Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition comes with a generous license which allows third party publishers to create and sell content compatible with the game. We took a moment to talk to some of them!

We maintain a list of the third party A5E products (that we know about) on the official tools site.

Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. Could you tell me a little about the products you are making for A5E?

Peter Martin: I’ve got two product lines currently going: the Thematic Toolkit line which leans into my general enthusiasm for multiclassing and the Manual of Adventurous Resources (MoAR) line that I’m doing with Josh Gentry (and soon some other collaborators). Both of those are through my self-publishing brand of Purple Martin Games. The Thematic Toolkit line is small, bite-sized products that present either 2 or 3 new archetypes and then either 1 or 3 synergy feat chains to allow multiclassing between those archetypes (or any other mix of archetypes using the same base classes). The MoAR series is a much more broad general collection of character options, including origins options, archetypes, spells, feats, weapons, combat traditions, strongholds and followers, etc. I also freelanced on one of PJ Coffey’s projects; I contributed some synergy feat and transformational feat content (including an essay on creating synergy feats) to Homebrew and Hacking: Crafting Personalised Feats.

Sarah Breyfogle: I’m currently working on a collection of small environments – think a mangrove forest, rather than a whole region – each with an associated exploration challenge and new monster. The goal is to give the DM everything they need to run a quick session, all on a page or two. It’s titled Stranger Sights and is coming to Kickstarter this fall. I also have a few notes on ways to expand the Strongholds system, but that’s a ways down the line.

Florian Derudder, aka Ravine: I'm currently focusing on writing archetypes. It's a design space that I enjoyed exploring when homebrewing on 5e, and it is an interesting one in A5e as well. I have so far released 4 archetypes for A5e. And the adept archetype, the Spellbreaker, is my first one exclusively written for A5e.

I also try to document the design and thought process that goes into that work. It helps me understand better what I'm doing. And hopefully it provides some context for those who want to use it, understand it, to facilitate modification if they want to.

Josh Gentry: I'm really happy you invited us to talk, Morrus! Besides my work with EN Publishing, I'm collaborating with Peter Martin (Purple Martin Games) and other designers for the series Manual of Adventurous Resources. I am presently in a chaplaincy internship so I don't really have free time right now, but if I did I would be writing rules for my cyberpunk/fantasy campaign setting. I'm also chatting with other designers about potential future projects because I feel like there is a lot of enthusiasm in the A5E community right now.

Jessica Wolfman: I’ve thus-far produced the Handbook of Heritages for sale, but I’ve also converted (A)D&D spells to LU format and am in the process of converting (A)D&D monsters. Neither of these are going to be published, of course, since the material isn’t original to me.

What made you decide to use A5E rather than the original 5E (O5E)?

PM: I was part of the original design team for Level Up and as the development process continued, I got more and more excited about the possibilities. From a design standpoint, doing content for Level Up is a joy. There are so many new “hooks” to hang design elements on that weren’t there in O5E. For example: combat traditions. Just being able to design new ones and/or provide access to them for martial characters opens up a lot of exciting new design space, as does the new way of handling expertise. The concept of rare spells is another good example where you can have a baseline spell that’s available to everyone and this fancy upgraded version you need to seek out that can be treasure later. And even this is just scratching the surface. Frankly, if I had to go back to O5E, I would kind of die inside a little because I’d miss all the new design frameworks so badly.

SB: Exploration challenges are an A5e innovation, and I knew I wanted to write more of them. That being said, since A5e is backwards compatible, I’ve put a lot of work into making Stranger Sights accessible to people who have only played O5e, or who have been slowly incorporating rules from A5e into their O5e games. The book is definitely targeted towards A5e players, but if someone who’s only played O5e picks it up, they shouldn’t have an issue.

FDR: It was not really a question of one over the other, as I was already sitting on subclasses I was developing for 5th edition, and started porting some over to A5e. As a Kickstarter Backer, and eager to be a “good” A5e GM, it was an exercise for me to both get a better grasp of the peculiarities of the reworked core classes, and the changes in the system (such as the expertise dice).

