Retrospective: Level Up: Advanced 5E

Level Up Advanced 5E is the best of the Open 5E clones. Unlike Tales of the Valiant, they did not "power up" characters to a CR+1 balance; instead, they worked within the original math to refine it, streamline the rules, and add numerous options for characters. A5E is a CR+0 game and very compatible with the original adventures written for the system.

The math in Level Up is very tight, rebalanced, and the exploits are fixed. This has that flat and dry 2014 balance that many fell in love with back in the early days of 5E. They also fixed so much in terms of "pop-up healing" and put real consequences of death and getting reduced to zero hit points.

A5E has all the fixes people wanted in 2014 D&D, but we never got them in 2024 D&D, and Tales of the Valiant never delivered on them. The mechanical support for the exploration and social pillars of play is excellent, and what we should have gotten with Tasha's. Where 2024 D&D strips out all the softer "roleplaying powers" to make AI-based VTT play easier to develop, Level Up A5E doubles down on the roleplaying, social, exploration, and combat powers and gives us more of them.

If 2024 D&D feels too combat-focused and doesn't deliver on social and exploration, give A5E a try.

EN World's newsletter and web team got into a spat with Goodman Games this year over the City State Kickstarter, which was one of the year's lowlights. What was said by the new owners of Judge's Guild was abhorrent, but it is wrong to attack Goodman Games for its efforts in game preservation and its attempt to correct a wrong. Goodman Games also contributed to the issue with terrible communication, so there is blame on both sides.

And both of these companies are pretty forward-looking, and to have seen them fighting just makes me sick inside. We don't need this sort of vicious infighting during an industry downturn; it drives people away from the hobby. However, to put all this on Level Up A5E is just as wrong as the entire ugly episode.

Goodman Games came out for the better, and they had a fantastic showing at Gen Con this year, so they are doing well, and I am happy for them. Their games have a creativity and imagination that this hobby desperately needs in an era of nostalgia-baiting and endlessly rebooting old adventure modules with fresh coats of paint. How many times has Keep on the Borderlands been rebooted? Do we really need this again, only with worse art? There are times when I feel that Wizards will never create something truly great again, such as a Tomb of Horrors or another classic adventure. They don't have it in them.

The best we will ever have is what we already got.

Other than that, head to the indies to find the new classics.

Level Up A5E felt like it came out on the worst side of this fight, and I have seen no mention of it on YouTube in months. I like the game, and there are excellent design choices here. The fight felt like it hurt A5E more, and none of this needed to happen.

Both games were hurt, and I walked away from this, putting both DCC and 5E in storage. DCC is out again, but all of 5E for me is on ice.

Also, Level Up is the older game. Tales of the Valiant is better supported, with regular crowdfunding and new products, as Kobold Press navigates the 2024/ToV tightrope. ToV is better than D&D 2024 by far, but this is where the interest and excitement are these days, not in Level Up A5E. I don't see many people talking about or playing Level Up these days, and my copies are currently in storage. If it comes down to it, DCC will get shelf space over any version of 5E.

ToV is the best supported version of 5E, once you factor in the Shard VTT and owning PDFs.

A5E is the best custom version of 5E.

I like ToV and tried playing this, but I ended up missing the improvements A5E made to the system. Ultimately, the absence of a robust character creation tool doomed both games, with only Shard being the best one so far for ToV, and nothing much for A5E.

ToV's art varies in quality, and it is distracting at times. Level Up does a better job with the art, although it lacks those amazing pieces, by remaining consistent and good throughout.

I grew tired of relying on character creation software for 5E as a whole, as well as the multi-page character sheets. I have DCC. I have OSE. I have ADAD. I have Swords & Wizardry. I have Shadowdark. I have C&C. None of them needs software. They all do the same thing.

GURPS, admittedly, needs software. However, the calculus is different since it is primarily a one-time cost, or Patreon-supported for the other tool (which is still free, but please consider supporting the hard work that goes into it). If I want realistic fantasy with the best characters, GURPS is my game of choice.

Do I need to play with the 5E math, or is B/X and First Edition math superior? I did the numbers, 5E does not maintain character power as well as B/X or First Edition. 5E has a lot of bells and whistles designed to distract you as your character grows weaker in power as they level, and in that regard, it is like any MMO, but far more challenging to jump in and play.

