It is like a 5E version of Mass Effect with monsters, space combat, exploration, and a ton of cool stuff. I got this in the mail today, and I am waiting for my printed copy of the referee's book. The character builds are great. This understands what makes 5E cool, and it expands upon those concepts.

Seriously, why play Spelljammer?

This is cool.

The art rocks.

This is a real sci-fi game with gargantuan monsters the size of a 5-story building.

Nice.

Oh, and it is a stand-alone 5E OGL game. This means, unlike Spelljammer, EG won't be a legacy book in two years, and the rules will be the same. Nice. No repurchasing this, converting, or having parts of it incompatible. Honestly, I have my 5E core books, but if I am playing 5E, I am sticking to the stand-alone OGL games at this point.

And I will stick with them past One D&D's release date too. These will not change and still use the same familiar framework that One D&D will still have - so it is a win-win. Play this or play that.

And somehow, this feels more cohesive and well-put together than Starfinder, to me. There are no "leveled weapons" here, just your standard gun list, and your character levels up and makes them more deadly. They assume a projectile weapon base, but you can mod the guns to have lasers, blasters, needlers, or whatever you want.

There are rules to create your own space races in the referee's guide. Want Star Wars races? Starfinder races? Star Frontiers races? Mass Effect races? Add them in. Fine. Play. Want giant ships? Referee's guide too. They have a monster manual-type book too.

Want to do "elves in space?" Just use monsters and races from other books. It doesn't need "elves in space," however, or any of that streaming service Star Wars, Star Trek, whatever filler, since the Mass Effect vibes are way too cool. When a sci-fi game needs "elves in space," there are plenty of elf-like sci-fi standards that could fill in without going "too much mojo" on your setting.

Cool. This has it all. Want more? I got the perfect "stuff book" for this game.

Another one I got in the mail, Ultramodern 5. This one isn't a standalone game but a collection of tons of sci-fi stuff for 5E. It looks like it works very well with EG, and I would pick and choose from this since you want to be selective, but it feels like a fantastic add-on if you ever wanted more.

Options: Level Up Advanced 5E

I looked at reviews and discussions of Level Up Advance 5E (LUA5E, or Level Up), and some players took the claim of compatibility as a challenge. Could they recreate their favorite build, even the broken ones, in the game?

If so, the game was good.

If not, the game was trash.

This was where I was screaming at the monitor and rubbing my face in pain. By that logic, even One D&D is trash when that comes out because I know, like Magic the Gathering, Wizards will make adjustments to classes, powers, exploits, one-level dips, and other cheese used to break the game. If they are going through the trouble of replacing the core books, you can bet they will fix many problems - and yes, even copying some of the fixes made in LUA5E.

Me? I am happy that 5E is living outside of Wizards in the OGL. We have our Pathfinder 1e finally.

Not FUD, but Reality

Why is that important? Hasbro owns Wizards, and is listed on the stock market. They are a billion-dollar company. When you get that big, your company can be bought out, sold, and broken apart. Hasbro sees itself as a media company. Look at media companies today (Warner Brothers) and how much pressure they are under to deliver not just profits but an "expected" level of profits - and often, this is ever-increasing and unrealistic.

And our beloved games are under attack. "It can't happen to our game," is what players of Madden, Diablo, and so many other games thought before microtransactions, loot boxes, and forced monetization took over their entire hobbies.

To protect D&D, players need to be able to walk away and have options.

This is not because I dislike 5E or even One D&D; it is because the game is so popular right now I know the vultures from big tech and the games industry are circling. Look at the outrage around Diablo and how Diablo Immortal made 100 million dollars or profits quickly, despite the massive and near-total levels of outrage. Madden makes 1.5 billion yearly.

I hope and pray that I am wrong. I want nothing more than to be completely wrong about this.

But everyone knows the games industry too well to trust them.