But I started to release for A5e before 5e because, simply, why not? There is already a ton of existing content for 5e, so I thought I might contribute a little bit by showing that there are some people out there interested in this iteration of the system.

So, in a nutshell: learning the system specificities by designing for it, and hopefully contribute to the A5e ecosystem.

JG: I was one of the lead designers for A5E, and we put so much passion and care into the rennovation of the 5e system that I simply can't go back to how things were before. In my view, many of the foibles to O5E which recent/future releases try to address, A5E has already addressed (and more effectively). I look at content produced by "the first-party publisher" and I often say to myself, "I think we could do it better."

JW: I very quickly got hooked during the playtest. Because of that, I wanted there to be as many options as possible. The people at my 5e table rarely play the main races, for instance, so I wanted to have other heritage options for them.

If you worked on the core A5E books, what was your contribution to the game?

PM: I did a lot of clean-up and rewriting. I worked on spells, feats, and magic items in that capacity, and I also collaborated on the player archetypes with Will Gawned; we each wrote about half the words for that section. I also wrote a bunch of the environmental hazards like high gravity vacuum, rushing liquid, etc. More informally, I wrote the initial En5ider Multiclass Feats article that Andrew Engelbrite used as a source of inspiration for the multiclass synergy feats that exist in Level Up, and I shared some limited knowledge about safety tools, but I didn’t write the section. And like everyone on the team, I offered feedback on various things when it was asked for, participated in some internal playtesting, etc. However, the thing I’m most proud of is the new lore for grimlocks (and to a lesser extent magmins and sahuagin) that I wrote.

SB: I worked with a team on the exploration pillar and journey mechanics, as well as writing some of the challenges presented in Trials and Treasures. I wrote the weapons and armor section, and a couple of pieces of monster lore here and there. Finally, I’m currently the Narrator for EN Live’s Actual Play, The Starcrossed Seaway, which returns in August for season 2.

JG: I co-designed the heritage and culture aspects of character origins, and I coined the term "heritage gift." I wrote the full entries for human and elf; all the elf cultures, plus eladrin, cosmopolitan, godbound, steamforged, and circusfolk. I co-wrote cleric, and even though another designer outlined warlock I was the one to write/implement the whole entry. I co-wrote the religion/faith appendix (cosmic war, humanism, deity tables, plot generator). I wrote the "gear at higher level" tables. The artifacts Sword of Three Traditions, Cane of Chaos, Crafter's Codex, and Song of Creation (all but the Song were pitched by other designers). I also wrote the flavor text for drider, hell hound, wyvern, and homonculus, and contributed to dinosaur and troll.

What do you feel that third party publishers can uniquely bring to the table?

PM: I think third-party publishers are better-positioned to try riskier or more specialized design elements. For example, in the Adventurer’s Guide, all of the combat traditions work essentially the same way: you pay some exertion (and only some exertion), spend an action/bonus action/reaction and then you do a thing. And that’s how most of them should work, but it’s not the only way they conceivably could work. Both of the new combat traditions I’ve designed (one for the Thematic Toolkit line, one for an upcoming MoAR volume) have some other type of prerequisite. For example, for the Viper’s Fangs tradition, most maneuvers require you to spend a consumable like a vial of basic poison as an additional cost.

SB: Third party publishers are, to me, great for game systems. Not to be cheesy, but they’re like finding butterflies in your flower garden. They’re not part of the garden, but they’re a sign that it’s flourishing. When the system is good, people are inspired by it, and they want to make things around it. Tabletop gaming has a great culture of tweaking, changing, modifying, scrapping-and-replacing… third party content embraces all of that (and then gets tweaked itself at the table again, of course).

FDR: Naiveté or candor? Not caring much about established tropes or wanting to bring their own take on one? Their own culture?

In my case, by not having contributed to the development of the line, I guess there's also some sort of "looking at it with fresh eyes". That's one of the things I really like with the Open Gaming License in general: there is always room to explore things that won't be explored by the main publishers (due to time, budget, or risk constraints), and it provides a framework for it to have the right to exist.