Where ToV gives you about six "special abilities" after character creation, typically A5E gives you a dozen. This makes A5E characters very heavy, and character creation is slow going. I prefer A5E's final characters to ToV's, and the latter feels like a simplified version of this game. Then again, if I am going to take 90 minutes to create a 5E character, I will play GURPS, spend the same amount of time, and have exactly the character I want with better depth and options.

A5E has some of the best exploration mechanics ever developed for 5E. Resting is not easy. Rangers are needed. Rugged terrain can kill you. Survival is important. Supplies are critical. The hardcore 5E gamers from 2014 want their game back, and they've got it here. This was back before 5E became a player empowerment circus and everyone got soft, in the pre-Tasha's days, where serious gamers could still play 5E.

If I ever return to 5E, it will likely be with A5E. Despite the fight between Goodman and EN World, A5E is a good game. It is wrong to attribute "guilt by association" to anyone, and doing so to A5E is equally unjust.

ToV feels too cartoonish, like modern D&D, with goofy characters and their clown-like appearances. Death means nothing. Resting is far too permissive. ToV also makes minor improvements to the system, and the high level of subclass compatibility comes at the cost of the core game not being significantly better than 2014 5E. The power distribution and fixes in ToV are the real improvements, even surpassing those of 2024 D&D.

A5E rebuilds everything, sacrificing subclass compatibility for improving every pillar of the game. The martial classes and fighting styles surpass 2014, 2024, and ToV. You can find rare and unique spells. Everything is cool.

Level Up A5E is 2014 D&D 5E in a bottle, a game from that era before the hardcore players walked away. This was from that time when people still took 5E seriously, and it wasn't this constant stream of identity marketing, the overused Baldur's Gate 3 GMNPC characters, overpowered classes, designed for a failed VTT, zero-risk gameplay, and games that lacked challenge and got boring the higher level you reached. There was a moment when old-school players still played 5E, and A5E was created for them.

By the time Tasha's came around, we got Strixhaven, Spelljammer, and a whole mess of missteps; very few could take D&D 5E seriously. D&D slowly became a joke, a parody of the genre and itself. People went to Shadowdark and the OSR, and after the OGL, other games entirely.

Pathfinder 2 and ToV captured the alternative 5E market. Shadowdark took the rest. Many have left 5E entirely, sick of the entire mess the market has become.

This left A5E to sit there, still supported, still a good version of 5E, but seemingly forgotten.

The Post-D&D Era

Why play?

That is my question, and there is a wealth of alternatives available for D&D-like gaming, especially in MMOs and other online games. I play World of Warcraft, and it is an "instant group" sort of game, which only gets better if you find a great group of people to game with.

Is it "roleplaying with a story?"

No. It is nowhere near tabletop gaming.

But with the new version of D&D leaning heavily into mechanics for VTT gaming, where "soft roleplay" abilities are done away with (check out the 2024 ranger), and all we are left with is "mechanical crunch," then there is very little difference between 2024 D&D and an MMO.

With 2024 D&D leaning into VTT mechanics, all it ends up being is an inferior, clunky, frustrating, slow, and VTT-focused MMO. In fact, if all you want are combat mechanics and gameplay, most players will be better off in an MMO. It is often cheaper, with no "digital book purchases" you will never own, less reading, and instant groups and gameplay. I don't "own" my MMO characters either, but I get more "fun per hour" out of them than these shelves full of dead-tree books that have been patched and updated into obsolescence.

D&D 2024 is a lousy VTT-based MMO.

It is the wrong game designed for the wrong market.

If the D&D team wants to be MMO or mobile game developers, then they should pursue that path.

Why I play is the stories and character building. 5E does an okay job of that, but still, the entire framework of the system is so heavy that it is no different than playing a system that gives me everything plus more, like GURPS. One of the best "character builder" versions of 5E is Level Up A5E, but it takes me 45-90 minutes to create one character. It is a slow, methodical drag, and all I end up with is a 5E character with a dozen special abilities. Many of these are social abilities, so they are welcome and buck the "combat only" trend that 2024 D&D follows.

