Low Fantasy Gaming

Gateway to the OSR

The first of the tabletop RPG alternatives to D&D 5th Edition that I’m profiling is one of the smaller independent releases of the past decade, Low Fantasy Gaming. Low Fantasy Gaming, or LFG as it is appropriately known, was put together by Steven Grodzicki of Pickpocket Press. The system had its genesis in D&D 5th Edition — Steve was playing it at the time, and wanted to run a game based on the Primeval Thule setting by Sasquatch Game Studio. As I’ve previously mentioned, D&D 5th Edition (5e) is lacking in grit and danger, so Steve tweaked the rules to make the game a little more like a low fantasy, sword and sorcery style game. Eventually, these tweaks became so extensive that Steve decided to make his own 5th Edition-derived RPG using the Open Gaming Licence, an agreement that permits the commercialisation of derivative works (as long as they don’t use trademarked Dungeons & Dragons content).

Under the label Pickpocket Press, Steve published a free PDF of the rules in 2016, followed by the expanded Deluxe Edition rules in PDF, softcover and harback in 2019.

Synopsis

Low Fantasy Gaming is often referred to as a “gateway to the OSR”. The OSR, or Old School Renaissance, is a movement in tabletop RPG design that seeks to recapture the style of classic tabletop gaming from the 1980s. OSR games have a…