In January 2023 we presented the D&D Alternatives Bundle, an introductory offer of fantasy RPGs from many publishers for gamers who like choices. In January people who were playing Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons started looking around for something different. Drawing from eleven previous Bundle offers, 2017-2021, this D&D Alternatives Bundle gathered nine top-quality FRPGs. Whether full-featured rules tomes like Dungeon Crawl Classics, HackMaster, and Shadow of the Demon Lord, tactical action games like Fragged Kingdom, or old-school minimalists like Tiny Dungeon and Five Torches Deep, these fine FRPGs can handle the monsters, magic, and heroic adventure you expect.
There were three titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $58) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including Sigil Stone Publishing’s Five Torches Deep; Gallant Knight’s Tiny Dungeon 2E; and the current (fifth) edition of the venerable Chivalry and Sorcery from Brittannia Game Designs. As a convenience to customers, we also added two acclaimed free retroclones: the Basic Fantasy RPG Third Edition and Gurbintroll’s Lightmaster Core Rulebook.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Bonus Collection with four more complete games worth an additional $107, including the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rulebook from Goodman Games; Schwalb Entertainment’s Shadow of the Demon Lord; the HackMaster Player’s Handbook from Kenzer & Company (plus the free HackMaster Basic); and the original 2015 Fragged Empire First Edition Core Rules from Design Ministries, along with its fantasy setting Fragged Kingdom.
