D&D 5e is not for everyone.

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One thing I get a lot from D&D 5e players is the statement “What’s all this about non-5e systems? 5e is all I need!” Or at least something along those lines. This is a bummer of a statement from just one person, let alone an entire population, so I’ve dedicated this blog post to all of these 5e players out there.

Please, just hear your friendly neighborhood game designer out on this one: There’s a world of fun out there that you’re very likely missing out on, and my goal in this piece is to show you the possibilities!

What you do from there is up to you.

D&D 5e is not for everyone

Have you ever thoght about what TTRPG system would best suit you and your group?

If you’re here, the answer is either “Definitely, yes. It’s actually the second thought my brain goes to whenever I start a TTRPG” (The first being “who’s bringing snacks?”) or “No, never. You specifically sent this to me and told me to read it, and I’m now doing so begrudgingly due to some polite society, social contract bullshit (thank you!)”

Well, either way welcome! I’ve split this one up into two sections. One of ’em (this one) breaks apart what 5e is, and who it’s actually for, and the second goes ahead and starts bringing back the curtain on the possibilities out there.

But before we begin, I wanna state clearly: I’ll talk about TTRPGs for years to come on this blog, but this is probably the only time I’ll ever make a focus of 5e or D&D in general. So, I’m putting everything 5e-related in my brain down here, and going forward, I’ll only look in earnest at various indie systems instead. Little designers deserve the world.

Let’s get into it.

What even is a TTRPG?

This sounds like a relatively simple question, especially for someone already familiar with the medium, but bear with me for a second. (Especially you, random GM that says “Oh i’ll just modify 5e for this,” every time you want to tell a different kind of story.)

A TTRPG is a collection of rules and mechanics that when put together create a system for often collaborative storytelling.

There are many others, but this definition is mine. The key point of which that I want to point out is that the end goal is telling a story. This end goal is super important, as your system’s collection of rules and mechanics is, essentially, a well-oiled machine tailor built and tested to make a specific kind of story. (Yes, patrick. Combat is a story)

See, in game design, (specifically TTRPG design, but many concepts apply more broadly), well-built systems are intentionally made up of mechanics that build towards a central thesis. This thesis can include critically important things, such as genre, setting, mood, tone, and even themes for the stories made within that system.

We designers just simply don’t have the same level of narrative control that other artistic mediums do, however, what we have, that they don’t, is a direct line of communication with the player (or players). So instead, we put a living shit ton of work into making arrays of mechanics that work together to build towards our thesis, as that’s how we convey artistic vision in place of raw narrative.

My main point here is thus: in modifying rules and mechanics, you are fundimentally sacrificing the designer’s thesis.

Or put simply, when you change shit, our designs no longer do what we designed them to do.

At the same time, it’s your game, and you are 100% within your rights to modify, tweak, and break things to your heart’s content. I encourage such behavior actually! It’s probably one of the best ways to learn game design! However, in doing so you should at least acknowledge that, at least to some degree, you are killing the designer’s child, and with it, their intentions, design, thesis, and all of the elements therein.

Specificity and vagueness by design, a sidenote

Some systems are intentionally vague or broad to expand the number of stories that can be told with them. Genesys and FATE (which, in turn, is based on “fudge,” The more you know!) are good examples of such systems. And they definitely have their uses; Edge of the Empire was built on Genesys, and that system uses the genesys dice system quite well.

However, broader systems fundimentally sacrifice their capacity to carry out their mechanical vision when they choose flexibility over specialization. In short, when you try to do everything, you do nothing well. Would you rather have one multitool that kinda handles everything kinda ok, or an array of specialized tools, each designed specifically and lovingly with their own hyperspecific application in mind?

D&D specifically is designed primarily as a system for combat, and has been slowly adapted into an everything system by its community over the years. 5e is designed vaguely, and if anything, continues to specialize in combat, as that’s the core identity of D&D. But heck, it doesn’t even do that extraordinarily well, due to its lack of focus!

In a world where people are lovingly crafting games about high school drama and gossip, games about sailing on trees on a chainsaw boat, games about living dungeons that gaze directly into the characters’ very souls, games about kids hoverboarding between dimensions, and infinitely many more, each with its own new ideas, mechanics, vibes, artistic visions, and themes… GASPS FOR AIR

Why would you want to play with a multitool?

RP enthusiasts, I’m looking at you.

Hey. I’m talking to you, roleplay enjoyers that just default to 5e because you don’t want to learn a new system. And I’m especially talking to you RP-focused 5e groups out there that simply just don’t run combat. Or do so very infrequently.

Because like it or not, 5e is a medival fantasy-based system designed primarily for combat.

So, if you’re looking to do anything else, you’re genuinely missing out on a system that was specifically designed to mechanically create the story that you and your party actually want to play.

