One of the chief complaints about 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons is the CR (Challenge Rating) system which is used to balance combat encounters for the game.
The specific complaint is that the CR system doesn’t really work to create balanced encounters and using the system as designed results in weak and underpowered encounters. An additional issue is that the CR system assumes multiple encounters per day which is an unrealistic expectation for a standard D&D campaign.
Today we are going to talk about the CR system, specifically the design space, some of its math, the theory behind its design and how and what can be adapted to get different results.
The High Powered Fantasy Is Core
One important concept to embrace about 5th edition as a game design is that all of the architecture is built around the game being a high-powered fantasy RPG. The characters in the game are high-octane heroes with very powerful abilities that grow in power exponentially and its assumed as a design that the heroes always win, essentially. To use a metaphor, they are the Avengers, superheroes that always prevail and only suffer setbacks but are expected to come out victorious in a dramatic fashion.
This is important to understand when working with the CR system as designed as the core design of the game directly affects how the CR is designed to work out mathematically and as a practical application in the game.
The fact that D&D 5th edition is a high-powered fantasy is not a problem, it is a feature and should only be addressed if you actually feel the game lacks challenge in your group. If you find yourself wishing the game was more challenging, there are many approaches, but keeping the adjustments simple, and using a minimalist approach that has maximum impact is key.
In short, the CR math is setup to ensure that the players always feel like high-powered fantasy heroes. The complaint that the CR math results in weak encounters even when they are set to hard or epic is valid, but this is by design and working as intended. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
Gauging Expectations
Given the acceptance of the above, the question is what are the expectations? I think it’s fair to assume that some, perhaps many players want there to be more of a tactical challenge, and more risk involved in the outcome of combat encounters, meaning that while they enjoy the high fantasy as a narrative premise, some at least may feel the game should be more challenging as a whole, in particular in the area of combat encounters.
I think this is fair, while certainly if you want the high-powered fantasy, the CR system and the base out-of-the-box setup for the game has you covered, but for those that wish it produced more challenging encounters, the question is what can be done?
From here, we will assume that players and DM’s want a more challenging tactical experience.
Now one thing you could clearly do is simply toss out the CR system or alter its math but the math behind this system is actually quite good in my opinion and I believe that it can still be applied as is while getting the result we want, a more challenging game, by altering the conditions of the game itself.
I believe the conditions of the game is where the correction should be, not an adaptation of the CR system itself.
The reason for this is monster design. All of the monsters have been quite carefully tailored to their CR rating, there was a lot of attention paid to the math of bound accuracy and the leveling of monster powers vs. character levels and all the mechanical layers of class design.
Mess with the CR math and you mess with a far wider design space of the game’s core. This will and does as many have discovered really mess with the balance of the game in very unexpected ways where some classes remain impossibly strong, while others really struggle, some monsters suddenly become super powerful, while others actually become weaker still. It may seem strange that this happens when you mess with the CR math until you realize that at the heart of the game’s very intricate balance is this system.
In a word adapting the CR system math comes with many unexpected complexities which I won’t get into in this post, instead, I will show you a much easier way.
Adjusting difficulty so the CR math becomes challenging
The best way to adapt D&D in any edition of the game which includes this one is to adjust the core of the games pillars. There are three of them.
Ability Scores, Hit Points and what I call The Alpha Strike empowerment. Reduce these and regardless of class or level, the entire framework of power is reduced and the difficulty of the game increases.
Adjusting ability scores
Ability scores are one of the pillars of D&D, high scores make characters much more powerful and reliable, lower scores make them less so, but if you really push the envelope here and allow characters to have exceptionally poor scores, the games challenge increase dramatically.
The default system uses one of two options. 4d6 drop the lowest and place scores to preference or the point buy system.
In these systems, the average score is going to be 12-13 and you are very likely to have scores of 15-17.
While this character probably didn’t start out quite this strong at the start of the campaign, the benefits of starting with high ability scores and the increases earned through levels end up creating flawless high-octane characters that have no trouble dealing with that pesky CR systems math.
Since you are able to place the scores wherever you like, the end result is that you will have bonus modifiers where it count for your character. For example, a fighter will have good modifiers for strength and constitution ensuring they have it where it counts, accuracy of hitting, bonus to damage and extra hit points.
More importantly, you are unlikely to have scores with negative modifiers, they will at least be few and far between.
By lowering the potential for abilities scores and the control over ability score placement you can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of characters globally across all classes.
If you use 3d6 rolled down the chain with no rerolls, and no control over the scores you reduce the average score to a 10 which results in no modifier and you are almost guaranteed that each character will have 1, 2 or even potentially 3 scores that are in the negative space. Having 1 or 2 scores with a bonus modifier is considered lucky and you are unlikely to have scores as high as 16-18, these will be far and few in-between.
This is the first step of bringing the CR system into alignment as it will not only force hard decisions and create imperfect characters but result in a global reduction of power the players will be able to exert individually and as a team.
Adjusting hit points
Next we address the issue with hit points. 1st level characters start with maximum hit points, plus their constitution modifier. The lowest score possible here is 6 which is quite low, but it’s possible to reach scores of 16 with some classes and a high constitution score.
What you want to do is make the early game a very dangerous proposition, but also ensure that the games hit points always remain a relatively low average.
Start by rolling hit points at 1st level as you would normally do during level-up instead of starting with max hit points.
More importantly, do not create any house rules for re-rolls or exceptions for when players roll low. Let the statistical averages play out.
Players will feel the sting and if you stick to your guns and remain firm on 1 roll no exceptions, characters will always feel squishy and in danger, no matter what level they attain as the average hit points of characters will remain very low.
Adjusting Alpha Strike
The final step is to address the Alpha Strike problem. Lets first describe it.
The Alpha Strike problem is that with all of the combined potential might the players can execute, if they are certain that they don’t have to preserve resources, their power level is always equal to their most powerful abilities in every fight. As such the balance of the game has no swings or averages, they are always at their best.
Now you don’t want to have to make adaptions to the adventure, or create resource drains or force multiple combats in order to tax the players to ensure they can’t do this which is the usual advice given by most.
I personally find this a very meta and unnatural way to approach a solution to this balance issue, in fact, even the CR system itself assumes six to eight fights per day to ensure there is a balance to this core problem but I think there is a much better and more systematic way to do this that does not require you do anything special with the adventures that you run.
The added bonus here is that this is actually an official alternative rule in the game.
It’s called the Gritty Realism rule. This rule essentially changes the definition of a short rest to 8 hours of rest and a long rest to 7 days of rest.
This rule ensures that character resources are finite and they must carefully pick and choose with each encounter what resources they will expend.
Oddly it also supports the premise of how the CR system is balanced across multiple encounters because over the course of 7 in-game days, it’s far more likely that adventures will have the assumed six to eight encounters a day, which in the case of gritty realism is actually 7 adventuring days.
This all but eliminates the concept of the alpha strike, in fact, such things will still happen but only during important and dramatic moments when the players face powerful foes (aka boss fights). The rest of the time they are going to always be conserving their resources, covetting them and only expanding them when it really matters.
Conclusion
With the implementation of this architecture what you will discover is that the CR math suddenly works. Average encounters will feel average, hard encounters will feel hard and deadly encounters will almost certainly kill characters. This balance will remain from 1st level all the way to 20th level, it will never falter, the CR system math will simply work.
Not only this but there are many other side benefits of using this approach as many old-school gamers will attest.
Fear of fights and the danger of fighting becomes real to the players as they will naturally recognize that they are no longer super-powered high fantasy heroes but very much mortal. Other dangers like traps become more vivid, and social encounters in which players seek help from NPC’s will become far more important.
Combat will become more tactical where players will be encouraged to maximize every inch of their character’s benefits, min-maxing their powers in any way they. The premise of the character build can be given free rein, letting players build their super weapons and manipulate the system to their heart’s content without fear of breaking the balance of the game.
You can be more generous with magic items, let them find stuff that empowers them and you will find that they not only appreciate discoveries of fine treasures far more but they become quite precious to the players. Every potion, every scroll, every ring, every magic sword will be a real treasure.
Even with the implementation of this architecture for your game, characters will still become powerful and they will still eventually face dragons and epic monsters, but the journey will hopefully be fraught with real feelings of danger and excitement, so when they do face that dragon, it’s going to be the epic experience it should be.
When D&D is a challenging experience, the heart and soul of everything players do from role-playing to battles with enemies become more meaningful, they will feel like they earn every inch of their success, where the rewards for hard-fought battles and completion of quests are well deserved and leveling up feels like a real treat.
You will also find that the published adventures for 5th edition that feel far too easy become real challenges where players can actually fail. This will inspire you as a DM and make you feel like you are doing your job without having to constantly try to figure out how to make the game more interesting and challenging. Let the architecture of the game do it for you.
I thought the timing for writing an article about potential RPG’s you could get into to replace 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons is quite perfect. Lots of people are upset with Wizards of the Coast after their completely disastrous handling of the franchise in the recent year and recent weeks in particular. I think a lot of people are looking around to see what else is out there and while I already have plenty of lists and information about other RPG’s on this site, I wanted to make one specifically for 5e players looking for alternatives.
Now one consideration for this list includes “logic” for the replacement of 5th edition. What I mean is that I don’t think “I’m mad at Wizards of the Coast” is really a reason someone might stop playing 5th edition, but I do think there is a wide array of logical reasons why a group, DM or individual player might. As such this list isn’t just about games that replicate 5th edition as a replacement but includes other RPG’s that do certain elements of the tabletop experience in a more focused and better way than 5th edition. As such I have included a “If you don’t like….” logic section for each game that describes an element of 5th edition you might not like and how the listed game does that particular element better. Hopefully, this helps to make the list more focused.
Enjoy the list and good luck in your hunt for a replacement for 5th edition D&D. Note that while this is a top 10 list, I have not put them in order of quality or anything like that. These are all great games for different reasons so it’s just a list of 10 games rather than a top 10 list of games to replace 5th edition D&D.
Pathfinder 2nd Edition
If you don’t like….
If you don’t like a game that has poor rules coverage and constantly asks you to make rulings where you wish there was rules coverage, I think Pathfinder 2nd edition is a great choice.
I think if you’re talking about replacing 5th edition Dungeon and Dragons, the most common, rightfully so, piece of advice you will get is to switch to Pathfinder 2nd edition. I think this is more of a competitor driven advice than necessarily good advice, which is not to say its bad advice. It really depends on what aspects of 5th edition you enjoy as to whether or not this will be the right choice for you.
Be warned that while Pathfinder 2nd edition does a lot of elements a lot better than 5th edition, it is a very focused game with a very specific style of play built into it that is not terribly flexible if you want to focus on other elements and styles of play outside of its focus.
Pathfinder first and foremost is an incredibly robust and option-rich game with an extremely focused effort on balance and mechanization of gameplay. What that really means is that this game has massive rules coverage, has very heavy character optimization which results in a focus on the execution of rules rather than rulings premise. 5th edition D&D is quite a bit different in this regard, many of 5th edition rules assumed a lot of D&D intervention and hand waving of rules in favor of narrative storytelling.
This is an adventure game in which any action you take has a rule associated with it and character options that can improve that effort. Now this does not mean you always execute every rule in the game when you do something, it just means you have the coverage, the option as a DM, to include some sort of execution when players do anything. Hand waving is certainly a part of the game, but unlike 5th edition, hand waving is rarely done out of necessity because of an absence of rules, it’s done as a preference. The rules always have your back in Pathfinder 2nd edition and this is one of the really distinct differences between the two games.
There is a firm consistency in how actions and execution work in PF2nd, rules are very explicit and clear and there is little left to interpretation. The consistency of the rules is such that once you get used to the system, you can pretty much always guess how an element works and be correct, so despite a 600+ core rulebook, most of the rules work exactly as you expect based on the precedence of the standardization of rules and the purpose of outlining each one is for unique circumstances and cases of specific action to ensure you are rarely put in a situation where you must rule something yourself.
This however is only a small part of Pathfinder 2nd edition despite it being a core feature and while the ruleset is incredibly consistent, balanced and easy to use, the best part of Pathfinder is that it comes with an incredibly detailed fantasy setting with a rich history and total support for it via its mechanics. Every class, race as well as unique fantasy trope, like spell sources, magic items etc.. are built into the world and have an explanation in terms of where in this world that thing comes from.
Its a wonderfully satisfying thing for a DM when a player picks Goblin as an ancestry for example and you can look up where goblins come from, what is there culture like, what are some of the unique aspects that feed into and bring to the table, the narrative of that race. It’s so well fleshed out, and well written and there are so many fantasy/story rabbit holes to crawl into it’s amazing. It all brings Pathfinders Golarion setting to life and makes it feel real. You have this really firm basis on which the game is set and while of course, you have the option of using homebrew or other settings with Pathfinder, Golarion is so well done, so perfectly matched up with the content of this system you are likely to discover that you won’t want to do this extra work. It’s a fantastic setup.
