Author: Richard Tavadon
Why D&D isn’t for everyone; a Tabletop Builds guide series to finding the right tabletop roleplaying game system for you.
As a quick aside before the article, Tabletop Builds would like to wish everyone a fantastic new year, and we hope that everyone reading this has had a splendid holiday season. This is an introduction for a new series of articles here at Tabletop Builds recommending that you change things up and try out new systems. Hopefully your New Year’s resolution was to try something new, because in the upcoming months our editors will try and convince you to try out the roleplaying games that inspire them, and revitalize their interest in roleplaying games. As always, if you have any comments, or would really love to just tell us your favorite roleplaying game in the comments below, or in the Tabletop Builds Discord!
D&D 5E Tunnel Vision
Perhaps this has happened to you at one point. You have just been invited to a new game of D&D 5E. It may be a close real life friend, or maybe you saw a post on a discord, or an online forum advertising for an online game, either way you just know that you will be playing the latest version of the “worlds greatest roleplaying game.” You go to session 0 (if you are lucky and this does not happen during the first session), and you meet with the group and the DM presents their idea for the game and it sounds really fun, and really unique. Perhaps he presents a game featuring a zombie apocalypse set in modern times, or possibly a sci-fi space exploration game straight out of sci-fi classics like the Foundation series or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Hell, maybe they are really into Star Wars and want to play a game with the players as Jedi, or perhaps Sith during the Old Republic. Perhaps they might have just played Elden Ring or watched Lord of the Rings for the 20th time and they want a fantasy world that is “low magic” where any sight of magic is extraordinary or feared.
Despite the variety of different experiences and feelings that fantasy and science fiction roleplaying can bring, your group may have stumbled into a common trap. It is common, especially for newcomers to tabletop roleplaying to believe that D&D 5E is not only the best option, it is the only option, and that it is a flexible system, one that can be coerced into whatever one’s heart desires. This isn’t even a weird thing to believe. A (tabletop) generation of advertisements has placed D&D 5E at the height of cultural zeitgeist as shows such as Stranger Things and the podcast Critical Role propel the game into a national consciousness beyond the traditional geeks and nerds it was initially played by. This predominance of mindspace has led to a flourishing of new players joining into our favorite hobby, but it also causes some friction, as new (and even expert) D&D players sometimes try to turn D&D into something it is not. Now, flavor may be free (for the sake of this article, flavor consists of changes that affect how the world is imagined, but not the mechanics of the game), but sometimes Dungeon Masters put in a lot of effort to swim against the stream of the playstyle that D&D 5E encourages, supports and fulfills, due to its name recognition alone.
D&D 5E in Context
Before we delve more into other systems, and where D&D is today, let us first briefly discuss the history of the game we all presumably know and love. Dungeons and Dragons entered into the cultural zeitgeist of the ’80s due to its breaking out of the wargaming scene, and into the increasingly commodified nerdom of the heavily consumer-centric 1980’s America, where, despite satanic panics and other conservative fears, it has been a part of the nations nerd counterculture since. Created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons and Dragons combined miniature wargaming, a hobby in its own right, fantasy, and roleplaying to create a new kind of game. Following the success of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (the complete ruleset for the games 1st edition), the game has gone through a myriad of additions, and recreations, and the Dungeons and Dragons most of us currently play is similar to the original in name alone.
It is important to understand, especially for those newer to roleplaying games, that D&D 5E is not the be all and end all of roleplaying games, nor is it entirely unique in its field. Instead, it is a game in a long line of games that has changed and evolved over time. The latest edition of this behemoth of roleplaying games is Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. The third edition of D&D was highly popular (especially after its revision into 3.5E), but Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition was not as popular, and has been widely derided by tabletop roleplayers in years past. Most contributors here at Tabletop Builds believe differently, but the public backlash against the system for being too “video gamey” or “MMOlike” pushed Wizards of the Coast towards creating a very specific kind of game: high fantasy with adventurers, heroes, and villains. The 5th edition of that game is relatively simplified compared to 3.5E/4E, and the game has some things that it is very good at, and many others where it fails. And that is not a bad thing, nor is this article meant to disparage the system that the majority of our readers are playing—it is what 99% of the content on this site is about after all.