Options Keep the Game Healthy

Me? I support the options that allow people to walk away. The OSR, primarily. And for those who love 5E and can't get enough, the first major 5E clone on the market, the largest, and also one of the best put together and complete. LUA5E. No, all your builds will not work here. A lot was fixed, and some of the parts of your builds were built on a block of cheese. You will need to relearn how things work here. Like moving to a new city, you will need to learn to find your way around.

But give it time; sooner or later, you may find you like it better over here.

The community may be smaller, but taking a part in it will make you stand out from the crowd much easier.

I am lucky enough to be starting my 5E journey with LUA5E. I look forward to learning this game and not having the version of Wizards' version of 5E be my game. I have freedom. At this point, those who invented D&D are long gone, and Wizards is not the same company as the old TSR. Wizards did not invent D&D; they just created the modern version. It is a great version, but times move on.

Welcome to the OSR, 5E

5E is now being freed and given to the community through the clone games. And these games will live on forever and be a part of the community.

May you have hundreds of games tailored to every play style and community. May small creators in their basements and garages become the next big thing, and those creators be able to live their dreams. May indie artists be able to illustrate these beautiful games and share their visions with the world.

And really, how much I love the OSR; I hope thousands of 5E players join us as the One D&D game moves on, and players who really love how the game was back in this place and time create their own games, build their own communities, and celebrate a version of the game they love.

And this is not an "us vs. them" thing. People will still love and play One D&D.

Supporting a legacy style of 5E supports diversity in the market and players' preferences. Supporting alternatives, 5E-likes games, or the OSR, keeps the entire hobby vibrant and healthy with options for all.

Castles & Crusades: Skills

I have been playing quite a bit of 5E SRD lately, and I am coming to really dislike the 5E skill list. When you are not fighting, the skill list takes over the game. The list is enormous, typically presented in bold on character sheets, is visually unwieldy, and has this overbearing control of your actions and what you feel you can attempt.

The list, by default, feels like it has this "mind-controlling" effect on play.

Even to the effect that you would never really think to check ability scores - which is what you would do in B/X, roll equal or under. In 5E, would I ever check DEX? Well, it depends since acrobatics covers most of the uses of DEX. Lifting a heavy gate? Don't check STR; check athletics. Would I ever check medicine? Only as a last resort with that -1 modifier.

The list feels like it constrains actions more than it enables or encourages them.

I have had players at my table who froze up when they saw their skill lists. I presented a challenge, and their eyes locked on their character sheet's skill lists as they tried to figure out what to do. If they did not have the skills to do it, or they felt their chances were too low, I got blank stares like they were helpless.

I am not kidding. These were new players. I had to tell them, "try anything!"

The D&D 5E skill list is the 5E game. You could eliminate ability scores and just use a few tag-like modifiers (strong, fast, charming) and eliminate the ability scores entirely. Why make a DEX save when I should be making acrobatics? Why make an STR save when I should be rolling athletics? This would also eliminate the fight between the skill list and ability scores as players wonder what an ability score roll is versus a skill roll. And the game makes more sense since if I have skill proficiency in acrobatics (or a double proficiency), why isn't that used for DEX saves?

I am serious, get rid of the 3-18 stats in 5E, and it is a better and more consistent game.

Contrast that with Castles & Crusades, where you have no skills - only ability scores and the concept of primary (target number 12) and secondary (target number 18) attributes. Your skills are "baked into" the system. Pick STR as a primary? Well, your target number is 12 for all STR tasks and saves. Add your STR mod plus level, apply a negative difficulty per the CK, and you are good to go.

Having an ability as a primary means, "I picked all the skills that this ability uses."

Which is what you typically do anyways in most games. If I have a high STR and a game gives me STR skill picks, guess what I will do? Buy all those sweet STR skills and load them up!

Better yet, the system has a lot of flexibility. Want to know if someone is lying about a subject? WIS would be reading body language, while INT may know more than the person telling the tall tale. Tell the CK how you are trying to detect the lie and pick the best score.