Tales of the Valiant sticks to 2014 inspirations and has a balance, while A5E excels in exploration and social aspects, albeit at the expense of character complexity.

But 5E relies on limiting your choices depending on the choice you make. Rangers only receive X, Y, or Z. This lineage, however, receives A, B, or C. In the end, I am picking items off a menu and lamenting the fact that I can't find anything else that suits my character concept.

Yes, I can make custom choices, and yes, I can multi-class. But those are hacks in a system that was never designed to support them, and there are better games that give me the complete freedom to have what I want.

I could spend the same time creating a GURPS character and have the exact character I want and imagine. For the time I put into character creation, a system that is full, open, and allows me to get anything I want is superior to 5E's "limited choices" model. The "roleplaying support" is also better in GURPS, with a full advantage and disadvantage system that provides me with everything in 5E's limited toolkit, plus infinitely more options to play with.

For what brings me enjoyment in tabletop gaming, GURPS does a good job for me of checking all the boxes without the limitations and designer hubris of "others knowing the better choices" for me.

But there is a larger question of "why play?"

If D&D only focused on combat and VTT mechanics, it would be a hard pass for me. The MMO is a better deal with far more people to "play with." I can get a group instantly. It takes months to build and find a "good group" in D&D, whereas in World of Warcraft, I can probably find a good guild in a few days. The pain level is about the same as dealing with idiots and bad players, but the MMO gives me a firewall. I can block the bad players and focus on the good ones.

But when I find a good, supportive, and active group of players in an MMO? That is a great situation where I'd love to spend time playing with them every night.

Yes, there is very little storytelling and roleplay in an MMO. That takes more work to find. It is out there, and it is good if you can find a solid community. Again, there is a firewall benefit to consider for online games.

We are in a post-5E world. Yes, it is still played, but nowhere near the levels it was a few years ago. D&D lacked the staying power to sustain that level of interest, and people grew tired of it due to the extensive effort required to make it work. For most people, the MMO is the better choice than D&D, especially if the game is all about combat and mechanics. Boil the choices down, and if all I want is "fun combats, loot, gear, and the sense of progression and accomplishment," the MMO is a clear winner.

For those of us still here, the question should be "where do we look for games that speak to us?"

What are the strengths of the tabletop, and does D&D 2024 serve them?

If not, what is the better game?

Dungeon Crawl Classics & The Others

Despite my feeling down on the system, I still like my Dungeon Crawl Classics books very much. I have too much stuff, and sorting through it helps alleviate the situation, allowing me to focus on the enjoyable aspects of the system rather than the clutter. Too many books drag the system down for me, and if I just focus on the core and a setting book, the game quickly returns with all its charm.

Where DCC shines is as a 5E replacement. It does 90% of what 5E does, but better, especially with the "mighty deeds" dice of the fighter replacing hundreds of pages of rules for feats and subclass abilities. And that die is far more flexible and "cool" than anything 5E can offer, without all the digital purchases, options, extra books, and fluff needed to make 5E "play right."

Every other class has "fun designed in" with clever mechanics and a minimal need for rules to make it all work. Spellburn, thieves and luck, clerics and their deities, and all the others are just so "classic" with their iconic gameplay intact, and nothing needs hundreds of pages of rules to figure out "where the fun is" by building down feat trees and being overpowered and disappointed as you level.

Other games, such as Old School Essentials, provide a great base. This game is glorious in its simplicity and expandability. It stays out of the way. It replaces 5E and then disappears into the background. The flexibility of this system means it can handle any fantasy game. This features some of the best expansions and dungeons ever written in fantasy gaming, even the ones from Labyrinth Lord, and all of them are directly compatible.

Where DCC outshines is in the emergent gameplay, creativity, and "fun classes" that simulate a modern fantasy game, without creating too invincible characters. This and DCC can replace 5E. OSE for the sheer amount of options, and DCC for the fun factor.

Adventures Dark & Deep is the definitive version of the first edition, surpassing the original in quality and organization. Only OSRIC comes close. However, when I start to feel the need to play something this in-depth, I will go for GURPS as my hyper-realistic fantasy game. While ADAD is amazing, DCC wins for fun-factor, and OSE wins for flexibility.

Still, this is such a fantastic game. I wish I had this instead of D&D 4E. This would have replaced it without a doubt.