While past editions have their own flaws and successes, we presume that most reading this have a background playing D&D 5E. Like any game, 5E has its own things it is good at and a large laundry list of flaws, the majority of which have to do with combat rules. These issues, such as the martial/caster disparity, can be read in other essays throughout the site so this introduction will not discuss them in depth. Instead, let’s take a look at a different angle.
Many of our contributors argue that the largest flaw in 5E has nothing to do with a specific class or build, or anything at all to do with combat. Instead, some point to the game’s very loose approach to roleplaying as its largest flaw. Many of us believe that games that focus more on the roleplaying aspect of the game by introducing rules for roleplaying, and even perhaps rewards and punishments rather than (or ideally in addition to) robust rules for combat, help create more interesting stories. That is not at all to say that 5E cannot have interesting or good roleplaying, merely that other games do better at incentivizing roleplay with their mechanics. A look into the rules for 5E specifically for rules on roleplaying offer only superficial things, such as allowing for social checks. This means that Dungeon Masters are forced to try and elicit roleplaying from their players without any assistance from the game itself. This is all that many groups need, but you might be surprised how much you enjoy a game system that has built in interactions with how players roleplay, whether through rewards, punishments, or even just fully explained results.
The lack of rules for roleplaying is why the vast majority of the content on this website is focused on character power in combat. We do have some articles on more roleplaying-esque features of the game, such as our Complete Guide to Tools, but these are few and far between. The editorial board of Tabletop Builds does not believe that roleplaying or out of combat challenges are handled extraordinarily well by 5E. The system is typically very ‘Yoda’ in that when it comes to roleplaying, you either do or do not, there is no try. There are simply very little rules, mechanics, or systems in place for players to interact with when it comes to roleplaying and out of combat challenges. That is not to say that good DM’s cannot or will not expand upon the skills system, just that there are other game systems that incentivize and integrate roleplaying better into the physical rules of their respective game.
Now that we have discussed some of our perceived flaws in 5E, let’s talk a little bit about its strengths, and what kind of games the system is meant to convey. Despite the inherent balancing flaws of the system, it can still create interesting enough encounters and class fantasy for the majority of players. This of course falls apart the more optimized your table goes, but nevertheless at “Low OP” and even possibly “Low-Mid OP” tables, the combat is certainly fun enough for most players, most especially for casters, and even those who love the “sword and board” fantasy, one of the weakest roles mathematically in the game, can play without hindering their parties too much. The game system also makes a few assumptions about the worlds that one is playing in. That is a high fantasy world with heroes, adventurers, and magic items to plunder. While it is possible to strip away this expectation and do things such as being stingy with magical items, this can oftentimes lead to disparities in the game’s balance as a martial without a magical weapon fighting an enemy with resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing is not a good time. The game also expects players to be fighting multiple combats within a given rest, likely in a dungeon scenario as the game’s name portends.
While D&D 5E has inherent flaws and pros, many issues arise when individuals try and turn it into something that it is not. A good example of this is somewhat of a classic: the “survival” game. These games are typically run by Dungeon Masters who try to bend the expectations of the game. Along the way they will typically remove spells like goodberry, complain about the Ranger ruining their game and will oftentimes perceive the game as flawed due to lack of realism. The issue here is not the game system or the DM, it is merely a misunderstanding of what D&D 5E is and what kinds of games it is meant to be played with. These DM’s (and players) would likely be better served with a more down to earth, realistic system than 5E, which was created to exist in a magical world, with certain expectations of magical aptitude and availability, of worlds with mythic fantasy and filled with adventure and adventuring parties. When one tries to take this away, they are left fighting against the rules, rather than using the rules to help them roleplay. Additionally, trying to take away the magic and focusing on realism forces the player to look to the game for the wrong things. You can argue that flavor can change an entire setting around to look more or less science-y, more or less steampunk, or more or less dark fantasy, but attempting to stray too far from the game’s initial expectations of fantasy can oftentimes lead to everyone’s expectations and fantasies being unfulfilled.
The Solution
In recent years, there has been an explosion in roleplaying systems, each created with different purposes in mind, for different people, and with different inherent flavors. Instead of trying to use D&D 5E as a catch-all for any type of game, be it fantasy, sci-fi or anything in between, instead you should try looking for games that have been written to replicate the setting. For example, if you want lots of magic and lots of guns in a science fiction atmosphere, then perhaps Shadowrun is right for you (also requires a bathtub of D6s). If you would rather play a grittier, more roleplay-oriented fantasy game, than perhaps you might look into Burning Wheel. If you want more examples, you can look forward to the articles to be released in this series, but flavor is just one way that the expectations of players (including the DM) may not be met. Another important aspect is the complexity and difficulty in learning the game.