Want to try something? Make a roll. So if CHR isn't a primary, you may not have the best chance at it, but your level may be added in there; plus, the CK can adjust for difficulty, so there is always a chance. In C&C, a mage in a cell can attempt to pick a lock with a piece of metal, just stick it in there, and wiggle it around. The mage won't get to add their level, but he or she will get to add DEX and try.

C&C just handles actions and ability scores so much more cleanly than 5E. It does everything 5E does in a sixth of space and complexity. And since one of your primaries is tied to your class, you get those by default. Non-humans get two primaries (and many special abilities), one they can select; and humans get three, meaning they can select two and be skilled in many areas.

My human rogue gets DEX, and I can pick STR and CHA, and I am done with my saves and skills.

And C&C does not really feel all that different in play than 5E. I want to make a history check? INT is the score; the target number depends on the character. Stealth? DEX. Intimidation? CHR. Want to ballpark difficulties? Well, by the rules, monster HD is the difficulty. Intimidate a 1 HD goblin? That is difficulty 1.

CHR (primary) modifier +3, level 4 character, versus a 1 HD goblin?

3 + 4  = +7 versus a target number of 12 + 1 = 13.

Meet or beat a 6.

And since the target numbers are fixed, as a referee, I am only throwing out a difficulty number, typically 0 to 10, and negatives are also used for easy tasks (or just rule the action a success). I do not have to set a task DC from 5 to 30.

Unlike 5E, you add your level to most checks, unless you would be copying a class ability from another class, like lockpicking. So that is like adding your proficiency bonus to all ability saves and checks in 5E. In C&C, it is easier for high-level heroes to do "hero stuff" like jump pits, make perception rolls, charm guards, or do things everyone can do. So the system has a hidden "skill improvement" factor baked into the rules, and it feels like a pulp-action game.

C&C is a cleaner design, and it plays smoother. It does everything 5E's skill system does. The game also plays exactly like B/X or 5E, or anywhere between.

The 5E design is very bolted-on and clunky as they try to make that skill list work alongside the ability scores. For every problem this hybrid system introduces, they have to write pages of rules to fix the problems of the basic design. Once you introduce "ability score skills," you run into all sorts of problems explaining why a high STR character can't bend bars as easily as someone "trained" to bend bars with a skill.

If you eliminate the skill levels of the 5E list and make them "toggle skills," such as having the medicine skill allowing you to make medicine-related ability score rolls, then the game cleans up, and the ability scores take the leading role. Let everyone try stealth with DEX checks and make specialized rogue abilities with better names: disappear, shadow step, and so on.

One D&D: Deal Breaker #1

Aw, hell no!!!

https://screenrant.com/one-dungeons-dragons-spells-categories-arcane-divine-primal/

I am sorry, I hit my first deal breaker for One D&D. You can take your consolidated spell lists and go back to AD&D 2nd Edition with that idea. They did that then, and they are doing it again, and it is still a terrible idea.

Bards lose their spell list?

Warlocks lose their spell list?

Illusionists?

Paladins?

I love for my bards to have all sorts of flavorful spells with song-like names, lyric of the magnificent, ballad of the virtuous, song of the sky, and you want them to use "arcane spells" like any other run-of-the-mill Gandalf?

Same with paladins, to make them different than clerics, let's give them holy sword, armor of the righteous, guardian aura, and all sorts of incredible paladin-specific abilities.

Warlocks, too; let's make them spooky and flavorful with their signature spells. Creeping hand, the aura of the possessed, mask of darkness, and other incredible warlock powers.

And I can buy 3rd party books that add to my spell lists for one class or another.

Now we have to sort through massive spell lists and look for particular sub-schools of magic we can pick from? Um, you get illusions but not divinations; please have fun and waste time sorting through a massive list of spells from now on. They made spell selection more tedious? To simplify things?

And worse yet, all the bard, warlock, and other unique "arcane power" spells wizards and sorcerers will get as well? Gandalf over there be singing my bard music? I cast, "copyright strike!"

They brought in a diverse set of game designers from the top of their fields to create D&D 5th Edition, and the success of the game shows that process created a legendary edition of the rules. 