Finally and probably most importantly there is absolutely no question in my mind that Pathfinder Adventure Paths (adventures written for Pathfinder) are absolutely top-notch quality. Paizo is an absolute legend when it comes to creating adventures and campaigns for their game and for this reason alone it’s worth making the switch in my opinion.
One great example is Kingmaker, one of Pathfinder’s premiere adventure paths that have players not only going on a grand adventure of exploration but establishing their own kingdom. This one was so popular it got its own video game, arguably one of the best CRPG’s to come out since the Baulders Gate series.
One additional sort of bonus with Paizo and Pathfinder 2nd edition is that they achieved a long time ago the communities desired inclusivity of the game and developed the game with a modern morale compass that has escaped Wizards of the Coast for so long. Paizo is in a word, a prime example of what a modern company’s political stance should be, which is simply to do the right thing without being asked to and without making it a political stance constantly brought up as a marketing ploy. They simply just act right without all the morale signaling and politics unlike Wizards of the Coasts that is not only constantly shoving politics in your face, but also constantly screwing it up and releasing racist and sexist crap in their books despite any messaging.
Pathfinder 2nd edition is a great game and Paizo is a fantastic company that stands with the player community. They understand their audience, they understand their community and they know how to support their game. Pathfinder 2nd edition is without question the most well-supported game in the market today.
Castles & Crusades
If you don’t like….
The idea of switching systems and having it impact your style of play as a 5e player or DM, Castles & Crusades is the perfect system for you. It is very much in the same style & vein of play as 5th edition with an incredibly robust and flexible game system that allows for a very easy transition from 5e.
While the 5th edition community may not necessarily be up to speed on the evolutions of the game since the original 1st edition AD&D, it is a fact that D&D branched off into different directions since those early days. I think most might not be aware that the true descendant of the original AD&D game is Castles & Crusades. In fact, Gary Gygax himself played Castles & Crusades and it is actually the true successor to Dungeons and Dragons, not 2nd or 3rd edition D&D which evolved the game into the modern 5th edition game you are familiar with. Still, while the mechanics certainly differ, the core premise is the same.
In fact, in an alternative timeline where the franchise was not bought out by Wizards of the Coast, today everyone would know Castles & Crusades simply as D&D.
Upon opening the player’s handbook the first thing that will strike you about the game is how familiar and very D&Dish it is. This is a game that stuck to the classic tropes of the game but don’t mistake it as an OSR game because it most certainly is not part of the OSR even though many will claim it to be. This is a modernly designed game, that takes into account all of the evolutions of D&D and the RPG hobby as a whole in its design. In its 8th printing, this game has continued to be supported since 2004 and though it too has evolved over time, it has also remained consistent and compatible with all material that has ever been printed for it as Troll Lord Games is dedicated to creating a stable and consistent gaming environment for its fans long term.
Castles & Crusades plays as you probably already imagine D&D to be, its going to be oddly familiar if you have played 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th edition D&D and this is because much of the evolution of the hobby has been hit and miss with the Wizards of the Coast versions of the game, while Castles & Crusades has hand-picked the things that have been established to work well and fine-tuned those elements over decades of focused testing.
Like Paizo’s Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades has a default built-in setting called Aihrde, but unlike Pathfinder this setting is sort of intentionally designed to be a bit of a generic D&D world to allow players a tremendous amount of customization. Castles & Crusades is incredibly flexible, in fact, you can take any classic D&D setting and use C&C as a rule system with little if any additions or changes to be made to make it fit. It is very organically designed to be D&D and as such, all of the core races and classes you are accustomed to are there as you would expect.
More than that though Castles & Crusades via expanded books has continually made sure that those elements in official D&D settings that are created for those settings are also released in expansion books for C&C. Meaning there are books like the Crusader Companion which are available for free that give you races like Dragonborn, classes like Berserker and concepts like Multi-Classing. Castles & Crusades has kept up with all of the modern fantasy tropes and though they do not include these in the base game, ensuring D&D has a clear and very classic starting point, these expansions allow the game to be expanded easily to include any sort of fantasy you want to run. Everything I wished Wizards of the Coast would do with D&D.
Castles & Crusades is also a very open-source game, meaning the licensing of the game is designed to support the community and 3rd party efforts and this aspect of the game is fully leveraged making this an extremely well-supported game both officially and unofficially. Whatever you are looking for, whether it be rules on mass combat, kingdom management, expanded spell systems, alternative combat systems, conversions of classic adventures, system conversions… whatever it is, you name it and Castles & Crusades has your back. What makes the C&C community so great is that most of this material is available for free, which includes the Players Handbook itself. For example, there is a 5th edition conversion guide if you wish to take your 5e game and convert it to Castles and Crusades available for free.
I think the thing that makes Castles & Crusades really special in the market is the high level of quality of the books and the content itself. This is not a company that just splashes source books willy nilly and while the library is large at this point, this is because the game has been in operation under the same, stable and consistent system for over 2 decades. The result is consistently high-quality content that you can rely on.
Castles & Crusades is without question one of the premier systems and comes with the highest of recommendations to 5e players looking for an alternative mainly because switching from 5e to Castles and Crusades is not going to ask you to change your style of play.
Forbidden Lands
If you don’t like….
If you are finding D&D adventure modules and running pre-made stories that tend to rely on rails for the players to stay on a bit dull and you like your game to be gritty and tough, Forbidden Lands is a great choice.
I have talked about the award-winning Forbidden Lands many times on this blog and there is a very solid reason for it. It is a hidden gem in the rough waters that often accompany the OSR.
Let’s be honest here for a minute. The issue with the OSR is that, in part at least, it’s about playing old-school editions of the game and while that may strike a note with many, for 5e players, going back to playing B/X or AD&D isn’t exactly what they are looking for. 5e players like modernization and that is not only ok, but arguably it’s to be encouraged. Not everyone shares in the nostalgia of playing the classics as they were, much of the D&D community is forward-looking and Forbidden Lands is one of the few OSR games that says “hey we like old school gaming, we just don’t like old school rules”.
Forbidden Lands however is more than just a throwback to the classic play style with modern rules, it is a uniquely focused game that targets a very specific sub-genre of D&D play. Namely, the concept of the hex-crawl and survival D&D built are the premise of emergent gameplay.
In Forbidden Lands, you and your players are living in a kind of post-apocalyptic area and era of this world. The dust of the tumultuous past has settled and you are asked to venture out into the unknown and forgotten lands to make your own way.
In this game you explore the world that is dynamically generated by the DM using a very clever set of rules which generate what I would call emergent gameplay. Meaning that even the DM doesn’t fully know what is going to happen and since this is very much an open-world game by design, everything that happens is entirely driven by the players own motivations. What do they want to do in this wild open space? Whatever that is, the execution of that becomes the story of the game and everything about the game is designed to support that endeavor.
Now Forbidden Lands itself does have a back story so in a sense, eventually, you uncover enough information about the world around you to pursue what is effectively a “main campaign” of the game itself. So while the whole place is a dynamically generated playground for the players to pursue any endeavors they like, the games story does have a resolution and all of the dynamic content of the game that is generated in the course of play is tied into this piece of the game.
While the game is not a d20 system that 5e players might be familiar with, it does boast Free League Games premiere custom mechanic on which many other great games are based like my personal favorite, Aliens RPG. It’s a simple, very abstract system that will be a snap to learn and yet is incredibly entertaining as it relies on more than simply pass-fail states.
All and all I think Forbidden Lands is one of those games you must experience to appreciate fully but for the DM’s out there looking for something interesting to run, this game is as much fun to run as it is to play. The story writing here is absolutely amazing and the setting itself, dark, ominous and full of mystery, is everything you want in a great RPG experience.
One of my favorite games to come out this side of the century.
The One Ring
If you don’t like….
If you have grown tired of the generic, anything-goes fantasy that 5e has grown into and want something with a classic fantasy feel that is focused on role-playing, The One Ring, based on Tolkien’s middle-earth is going to get you there!
The One Ring is simply, Lord of the Rings the RPG, but it’s so much more than that simply because it’s a game that understands on what it is based and mechanically aligns itself to ensure your adventures play out like the Lord of the Rings books and movies.
This game has an incredible focus on making sure that middle-earth in all its epic glory comes to life at the table, not only by having a very strong game mechanic that really pushes for this to be true but because The One Ring has some of the best writers in the business working on it.
Ruins of The Lost Realms is a taste of what I mean here, we are talking about work that fits the term literature in my opinion, setting you up to have adventures that players don’t even realize are possible in an RPG. You are going to feel things as The One Ring focuses very heavily on the premise of RP with the G taking a bit of a back seat.
The hallmark of a great RPG is that it’s supported by well-written adventure modules and Ruins Of The Lost Realm is sooooo much more than just a great adventure module, it is so well-written, it deserves a place right next to The Silmarillion.
In short, The One Ring, as you would hope it would be, is focused squarely on storytelling and on personal relationships all with a backdrop of epic, world-shaking, questing that makes the players feel like they are a character in the Fellowship of The Ring. It does this organically, in a way where even players that are ordinarily not the story-focused kind will find themselves sucked into this one, not unlike what happens when you binge-watch the latest hit from Netflix.
To me the One Ring is the definition of what an RPG should be, it puts you right in the middle of one of the greatest fantasy stories ever told and hands you the reigns. Easily the single best RPG to come out 2022, I dare say no RPG fan should miss this one, especially a Lord of the Rings fan. Grab that starter box and check it out!
A Song of Ice and Fire
If you don’t like….
If you are finding D&D to be a bit unrealistic, with too much focus on adventures and not enough focus on the premise of believable characterization and wish to play something more gritty, A Song of Ice and Fire is for you.
Let’s be a little frank about D&D. The premise of the game is that you are a supposed “adventurer”, a bit of a do-gooder, that goes around exploring dungeons, fighting monsters and generally doing things no actual person, even in a fantasy setting is likely to volunteer to do. It sort of requires a level of suspension of disbelief in the context of a fantasy that I think is very often a bit of a stretch, almost cartoony.
Modern fantasy writing like the Game of Thrones saga is a good example of what happens when you look at a fantasy world from a more realistic perspective and use human nature as a guide to creating a world in which people act more like you might expect them to.
Based on George R.R. Martin’s modern classic world, A Song of Ice and Fire is dark, gritty, violent and sometimes a bit too real, but for fans, despite the need to sometimes look away, we love it and Song of Ice and Fire the RPG brings all of that to the table.
In what I can only describe as one of the most unique setups in RPG’s today, in Song of Ice and Fire you and your friends not only create characters all belonging to one of the houses in the story, but part of the game is creating and managing that house yourself.
This is a game that puts you in the driver’s seat in the political struggles in the Game of Thrones story where you try to raise your house to prominence by participating in the cutthroat Game of Thrones where you win or you die.
Beautifully designed to suit the gritty nature of the game world, this is a game where fighting is absolutely lethal and a last resort, while simultaneously the political stories are not much refuge as they are equally brutal. It’s a game in which you are either a wolf or a sheep, but of course the game encourages you to be a wolf and so you struggle against an endless barrage of political maneuvering, some of your own creation, others thrust upon you.
There is never a dull moment in this game as it provides the DM with so much ammunition to keep the stories going, not only that, you can do all of it in the backdrop of the story of the unfolding setting itself, changing events and creating your own version of the Game of Thrones story.
My friends and I played this one a few years back and to this day we talk about the politics, people and events of that game. This game just has a way of imprinting on you as it plays out in such a vivid and believable fashion.
Absolutely adore this one, I would only caution players and DM’s that this is definitely a far cry from an “adventuring” game. It’s a political thriller, the kick-down-doors and kill-everything approach simply does not work here. It’s a game where finesse, political strategy and calculated moves must be executed with surgical precision, its a game for planners. It’s wonderful and painful at the same time, but this game creates stories you will not soon forget.
Alternity RPG
If you don’t like…
Many D&D players that are currently looking around for an alternative, may be doing so simply because they have grown tired of the fantasy genre as a whole and a natural switch is to check out science fiction. If that describes you, let me tell you about the greatest science-fiction game ever made, Alternity!
Before I do that, however, let’s get on the same page. Fantasy and Science-Fiction are very related genres, in fact, to a point, they are the same. Both genres were born from the same place, arguably, the first science-fiction-fantasy book ever written was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and for a long time after that, the difference between what is fantasy and what is science fiction was a murky construct that would only be split decades later.
Now with that said I bring you Alternity, a game that not only is the precursor to the entire d20 system but may in fact, despite decades of D20-based games, be the best example of the system done right. This well-oiled machine was designed by TSR and Wizards of the Coast alumni Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker and is without question in my mind one of the best science-fiction RPG’s ever published and remains so to this day.