The medival fantasy focus is self explanatory (A standard modern setting, for example, wouldn’t have pack horses as items and “arcana” as a skill), however, on the combat front, I expect I’ll get a good amount of pushback. Nontheless I stand by that; 5e is built for combat first and roleplay second. Allow me to elaborate:

The entire system centers around combat

In 5e, what percentage of class features, conservatively, center around combat mechanics? How about Feats? Items? How much session time does combat take up? It certainly depends on the group, but I’ve certainly run 7 hour combat sessions before.

Further, the sheer moment-to-moment detail of the system is nothing short of a second game mode. One must keep track of player & enemy positions, initiative order, player & enemy action economy, hit points, and everything must be done within ~6 second actions within the fiction. I’ll have more to say about the combat later on, but if you’re using this for RP it’s like hammering a nail with a wood saw: it’s overbuilt in all the wrong ways, and you’d be much better off investing the budget in a nail gun if all you wanted to do was nail nails.

The balance of the combat system is built for numerous combat sessions between long rests. And from personal experience running low-combat 5e campaigns, I don’t think my party ever went more than two bouts of combat between long rests, rendering the built-in combat balance way off (casters rarely ran out of spell slots, making them far more powerful than martials, etc…).

If you want to add something or have a player come up with an item or a trait for their character, as a GM, you either

• have to be concerned with how it will be balanced/ abused in combat, or
• don’t run combat anyway, and end up ignoring the many many 5e mechanics that center around it.

Its roots are literally in war gaming.

The creators of D&D were members of the international federation for war gaming (one of which co-founded the thing), which then branched off into a subgroup called the castle & crusade society, which then set the foundation for the chainmail system, which was a foundation for the original D&D ruleset. Go figure. (source)

The very basis for the 5e system is anchored in war games. It has indeed evolved to encompass much more, but it has almost certainly kept its roots. As a baseline, all the non-combat is a design addendum compared to combat, which is what the system was made for in the first place!

In short, D&D will never be a roleplay-focused TTRPG system and still be D&D.

A small capitulation.

This isn’t to say that you can’t use 5e or any other D&D based system for incredible RP-based storytelling. You totally can! I’ve done so myself, and I absolutely adore what GMs like Brennan Lee Mulligan do with the system.

However, just because a system is popular, doesn’t mean that it will give the most enjoyment to you and your party or be the best mechanical compliment to the stories your table wants to tell.

Since my fascination with tabletop RPGs hit, I’ve had so many incredible experiences and told so many beautiful stories that never could have ever happened in 5e, raw or modded to the teeth. And, as I stated above, my goal with this piece is to hopefully share that with you.

You don’t gotta take my advice, or heck, do anything with it. By all means, play what makes you happy, even if it is 5e. I clown on it a lot, but if it does make you happy, I don’t want to get in the way of that.

Combat enjoyers aren’t off the hook either

Remember all that stuff about multitools? Your favorite mechanic may be 5e’s design focus, but that focus has become a lot more fuzzy in recent times (especially with the recent influx of all you RP enjoyers).

Wouldn’t you like to just play a game that was made specifically for combat and nothing else? Look at something like Lancer and tell me that fucking mech combat wouldn’t be incredibly badass. Or perhaps if you like 5e’s medival setting, mythic bastionland might serve as a splendid alternative! And both place combat at center stage, so their systems are hyper-focused on providing a clean, well-oiled combat experience.

Even if you do genuinely enjoy 5e’s combat, it’s only one style of combat, designed to tell stories of combat in one way. The options out there for handling combat could create completely alien situations and encounters the likes of which you could have never done in 5e. Aren’t you curious what else you could experience?

Perhaps newbies?

Nope! I’d honestly recommend pretty much anything over 5e for sheer noob friendliness. 5e has a bunch of unecessary verbosity and specifics, and, again, gets bogged down in its combat far too easliy. So many other systems flow infinitely better than 5e and can communicate the awesomeness of the hobby much more fluidly, and directly.

Now, in terms of actually recommending an individual person a game, that depends entirely on what gets them excited. I’ll pitch them a bunch of stuff and see what they perk up at, regardless of difficulty. People are so much happier to sit through rules if it gets them to a place they’re genuinely excited about.

If that system is 5e, then so be it, but a lot of the time, that’s only the case because it’s the only thing they’ve heard of!

Who is 5e for then, bucko?

In summary, 5e is for you if you

• already use the system & don’t like learning new things,
• enjoy mideval fantasy settings, with a 60-70% combat tilt,
• like vague, unopinionated sytems,
• don’t mind overly corporate media,
• just kinda like it (which is totally fair)

And if you do fit the bill here, I truly do wish you all the best in your 5e adventures…

But just because one system is for you, doesn’t mean others aren’t! pulls away curtain, exaggerated

Other systems and why you should play them

Every time I hear someone who likes TTRPGs say they’re not interested in learning other systems, I die a little bit inside.