Some players might find D&D 5E too complex for their needs. While created as a simplification of past editions, 5E is still a complex game that takes time to learn, especially for those new to tabletop games as most who play 5E are. For players and DMs looking for something simpler, a more freeform system like Cypher might be for them. Conversely, one might prefer the number crunchiness of past editions, desiring more complex systems, or maybe they just like having a rule for even the most mundane of actions. In this case, there are systems for you such as Pathfinder. For the truly courageous, you can inch into wargaming and systems such as Warhammer, and transition into true tabletop madness.
So then, if D&D 5E is not for you, what do you do then? The answer is simple—find the game that works for you and try it out! As stated earlier, there is a whole wide world of tabletop games out there, so oftentimes you just need to find the one that works for you and the story you want to tell and not against.
None of the games we plan to cover in this series have the name recognition of D&D 5E, but we think they just might have what you need in order to get your game to run well. So with a sense of adventure, feel free and explore the vast possibilities. Here at Tabletop Builds, we strive to eventually become a place where articles on a variety of systems will be published, viewed, and discussed. For now, our community and content has focused solely on D&D 5E, but we hope at some point in the future to expand. For now, our contributors have committed to writing short blurbs on some of their favorite systems (that are not D&D). Each of these blurbs include what these systems succeed at, how complex they are, and what kind of games they were meant to create. Hopefully these will guide you to finding your new favorite roleplaying system!
Future Articles
In the upcoming months, Tabletop Builds will post information pages on roleplaying systems that we know and love written by our various editors where we will try and convince you to play it. Our planned list of games to be featured (which may change) consists of:
Worlds Without Number review written by Moonsilver | Stefan
Shadow of the Demon Lord review written by kobo1d
Kill Sector review written by Icebrick1
Cypher System review written by Richard Tavadon
Lancer review written by Xenken
Dungeon World review written by RomanTorchic
Nechronica review written by Lilith
Witcher review written by Haen the Heretic
Honey Heist review written by Haen the Heretic
What non-D&D TTRPG’s have you played and enjoyed? Are you committed to making 5E work through homebrew, no matter how difficult? Have you been in an alternate genre game that flopped because it tried to shoehorn itself into 5E? Let us know in the comments below, or on the Discord.
Sounds really interesting!
As a DM who has mostly been running a popular D&D variant, Star Wars 5e, do you have any plans to cover these unofficial variant systems? I’ve seen so many interesting D&D 5e spinoff systems like Incarnate (an Avatar the Last Airbender inspired game.)
We do not plan on covering any of the unofficial variant systems at this time.
I would love to play these but… no one else does…
I know for a fact that Lancer and Pathfinder are also quite popular. D&D 5e is just *so much more* popular than any other TTRPG.
I’ve played many TTRPGs in the last 40 years. Surely dozens of different systems, perhaps hundred.
D&D is the worst of the lot.
5e is the worst version of D&D I habe ever played.
Though, I never actually played B/X.
I have heard of games that might be even worse than 5e D&D, like FATAL or NuTSR Star Frontiers, but I have never actually looked at them.
For “low-combats high-survival medieval” games, Forbidden Lands is a great choice.
But most of the time I run games in me “over-hacked and simplified” version of 5e. The base mechanics of 5e are really solid and easy to hack.
I may as well throw my own recommendation into the ring. My favourite system is HeroQuest 2e/HeroQuest: Glorantha, though I plan to upgrade to Questworlds when the book is published.
HQ is on the rules-lite end of things, I’d say slightly simpler than Fate Core (though it’s hard to directly compare them because the complexities are in different parts of the rules), and certainly with a lot more meat than, say, Risus. Your character sheet is a list of traits with numerical ratings, with some rules dividing them into categories (especially in HQG where you have a certain number of Runes and the like) or allowing sub-traits for narrow specializations. Pretty standard fare in the rules-lite space, with all the expected features like flexibility and quick-and-easy character creation.