It is designed to allow a GM to create every kind of science-fiction setting from the ground up from post-apocalyptic wastelands to space operas, from Blade Runner-style future earth to X-File style horror-mystery science-fiction. It is all-inclusive and does it with such elegance and style it pains me that this final TSR release which in my opinion is one of the best RPG’s to come out of TSR ever, which includes all versions of D&D, went under most people’s radars.
This game is mechanically a fusion of a skill-based and class-based system allowing for maximum customization and it boasts clear rules for all of the major science-fiction tropes from Cybergear, Mutations, Hacking, Space Combat, Space Exploration, Virtual Reality and even Magic.
There is literally nothing you can think of in the vein of science-fiction or fantasy that cannot be done with this system and it can go from high end super powered science-fiction to gritty reality with only the most minor adaptation, all work done for you and laid out in the Gamemasters Guide.
Not only is Alternity the unquestionable king of science-fiction in RPG’s, it also has two of the best non-franchise science-fiction settings ever written made just for it. Darkmatter, an X-Files-style alien conspiracy setting and Stardrive, a massive, Star Wars-level space opera that is based on very gritty and believable predictions about the future.
Stardrive, in my humble opinion, remains one of the best settings ever written for any RPG. How this is not a movie at this point I don’t know, it’s a masterpiece.
I love this game and have been using it for the better part of 2 decades and while there are many fantastic science-fiction offerings out there today like the amazing Aliens RPG (more on that later) and the highly thematic Star Wars Edge of the Empire, to me Alternity is the best of the best, the king of kings, the ultimate and only RPG true science-fiction fans should even be considering if you are going to consider sci-fi as an alternative to 5th edition D&D.
Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea
If you don’t like…
If you have grown tired of your games feeling like easy walk-throughs for your players and you want to present them with a tough and gritty challenge there are actually quite a few RPG’s to pick from that do this, in fact, it could be a list of its own. The reason I think Hyperborea stands out when assuming 5th edition players is that this game is what a fantasy RPG might look like if a modern gamer tried to create a classic D&D clone with one exception (I will get to that in a minute).
Technically Hyperborea falls into the OSR space as, at its core, this is a B/X based game, but unlike B/X there are some adjustments made to the setting to make some of the B/X concepts that might offend modern gamers a bit more palatable and better suited. More importantly, it’s a bit crunchier and feels much more complete than B/X ever did.
For example, this is a game where you simply choose a class, no race selection (same as B/X rules) but it’s because this is a human-centric world and while other “things” exist in the world, as players, you play only humans. Now there are different cultures of humans so you can select your race in the sense of choosing a unique human culture like Amazon, Kelts or Vikings for example, but you aren’t picking Elves, Dwarves or Halflings.
You get a very wide selection of classes and sub-classes to pick from with a good level of crunch, 22 in total, each with a unique set of abilities that will ensure every character is unique and each class is built into the context of the setting which itself is a kind of almost post-apocalyptic medieval fantasy with some science-fiction elements in the backdrop.
What makes this a great transition game for 5e players is that it takes into account the sort of focal preferences that modern gamers enjoy. It’s a simple-to-learn, easy to get into game and It focuses on rulings over rules, while offering the brevity of crunchy mechanics so that you have something to lean on. I would describe it as having the exact same amount of crunch as 5e.
Personally for me, what I love about it and really what I ultimately love about most RPG’s is that it takes a story-first sort of approach and does so by leading by great example with the setting. That is the sort of game that speaks to me. Hyperborea, the default setting for this game, just hits so many unique fantasy tropes, approaches fantasy a bit out of the box and has some really fantastic presentation so all of the material is easy to absorb and make your own.
It’s what I would call for 5e players, a really great rut buster. Like if your finding your 5e games are becoming uninspired if you are seeing patterns emerging and you want to do something different, switching to a setting that really re-writes fantasy as you know it is a really great way to break that cycle and Hyperborea not only does that, but provides you with what I think 5e players will find is a very familiar yet fun new system to learn that produces this very gritty reality. This IS D&D, don’t doubt it, but it’s got a bit of an edge to it.
Now I should mention one of the drawbacks here and that is by default, Hyperborea uses THAC0 (combat matrix) as its primary combat resolution system with descending armor class. I don’t know why the publisher chose this method over the much simpler attack bonus, ascending armor class structure, it’s a mistake and they shouldn’t have done it. Not that this is a deal breaker for me and frankly, it’s not that difficult to flip the math yourself but, if you think THAC0 is stupid and I agree with you, you have to decide for yourself if this is going to be a deal breaker or not. It is what I would call a chink in the armor of what is otherwise a fantastic game.
On the plus side, the system is used to great effect and Hyperborea really captures the gritty battle sequence with perfection. It’s a unique combat system that is based on B/X but expanded upon to try to bring some realism to the fight with some welcome cinematic bits. Melee combat in this game is vicious and it will create that much-needed stress and sense of danger that 5e is so often missing with consistency.
In my book Hyberborea is a real gem in the rough, it’s definitely a bit edgy and will require some know-how by the GM to make good use of the system, so there is a learning curve here, but it’s got a crunch in all the right places and has really good coverage for elements of fantasy adventure you really need including more expansive topics like Naval Battles, Mass Combat and Sieges, so you can play this game in different scales at different times. Just a really well-written, well-thought-out system that really brings gritty fantasy to life.
GURPS (Generic Universal Roleplaying System)
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If you wish Dungeons and Dragons fantasy had a bit more realism in it, GURPS is undoubtedly the master of bringing the simulation of reality to life in a fantasy RPG and has been for decades.
I know that for many D&D players and DM’s the draw to D&D is the abstraction, the cinematic world in which fantasy exists quite a ways outside of the premise of realistic world and functions more like a cinematic movie with CGI-infused action… but… For some players, they want to create some gritty reality and though I would still recommend Hyperborea for most, for those that really want to get into the nuts and bolts of reality to a point of simulation, for that GURPS is one of the most robust, most flexible and without question one of the most expansive systems in existence.
Not only does GURPS have every conceivable element of fantasy covered, in truth, GURPS really lives up to the name universal because you can effectively run pretty much anything you can think of using this system.
This is a skill and skill point buy system, so character creation here redefines the word expansive. You could take a million players and ask them all to make a Fighter and you are going to have a million unique Fighters. This is a game that does not repeat and two characters are never going to be alike.
The simulation element here is very detailed and as such, execution of most mechanics like combat is going to be slow. This is a game that zooms in on every slash and parry, you track things like location of your hits, damage to your armor, cuts and bruises and everything in-between.
It’s extremely visceral and definitely a big departure from the abstraction of Dungeons and Dragons, but I would be remiss not to include it in this list as GURPS ability to create a truly unique gaming experience is unmatched. I can’t think of any game systems on the market, past or present that produces the sort of focused gaming experience that GURPS is capable of.
For me, GURPS is often my game of choice when I want to do something extremely specific when it comes to a campaign using elements of play normally not covered by other systems. For example, a few years back I wanted to run a western and I wanted to have a really great, very detailed mechanic for gun fights that was realistic to the real west, not the one you see in movies. GURPS performed wonderfully bringing that surprising reality of gunfights of the old west to the table.
When it comes to fantasy, the nice thing about GURPS is that the level of detail you want to include in your campaign is up to you. This is because everything in GURPS is very modular and almost all the rules are optional. At the core of GURPS is an extremely simple system and you simply add layers of rules like legos to get that perfect amount of detail you’re looking for.
If nothing else, for DM’s it’s a great read as simply exposing yourself to this system, will plant ideas into your head you probably would never have considered before. It’s a gold mine of inspiration, both mechanical and narrative which, even if you never play the system is worth reading.
Great system, and definitely a worthy addition to this list.
Old School Essentials
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If you wonder what D&D was like back in the 80’s and what to try something super classic, Old School Essentials has you covered.
Ok so I know I plug Old School Essentials quite a bit and so do a lot of nostalgic D&D fans who love the old days, but I’m also painfully aware how difficult reading and coming to grips with the old D&D books can be. Basic/Expert D&D and Advanced D&D 1st edition are not the most approachable games, in particular, if you are a 5th edition player and accustomed to a certain level of organization.
I think this is what makes Old School Essentials and it’s expanded book, Advanced Genre Fantasy Rules such a great core system. It gives you the old-school game, but with a measure of modernization that 5e players will understand and expect.
This is an amazing re-edit of the classic 1st edition D&D game (both basic and advanced) and delivers that old-school gaming experience minus a few of unwanted warts like THAC0!
I have been running Old School Essentials for nearly two years now with a gaming crew and we have had an absolute blast with this one. It’s simple and straight to the point and while very structured, delivers a great space for some amazing storytelling.
This game is, in a nutshell, everything that old-school gaming is about so if you’re looking to give that classic D&D experience a try, this is the game you want to do it with.
What makes old-school D&D so much fun. Watch stranger things.. its that.
Alien RPG
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If you are unsure what to do about the whole Wizards of the Coast-D&D fiasco and you just need a break but don’t want to commit to anything long-term but still want to run something fun for your gaming group while you decide, Alien RPG is the KING of One-Shots.
Ok so it’s science-fiction and not fantasy and I get maybe this is a bit of a stretch for this list, but Alien RPG, voted #4 of Best RPGS in 2023 by GamersRadar to the surprise of no one, is without question in my mind, one of the most fun one shots I have ever run.
With Alien RPG there are two modes of play. Campaign mode, which is your standard way of running RPG’s where you run an episodic… campaign as the name suggests and Cinematic mode which is a mode designed to give you that Alien movie feel, perfect for one-shots or short mini-series campaigns.
What you get with Alien RPG is a gritty, yet easy-to-run system similar to the one used in Forbidden Lands (already mentioned) but you get to horse around in the Alien universe.
Horror, suspense and action wrapped up in what I believe to be one of the best franchises in existence.
Now I will admit, being a super fan, I’m a bit biased here, but the popularity of this game is not a fad, there is real substance here as the writing and design for this game is absolutely top-notch. You have never seen a gaming book this gorgeous in your life if all you know is D&D. They spared no expense anywhere, it’s so well supported, so beautifully designed and illustrated, the writing just melts off the page.
I love this game, it’s without question the game I grab if someone comes to me and says “let’s run a one-shot”. This game delivers on all pistons, it is pitch-perfect in bringing an exciting one-shot experience.
We continue where we left off in part I of our article series where I talk about past editions of Dungeons & Dragons and why you may consider playing them even today. In today’s article, I will cover my take on 1st edition BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master & Immortal) rules and 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons.
Enjoy the article!
1st edition BECMI D&D Rules
I will say here and now that to me BECMI was and still is a revelation, hands down one of the best systems with the best style and theme for D&D in existance. That said, its really part of the B/X line of games and I kind of see it as an expanded part of the same thing.
In our first article, we talked about 1st edition Basic & Expert, a rule system that was intentionally easy to learn and run, designed for new players, but there was a wrinkle in the plan. Despite its design goal of being an introduction to D&D and an entry point to Advanced D&D rules, the B/X system took on a life of its own. Not only because it gained its own following but because despite any effort to make it new player friendly, the game was obscenely difficult to be successful in as players with some of the toughest challenges and heavy-handed death rules to exist in any version of D&D (0 HP = Dead).
The game was ultimately adopted by a community that went from newbies trying to learn the game to seasoned gamers who preferred Basic & Expert to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and didn’t want to switch. Instead what they wanted were more robust rules sub-systems that offered more coverage within the framework (B/X) they were accustomed to.
There were other reasons for B/X to be continued and expanded on which related to legal matters in TSR that involved the franchise name, who controls it, and who collects royalties on the D&D name, but we are not here for a history lesson, rather we are here to talk about the game itself.
With this growing community of Basic/Expert rules players wanting something more robust, but unwilling to switch to the AD&D game space, TSR started producing more advanced rules for the B/X system, in a sense creating advanced Basic/Expert D&D. TSR in the 80’s was a confusing time.
Between 1977 to 1944 there were quite a few different versions of the 1st edition Basic game and this makes going back today trying to figuire out what’s what kind of confusing as it was back then. To be clear, BECMI is based on the 1st edition Mentzer Basic edition of the game released in 1983. Depicted here is the 1991 release known as “The Black Box” which is not the same thing as one example.
There was a total of 3 additional supplements that expanded the game starting with the Companion set, then moving to the Master and Immortal sets. Each new set added new rules complexity as well as addressed the required adjustment needed for previous sets to accommodate higher-level play (longer character progressions). By the time they finished releasing these 3 new supplementary rule sets, the maximum level for characters was a whopping 36th level!
All five sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master & Immortal) were later released in a single-volume book called The Dungeons & Dragons Cyclopedia and this earned the system which was seen as separate from both B/X and AD&D the name BECMI.
The Rules Cyclopedia is the final and most complete version of the BECMI system and I think few would argue that there is any reason beyond nostalgic collection to chase after the 5 box set volumes if you wish to play BECMI. It’s all here and it’s all you need and more.
