Old School 5e

Five Choices for 5e Old School Play
I much prefer an old school feel to my fantasy role play game. Judging by the number of hacks and variant rules others have put forth in an effort to modify the 5e rules to give them a more old school flavor, I am not alone. The excellent Five Torches Deep is one such product. Five Torches Deep includes additional content for the referee/DM to use with 5e in order to alter the feel of the game thereby delivering a more old school experience. As one might predict characters in FTD are designed to combine elements of the original game with the modern mechanics and this section is one of the real gems to be found in FTD. The four classes are Warrior, Thief, Zealot and Mage. Each class has three subclass archetypes, Cleric, Druid and Paladin for the Zealot class, and they are available at third level much like archetypes in standard 5e. Death and healing is another area one might expect an old school game to differ from 5e and use of FTD does indeed make for a deadlier game. Hirelings, morale, low light and chases in the dark (see the excellent cover illustration above) all add a touch more old school flavor to a game using FTD.
5e Hardcore mode by Runehammer Games consists of 25 awesomely illustrated pages of rules for modifying 5e. I describe 5e Hardcore Mode as exactly the kind of rule modifications I would most like to see in the 5e game that I am most interested in playing. The “hack” requires access to the 5e rules and offers changes that makes the game more deadly for characters, simplifies various mechanics and aims to deliver a more intuitive and perhaps most importantly, a faster playing game experience. Combat in my view should be quick and deadly with every throw of the dice having a meaningful outcome. Other changes that help deliver the gritty, old school feeling include rolling three d6 down the line for attribute scores, playing the character you roll, and roll to cast magic spells. 5e Hardcore Mode is available as a digital download.

I picked up Dungeonesque at either Origins or Gencon a few years back. It is an adaptation of 5e rules with an aim at delivering a more old school game. Packaged in a little white box containing 4 digest sized paperback booklets, Dungeonesque has the appearance of an old school clone. The rules, which comprise a complete game, are much closer to the 5e Basic Rules mechanics than to the original edition of the game. Dungeonesque includes a description of what old school style play means to its authors and offers rules compatible with that vision.

Adventures In Middle Earth is an adaptation of the 5e mechanics to produce rules compatible with role playing in Middle Earth. Currently out of print due to licensing issues, Adventures In Middle Earth comprises several volumes and delivers a low magic game that has a genuine feeling for Middle Earth. Published by Cubicle 7, Adventures In Middle Earth shares many concepts with The One Ring, another Middle Earth RPG previously released through Cubicle 7. The low magic approach to playing a 5e type system seems more old school to me in terms of delivering a more gritty, dangerous and realistic game feel.

Although not a direct  “hack” of the 5e system which would require access to the 5e rules, Low Fantasy Gaming Deluxe Edition seems very much inspired by 5e and is somewhat similar to it mechanically. Again the emphasis in this game is a low magic feel where realism and logic dominate thereby setting the stage for a more fantastic experience when anything out of the ordinary enters the game setting. The game adds a “Madness” mechanic and therefore caters more to horror than does 5e. The magic system requires a d20 roll with each spell cast and there is a chance for a magical mishap leading to a random special effect. Low magic systems are not “no magic”. The idea is that anything rare is more salient and wonderful (and sometimes more dangerous) than things commonly encountered, which being common tend to also become mundane.
There you have it - five variations on the 5e rules that take your game closer to the old school feel of deadly, magical mystery. Of course the rules aren’t everything and in classic old school style, the rules are there to be adapted, altered, ignored and over-ruled by the DM. The listed games seem to be addressed at meeting a perceived need - that is to satisfy the hunger many of us have to play in the old school style games we are either curious about trying, or fondly remember. I like them all and would not hesitate to play or run any of these systems. We do indeed live in a golden era of role-play gaming!