Also reasonably standard is the simple degrees of success resolution mechanic. All rolls are nominally opposed, and all conflicts are framed such that the players rather than the GM roll. Only climactic and complex events should use the extended resolution mechanic, as multi-round encounters really slow the pace of the game down (I mean, the mechanic is flexible enough for tactical combat, but it’s not optimal). There are a couple of tables to learn, and the “roll high but under” mechanic is a bit weird (albeit familiar to any RuneQuest or Call of Cthulhu player), but in terms of player knowledge, the learning curve is very small.
There are also some pretty good community/faction rules and other miscellanea that I won’t go into too much detail about.
Where things get a bit weird is stuff like how DCs are dynamic, set according to how many successes and failures have been rolled recently. Which feels a bit backward compared to most systems. The width of the chasm you need to leap over (or other circumstantial conditions affecting difficulty) will change to fit the appropriate DC, rather than setting the DC based on the width of the chasm and other circumstances. I mean, really, the difference is academic in the end, especially for an experienced GM accustomed to adapting adventures on the fly, but it makes you think about encounter design very differently to most systems. But this weirdness is worth it, because it gives the GM a ton of control over the pacing of the game.
And indeed, this is the greatest strength of HeroQuest as a system. Pacing. It gives the GM a lot of tools to manage it, and the book is written to give a lot of practical advice for how to use those tools effectively (and how to grow to a point where those tools become mere guidelines to a strong intuition). Especially if you’re used to the awful DM resources in 5e pretty much throwing you into the deep end, or other rules-lite systems that take pride in keeping the book as short as possible, Robin Laws really takes the time to actually provide the tools the GM needs to succeed.
Another feature I really like is the mastery system. I like powerful settings that tend to have some pretty severe power gulfs, like superhero, anime, epic fantasy, and space opera settings, and it’s surprisingly hard to find systems that can handle those kinds of disparities without the math breaking or balance going completely out the window or other such problems. It’s a generalization of Burning Wheel’s grey and white power levels and RuneQuest’s >100% skills, if they’re more familiar.
Something else I really like is a strong emphasis on theme. Symbolism, mirrored character arcs, outright narrativium as an in-universe law… Strong control of pacing really helps with this, and the Hero Questing rules in RuneQuest: Glorantha are also really useful to adapt to different settings.
So yeah, if you value fast play with very strong narrative and pacing control in a generic system, and especially if you’re dealing with big power gulfs, it’s great. If you want lots of rules for specific things or deep tactical play or strong character optimization, look elsewhere.
My recommendation: FALL OF MAGIC
Fall of Magic is a storytelling game, which means that it’s *only* pillar is role-playing. But the excellent (and concise!) manual, short time to start playing, and the mystery in its presentation are all extremely strong drivers and engagement-tools.
I find that, when I’m introducing people to the TTRPG hobby, they’re quite on-board with learning a bunch of math and rules. But they have very little confidence in their ability to role-play, and are intimidated by the concept of speaking up and telling a story. Fall of Magic (both the gameplay and the manual) are the remedy for that. When someone asks me to introduce them to the TTRPG hobby, I actually play a session or two of Fall of Magic with them, and *then* move on to teaching them how. To play D&D 5e.
Fall of Magic is a work of beauty, and deserves to be seen.
Not sure if this was bad timing or prompted by all the talk about the OGL?
Either way nice to see some alternative suggestions. It is just so many people know D&D it is far easier to find and organise a game, even if it is OSR that for almost anything else. I have played a lot of systems over the last forty years. It may not be the best, certainly not the worst, but good enough when you run games from Level 1 to 12 for people to have fun. That after all is the aim of us all spending our time playing these games!
As someone who cares most deeply about narrative and character, but who loves an elegant system, I’m excited for this series!
As someone who plays 5e primarily because it’s what is most played, I’m glad to see more discussions like this, especially as Hasbro/Wizards looks eager to burn things down.
Looking forward to this series! Hopefully there will be an article about Pathfinder 2e at some point in the future.
hell yeah, Lancer getting the recognition it deserves
My seconding for an article on Pathfinder 2nd Edition. I would also recommend Blades in the Dark or one of its variants.
Real glad to see a Lancer article too.
Would love to see some more OSR systems!
Shadowdark RPG is a favorite of mine.
Very similar, yet very different to 5e. Proper optimization is difficult, but in a sense much more accessible due to the simplicity.