BECMI was in a lot of ways very similar to the 1st edition B/X rules but unlike B/X it was actually a much closer match to AD&D itself in terms of rules coverage. It was a bit of both but it was modular which meant that unlike AD&D it was designed specifically so that you could use some or all of the companion rules, picking and choosing the mechanics that you liked or were relevant to your campaign and excluding those that weren’t.
While there were several very notable subsystems that were added to the basic and expert rules, BECMI ran and played very much like the standard B/X system.
The Companion Set added rules for elements like unarmed combat, the creation and management of strongholds (Dominion Rules) which coincided with the increased levels of character classes possible, capping off at 25th level. This of course meant that spell-casting characters had access to higher-level spells which are also included in the companion set, as well as all the amenities needed to accommodate higher-level play (hit points, saving throws, etc..)
One important addition of the companion set was the addition of new sub-classes which for the 5th edition crowd should sound familiar. You might think 5e invented this concept, but the truth is that sub-classes is actually a 1st edition D&D concept, arriving with the companion set.
Clerics that reached 9th level could choose to become a Druid sub-class which came with its own benefits including new spell lists for the Druid class.
This wasn’t the only new sub-class option included as each class after reaching 9th level had some sub-class options, though when the companion came out it was only the druid that was identifiable as a fully-fledged sub-class.
Finally, the companion set gave us mass combat which worked with the dominion rules and the henchmen, hirelings & follower rules of the base sets. It also expanded a great deal the types of adventures that were created for the system, notably some of my all-time favorites like Test of the Warlords which made full use of the companion set rules.
The Companion Set was supported by the Companion Module series which kicked off with Test of the Warlords showing off its kindom management and mass combat rules. It was a great adventure that really was a self contained campaign set in the remote region of Norwarld in the Mystara setting. For modern games this was the Pathfinder Kingmaker of its time.
The Master set was perhaps the most important addition to the increasingly more complex format that became BECMI. Aside from more growth for all classes, capping out at 36th level, the master rules brought quite a few new optional and expanded rules that in many ways made this a more advanced game than advanced D&D.
Weapon Mastery was probably the most widely appreciated element of the Master rules, though equally the most complex set of rules. It created what is even to this day one of the most robust melee and ranged combat systems for warrior classes available for D&D, in a sense fixing all of the complaints about the power levels of late game fighter and melee classes in general. It allowed characters to acquire unique fighting styles and moves, improve the damage with the weapons they used and allow them to be quite competitive with classes like the Magic-User and Cleric on the power scale.
Additionally, we got rules for Siege Equipment and running sieges, a natural extension of the mass combat and dominion management rules found in the companion set and much appreciated for those of us that didn’t shy away from the expansive kingdom management content available for the game by this time.
The Master box set was probobly one of the least frequently used sets simply because really high level play was quite rare. That said, I think BECMI had a really great approach to high level play and it was quite viable, just not often done.
There was lots of good stuff in the Master rules, in fact, of all the things added to the basic/expert rules, this was it was the Master rules that really filled in the finishing touches on gaps typically found in D&D games. Things we often ran across like players wanting to raise armies, build castles and conquer lands that just weren’t in any other D&D system at the time.
The final set, The Immortal rules in essence did two things. It explained where gods come from and it defined the concept of ascending to a higher plane of existence as a player, aka, becoming a god yourself.
It was an interesting read but to be honest I have never met anyone who played a D&D campaign so long that they achieved 36th level let alone having a need for rules on how to become a god. It’s a cool concept but really lacked purpose in your typical D&D campaign.
There were very few immortal level modules made to support this level of play and I don’t know anyone who ever actually ran or played in them, but actually they were really well done. In particular The Immortal Storm was very clever.
One cool thing in the Immortal set was descriptions of various immortal gods and this lore I always found to be quite useful for inspiration. From Orcus to Demogorgon, the Immortals book gave you some really great lore for your fantasy campaign.
The final book, The Rules Cyclopedia was mostly known to be a consolidation of the rules found in the BECMI sets, but under closer inspection, there are quite a few things that were unique to this book not found in the other companions.
Several sub-classes were added including the Mystic, a sort of Monk as well as variations on the fighter like Paladins and Rangers. At the time I don’t think anyone really considered these missing elements of the game as AD&D was fully compatible with BECMI so if you wanted to play a Ranger for example you could just use the one in AD&D as written. Still it was nice to have all the classes available in BECMI consolidated in one book.
The book also included a lot of corrections and frankly, it was much appreciated as there were quite a few quality issues and conflicting rules in the original BECMI companion books which are corrected here. Most notably the Rules Cyclopedia gave explanations and maps for The Known World, officially named Mystara at this point further solidifying BECMI’s rule system as a foundation for the setting. This was later further expanded on by the Mystara Gazetteers, a book series that dove into the details of the setting, notably including several new classes and character options for players with each book.
While the compilation of BECMI rules into a single book was the point of the Rules Cyclopedia, the best thing to come out of it really was the establishment of Mystara as a full setting that would later see unmatched support in the D&D Gazetteers that followed.
The Rules Cyclopedia to me is a foundation book for D&D in general as many of the rules sub-systems like Mass Combat, Sieges, Dominion Rules, and Weapon Mastery system are completely system agnostic. As such, there is a lot in this book that can be used with any D&D system, past and present and despite the age of these rules, they are still the most applicable and thorough rules on these subjects, far more expansive, detailed, and usable at the table than any others that came before or since. The Rules Cyclopedia is only second to the 1st edition AD&D DMG as far as D&D resource books go in my opinion.
Collectively what made BECMI a premier version of D&D was how well it covered every aspect of D&D play. No matter what your players wanted to do, this system had your back with clever mechanics, clear rules and though quirky at times, great system-agnostic sub-systems that have really stood the test of time. Like AD&D, taken as a whole it’s quite robust but unlike AD&D, it is a very modular system so you can start out with Basic rules and simply add supplements as your campaign matures and you have new requirements.
Why Play It Today?
I’m biased, but I have to say it, why wouldn’t you play it today? BECMI to me, no matter what aspect of D&D play you look at is one of the most effective. flexible and straight-to-the-point D&D systems available today. It eases you into the game one step at a time, and grows in both complexity and depth as you proceed into higher tiers of play, while remaining very easy to balance and extremely playable even at really high levels.
If you are like me and you want to run a D&D campaign as a lifestyle game, one that goes on for years and years, most D&D systems really can’t do that well while keeping character progression as a constant in the game. In particular in modern systems, but even AD&D, once you reach a certain level, usually around 6-10+, the game becomes unwieldy. Characters become too powerful and trying to create balanced gameplay becomes impossible. With BECMI your characters can be 25th level and they can still die at the hands of a Goblin horde, the game never ceases to be dangerous or challenging.
Now I will grant you 36th level is kind of overkill, I can’t even imagine how long of a campaign you would need to run to reach such heights, but the sweet spot, unlike most D&D games, isn’t between 1 to 9th levels. This system continues to be extremely useful while remaining challenging even at the highest tiers of play. I have personally run campaigns for BECMI that reached as high as 25th level and the game remained every bit as good as it was at 1st level.
The thing however I find most people enjoy about the game is that it is so universally applicable and adaptable as a fantasy adventure platform for RPG’s. While at its core is a setting, Mystara, the troupes found in this system are extremely flexible and modular. It really doesn’t take much effort to come to conclusions on how one might adapt this system to other settings and because it is compatible with 1st and 2nd edition AD&D as written, by association you have most of the major D&D settings compatibility built in.
This has been my system of choice for D&D fantasy adventure for decades, its harshness and focus on resource management as well as its presentation is a great foundation for Dungeons & Dragons. I have played all of the D&D systems pretty extensively and I enjoyed those games, but whenever I think about running D&D, this is the one system that really speaks to me. To me this is real D&D.
Now the question isn’t why would I play the game, the question is why would you. I think the best sales pitch for this game is that its universally agnostic and modular. You can take this system as a DM and mold it in any way you want, including adding rules from other D&D systems, and without changing a word use those systems without issue. In a sense, BECMI is universally compatible with all D&D editions that came after it with perhaps the only exception being 4e.
Hands down the best version of D&D in my opinion… period.. no discussion.
2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Just like 1st edition AD&D, 2nd edition AD&D was reprinted in collectors edition a few years back.
2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons had some pretty big shoes to fill after the explosive success of 1st edition, but it also had to contend with some of the fallout of the satanic panic and the many complaints from the player base about the inconsistency and quirkiness of the 1st edition AD&D rules. It was a game born out of the need for correcting the past.
1st edition AD&D was really complex and 2nd edition AD&D really entered the scene with an attitude that while it would be backward compatible, which I think it very much was, it was also going to be considerably easier. TSR I think wanted the game to be a bit less Advanced and perhaps this was because they wanted to consolidate the two forms of D&D that existed at the time BECMI and AD&D under one roof. It would also be the first edition of the game that would be created without Gary Gygax’s influence for better or for worse.
With that as a framework 2nd edition AD&D I think was very successful in what it wanted to achieve but not particularly successful as a product. A lot of the issue with this version of the game had to do with the declining quality control at TSR which was starting to flounder as a company. By the end of the 2nd edition run, TSR was basically bankrupt. I would argue however it was not the fault of the game system so much as the company running it.
2nd edition AD&D also had a starter box for new players, arguably the quality control on this thing was pretty terrible. Unlike all the starter sets that came before that are still admired today and considered “classic”, this is a relic no one bought then, nor is it a collectors thing today. It was just really terrible.
AD&D 2nd edition had three core elements that actually made it an evolutionary step up from its successor.
For one, it was considerably easier to run. The rules were more digestible, easier to understand and far more consistent. It was still a system that relied heavily on adjudication with rules still having that “up to interpretation” style of writing more often than I think it should have but it was still a very broad system with great coverage and far fewer restrictions. Unlike 1st edition you really could run 2nd edition AD&D RAW, there were many rules and many moving parts as such you would not typically use the system in its entirety but thankfully the system made a clear distinction between rules that were core rules and those that were optional. This modularity was an important feature of the game.
In fact, it’s modularity that really defined 2e AD&D, a concept of the system that would be regrettably abandoned in future editions to the detriment of the game. At this point, D&D had established itself as a game that could be run in a wide range of styles with a really wide range of player preferences, so having a huge chunk of the rules be optional was a really great aspect of the game that allowed all of these styles to live harmoniously under one system. Less fuel for table arguments, it was understood that the DM would decide which optional rules to or not to use.
The great thing about 2e was that it used blue boxes to identify optional rules and it used the space to explain why you might want to use the optional rule and how it could affect the game. This was extremely useful and made the system feel really well constructed.
The second thing that made 2nd edition really great was the “Complete X” book collection which brought in a concept called Kits that allowed for really far-reaching character customization. These books were largely theme-based class option books and there was one book for each class which made 2nd edition AD&D a game system with a much bigger broader character creation element than we had ever seen before with a bigger focus on the narrative of the character rather than strictly mechanics, even though it was actually quite mechanical nonetheless.
These kits not only gave you many examples of the unique handling of different classes but gave you the tools you needed as a DM to create your own custom kits to serve whatever setting or story you were working on. Now I will say these kits often had poor balance, there were clear winners and losers here, but D&D at this point was still very much an “up to the DM” focused game so it was natural for DM’s to see any mechanics in these books as “here is a cool idea, use it if you like it, change it if you don’t”.
The Complete Handbooks were in my opinion one of the greatest things to happen to D&D as it allowed players to create really unique backstory elements and align them with their mechanical characters. You could be an investigator, bounty hunter or smuggler rather than just the very plain Thief. These books also included really specific narrative constructs, for example in the Complete Thieves handbook thieves guilds were explained in great detail as well as really detailed rules for how to use thief skills and much more.
This principle continued in other rules expansion books like the Tome of Magic, Player Options: Skills & Powers and Player Options: Combat & Tactics. These books were actually poorly received which should have been a warning sign to future editions as much of what would become 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons were based on these books.
Personally, I always liked these books, in the same way I like the Complete X collection, they were inspirational and optional rules that with a bit of DM intervention formed some great core mechanics that allowed the creation of many unique styles of play.
While all of the options books had clear balance issues and suffered from quality control problems, with some DM intervention they offered increadible expansion to the game for those players who wanted more mechanical gears to pull on.
The final thing that made 2e AD&D really quite special was the fact that the game for the first time in the history of D&D considered magic-users and magic, in general, an intrinsic part of the game. It was clear from previous editions that Gary Gygax did not like Magic-Users or magic in his game and it really showed in how he treated them. With 2e AD&D, TSR made magic & magic-users fun, versatile and diverse. You could play specialist mages like Necromancers and Enchanters, the spell system and spells themselves had far broader effects with a lot of narrative flare and perhaps most importantly you had more diversity in spell-casting classes.