In my brain, that sounds like someone who enjoys art saying “Nah the mona lisa is my favorite, I’m not going to go look at anything else.” Or someone who likes movies saying “I really like the avengers im not going to watch another movie ever.” Like what????

Come on, lil guy! We’ve got so much to explore, and we’ve only just begun! Off we go into the wild pale yonder!

The wild pale yonder

Hey. (I’m dressed in a trench coat beckoning you from a nearby alley) Hey, c’mere. Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking to you. You wanna roleplay as a fucking mouse?

I produce the box set of mausritter from the folds of my trench coat

Or perhaps you’re more of a “journal on my own from the point of view of a vampire losing their memories over the course of a thousand years” kinda person?

I manifest Thousand Year Old Vampire from a brick wall

No? Then may I interest you in modern detective horror?

Your bag of groceries transmogrifies into Delta Green and Triangle Agency

Hmm, scifi horror perhaps?

The Mothership box set, having grown spiderlike legs, scuttles up your leg

Or maybe, just a bunch of kids on skateboards. *Hoverboards. In portals. (Slugblaster)

a portal opens up to your right and at least four teenage kids on hoverboards pile into you, sending both you and them sprawling into another portal.

Ah, well I guess not then. Try not to peel out. Nasty business.

Other systems

The variety and creativity of the game design community is simply too vast for words. If it’s in your brain, there’s a system for it, and sometimes if you’re lucky, the designer has cooked up at least one mechanic that’ll change the way you see tabletop RPGs, and thus the way you play them.

However, a lot of the time, the true beauty is in games that would never have even entered your brain. Features, settings, mechanics, and themes that never would have even pinged on your radar, pulled full-focus by a designer who cares about them more than garlic bread.

That shit, my friends, is the good stuff.

So what should I play?

In short, whatever gets you excited! The options are so numerous and diverse, that it simply comes down to personal preference.

What kind of story do you and your party want to tell? How do you want it to be told? Do you have your heart set on a specific setting? A specific vibe?

If so, look for that! If not, go picking around and see what you can find! Read descriptions and check out options! See what gets your brain gets jazzed up about! What makes it buzz with interesting characters, plotlines, and ideas! And as discouraged as judging books by their covers is, TTRPGs feature some of the most beautiful art out there. And very often, a game’s overall vibe is encapsulated incredibly well by the art it puts on display, so if all else fails find some cool art and go from there!

My silly recommendations

As a quick disclaimer, this hobby, like many others, is a matter of taste. I, like everyone else, am biased towards a certain kind of game. Specifically, I absolutely adore games that place roleplay at center stage. Games that deal with the complexities of identity. Games with innovative mechanics. Games that present deep ethical quandries. Games that make everyone at the table ponder something menaingful. If you like similar games, you’ll probably love my recommendations. If you don’t, then don’t worry! There are so many more games out there that will be for you and not for me, (5e included!), and I absolutely love that about this hobby.

I listed a good few options above, but also, I’d encourage you to take a gander at a few of the following games, most if not all of which I will write full reviews for eventually:

• Spire: Rise against the opressive high elves in a revolution destined for ruin, in an attempt to make a difference. Check out the fallout system in this one, it’s genuinely a game changer.

• Blades in the Dark: Gang warfare: the game. Run a gang in a dark, steampunk, ghost-ridden world, and execute sick heists. Prep is for losers when in-scene you can just flashback to that time you prepared for this exact eventuality.

• Slugblaster: TEENS ON HOVERBOARDS! DOIN’ SICK TRICKS! GOIN’ THROUGH PORTALS! GETTIN’ THAT SWEET SWEET INTERNET CLOUT! RUNNIN’ FROM INTERDIMENSIONAL POLICE! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

• Lichcraft: You’re trans and the wait for gender affirming healthcare is 300 years. Welp time to turn to the dark arts and become a lich!

In addition, I wholeheartedly recommend the youtube channel “Quinns Quest” for incredibly well-made reviews of these kinds of games.

Conclusion

Well that’s that. I hope I’ve made a compelling point here, and I hope you get out there and find games that make you happy! If you find anything cool, please let me know!

Another interesting trend that’s almost identical to this one that I hope to write about soon is the broad retiscence to swap operating systems to linux, which is something I figured I’d prod at as well ehehe.

Finally, I alluded to this earlier, but I intend to do more TTRPG-related blog posts going forward, probably reviews as well as deep dives on mechanics and designs. If you’re interested, please feel free to add me to your RSS feed!

Thanks once again for reading, and I’ll see you next time.