GURPS wins for hardcore realism. Once you get any level of system mastery over GURPS, the universe opens up to you. People will criticize this game as complex or math-heavy, but it isn't. Once you know, you know, and nothing replaces it.

Still, as a "pick up and play game," it is hard to beat DCC. The level of imagination and creativity is truly remarkable. The speed of play makes this irreplaceable. The emergent gameplay, thanks to its wealth of tables, makes the game unpredictable when played solo. This is still one of my absolute peak 5E replacement games.

Yeah, D&D is on the Decline

The D&D YouTubers I still watch are all reporting DMs Guild sales are massively down, and the best support they see is from their own storefronts. Still, the heyday of the 5E market is long over, and we are in the decline phase of the system's lifecycle.

D&D, in general, feels post-prime.

This is now a "brand and franchise," and it has lost its special appeal. D&D used to "unlock the worlds of fantasy and magic," and now it is a side-brand to Stranger Things and Rick and Morty, or any other pop-culture phenomenon that comes along, allowing them to hitch the D&D wagon to leech relevance.

The death of an IP occurs when it becomes a "leech brand" and is only used in cross-promotional marketing. Nobody eating Pop-Tarts? Link them to Star Wars. Your brand needs to be the one the leech brands come calling to, not the other way around.

And the slow death of 5E D&D is taking down the rest of the market. Interest in roleplaying in general is slowly dying. The clearance sales, the demise of dice companies, and branded junk appearing on Amazon are already evident signs. A new edition of anything won't save a dying game; it only puts a fresh coat of paint over it and hopes to delay the inevitable.

People still play 5E, and the community remains huge. 5E will continue to be played for decades to come, so if you still enjoy it, keep having fun. I would like to support Open 5E, but that is a tough call due to the need for computerized character creation. Either Tales of the Valiant or Level Up is a great choice.

That said, many are dumping 5E and returning to the niche games they loved before 5E came along and became "the only place to play." There is a resurgent OSR crowd, and First Edition is gathering interest. GURPS is still doing what it does, which is everything. Mythras is gathering "walk away" fans who want a more serious game.

Some of the games I see as waning in my interest levels are ones like Traveller, Shadowdark, or Dungeon Crawl Classics. These are late-cycle, bloated, library games that have become harder to play now that I have two shelves of books for each. I need to cut these libraries down to save these games. DCC is frankly losing my interest in comparison to the following three games:

Old School Essentials still does everything DCC does, but faster and easier. You don't have all the charts and special mechanics, but the essence of the simple, fast-playing, zero-reference game is there. This game stays out of the way; you are not constantly going back to the books for a table, and if I have to reference something, it happens in a few seconds rather than minutes.

Also, OSE does the entire "5E thing" with the various "race plus class" combos the best, and it has all the classic and new options that you will find in today's version of the game. OSE is the "5E Lite" that Shadowdark wants to be, but with the classic hireling and stronghold play intact. Shadowdark is still a fantastic game, but it is not as expansive and campaign-supporting as OSE.

Stay out of my way, get rid of all these charts. I don't need the board game scaffolding, and let me play the game as it was back when it was good.

Adventures Dark & Deep is the best First Edition game on the market, supported, and it has a sane license that allows for third-party support. Do not play or support the reprinted games that can't be supported by third parties! You are hurting the community of creators and continuing an unfair practice of supporting a game that can't be supported by the fans. The Lite version seamlessly transitions into the whole game and serves as an ideal entry point for the First Edition hobby.

Even For Gold & Glory is a wonderful reimagination of the Second Edition of the game. If your memories of the game date back to the 1990s, this is your new home, and the art is flat-out terrific, featuring public domain selections that add to the experience. Granted, there is not that much difference between First Edition ADAD and Second Edition FG&G beyond the former being a rules-expanded 1E and the latter being a clone of 2E.

Generally, opt for FG&G if you prefer a streamlined experience and don't need extra options. You want to recreate the classic Second Edition feel, along with 100% compatibility with Second Edition books and adventures. With the reprint of the Monsterous Compendium and the Outer Planes Appendix, you have a complete 2E game.