Magic was further supported by the Complete of Books which included specialization books like the Complete Necromancer. This was an amazing level of detail that would set a new standard for how players viewed and what could be done with their magic-user class.
I have always felt that 2e AD&D was a clear and much-needed fix for 1st edition AD&D. Today, without question if I was going to run AD&D in any form, it would be 2nd edition. In fact, I would argue that objectively, even though I prefer B/X and BECMI, 2e AD&D was the best of the TSR versions of D&D. It’s a very robust, very modular and very flexible system. It got a pretty bad wrap largely because of terrible mismanagement of TSR and probably could have been a much better system if quality control was a bit more stringent but it was the last system that we would see that was actually backward compatible with classic D&D content and so for many, it is the final version of true and real D&D.
The D&D franchise would be purchased by Wizards of the Coast after 2nd edition and through this act, the classic era of D&D was over.
Why Play It Today?
For me personally 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons is a great system because it’s quite easy to run, has fairly clear rules while retaining that classic D&D feel. Now like all the classic versions of D&D that came out of TSR it is a mechanically flawed system, there is no disputing that, but its philosophy, its concept, its spirit as a D&D game is beyond reproach. It is D&D as it was meant to played, as it was designed to be experienced.
To me everything that followed starting with 3rd edition was an improvement on how D&D works mechanically, but in those mechanical evolutions a hole was punctured in the spirit of the game and it would turn out to be a major over correction where mechanics became favored over philosophy and concepts of the game missing the point of the many expanded concept introduced in 2nd edition AD&D. The soul of D&D would soon be diminished and by 4th edition D&D totally abandoned.
I say this here because 2nd edition was probobly the best game mechanically that TSR came up with, meaning, it had the cleanest gameplay, it was the best mechanical version of D&D that still retained the spirit of the game.
For modern gamers this is the edition I would actually recommend if your curious about what people mean by “Classic D&D”. Sure you will find some of the mechanics a bit quirky but it will be familiar, it will make sense, you will know how to play intrinsicly if you have played modern versions of the game. Mechanically its all here, even as flawed as it may appear to you (because it actually is flawed), but you will get to experience the classic nature of the game, that gritty D&D spirit that really doesn’t exist in modern editions of the game.
Dungeons & Dragons is rapidly approaching its 50th anniversary as a franchise and what a glorious 50 years it has been. Over the decades D&D has enjoyed immense success in just about every medium, but of course, the pencil-and-paper RPG is what makes this wheel spin. At no time that I recall has D&D seen more success than in recent years, the hobby has absolutely exploded in popularity and it’s in part because of its appearance in various tv shows, but certainly primarily because of the incredibly successful 5th edition released in 2014. The game has enjoyed many versions and variations of the game, each one a variant of what came before and if you really count some of the sub-edition and in-between stuff there is actually, even more, to choose from than might be immediately apparent.
Now modern gamers are going to play modern games, it’s natural as you enter the hobby, you go for the latest and greatest which is not only expected but recommended. That said, as a guy who has played every edition of the game extensively and is a huge history buff, I’m always excited to talk about what has come before and why modern gamers might want to take a spell and consider some of these past additions for their table even today.
5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, the latest version of the game made great strides in an attempt to solidify past and present editions into a single system to satisfy the many growing issues that have crept up in modern designs which include 3rd and 4th editions of the game. It’s by far and wide the most popular modern edition of the game with past generations of gamers as well as obviously, modern games (can you say 50 million people playing D&D!?).
Contrary to popular belief, past editions of the game as compared to modern games are not some old relics to be discarded and forgotten. Any one of these old editions can create amazing table experiences and I would argue are worth exploring even today. In fact, most complaints about modern games stem from certain gaming elements that were already tested, identified and resolved in old systems that have crept back into the modern game design because when you don’t know your history you’re doomed to repeat it, yes I’m looking squinty-eyed at you Wizards of the Coast!
With that little enticement, in today’s article, we are going to travel back in time and talk about each edition that came before, what you might find in between the pages and why it might just very well be worth your time to explore it.
Enjoy the article, it’s a big one!
Dungeons & Dragons: Original Edition
The original game was reprinted in a deluxe box set in 2013 as part of D&D’s 40th year anniversary. This classic, despite its age, is still played today.
We can only speculate as to what was going through Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s minds when they created the original white box set, after all, they were paving the way into uncharted territory perhaps not even aware that they were about to create an entire genre of gaming and franchise that would last for decades. Interviews in hindseight make them appear almost like geniuses who percieved a whole new genre of gaming but the reality is they were just a couple of nerds that like to make games.
The original game is perhaps best described as a proof of concept. Many of the ideas that would evolve from this 1st version of D&D were very rough in this original edition and while I would like to tell you that every edition of the game is worth exploring, this one included, of all the editions that followed this one would probably be the most alien to modern gamers.
For one the game was in its infancy and much of the terminology and concepts that would define D&D as the game we know today were yet to really be coined. There were only three classes in the game, The Cleric, Fighting Man and Magic-User initially and the game was very much about free-form role-playing with the absolute minimum of rules beyond some basic combat execution mechanics. Notably by modern standards, I think most would view some of the mechanics as odd at absolute best, in fact even among OSR (Old School Revival) circles the original game is considered a bit of a quirky historical reference.
D&D inspired an entire golden era of early PC gaming including classics like Bard’s Tale. Just like D&D, retro gaming and revivals of classic games from the 70’s & 80’s is common in PC games as well. We got the whole Bard’s Tale trilogy remastered in 2018.
For example, the damage characters could deal in combat was based on their class, not their weapon, there were no skills, feats or special powers and while there were 3 classes in the game with a 4th coming along later (Thief), for the most part, the game was very close to a completely rule-less system depending very heavily on DM adjudication, yet the game was very procedural at times as well bringing it much closer to what we could call an adventure game rather than a role-playing game today. Something I don’t doubt purist would wholeheartedly disagree with, most who played it leaned on the adjudication over structure element of the game.
Today there is still a fan base for this original style of play which was very much narrative storytelling focused. There are retro-clones available today like Swords & Wizardry which is a compilation and organization of the game into a single volume done by the famed OSR designer/writer Matt Finch who is among a small group of people responsible for the creation of the OSR as a concept. As such you don’t have to go through the trouble of hunting down original copies; versions of this game that are effectively replications of the original rules are available in print today through sites like RPG Drive Thru.
Swords & Wizardry is just one of several retro-clones of the original game available today. This one is hailed for its amazing line art and organization making the game a lot easier to understand than the original printing.
Why Play It Today?
I would be hard-pressed to give an exact mechanical or even conceptual reason to play the original game. I suppose you could say that if you like free-form role-playing where rules are more often improvised than stated, this might be a reason to try this one but I think most gamers today would probably want more mechanics than this game offers, both DM’s and players alike. If free form is your thing, you could just as well ignore rules that exist in your game than play one where they are missing when you want or need them.
I think the only real reason to try this original classic is just to get an understanding of the history of D&D, where it started, where it came from, and how the design evolved. This game is still played today, but unlike many of the versions that followed, the OSR community existing today that plays this game is made up predominantly of people who played the original way back in the 70’s. That is not meant to discourage or disparage the game, it is a classic, an original to be preserved and held high for its achievement, but still. Original D&D is to RPG’s what cave paintings are to art, an interesting historical reference but not exactly something that is going to teach or introduce modern gamers to anything that hasn’t been done better in games that followed.
Nostalgia certainly plays a role in D&D communities, but even when we look back, it’s rarely original D&D that is being presented, more often it is 1st edition Basic/Expert or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons that serves as a way back machine. Original D&D is just too far back to be relevant nearly 50 years after its release. A fate I fear will befall B/X & AD&D some day as well.
For me personally, it’s one of the few editions of the game I find difficult to recommend, it was kind of a trial run and while I think it has a lot of historical relevance, in practice, it’s pretty rough as a game system and much of the games core premise while familiar is actually quite distant from how both RPG’s and specifically D&D evolved. It’s a curiosity, certainly worth a read, but I personally never felt drawn to run it.
It’s a game you play to get a look through the lens of the origins of the game.
1st Edition Basic / Expert
1st edition Basic/Expert rules had several subversions over the years but the most often referenced and perhaps the most well-known is the 1981 Moldvay box set. For many D&D generations, this box set defines classic D&D for them.
Contrary to popular belief D&D actually evolved from two separate core games that while reasonably compatible had a vastly different approach conceptually.
1st edition Basic & Expert rules were released alongside 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and while one was intended as a starting point for the other, the games evolved along different paths and in a sense became two simultaneous editions of the game.
There are a number of core differences between 1st edition B/X and 1st edition AD&D.
First and perhaps foremost, 1st edition B/X was structured as an adventure game first and RPG second. A core of the game was that there were defined rules that structured elements of the game like the exploration of dungeons, wilderness adventures and adventures on the high seas. This concept I think would be quite unique to modern gamers who see the “adventuring” part of the game as a free-form role-playing concept, rather than a structured element of play which is exactly the case in the B/X system.
The concept of D&D as an adventure game is differentiated by the structure of play outside of combat. In an adventure game there are rules that govern all aspects of the game creating emergent stories and while the principle between adventure games and RPG’s are so similar it’s almost impossible to tell them apart, they are in fact quite different in practice.
In B/X time is tracked in actions even during adventuring periods and this has a procedure that is different for each of the types of “zones” of adventure (Dungeon, Wilderness & Waterborne adventures). Just like in combat, each initiative players take an action, which results in a “round” taking place and just like combat, this can have different effects on the game from torches going out, spells expiring, wandering monsters and other effects like getting lost in the woods, running out of food and so on. Not all that different than any other D&D game, but the tracking of time and the governance of rules of how to manage is mechanically driven.
Another core feature of B/X is that there are no race & class combinations, instead, races are their own classes. This is also wildly different and is exclusive to just this and the original edition of the game not to be repeated in any future editions barring reprints. Race as class (Elf as a class for example) I think is something that would raise the eyebrows of modern gamers but the premise here is that, in B/X, D&D is a very specific type of fantasy. In fact, B/X as a system is directly linked to a setting called “The Known World”. The known world would later evolve into the “Mystara” setting which evolved further with the releases of the Companion, Master and Immortal rules, effectively advanced B/X rules as strange as that sounds which is in contrast to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This setting is built around a very Tolkien-like fantasy setting and the classes in the game are structured to depict that fantasy exclusively.
No version is influenced more by Tolkein fantasy, which includes the original edition of D&D than 1st edition Basic/Expert rules. Tolkien fantasy is built right into the rules and many of the core abilities and structures are designed intentionally to replicate middle-earth sensibilities.
This is a bit confusing but you can think of it this way. Initially, B/X was created to be a basic starting point and AD&D was where players were expected to graduate. I don’t think TSR expected that the B/X rules would gain their own, separate following and this resulted in a demand from this new B/X community for expanded content. They wanted more advanced rules, but not in the form of AD&D, but rather expanded rules for the B/X game system as its base. I will talk more about the result, BECMI (Basic/expert/companion/master/immortal) rules a little later.
The third thing that really made B/X unique is that the game assumed a sort of meta-game infrastructure. The game was really designed as a challenge to players, rather than their characters and to support that concept several meta-game rules existed that worked together.
For starters, the players were assumed to be treasure hunters. This is why we had structured adventuring rules, but there are also rules for rewards that support this. For example, XP for monsters was very low, but you would earn 1 XP for every 1 gold piece (treasure) you found. The idea was that players were motivated to travel across the landscape (Wilderness & Waterborne Adventure Rules), go into dungeons (Dungeon Adventure Rules) and find treasure (1 gold = 1 xp). This is how you advanced in the game and was a measure of your success.
The depiction in Strange Things in which players huddle together, form plans, roll dice and seemingly are playing a game more than role-playing may seem strange to modern gamers, but if there is a version of the game that depicted this element it would be Basic/Expert rules where the feeling of winning in an RPG was kind of real and very player centric.
Additionally, character classes were very minimal, you gained very few powers and much of your strength was based on the equipment you carried. Magic equipment was of course the best way to empower your character but the only way to get magic items (which could never be purchased) was to go into Dungeons and find them.
B/X as such was a very structured adventure RPG quite different from Original D&D which was very free form and future editions of the game that were very narrative and character-centric. B/X was a very player-centric game with a very firm meta-game motivation built into it.
The final thing about B/X, oddly enough even though it was a game designed with new players in mind, though it had a simple ruleset was incredibly difficult to be successful in. The game while being structured, meant that rules governed a great deal of the outcomes of the game which means dice rolls. This combined with the incredible deadliness of the game made the actual gameplay for expert (veteran) D&D players.
Using player meta knowledge and past D&D experience, really playing D&D as a player skill set was both encouraged and expected under 1st edition B/X rules. “Good Players” were far more likely to succeed in the game than “New Players” who lacked past experience. It was an odd position the game took from a design perspective given it (B/X rules) was designed as an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons.
