Top 10 Games LIKE D&D...but BETTER! (Ep. 319)

Professor DM counts down his top D&D 10 Dungeons & Dragons variants. Check out these INDEPENDENT creators!

0:00 Intro & Criteria
2:13 #s 10-6
8:04 #s 5-1

[einCAA]

2:15 knave
3:16 deathbringer
4:24 the black hack
5:04 index card rpg
5:57 hyperborea
7:12 lamentations of the flame princess
8:05 dungeon crawl classics
9:20 castles & crusades
11:07 oldschool essentials
12:25 five torches deep
12:45 shadowdark

[steelmongoose]

I noticed the order in which you named the D&D character attributes: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. Old school, baby.

[michaelgunn]

Great list, Professor. I wish you had given an honourable mention to Basic Fantasy Roleplay, because it was the first OSR attempt. Also, Gonnerman has done us the curtesy of giving the pdfs away for free and selling the books at cost. I don't think it's a top-ten-pick, but it's great for someone who doesn't have the money to buy any books, and it fits your criteria. Even so, you've put up a great list.

[MrAbsentmindedprof]

10. Knave
9. Deathbringer
8. The Black Hack
7. Index Card RPG
6. Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
5. Lamentations of the Flame Princess
4. Dungeon Crawl Classics
3. Castles & Crusades
2. Old School Essentials
1. Shadowdark

HM: Five Torches Deep

[mntineer]

Glad to see the call out to Castles & Crusades! Been running this system for over 10 years, and its my fantasy go-to.

[dmando]

Worlds Without Number (WWN) by Kevin Crawford, add Stars WN and you have it covered. Now I noticed the Professor's list favors simple and streamlined games, which is awesome, I'm not sure WWN falls into that category though(really it doesn't). However, for me, it is the perfect system to inspire you(and help you) to create and find new takes on our favorite genre. Like the AD&D DMG with all of it's flaws, it was the most inspirational resource of it's time. WWN is that for the modern D&D clone era. IMHO.

[marcosmiotti]

The Open D&D philosophy changed the way I play fantasy TTRPGs completely, and I can say for sure that my fellow-players and I have more fun playing those games today than the official versions of D&D itself - which is still great, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great things to learn about it - for instance, the amazing advantage/disadvantage mechanics of 5E, which Prof. DM employed masterfully in his "Deathbringer" RPG.

[theoldgoat]

So glad Kelsey over at The Arcane Library is getting her flowers from the community right now. As you pointed out, her writing style is spot on for what you need to run without getting too verbose.

[NefariousKoel]

I'd like to see your list of games which aren't derived from some version of D&D.

[PhilipDudley]

I think all of the material made by Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Publishing. Scarlet Heroes, Silent Legions, Stars Without Number, Worlds Without Number, Godbound and soon Cities Without Number.

[asdfjoe]

2:15 - Knave
3:16 - Deathbringer
4:24 - The black hack
5:04 - Index card rpg
5:57 - Hyperborea
7:12 - Lamentations of the flame princess
8:05 - Dungeon crawl classics
9:20 - Castles & crusades
11:07 - Oldschool essentials
12:25 - Five torches deep
12:45 - Shadowdark

[robertdobie]

I can, along with Prof. DM, highly recommend OSE, especially for those, like me, who were out of the hobby for a few decades. One great feature of OSE are the rules for Retainers: player characters can hire and employ retainers in adventures (within limits!). This was especially useful when, for a few months, my D&D group was down to just two players and myself: I had the players hire retainers and, presto!, it was as if we had doubled the number of players. This feature worked really well (as DM, I played the retainers, but my players did all their rolls); best of all, my players loved it.

[michaelweigand]

Would love to see you cover GURPS in the future. It brought my friends and I into the fold back in the nerdy 90’s

[twincast]

I'll be honest, the only one of these that is for me is Castles & Crusades, but it's a great list nonetheless.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Flatland Games and their somewhat loosely _OD&D/BD&D_-based games _Beyond the Wall_ and _Through Sunken Lands_ for adventures with a Prydain/Earthsea feel or a Conan/Elric feel, respectively. You can just roll characters the classic way, but the standard creation method uses playbooks with major life event tables until the start of the campaign, which really help with well-rounded character backstories. Particularly in _BtW, _ in which all the player characters grew up together in (or near) a single village (co-created during session zero) and are now tasked to save it from an emerging threat in a folkloric coming-of-age adventure (or tragically die trying), presumably at about sixteen years of age, as that has explicitly been the minimum human starting age in all edition of _Dungeons & Dragons_ (and _Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay_ among others) so far, but they oddly don't specify beyond "youth". Player characters in _TSL, _ on the other hand, are supposed to have at least some experience and thus likely age under their belt. And for beer and pretzels dungeon-crawl one-shots, their _Grizzled Adventurers_ is a solid choice, although for that type of game I prefer Dungeonslayers (with the alternative magic system), which is OSR in spirit, but barely resembles D&D mechanically beyond using a d20.

[Thoraxe_]

Need to follow this up with a video on games that aren't like D&D.

[danielokeefe]

Getting ready to run a DCC game for the first time and I'm getting psyched for it!

[TonyCrenshawsLatte]

I'm not surprised Five Torches Deep got relegated to an honorable mention because Shadowdark pretty much does what Five Torches Deep tries to do, but does it in better and more polished ways in every aspect. I can't wait for my full version to arrive.

[bobhastings]

Great video Professor. I have played most of those games. BX is what I started with back in the early 80’s and is probably still is my go to, but I also enjoy running Basic Fantasy and White Box Medieval
Cheers from Canada
Bob

[PyramKing]

II very much enjoy Lion & Dragon RPG and the campaign Dark Albion for the game, which takes D&D into a low fantasy medieval England setting. It has more of a Game of Thrones feeling than a Lord of the Rings high-fantasy aspect. The details, research, and information are amazing. Probably my favorite itteration of an OSR D&D type game.

[MalakyoftheOSR]

Great list and I'm happy to see Castles & Crusades so high on the list. One thing I really like about C&C is that I can run any adventure for any edition of D&D (expect maybe 4E) and any other OSR system and do the conversion during the game. Their claim as the Rosetta Stone of D&D is very true. Classes are easy to convert over as well, and the Codex line of books...the perfect blend of history and myth to bring to the table.