Plus, the FG&G PDF is free to download and redistribute. Nobody needs to buy anything to play or referee the game. It is one of the best values in gaming.

Go for ADAD if you want an expanded First Edition with numerous rule improvements.

The more detailed First and Second Edition games compete with GURPS, which is becoming my "everything else" game. Once you learn GURPS, there is little else you can't do. Everything from hyper-realistic, gritty fantasy to science fiction opens up, and I am not buying and collecting boxes of games that will go into storage.

GURPS is my only "library game" that holds up to having a large number of books and maintaining my interest. Other games, like Pathfinder 1E, Traveller, DCC, Shadowdark, and others? I get the feeling the more books I have, the worse it gets. GURPS holds my interest, and it gets better with more books. You don't need 95% of them for any genre, as they are just references.

Crafting the Perfect 5E Replacement, Part 16

The more I try to make Open 5E and D&D work for me, the more I find myself saying, "Why bother?"

We had the best edition of the game since its inception. We have plenty of first-edition games out there, too. OSRIC and Adventures Dark and Deep are both excellent. Zero Edition games like Swords & Wizardry are amazing. White-box games are plentiful, and many are printed at cost with free PDFs. Old School Essentials is the king of the B/X market. Even Dungeon Crawl Classics and Castles & Crusades are incredible games, full of fun and potential.

Why do I play 5E? The two significant things that the game brings to the table are subclass abilities and infinite-use attack cantrips. In the end, it doesn't matter since your damage is halved from B/X and first edition games, and your character power goes down the higher level you go. Who cares about fancy baubles you get every level if character power is not preserved?

I would rather have that d8+2 longsword work out until 20th level than have a few dozen subclass abilities and all these tricks to keep my damage contribution high, and monster hit points that scale to piles of hundreds. If I get weaker as I level, none of it matters.

The math is all wrong in 5E.

Pick up Nimble 5e and check the math, along with the average damage per level needed. And then look at the boss monsters with a few hundred hit points. My First Edition fighter scales much better with the old-school linear math.

But the First Edition has the crunch. This game will require you to consider the supplies you can carry and their limitations. You need to prepare for a dungeon session with hardcore prepper levels of detail. This feels like going on a camping trip and realizing that you forgot to take matches or something to start a fire with. Games like Shadowdark and others minimize the "prep," but that level of detail is a part of the game. What you can carry, where you carry it, and how you get it out during an emergency is a part of your "character build."

That gear? Those are character abilities, and the more you carry, the slower you move.

And there will be things you take and leave behind, just so you can haul a few more gold coins out. We no longer need the pole, spikes, and rope; leave them behind so we can get out of here alive.

Too many people see gear as "unfun" and "boring paperwork." Gear is a part of your character build, along with the weight you can haul.

Adventures Dark & Deep is a fantastic version of the First Edition game. There is so much in here that I would never really need much else. I told Grok to generate a few hundred fantasy races for me for every game, world, movie, and fantasy setting I would ever need. They are so simple that it all works. Toss a few level limits on them, and we are good to go. Grok can even make classes for you, and all those prompts are on my ADAD House Rules page.

When I am done worrying about character power and abilities, the world and story become more important. I want to strip away all the noise around fantasy gaming and focus on what is essential. We get so distracted by "builds" and "character power" that we lose sight of the story we are trying to tell.

Plus, if I want a character build game, I have the ultimate one with GURPS over there on the shelf.

The SBRPG Restoration Project, Part 5

What was SBRPG an alternative to?

To examine the landscape, you will need to go back to 2005. While GURPS 4 was still a new system back then, we were not directly trying to create a replacement for that. What was on our minds was D&D 3.5E, and SBRPG is a direct replacement for that system.

D&D never changes; the designers always "string you along" with new options and classes, and this is true of any version of D&D they have ever released. You are blowing paycheck after paycheck on new books, more options, and better choices. The more you buy, the worse it gets, and the more unhappy you become.

Eventually, they create a new edition as a soft reset when the sales drag, and sell it all to you again. I have seen seven versions of the Ranger over three editions of Wizards' D&D from 3.0 to 5.5E, with three of them being in 5E.