A character in B/X would instantly die when they hit 0 hit points and at 1st level characters rarely had more the 2-8 hit points. A single blow could end a character’s life, not to mention how deadly traps and other effects could be. By and large, despite being aimed at new players, 1st edition B/X was the deadliest game in D&D history and remains today as the core of the OSR community for that very reason. A game designed for newbies was ultimately adopted as the foremost example of master-level role-playing aficionados who love a challenge becoming the foundation system for the OSR.
While B/X box sets and rules are still available today through sites like RPG DriveThru, one nice thing about B/X rules popularity among OSR designers is that it has become the adopted love child on which many games are based. The result is that there are various re-edits and retro-clones of B/X, my personal favorite being Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome. This fantastic re-edit of B/X not only gives you the core rules in a really great edit but the game is expanded with several source books that take you beyond the basic B/X rules to include more classes and more advanced optional rules. As well they do some optional math reversal for you to get rid of the dreaded THAC0 and descending armor class so you don’t have to. Really great stuff!
Old School Essentials is just one of many retro-clones and remakes of 1st edition Basic/Expert rules, but it’s by and large the most popular, and this is likely because it stays honest to B/X rules as closely as humanly possible while correcting and expanding the game in ways that is very commonly done in house rules. It is in my opinion the best version of B/X rules out there today.
Why Play It Today?
There are actually quite a few intriguing reasons to play Basic/Expert edition Dungeons & Dragons, but I would still argue that modern players might see the game as quirky if not outright strange.
One of the main advantages of 1st edition Basic/Expert rules, setting aside the challenge level of the game (as a game) is that the rules are very simple to learn/teach. Far simpler than anything we have in modern systems. This simplicity is combined with existing familiarity anyone who plays D&D would have compared to modern games, meaning that if you know how to play any edition of the game including 5th edition D&D, you already know 90% of the system (B/X) because by far and large it is the basis for all other editions of the game.
This simply means that you can get the game to the table very easily with any sort of player group even complete novices. No one is going to struggle to understand how to play and everyone can get right to enjoying the game without the need for elaborate explanations often required to grasp modern games.
This simplicity is furthered combined with unmatched support for the game in particular in the form of adventure modules and unique variations on the system all of which are compatible with each other. In the nearly 50 years that D&D has been in development, this version of the game has continued to receive new content thanks to a thriving community and immense 3rd party publishing support. There are more adventure modules created for 1e B/X rules than all other editions of D&D combined. It is the most well-supported D&D system today, even more so than modern/current editions like 5th edition D&D.
A big part of why Basic/Expert rules are so flexible is the incredible compatibility it maintained long past its lifetime. 1st and 2nd edition adventures including all AD&D content are 100% compatible while 3rd and 5th edition modules are incredibly easy to adapt. The only rough spot is 4th edition which is generally incompatible with all D&D systems.
The next big sales pitch, which speaks to me personally has always been the structured and clear goals of the game for players. One very common issue with D&D is the absence of a common definition of what you are supposed to be doing in the game and understanding it as a game and as a concept. Modern games have this “it’s anything you want it to be” approach to playstyle, but this is particularly unhelpful and problematic when you sit down with five players and a DM to whom “anything you want it to be” is different for each person. Finding common ground, a gaming group where everyone is in sync and creating an experience that satisfies everyone at the table borders on an impossible achievement in modern gaming. It’s why despite the popularity of modern systems, the complaining from the player base is so excessive you would think they hate their hobby the way they speak about it.
1st edition B/X is a system that has clear goals, clear direction, one playstyle and no apologies, no excuses and no fancy philosophies. There is only one right way to play 1e B/X and the game tells you exactly what that is in no uncertain terms with no interpretations required. Certainly, it’s not a take-it-or-leave-it deal and you can and are actually encouraged to mess with the system, but at least you are on solid footing when you read the rules as written, there is a clear starting point, there is no confusion about what the deal is. Love it or hate it, it is what it is.
One additional element that has been lost in D&D is the ability to play the game as a pickup-and-go as well as a one-shot system. B/X combat is fast and snappy, its mechanics simple and it’s core gameplay clear. The result is a system that very happily supports the idea that you can pick up the books and say “let’s play D&D” and be up and running in 10 minutes or less. It’s ideal for 1 shot and pick-up games where you can simply play anytime you feel like it with anyone. This is because B/X is built on emergent story and gameplay concepts, meaning that you don’t need to do much prep work to get a very functional and entertaining game night, creating the story is built right into the system for you.
While AD&D (1st & 2nd edition), 3rd and 4th editions were all far too complex games to make either good introductions or be flexible enough for pick up and play games, with 5e thanks to introduction boxes like D&D Essentials Kit, picking up a game with little prep is again possible. This may be why 5e D&D is so popular as it goes back to its roots as a game in many ways and being easy to pick up is one of them, an idea founded in 1e B/X rules.
Finally and like anything this too is a matter of taste and preference is the fact that B/X 1st edition is effectively a D&D construction kit. If you ever wanted to create your own version of D&D, there is no system more modular and more adaptable than B/X 1st edition. This is a D&D lego set and while the core system has clearly marked boundaries, you cannot break the game, it’s so incredibly flexible you can take any other edition of the game, take any rule you want from that game, including any spell, feat, power or whatever, add it as written into B/X and it works without a hitch. Naturally, your power levels will fluctuate as a result, but there are not going to be any mechanical compatibility issues, it just works. It’s a creative DM’s dream come true as a system and it’s a lot of fun to do. A system that is firm in the layout of what it is, but infinitely modular to be anything else you want it to be while always remaining approachable to and by anyone.
1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
AD&D 1st edition was reprinted by Wizards of the Coast in 2016 without edits, a tribute to decades of fandom.
I think most D&D players, even modern gamers know a thing or two about Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, while it is not the first edition of the game it is considered to be the granddaddy of D&D written by the god-emperor himself, Gary Gygax.
AD&D 1st edition however is actually one of the most problematic games in the D&D line up, which is not to say it’s bad, it’s actually quite phenomenal, but it requires a very stern hand to wrangle this beast and an open mind to its core concept. There is no question that this is one of the most complex versions of the game to learn, to run, and ultimately to master, definitively earning its unique title as Advanced D&D. In fact, it’s a rare DM who can fully grasp the core of the rules and implement them efficiently fully as written. RAW 1st edition AD&D games were rare then (70’s-80’s) as they are now. It really takes a true master to run a good 1st edition AD&D game which might explain why so many players and DM’s have a love-it-or-hate-it relationship with the game. In the hands of an inexperienced DM it can be a disaster, in the hands of a master DM, it is nothing short of a work of art. It’s a game that embodies the soul of D&D in a way that no game before or after ever could, but one must be a soulweaver to bring that essence to the table.
1e AD&D under TSR’s banner gave birth to all of the classic settings that are staples in the community today. Dragonlance is just one among many that created fantasy fans all over the world. Playing in this setting under the original system is an experience I would recommend to every D&D fan without hesitation.
AD&D shares many similarities with B/X, the two games are designed to be fully compatible and they are, but AD&D features a number of unique departures as well as much deeper and more fleshed out concepts that you will not find in either B/X or any other version of D&D that had come before or would come after.
First and foremost the rules of the game are hidden from the players very intentionally, documented in a massive and secretive tome in painstaking detail and frank commanding language known as the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide. A book that I both personally consider the first and definitive final word on how to be a Dungeon Master and one of the most confusing reads you will ever experience, spectled with brilliance and nonsense in the same breath.
This book not only defines every conceivable element of the game but it does so with flavor and a deep meaningful understanding of fantasy, an edgy abstracted realism, and a firm hand. It’s a book that declares the Dungeon Master god of the game in no uncertain terms, the great creator tasked with entertaining and challenging players in the most devious and detailed oriented ways possible.
The result is a system that is explicit, yet flexible, mysterious, yet self-aware and most of all, it creates a gritty, believable fantasy world in stunning detail if and its a BIG if you can wrap your head around all of the wisdom it passes on and be open-minded enough to embrace it.
The 1st edition DMG to me is the bible for Dungeon & Dragons, running D&D having never read it means you are always going to be a lesser DM than you could be. It is priceless information you will never find in any other book written for the game.
Now that is a very colorful way to describe AD&D and I will admit, no matter how many times I open the pages of the AD&D DMG, I can’t help but be swallowed whole by the mystique of it. It’s inspiring. That said, its a read riddled with issues, in fact, in a lot of ways, its approach as a whole is an issue to some both conceputally and mechanically speaking. Its perhaps best described as a confounding experience, you will either find its soul or be confused by its intention.
Still, D&D is a game and AD&D is a version of it, so the question is, what does it do differently, what aspect of the game may be worth exploring if you’re a modern gamer. Why go back to it?
Like B/X this is a game that is going to have a familiar surface, looking at the character races and classes, stats and hit points, armor class and sub-systems while some of them will feel like quirky versions of what you are used to they are not going to be alien to you.
There are however three core things that really separate AD&D from any other version of the game for better or for worse, you decide!
The first is the focus on the mundane, administrative elements of medieval life. AD&D as a system really tries very hard, successfully in my opinion, to make players feel the hardship of a medieval fantasy world. Your resources are limited, your powers are limited and it all amounts to the game being a brutal struggle for survival.
There is a harshness to everything with no video game structured answers or hand-waving of the elements of the adventuring life. You are as likely to die in the woods of dysentery as you are at the end of an orc’s blade. AD&D wants you to worry about how sharp your blade is, how clean your water is, how many arrows you have in your quiver, how heavy your pack is, how many spell components you have remaining and all sorts of other resource issues that drive your actions and decisions. No matter where you look in this system there are uncomfortable limits and restrictions. There are no character “builds” that let you circumvent the harshness or avoid the discomforts. The result is that players form comraderies in much the way soldiers do in war because the only way to truly survive, maybe even excel is through teamwork, the only way players can accept their circumstances is by suffering them together.
This of course can be seen as a major drawback as well. Adventuring heroes suffering anti-climatic deaths does not exactly make for a tolkein fantasy or fond memories. Sometimes the game is just a bit too real to be fun, a not all together uncommon complaint about AD&D.
The 2nd main focus of the game is emergent narrative storytelling. AD&D has a lot of charts and DM’s are often asked to let the events of the game unfold through the use of tables, encouraged to embelish these events and allow the chips, or dice as it were, to fall where they may. That is not to say that everything should be randomized or that the game is pure random chance, but the game is setup in such a way as to ensure the players are working against a structure rather than pure DM fiat.
These rolls are often measured against character attributes and abilities, which ties into the 3rd unique element of AD&D I will talk about in a minute, but the principle concept is that you do not just roll when you “do stuff” to see if you succeed, but you often roll to see “what happens” in general, how the world around you responds.
You open a chest, what is in it? Is there a trap on this chest? Is there an Alchemist in town? How does the merchant you just met feel about you? Do the Orcs run or fight this round? Rolling the dice isn’t just to see if you can disarm a trap or if you can find it, its very existance may be left to chance. This emergent concept is a foundational element of AD&D.
Forbidden Lands reminded me a great deal of AD&D 1st edition and it shows that there is still a place in gaming for harsh and ruthless survival stories and emergent storytelling. It is a great example of an OSR throwback and might serve as a much easier alternative to teaching the many lessons of AD&D.
With AD&D there are rolls that determine the input or outcome of a narrative. Maybe killing the chieften scares the rest of the Orcs and they run away, maybe it makes them even more angry and they attack with barberic ferocity! The DM is encouraged to let a big part of the story be told by the dice, far larger chunks than one might be accustomed to in a modern game. This in turn creates emergent stories, unexpected events, things the DM could not himself plan or would have even considered adding into the game. This aspect of AD&D creates a sense of danger and the unknown, not just because you as a player don’t know what will happen, but you know the DM doesn’t either. In AD&D very often, the dice do the storytelling.
This too can be a problem, encountering deadly traps and finding nothing in treasure chests while stumbling across random encounters every time you open a dungeon door can be daunting, brutal, unfair even. AD&D run as designed, can be quite suffocating and demoralizing. Some will see it as a challenge, others as unescessary cruelty.
The 3rd and final unique element of AD&D is that the games classes are definitively archetypical and each class deals with a very specific element of the game, offering a group an advantage in the area filled by a character of that class. This is true in B/X as well, but in AD&D there is a far more granular game, hence the class abilities are equally more granular increasing the complexity and types of class roles. A group without a Ranger is likely to get lost in the woods more often, have food shortages when traveling, have longer travel times and so on. A group without a Cleric is going to have a hell of a time crawling through a crypt filled with undead and recovery of the groups health will be dauntinly slow. A group that has a thief will likely end up with a lot more treasure, a lot fewer casualties as a result of traps and will be able to access parts of dungeons inaccessible without their skulldugary skills.