This version seems like a "power shuffle" to break the OGL and a bunch of simplifications made by programmers and tech people to make Wizards' digital efforts easier and our lives worse. I can see it now, a bunch of programmers and 3d artists complaining they will need to create unique spell effects and assets for every class, complaining to management, and management pushing three combined spell lists as a compromise.

"It's cheaper to develop a virtual tabletop this way."

And today's designers cease becoming designers with their articles and playtest material; they are just marketers trying to sell us the horrible ideas the digital division needs to reduce the costs of the virtual tabletop they are coming out with.

And there is a proposed bard power to "borrow" any spell from other caster's lists at the higher levels. This again feels like a way to give bards powers without giving them anything, and again, I bet we will see a lot more of this "power borrowing" in other classes as the designers try to find ways to make the digital transition less costly. This is less "One D&D" and more "D&D Digital Edition," as if Ubisoft or EA redesigned the game to be cheaper and easier to create digital platforms.

Borrowing powers and unified spell lists to remove class diversity and identity is not cool.

I am not regressing my game back to AD&D 2nd edition. The spell lists in 2E were a huge step back and made casters act and feel the same. Why do I need an illusionist again? Wizards are much more capable and can cast the same spells.

5E and the class-specific spell lists forever.

And I am feeling better and better about my choice to stick with OGL 5E.

5E (SRD) Hero Lab

If I am playing 5E, it will be with SRD sources and character creators. Hero Lab (classic) supports a 5E character creator module, and it works well. We used the Pathfinder version for years, and this was our Pathfinder go-to character manager. They do not have plans to support One D&D - since nobody knows if 3rd party content will be legal - and I am fine buying this and having it for 5E.

Why don't I want an official character creator? The same reason I did not want an official character creator back in the 4E days, it will eventually have support dropped, and they will force you to upgrade. If I bought 5E books, and I like the 5E game the way it was, then I am playing it that way. For the same reason, there is a considerable retro-gaming crowd that loves NES and SNES games; I get the feeling 5E will be the same way in a few years.

Nothing against One D&D; this is just how gaming works. I am still interested in the next game, but I enjoy 5E as it is today - and all of the game versions.

It is excellent having 5E as it stands today as a "dead game" and support ending for this version. They can say all they want about backward compatibility, but even in their own surveys and marketing, Wizards said 90% of consumers do not care about it anyway and will see a new version as a new version and avoid buying the old stuff. And I know it is not a "dead game," but in my book, when a company stops supporting the system as it was initially written, that version is dead, and the company moves on.

5E, as it was from 2014 to 2024, will be in the OSR soon.

The game as it was played and loved by millions will be preserved.

And third-party character creators like this will keep the 5E version alive and loved by the fans.

I wish they had Level Up 5E modules for this, as it would make a painful 2-hour character creation session where I am flipping back and forth through a 4-page form-fillable PDF and trying to cut and paste the text into too-small fields a more straightforward job. Low Fantasy Gaming does not really need a computer-aided design too like this, but 5E does.

There is way too much to manage in this game. Even in base 5E, there is still way too much to manage, especially if playing solo with a small party. With a B/X or OSR game, I can manage a 4-5 person party by hand easily. With 5E, forget it; these characters are on a complexity level of Palladium or Rolemaster, just in options and interlocking rules.

Now, I am not playing 5E without 5e Hardmode - not happening. Since this just plugs into base 5E, no character sheet changes are needed. Why? I would get bored without challenge. Base 5E is way too forgiving and easy without this book and plugging in the difficulty modifiers suggested.

I like a Dark Souls or Elden Ring level of difficulty, and if I am playing this solo, I want the extra challenge. Otherwise, I know the shtick: healing word (or similar insta-heal), get up, knocked down, healing word, and so on. The fact this routine has been baked into combat and challenge difficulty should give people pause. I am not playing a video game, and when even Mario is a bit more serious about death mechanics, this should make you wonder.

Low Fantasy Gaming vs. Level Up Advanced 5E

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.