In the 3.5E days, we knew there had to be universal formulas for things like character development and design, race, and power design, so we set out to create those. You did not need to recognize that endlessly buying books to have a system, such as a system with. You do not need endless "thesaurus classes", the bard, troubador, skald, minstrel, entertainer, and so on. Why?

Is a barbarian a fighter who harnesses rage power and employs a specific fighting style? Tack that on there, adjust your XP per level, and get playing. We don't need a dozen pages of fluff text and class powers for what is essentially a fighter.

You world may not even have "fighters" and you may do something else, like a duelist or pirate. Those aren't rogues. Why do we need to make those subclasses of the thief class? D&D 3.5E, to maintain their "sell you stuff" monetization strategy, constantly forces square pegs into round holes all the time.

Levels define skills. D&D 3.5E and Pathfinder 1e never got that. Why have levels if your skills are not tied to them? Why do I need to spend points on "class skills?" If the stealth skill is a rogue class feature, then what value should a level 6 thief's stealth be rated at? Hello? McFly!

Round peg, yes, round hole.

Level 6, that's right!

It was an abysmal decision for D&D 3.0 and 3.5E to make. How many books did they print with that assumption? And Paizo carried this on to Pathfinder 1e? From D&D 3.0 being released in 2000 to the end of Pathfinder 1 in 2019, we had 20 years of this nonsense.

We liked the idea of classes defining roles and skills, but we didn't like having to constantly buy books, and that pile getting higher and higher. So we wrote a system with class design, and then power design went along with that, since that is typically another thing they hold out on to keep selling you books.

We spent 20 years buying books as well.

GURPS and Champions have power design, but they do not have classes. We liked classes since the original version of SBRPG was designed to play freeform, allowing players to have a "level 5 fighter" with a few ability scores and assume the rest from there. You can play SBRPG that way and have it work fine. You can't play GURPS or Champions by just thinking a level for anything.

SBRPG is so simple that you could play it at lunch with 3d6 and a piece of paper. Even a "level 5 power" inflicts a level 5 hazard, and most spells are easily figured out (1d6L, 2d6C, or 3d6S) per level. Sacrifice a few levels for increased range or additional hazard levels or effects. Simplified, level-based power design is a new system I want to add to the revision.

We had a version of SBRPG that used a d20. We preferred 3d6, and it was a truly universal game where you could find these dice anywhere in the world and play the system easily. Once you get a d20 involved, you need more dice for damage, and things get messy. We put 3d6 on the cover, and that is all you need.

The SBRPG Restoration Project, Part 4

Once I get into "writing games," I don't really want to stop. SBRPG comes first. Then, I can work on other projects. I will avoid the 5E market if I write for different games; if my heart is not in it, why write for that market? I know, "that is what sells," but if my heart is not there, I am not doing it just for the money.

George and I wrote many games. We did this as a hobby. Many of them are stashed in folders and just sitting there.

Looking back, SBRPG was an incredible game. There is nothing else like it, even to this day. It reminds me of classic Traveller in a way, but with 3d6 and a much more flexible resolution system, where hazards (also known as saves) are tied into the core mechanic. It utilizes levels for characters, hazards, and a few other elements, and then transitions to a full-point-buy and design system. Most of the game involves a level plus ability score modifier versus a difficulty, roll, and go mechanic.

There is this unwritten rule in the game where all you have is a pack of five Yahtzee dice, and the whole world is open to you. We designed the game to be played with 3d6 only and used multipliers for higher rolls. Most of the game can be played "in your head," which is nice. Without powers, the game moves at a high rate of speed, and we designed it to be played live at the table.

When we used this system, we never rolled for initiative or did turn structure. Whoever said something next got to do something, and the referee was the final decider of "who goes next." Everyone just shouted what they did, the referee pointed at them, and the player rolled for it. The referee then handled a few monsters and then pointed back at the players, who shouted something else. Everything happened live; we never rolled for initiative, and the referee is smart enough to figure out fairness and pacing.

It was like a demolition derby meets a boxing match, where things happened in real time. It was a thrilling experience, and I refereed those games fairly. Everyone was happy, and no one felt left out. The game is all about energy and momentum. We only put an initiative system in the game because that is what we felt every game needed. In reality, we never did. This "no initiative rule" will likely be included in the remaster.

It is one of the best "theater of the mind" systems ever written.