Some cross over exists here and there, but each class plays a key role and in the end each adventuring party will always be missing some element that is relevant to the adventure, some unfilled gap that they will struggle against.
Making each role a pivitol part of an adventuring party means that each player is a critical to the success of the troupe, everyone’s lives are easied by their presence against the horrific struggles of the medievil world you face together.
This aspect of the game is so refined, so poiniant that its become a staple in the gaming world in particular in MMO’s, yet oddly enough as editions progressed forward the game of D&D has slowly evolved away from this principle element to a point where in modern editions of the game its practically non-existant. A party of adventurers in 5e for example will not have a gap in the groupes capabilities because a Ranger, Rogue or Cleric are not part of a party.
This element also adds an aspect of meta strategy. Players that gather to form adventuring troupes are going to be very aware of their shortcomings and their strengths, they will devise group strategies that favor those strengths and avoid exposing their weaknesess, creating a kind of a game within a game. The composition of your party will and does dramatically change how you approach the whole concept of adventure.
Again there are drawbacks to AD&D’s archetype enforcement. At times you might sit down at an AD&D table and be forced to play a Cleric because the party needs one even though you actually want to be a thief, but the group already has one. Their is inflexibility in this rigid structure, the modern game favors players running whatever character class they want and in this is a kind of joy. Sometimes in AD&D, the struggle begins even before you start playing as players bicker over what the party needs as oppossed to simply creating whatever character you want.
Why Play It Today?
For me AD&D does two things, both of which give this game justification as a game to try today, but I would simultanously caution modern gamers that this is a very brutal game, much like Basic & Expert 1st edition is but unlike B/X it’s also very complex and can be a chore to learn and run.
The first thing is that I think the concept of emergent gameplay is applicable to modern games, though modern games don’t encourage or teach it, even though they are perfectly capable of the execution. AD&D teaches you how and when to do this well, so the experience of running AD&D as as DM makes for an exceptional education you won’t find in any other game on a subject (emergent gameplay). In my opinion emergent gameplay is not optional, it is a required element of the game that must be included for the game to be meaningful. The players must know that the fate of their characters isn’t just a DM decision, that the world around them is a living breathing thing, random as it may sometimes be. This is one thing I feel is worthy of your time and effort to learn and learn well and no game will teach you emergent gameplay better than AD&D 1st edition.
Emergent gameplay is an amazing seasoning to narrative constructs because as much as DM’s often think themselves briliant story designers, the truth is that most of us are not. Emergent gameplay creates a natural way for amazing stories to evolve (emerge) and with the right set of tools which the 1st edition AD&D DMG most certainly is, the creations will always be wildly unique inspiring stories you would have never thought to create yourself, acting as a platform for your own inspiration.
The second thing AD&D does really well is that it teaches you why limitations are better than options, a lesson you will never learn from a modern RPG, quite to the contrary most modern games very mistakingly teach the oppossite. AD&D shows you how you can play a straight, tough game, one that might almost seem mean to the players and end up with an amazing gaming experience in which your players flourish despite the hardships. This is because the reality of games of any kind is that victories that are tough to achieve, inspire players to be smarter, better, proactive, involved and curious to test their metal, all elements that become rewards in their own right. The side effect is failure but if you know anything about drama you know that traggedy and struggle produce the best stories which ties in nicely with the concept of emergent gameplay.
I really enjoy Pathfinder 2nd edition as an alternative to D&D, but this is a game that really shows how unwieldy and generic a game can feel when it has too many options and it’s reach to broad. When everything is possible and everything is unique, nothing is unique, the fallout of option overkill.
For me personally AD&D 1e holds a very special place in the DM arsenal. It is chalk full of lessons that simply aren’t taught anymore and should be to both players and DM’s. It is a game written with the voice of a true master storyteller, someone who understood the principle foundations of narrative role-playing.
It does however require an open mind as some mechanics have not aged well (I’m looking at your THAC0!) but a bit of math is a small price to pay for a great gaming experience and the truth is that most of the mechanics that aged poorly, can be easily corrected with a few house rules.
Some of these house rules, corrections and clarifications can be found in OSRIC, a retro-clone for AD&D that makes the game a lot more approachable. I would personally argue OSRIC fails to contain the same mojo of the 1e AD&D DMG, but it does, in plain language sort of explain things that are sometimes heavily hidden in the flavor text of Gygax’s quirky writing and as a practical matter this is quite useful.
Like Old School Essentials which retro-clones B/X rules, OSRIC is a re-edit of the 1e AD&D rules making it far easier to consume and understand the core rules, in essence making AD&D 1st edition far easier to run. You lose that Gygaxian writing that makes 1e AD&D such a fun read, but as a rule reference is really great.
Conclusion
That concludes our first part of the walk down memory lane of D&D gaming history. Clearly, like any fan of D&D I have my opinions and it’s certain to trigger disagreement, but I feel quite confident having played these games extensively I have nailed at least my own experience and perceptions.
Part II is coming soon where I will dive into 1st edition BECMI (Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal) rules, 2nd edition AD&D and then switch gears to the birth of the modern D&D era with 3rd edition!
The one thing I always tell people who enter the hobby, people who typically enter the scene through Dungeons and Dragons is that while D&D is an amazing game, it is but a small piece of a much larger world. In today’s list, we explore some of the amazing RPG’s that have been made since Dave and Gary penned the grandaddy of role-playing games decades ago. I have focused this list with advice aimed at Gamemasters looking for great systems, but I think players should find this list entertaining as well. Note also I have only included games I have actually played or run and obviously, I have not played everything that has ever been written. I’ve also tried to focus on games that are actually still available today, obviously giving you a list of RPG’s you cannot buy and play today would probably not be terribly useful.
10. Star Trek Adventures
Star Trek is a franchise that has seen a lot of renditions over the years in the RPG genre and arguably, many of them made a respectable showing, but Star Trek Adventures is the game to beat.
I was a little bit hesitant about adding this game to the list because frankly, it misses the mark a bit with some of my criteria for this list, but I still think for Star Trek fans this is a great game.
The issue with Star Trek Adventures is that the books are poorly organized, written in a narrative style where rules and story are blended into the text making it difficult to use the books as a reference and the rules are, well, kind of complicated with a lot of high-level concepts that aren’t easy to teach. This makes the game difficult to get to the table and it’s a bit of a chore to run as a GM.
That said, if you can get past this difficulty curve, Star Trek Adventures does an amazing job of bringing Star Trek stories to a group ready to take on the intricacies of the final frontier and I think if you are a fan of Star Trek and want to experience it in RPG form, this is your game and it’s worth jumping through the hurdles.
The difficult thing with bringing Star Trek stories to an RPG, in general, is that it requires a lot of setting knowledge on the part of the players to really bring the stories to life. The terminology, Starfleets command structure and how ships and technology work, are all core knowledge that is required to get the most out of the game. The game does teach you all this, but typically players aren’t the ones reading the books and I think sitting down and explaining the Star Trek universe to players who aren’t already fans is going to take a very long time and probably won’t translate well. As such, this game should be approached with assumptions that players are already in the know and it then comes down to explaining how the rules bring all these setting concepts to life.
Being an Origins Award Nominee is indeed an honor, but I think they could have won if the game had better editing. The books writing style and organization is one of the failures of Star Trek Adventures.
Here Star Trek Adventures really shines as the connection between the intricate setting concepts and the rules of the game are in perfect sync and really bring to life the complexities of technology in the Star Trek universe. The intricate relationships of the command structure, the unique skills of the Star Trek universe, the way technology works and all of the history of Star Trek are all embedded into the mechanics in this rather perfect union.
It’s a lot of work to make Star Trek come together at the table, it requires knowledgeable Star Trek fans and a DM willing to study the intricate rules, but when the stars align, this game is a Star Trek fans dream.
For me personally, it was worth the stretch to get this one to the table as I’m a huge Star Trek fan but it comes with the above disclaimer and certainly wasn’t easy, it’s definitely for more advanced players.
9. GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System)
GURPS has been a household name in the RPG community for decades, it’s been around nearly as long as D&D and Steve Jackson is a wonderful designer that makes a lot of really great stuff.
Published in 1986 by Steve Jackson, GURPS is a role-playing system designed to cover every setting and genre imaginable as a universal RPG system for all occasions. It was the first of its kind when it was published in a market where games were always published for specific settings and/or genre and despite decades of role-playing game publishing, it is even today a leading member of a small group of games that take this approach to role-playing.
GURPS is in its 4th edition of the game but unlike so many role-playing games that have many editions/versions, GURPS core mechanic has been largely unchanged and the 4th edition books are backward compatible with all material that goes all the way back to its original 1st edition which is a big plus for fans.
What makes GURPS special and the reason it’s on this list for me personally is that it’s a system that handles settings and stories that most other systems are ill-equipped to do so, the unique stuff typically not covered by other games.
This is the game I pull out when I want to run something really unique or very specific. In the last few decades, I have used this system to run westerns, unique science-fiction time-traveling stories, superhero games and modern police dramas.
GURPS also has amazing source material support, you would be hard-pressed to pick a topic that GURPS doesn’t have a sourcebook to support it, giving you specialized rules coverage for just about anything you can think of which is great for GM’s, in particular those exploring more unusual subjects for role-playing.
GURPS, as it promises, is well equipped to handle a wide range of stories and while it certainly can do the standard stuff like Fantasy for example, I personally find it excels more at times when you want some really specific customization and need a flexible system that can handle it.
If you are a fan of GURPS, this is a system that has coverage of settings and genres that have their own systems, for example, you can play Werewolf the Apocalypse using the GUPRS system. This is a great feature if you just want to stick to one system but try out a lot of different setting material.
Over the years I find I use it less and less often but this is because today there are so many RPG’s that handle so many specific topics that GURPS’s universal approach becomes less and less necessary. For example, I used to use it to run games like Star Trek, Dune or Aliens because games covering such specific genres and settings generally didn’t exist or were handled poorly, but today this is no longer the case and usually, when a game system focuses on telling a specific type of story or describing a specific setting, it will do a much better job of it than a universal system like GURPS can.
It’s still a great tool in a GM’s toolbelt however and I find that on occasion I still find a reason to use it. Don’t let the rumors of its complexity fool you, while GURPS is a very robust system that has great rules coverage, it is a very easy game to run with a very standardized system that is easy to teach. Great game, it earns its place at the tail end of this list.
8. Alien RPG
There really are very few games I recommend as a party game, but if you’re looking for something you can run for non-gamers, this is the one.
Free League Publishing has produced some really amazing role-playing games since their arrival in the role-playing market and Alien the role-playing game certainly qualifies as one of the good ones.
What I really love about Alien the RPG is that the people who wrote the game really understood not only the setting material but the core concept behind the Alien story. In particular, their attention to the structure of a good movie-driven story which is all about horror in space. They really get that concept of drama that rises from the unknown tension of being in a movie about Aliens that will kill everyone, but not really knowing how that story will evolve, what the details of this next iteration of the movie will be. Players that enter this game know that they are likely going to die, the question is how and of course their is always hope that, like in the movies, they will be one of the survivors.
The cinematic mode in the game is a great example of that specific design approach that really lets a GM tap into the heart of an Alien story setup. You have to realize that Alien(s) is based on a series of movies, which if you include all of the Alien movies, the expanded alien flicks like Prometheus and all of the Predator vs. Alien movies, this franchise is all about short, violent stories about humans interacting with these horrific monsters in space.
This cinematic mode is the perfect setup but if you want that tension to be something that rises over the course of many sessions, the campaign mode is a great way to slowly build up that tension to the inevitable clash with these monsters where players have an opportunity to get attached to their characters so that when that final moment comes, the horror is that much closer to home.
It’s a very simple system to learn and teach, there are some really great story modules that bring amazing alien tales to your table if you aren’t into writing one yourself and Free League Publishing games are masters of book organization that makes the whole experience that much better.
My one and only complaint about the game is that they use black gloss pages with white text in the book and I know that this is a design choice, but it’s really hard on the eyes, I wish publishers would stop doing this.
If you love the Alien movies as I do, this game handles the material beautifully and I would argue that in terms of games on this list, Alien the RPG is the king of one-shots. This is a game that is tailor-made for bringing a group of players together for an all-day event and because it’s such a simple system and game, it’s perfect for introducing the concept of role-playing to non-gamers.
Absolutely love this one, fantastic work coming out of Free League Publishing.
7. Star Wars (West End Games Edition)
The West End Games version of Star Wars is a bit more like the books rather than the movie, which is to say it’s a bit more gritty and serious version of the Star Wars Universe.
There have been a lot of games that tried their hand at bringing the Star Wars Universe to an RPG, but there is only one that gave George Lucas the middle finger and showed us what Star Wars should be and that is the West End Games take on the Star Wars.
