Homebrew 5E Dungeons & Dragons OR…

Learn a New (Possibly Better) Game Entirely.

I recently saw a video by a certain D&D YouTube Content Creator (who is totally not a WotC shill as far as we’re told,) talking about whether or not we should learn a new game or just kitbash it into another 5E D&D campaign (wink.) Because “Just play Pathfinder,” isn’t a better solution. I’m not offended, but it does look kinda funny. I don’t want to “name drop” anybody or link this particular video.

It got me thinking. I mean, yeah I could totally run a game TTJRPG style the same way Fabula Ultima presents it using the same old 5E rules. I honestly considered that option before I bought my copy of Fabula Ultima. I have my copy of Anime 5E, which I also love, sitting right next to my PHB. It’s not all that terribly different. But why not learn a new game and a new perspective?

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

I’ve been buying new TTRPGs for so long, I don’t know if I can name them all at this point.

I love TTRPGs in general. Yes, I follow the 5E garbage train fire. January was pretty much the last straw for me supporting Wizards of the Coast until things improve dramatically. This Open Game License fiasco was pretty much the last nail in the coffin as far as I’m concerned. But I bought, read, ran, and played other games well before 5E ever came around. WotC probably doesn’t want the D&D crowd to know this, but there are games outside of 5E. Lots of them. Lots of really good ones, too.

#IndieTTRPGMonth was all about buying/trying out new games. If you look on Itch.io, a lot of them are free. There are some truly interesting free games out there. Most of the Itch offerings are very reasonably priced if they’re not free and a lot of the creators over there also accept donations.

PDF games aside, I still have a lot of my physical books from the 1980s, 90s, and early 2K. I mean, electronic copies take up a lot less room in my man cave, but there’s a lot of nostalgia in those old games. Some of these TTRPGs might have PDFs, but I don’t really have the funds to invest in them all over again. GURPS would bankrupt me, assuming Traveller didn’t wipe out my funds first. All of the Palladium games would probably require a loan at this point. Then we get into all of the little indie games I’ve picked up at conventions and working in game stores.

So many games, so much goodness. Why get chained down to just one?

Yes, I could eat pizza every meal for a year and never get tired of it, but I would change up my toppings occasionally. That’s how I am about TTRPGs, too. I’ll never get tired of running games, rolling dice, making characters, and so on. I can do it with almost any game. Yes, there are a few I’m in no hurry to run again, but I don’t like anchovy marshmallow pizza as much, either.

Sure, “Just play Pathfinder.” Then, when you’re done with that, try Call of Cthulhu, ICONS, or Mutant Crawl Classics. Variety really is the spice of life in this case, especially if you’re a GM or even a game designer. Having the knowledge of dozens of different character creation styles, mechanics, and settings is such a huge, mind-expanding advantage. I don’t thing people realize how much one’s perspective changes going back to regular old D&D after playing a half a dozen other games.

Just shifting gears from a core rules system such as Cypher System or FATE fantasy can expand a GM’s horizons and world views when it comes to gaming. Imagine creating or even converting a game mostly from scratch and just adding the mechanics of one’s own choosing. It’s so liberating not being shackled to the same old D&D cosmology, Forgotten Realms maps, religions, and old AD&D 2E stuff poorly regurgitated by the corporate machine into 5E. Imagine being so excited for the next game session, it’s like starting 5E all over again for the first time.

I’m surprised anyone is still totally stuck on 5E since the Great OGL Debacle of 2023.

Some of these D&D YouTubers are straight-up blowing my mind these days. Wizards of the Coast literally stood poised to wreck Third Party Publishers, indie game designers, and anyone else who depends on the OGL to make a living. We could have literally seen half or more of the TTRPG industry go belly up while the other half scrambled to recover.

Well known faces and names in the D&D community stood up to WotC in January and have since promptly turned around and run right back to their overlords at WotC/Hasbro. It’s almost like these YouTubers were persuaded to come back to WotC back when the “big” Content Creators Summit happened. “Oh, we’re not shills,” they decree. Yet here we are not even six months later listening to them talk about the latest and greatest Bigby’s Fist Pumping Glory of the Giants (or whatever they’re calling it.)

Bring a shovel. Shit’s about to get deep between the Glory of the Giants and Planescape. WotC, their pets on YouTube and a bunch of raging fanboys/girls are going to try everything and anything to sell us on those two products to keep D&D going between now and when their new PHB 2024 Edition drops.

Monte Cook Games has already released a far superior (in my opinion) Path of the Planebreaker book. Pathfinder 2E Rage of Elements was just released as well. My point here is: no one has to run back to WotC and D&D to save face. There are plenty of alternative products out there from Third Party 5E publishers or other companies entirely that still do basically the same darn things. I can’t even count the number of products that take the concepts from Spelljammer and do it better.

This article went to a place I was already headed.

(No, not Hell.) I can take any game setting from just about anywhere and kitbash it into a 5E game. I’ve homebrewed all kinds of things into a D&D game. I hate to say it, but there’s no rocket science here.

I can also take any setting and turn it into FATE, Cypher System, Cortex, Old School Essentials, or any other number of game systems. I could even take one of WotC’s big, shiny hardcover D&D mega-adventures and run it using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay if I really wanted to badly enough. It’s all just a matter of refitting the mechanical elements to whichever game system I want. (Ravnica in WHFRP. I’d love to see that.)

One of the final points I’d like to make is that any GM can take an adventure, campaign, or setting and just about any system there is and make it work for them. I’ve walked into convention games with zero prep and run adventures for systems I barely knew. If I can do it, I’m willing to bet most other GMs can, too. Most games have similar elements, similar mechanics, and some sort of mechanical element to manipulate..

Astonishing though it is, roleplaying- true roleplaying- doesn’t even need a system. Yes, having some sort of mechanics for when task resolution or conflict comes up in the game is nice. But I can run a character based off of a description and little else. I do it all the time as a GM. Some random NPC will be one line in my notes and there’s the whole character. No stats, just a line of text describing a tiny bit about them.

You can run anything as D&D 5E, but why not try something else?

At least that’s how I think the YouTube video should have ended. It came off more as, “Why learn an new game when I can just go back to the same old 5E we’re all used to?” Maybe that’s what I heard, anyway. I went back and watched the whole thing again and I’m still not impressed that it’s not just free advertising for D&D 5E.

Yes, people recognize 5E, and most of us, even us old geezers started on D&D in some form. At the end of the day, it’s no better or worse than any other game on the market. It’s the mother of all games, but it’s not the only game in town.

Please encourage your players to try new things. If it’s not going well after a couple of sessions, go back to D&D. But don’t give up on new games because D&D has the most advertising, the biggest brand name, etc. Do what works best for you and your group. But, family- there is so much more out there to explore than just the big box brand names.

Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you. Now that August is upon us, we’re going to have lots and lots more to talk about.