And I guess contributing to the ecosystem keeps it alive, and might bring more people over.

JG: This may not be particular to A5E 3PPs, but I can say that generally 3PPs have the distinct advantage of being grass-roots. Whereas corporate entities have to sanitize their products, 3PP authors can connect to their individual genius. More importantly, what defines the DnD hobby is our community and our oral traditions, and 3PP authors are in a unique position to amplify the voices of our community; oral traditions are public property which grow in value over time, but corporate entities won't support them because they can't claim exclusive ownership. In a word, 3PPs are by the people and for the people. 

Oh also, the A5E system has opened tons of design space which is fertile ground for 3PP designers. And our community is small and growing enough that 3PPs can add innovation to the system and it matters!

JW: I think that 3pp authors can bring more specialized material. The main books have to include a little bit of everything and therefore are can be fairly shallow, but 3pp can go more in-depth on specific topics.

What aspects of A5E are you most keen to develop for?

PM: I think I’ve tipped my hand pretty thoroughly with my previous answers: I love the new character creation material and really enjoy working on that. But I’ve got ideas for just about everything that could come out eventually. New environmental effects, new monsters, etc. It’s such a cool, wide-open space that I don’t want to constrain myself to just one aspect of it.

SB: I’m really excited to work with the Strongholds system. I love the idea of my character having a home base and putting in the work to make it just right. A lot of the games I’ve played have a capital-P Plot, and there’s something that’s exciting but also restful about the idea of going off on occasional quests but spending most of the time in my druid grove, or whatever it might be. I hope to design ways that a stronghold can be a little more granular for people who want that and really give the feeling of working, over time, to renovate or build or make it the best that it can be.

FDR: I'll probably stick with subclasses for some time. Maybe I'll look at spells too, or maneuvers. Those are relatively self contained spaces that can have some interesting bits to explore. But Maneuvers have the added complexity of being framed within a tradition. And that in my head it's already more work to do upfront, so I'll probably wait until I'm more familiar with the existing ones, their budget, their relative power level.

I often feel more comfortable with player options, but I also might try to see how I can contribute to the GM side with exploration challenges. They are a great addition of A5e, and I need to spend more time looking at them.

JG: I have a penchant for player-facing options, particularly character creation and customization. The A5E origins system is extrordinarily rich even just using the core rule books, but the design space offers the chance to tell many more stories—especially those frequently left untold in our hobby.

JW: Although I don’t have anything blocked out so far, I’d like to work on something horror-related.

Are there any challenges unique to developing for A5E?

PM. There is definitely more you have to think of as you’re working. I’m grateful for having been part of the initial design team because I learned the changes and additions with regards to O5E as they were being developed rather than having to sit down with 1500 pages of new material and digest them all at once. But once you do learn that material, it’s all very logically-consistent.

SB: It’s a dense system. I’ve been playing O5e off and on almost since it launched, so I know most of what it does well or poorly. So much of A5e is new, and that creates a lot of fascinating design space for third party designers to play in, but there is definitely a learning curve.

FDR: For me it was unlearning some of the 5e peculiarities (Ranger is not a caster anymore! Aaaah!), and learning them "the A5e's way". That's why I started by porting existing subclasses. It felt easier for me to gauge the differences and idiosyncrasies by comparing them side by side. Ranger was the first I looked at, because the differences were more obvious. And even then, there was a lot to digest! Don't get me wrong: I can appreciate having more choices in a given class (features that were static in 5th Edition joined a larger pool in A5e), but that also means that there's a little bit more to know upfront for a given class, or at least to be aware of.

Oh and getting a grasp of the new stuff. I already mentioned the Maneuvers. They're great, but that's something entirely new and you can't work on player options without having an idea of what they are. So, more learning!

JG: Implementing a rule correctly across many new subsystems simultaneously is sometimes challenging. A5E contains numerous overhauls to numerous subsystems by numerous designers. Frankly, I'm still learning the game, and there are many subsystems which I'm not entirely familiar with. You never know when peculiar wording will prove to be a stumbling block later. (I'm looking at you, Eldritch Scythe!)