This edition of the game ignores some of the fuzzy and often hard to swallow concepts that the movies represent like inept Storm Troops who can’t hit the side of a barn with blasters and the ridiculously stupid way the villains of the world behave when heroes come along to try to stop their evil plans.
West End Games allows Star Wars to be a bit more serious, it’s a world where Storm Troopers are elite soldiers not to be trifled with and the Empire is a serious threat that isn’t going collapse because a farmer from Tatooine learned to swing a laser sword around.
This more genuine take on the Star Wars universe is what West End Games was going for and I love it. It turns Star Wars into a more serious science-fiction setting, where a blaster to the face will kill you, where being shot at is actually dangerous and space battles are represented with a sense of realism that satisfies fans of the genre who wish the movies were a little bit less space fantasy and a bit more space reality.
I know it’s not everyone’s bag, but for me, a version of Star Wars that is no PG rated is just what the doctor ordered, this is my favorite version of Star Wars in RPG form. The system is easy to learn and teach and it makes itself far easier to bring to the table than the many efforts that followed like Edge of Empire or the D20 Saga version.
Great game, great system, takes itself a bit more seriously yet manages to nail the Star Wars universe perfectly and despite its age it’s still in print today.
6. Dungeon Crawl Classics
It doesn’t take itself seriously, but DCC has some really innovative mechanics that are easily portable to Dungeons and Dragons, the basis for this one which I consider a classic as its name suggests.
There are many variants of Dungeons and Dragons and though I think most would count Dungeon Crawl Classics among them, I would argue that it’s got its own thing going and really doesn’t quite count as such a variant.
DCC is more than just D&D, it’s Gonzo D&D, a game with some serious wackiness to it designed almost like a spoof of D&D, meant for a fun and silly approach to the fantasy adventure.
Now you can approach this game with some seriousness if you wanted to and really the system itself lends itself to that style of play as well with a great magic system and some really cool concepts for martial classes, but for me personally, I lean into the skid here. The game is written in a style that suggests that you should see it as a kind of comedy show and given how the adventures are designed, the artwork and general wackiness of the premise, everything about DCC makes this the ideal game for a sort of Mighty Python version of Dungeons and Dragons.
This game generates laughs and my friends and I were in stitches when running this one. It’s everything you love about D&D with a comedy twist and it simply asks you to let go of your inhibitions and grognard mentality and accept it for what it is, a light-hearted version of Dungeons and Dragons.
I recognize it’s not for everyone but personally, I love it, it’s a great game in particular in short stints, the funnel concept is amazing for a one-shot and there is plenty of meat on the bones to keep the laughs coming if you want to make a campaign out of it.
A metric ton of fun, yet a really well-designed game, it’s fantastic.
5. Forbidden Lands
If you are the type of GM that thrives on open sandbox and on the fly emergent story and gameplay, Forbidden Lands is the perfect game for you. Everything about this game screams improv.
The second Free League Publishing game on the list, Forbidden Lands is simultaneously an awesome concept, a fantastic take on the classic game of Dungeons and Dragons, while at the same time being a great fantasy setting all in one game.
I can’t say enough positive things about Forbidden Lands. It’s a survival game in a fantasy universe with very deadly mechanics and a really gritty feel to it putting it squarely in the OSR wheelhouse, yet its mechanics are sleek and modern, with an absolutely fantastic dynamic world-building concept at the core of gameplay.
Players are survivors of a world that has gone terribly wrong and they are charged with trying to find a way to not only survive in this harsh environment but to thrive. The world around them is completely unexplored and the players must follow dynamically constructed clues about what is out there and because the game is an open sandbox, every group is going to take its own approach on how to proceed.
Players don’t just contend with the monsters that dwell beyond the borders of their village but they must deal with the harsh realities of weather, basic necessities like food and water and the absence of proper civilization. There are no blacksmith shops to buy everything you need or taverns where you can easily access the basic necessities and comforts of life. Everything in this game is a struggle and players are always on the brink of death no matter where they turn. The only thing they can rely on is each other and this creates amazing table dynamics.
I adore Forbidden Lands and if your fan of Dungeons and Dragons, while this system is certainly wildly different mechanically, everything about it is going to be familiar nonetheless. An amazing experience, in particular in the hands of creative GM’s.
There are a few quirks in the game that I would say require some minor correcting like the Peddler class that has a way of spoiling some of the survival gameplay elements but these are easily house ruled issues that can be solved and there is a great community around this game from which you can get lots of great advice some.
Highly recommend this one if you haven’t tried it.
4. Vampire The Masquerade (5th Edition)
It’s a really well-designed game with a very poorly written book, but playing a vampire in the world of darkness is a gaming experience that is so much fun, its worth overcoming the hurdle of this terrible book.
I love White Wolf games, specifically their world of darkness setting and certainly Vampire The Masquerade has to be my all-time favorite game set in that world. The games 5th edition did a lot of housekeeping in terms of rules to give the game greater balance but really the big strength of this latest edition is how the mechanics of the game and the story of the game are properly connected. The mechanics really bring out the horror of being a blood-sucking monster in this latest edition by implementing the hunger system and trimming the fat off the disciplines to bring them more in line with a game of vampire politics rather than a game about vampires abusing each other with disciplines as was the case in past editions.
I love the new take on the game, I’ve been running this game for a couple of years and it just works to bring that Vampire story to life in all its gory splendor.
This game would be much higher on the list if it was not for the fact that the actual core rulebook for the game is an absolute nightmare to work with. This has to be an example of the worst kind of RPG editing in the history of RPG’s. Simply put, no matter how many times I have read the book and how long I have played this game, I still can never find a single bloody thing in that book. Everything about its layout and editing is completely illogical, the editors of this book should be fired immediately.
That said, it’s a simple enough game that after a few sessions you will have most of the important stuff put to memory and so really, the game has a natural flow and simple system that you can largely get away with running the game just with the storyteller screen in front of you. Being a vampire is a lot of fun and this game really gives that to you in every spectrum and definition of the classic monster.
Love it, if you have never played Vampire The Masquerade, I would argue you are yet to really experience the RPG hobby to its fullest.
3. The Song of Ice and Fire RPG: The Game of Thrones Edition
I’m a huge fan of The Song of Ice and Fire story and world and as such, I have huge expectations and demands from an RPG that tackles this setting. This game not only met those demands bar far exceeded anything I could have hoped this RPG to be. This is one of the best interpretations of a setting into an RPG I have ever had the pleasure to experience.
In the last decade, I have had a really wide range of gaming experiences, but without question one of my absolute favorites is a short six-session campaign I ran in the seven kingdoms using the Song of Ice and Fire RPG (The Game of Thrones Edition) <- Yes that is a mouthful.
The Song of Ice and Fire RPG has got to be one of the best translations of a setting into an RPG I have ever experienced, Green Ronin Publishing knocks it out of the park with this game.
All of the intricate relationships between characters, the house building and politics mechanics, the absolutely fantastic social combat rules, the gritty and really brutal combat mechanic and of course just the setting writing all come together perfectly in a game that conjures up the TV show and makes you feel like your part of it.
There is so much great writing in these books, the organization and GM advice you get really helps tremendously in bringing The Game of Thrones to life at the table. I especially love the character creation building that has the players working together to not just form an adventuring group but a sort of dysfunctional family.
As a huge fan of the books and the TV show, I had an absolute blast with this one and I’m certain I’m going to run it again in the future. Our game only lasted six sessions but it was one of the most memorable six sessions of my gaming career. In our story three brothers struggled against each other for control of the house the players built together and in that short period of time they were engaged in a Knights tournament, they fought The Mountain in combat, they fought alongside The Starks in war, they betrayed each other in cunning political games and ultimately destroyed themselves. It had absolutely everything you could possibly ask from a Game of Thrones story and this system helped bring it all to the table.
I love this RPG, it really is a work of art.
2. Alternity
Bill S. and Richard B. create magic in what is the unquestionable king of Science-Fiction RPG’s, Alternity. This is not only one of the best sci-fi RPG’s, it may very well be one of the best RPG’s ever made.
While all the games on this list I consider personal favorites I would happily play or run at any time, at this point in the list we are getting into the games that really define me as a GM and as a role-player and Alternity is certainly such a game.
There are a lot of science-fiction games out there but in my humble opinion Alternity is worlds apart, this is the single best science-fiction RPG ever written, period. The work of the super team (Bill S. and Richard B.), it is a combination of brilliant design and inspired writing.
Alternity covers all forms of science-fiction genres from X-Files style conspiracy, Near Earth, Post-Apocalypse to hard science-fiction and science-fiction opera. It does all of that under a single, flawless system that makes use of 4 core classes, yet is distinctively skill-driven.
I adore this game and have used it countless times in everything from time-traveling games to space exploration games and everything in between. It’s a very simple system, yet so robust that even though there are only 4 classes you will never make the same character twice.
The game’s handling of technological eras, concepts like mutations and cybernetics, ship combat from hard science reality style to Star Wars space opera style, is all handled with perfection in this one game.
As if this wasn’t enough, Alternatiy has some of the best supplements for an RPG I have ever read including the absolutely astonishingly awesome StarDrive campaign which I say without reservation is the single best RPG setting ever written, period. The fact that it’s supported by this fantastic system is just icing on the cake of perfection.
I know that availability on this one might not quite hit the criteria for the list, but this is a game that was over-printed so finding books in the 3rd party market is actually quite easy, you can find it on Amazon or Ebay at very reasonable prices. There is a new edition of the game that was put out, I don’t know anything about that one so it should not be confused with the original TSR version.
I have not a single negative word to say about this game, it’s perfect. If you want science-fiction, it begins and ends with this game.
1. Dungeons and Dragons
The one and only Dungeons and Dragons makes the top of the list which should come to the surprise of no one!
While my desire with this list was to expose my readers to other RPG’s for their consideration, this list would be a bald-faced lie if I did not put Dungeons and Dragons in the number one spot.
D&D has had many editions over the years, but in each era in which it appeared whether it was 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 5th edition, Dungeons and Dragons was always my number one, favorite game to play. The only exception in the last 30+ years of my gaming life when that wasn’t true was during the brief period when 4th edition D&D was the current version of the game. I really didn’t like that version and it was the only time that I would not have put D&D as my number one choice of RPG.
I consider all of the editions as members of my D&D toolbox and as a DM, I’m more than happy to run any edition (except 4th) and I would typically do so for different reasons. I will very soon create a top 10 versions of D&D list which would include various retro-clones, spin-offs and re-imagining into this category and certainly if pressed I could put the editions of D&D in order from favorite to least favorite, but all and all I have enjoyed all of these games and I consider every one of them excellent RPG’s.
I’m certain however if I was pressed today to pick my favorite version of Dungeons and Dragons, the one I reach for when a fantasy story pops into my head that I want to explore there is no doubt that “my” preferred version of the game is 1st edition BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal). Typically I would use a modern retro clone like Old School Essentials if we want to get strictly down to the specifics, but ultimately 1st edition Basic D&D for me personally is the simplest game to run, the one that sticks to the D&D concept the best and is the most fun for my players. It’s fast, challenging, easy to learn and teach and above all, fun as hell. It’s D&D in its purest form.
Some Honorable Mentions
There were quite a few games that were cut from this list and though I would argue for good reason, I do think they deserve a courtesy nod for being in contention.
Star Wars Edge of the Empire is a game that teases me with one of my favorite franchises of all time and it certainly was a contender, but in the end the narrative dice system, while clever is just too fussy and demands far too much from a gaming table. I like the ingenuity of it, but it misses the mark for me personally and certainly doesn’t compete with my favorite take on the Star Wars universe.
Warhammer Fantasy Role-play 3rd edition like Star Wars Edge of the Empire has a clever take on role-playing with its narrative dice, but I find it has the same issue as its Star Wars follow up. Too much fucking about with translating these dice to make something useful out of them at the table. I want to love the concept because conceptually it’s really good, but it’s just too impractical at a gaming table and its board game approach to RPG management distances itself too much from the hobbies traditions and assumptions. It was a good effort with a lot of really great writing and I use the game for inspiration, but it’s just not something I’m interested in running.
Pathfinder 2nd edition is another take on Dungeons and Dragons and the truth is that I actually like this one as a player quite a bit. Lots of great options for character building, a fantastic game world built into the system and a really fun combat mechanic that really gets to the heart of modern D&D gameplay. As a DM however I find the 600+ page rulebook is just severe overkill, it’s just too much, there is waaay to much to juggle as a DM and really the payout is kind of limited. Anything as a DM I could do with Pathfinder 2nd edition, I can do with D&D 1st edition, yet it will be a 10th of the complexity, for me it’s just a hard pass. I think a good, dedicated GM can make it work, but it’s too mechanized for my tastes, I could never run a game that is this codified. That said I think it’s actually an amazing design achievement, it’s a really clever game and those with the patience for this much crunch will find a lot to like.
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