JW: Despite being backwards compatible, there’s a lot more detail involved. In creating monsters, for instance, there’s the lore, signs, behavior, and more. Heritages have gifts and paragon gifts. Spells may have rare versions. And so forth. So each thing one makes is actually more complex and in-depth.

How easy is it to develop for A5E?

PM. Once you’ve absorbed the system, I actually think it’s easier to develop for than O5E because: you have more places to go as a designer. It’s way, way easier to do something unique and creative in A5E than O5E, in my opinion. And it’s telling that multiple designers approach the same ideas so differently. Over on the EN World forums, you’ll find a “fighting warlock” archetype that was created by a community member. I’ve also got one of those coming in a future MoAR volume. There’s a huge amount of daylight between those two designs. They started with the same basic inspiration, but the implementation is vastly different. And I think that speaks to the versatility and power of Level Up’s system. But there's also another major consideration, which I think is even more important: Level Up’s licensing is a lot more generous. Compare the O5E core books to the O5E SRD and you’ll see a lot of cut content. Many of the most interesting and class-defining spells, around 2/3rds of the archetypes, all but one of the feats, etc. EN Publishing has been very generous with what’s included in their SRD, and that alone makes development way less of a headache than for O5E. And of course EN Publishing wants robust third-party development and promotes it with things like this interview and links on the a5e.tools site, which is a huge help from a marketing perspective.

SB: My experience has been super smooth, but I also set myself up for that, since I’ve never run a Kickstarter before. I started off with the simple project of writing more exploration challenges – because you can never have enough – rather than trying to develop a whole new thing. I’m collaborating with a friend who’s far better at monster math than I am, so that makes developing the book even easier.

FDR: Hmmmm. "I don't know what I don't know". I feel I lack the experience and hindsight to weight on that. I reckon that being "close enough" to 5th edition makes it easier in some way, since it's existing in a familiar space. But sometimes the differences are significant enough that I feel the need to revisit my conclusions.

So, it's not really harder than for 5th edition, but there is a lot to digest; but I guess that having the pdf and the online tools definitely helps when I need to quickly lookup something.

JG: It’s not significantly harder than designing for O5E, particularly origin options. I highly recommend reading through the rules first though! There are new mechanics and conventions to learn, and IMO the game has its own vibe too.

JW: It’s both easy (since there’s so much room for expansion, this early on in the game) and tricky because the game do have a lot more parts, as I said above.

What’s your next A5E project?

PM. Thematic Toolkit releases will continue to release every month as long as people continue to buy them, and we’ve got a total of 5 volumes of MoAR planned (Wilderness, Intrigue, Light & Dark, Battle Mages, and Elements). Once that’s done, Josh and I will be working with Rachel Williamson on another MoAR series that covers sci-fantasy options. So if you want to mix pure science fiction like you see in The Voidrunner’s Codex (which all three of us worked on) with traditional fantasy tropes to make something like Starfinder, Witch World, New Sun, Shadowrun or whatever other blended setting strikes your fancy, we’ll give you the character-facing tools to do so.

SB: Stranger Sights, coming to Kickstarter this fall! You’ve also seen me once and will see me again as the Narrator for Starcrossed Seaways, which returns to EN Live on August 2nd.

FDR: Probably more subclasses. You folks released an Artificer that I have not fully digested yet, and I'm wondering what could fit there. I'm also wondering what I could do with the Marshal, and maybe exploring more third caster options for the (admittedly, already packed) Fighter. Or maybe check the Herald.

I'd like to spend more time with spells too. You already did a great job with the reworks, the rare variants and new spells, especially the "melee wizards" ones. But I reckon there's maybe room for even more! Arcane Smash!

JG: As I stated above, I'm working on the ongoing series Manual of Adventurous Resources. I've been waiting almost a year to get this content out so I'm excited!

JW: I’m currently working on new heritages for HoH 2 and co-writing a collection of strongholds and followers. I also have a handful of regions I may expand to make a product about.