# D&D 5E Favorite 5e OGL Products



## Voadam

So with all the OGL news it is probably an apt time to reflect on what you feel are some of the best 5e OGL stuff you use or have and really like.

For me Kobold Press has been a big one.

I have used a lot of stuff from two of their monster books Creature Codex and Tome of Beasts in my 5e games. I think I have used about as many monsters from these each as from the core MM. They provide fun options, good lore to latch onto, and are easy to reskin for niches not covered by the MM stock stuff. I run a 5e conversion of the Pathfinder Iron Gods sci-fi D&D adventure path, so having reskin options that are mechanically different from the MM stuff has been great.

I am a fan of their Midgard World Setting for their dark fantasy setting and their Southlands World Book for the Fantasy Africa/Egypt part, I am looking forward to the fantasy Asia World book. I have been a fan since the 3.5 Pathfinder times of the setting and have a lot of the little regional sourcebooks as well. I have incorporated parts into my mashup homebrew, particularly running with the "Gnomes are running from Baba Yaga" storyline. Meaning the whole race are fleeing her vendetta after a gnomish prince wronged her. It worked great when I was running the old Reign of Winter Adventure Path that involves Baba Yaga heavily.

I have not run their modules, but they look like fun from the skims I have read of Tales of the Old Margreve (dark fairy tale type forest adventures) and the Empire of the Ghouls (undead setting area).

So what 5e OGL stuff has been of great value to your games, what 5e OGL stuff do you really like?


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## Libertad

Kobold Press has already been mentioned, but I'd like to second their work. I've frequently used their Tomes of Beasts and Creature Codex to great effect in my games throughout the years.

Monster Manual Expanded are also useful bestiaries, making more versions of existing monsters for multiple tiers of play.

Spheres of Might and Spheres of Power are good alternate system of martial techniques and magic that allows for a more open process of character creation and development.

It has its own free Wiki, too.

Call to Arms: the Warlord is a pretty faithful conversion (or at least what I heard) of the 4e Warlord to 5th Edition. Designed by Robert Schwalb, who had his hand on working on D&D in an official capacity too.

Beowulf: Age of Heroes takes the 5e system and makes a well-tested avenue for 1 on 1 games in an historical fantasy world of Early Medieval Northern Europe.

Brancalonia is a charming setting in an Italian-inspired fantasy setting where the PCs are lovable rogues engaging in low life missions and hijinks.

Uncharted Journeys greatly expands the exploration pillar of 5th Edition into an involved system with frequent reusability at the table. Haven't had time to test it out in actual play, but it looks promising.

Wanderer's Guide to Merchants & Magic gives sample magic item shops, their proprietors, and related quests. There's also prices for official (and new) magic items in 5th Edition D&D, something that's in demand in quite a few circles.


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## Zardnaar

Kobold Press is the big one. Started with Tome of Beasts added the Midgard Worldbook and players book along with various Heroes pdfs.


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## TwiceBorn2

Free League's Ruins of Symbaroum 5E books (Player's Guide, GM Guide, Bestiary) are some of the most inspiring OGL products I've come across.


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## Voadam

Libertad said:


> Kobold Press has already been mentioned, but I'd like to second their work. I've frequently used their Tomes of Beasts and Creature Codex to great effect in my games throughout the years.
> 
> Monster Manual Expanded are also useful bestiaries, making more versions of existing monsters for multiple tiers of play.
> 
> Spheres of Might and Spheres of Power are good alternate system of martial techniques and magic that allows for a more open process of character creation and development.
> 
> It has its own free Wiki, too.
> 
> Call to Arms: the Warlord is a pretty faithful conversion (or at least what I heard) of the 4e Warlord to 5th Edition. Designed by Robert Schwalb, who had his hand on working on D&D in an official capacity too.
> 
> Beowulf: Age of Heroes takes the 5e system and makes a well-tested avenue for 1 on 1 games in an historical fantasy world of Early Medieval Northern Europe.
> 
> Brancalonia is a charming setting in an Italian-inspired fantasy setting where the PCs are lovable rogues engaging in low life missions and hijinks.
> 
> Uncharted Journeys greatly expands the exploration pillar of 5th Edition into an involved system with frequent reusability at the table. Haven't had time to test it out in actual play, but it looks promising.
> 
> Wanderer's Guide to Merchants & Magic gives sample magic item shops, their proprietors, and related quests. There's also prices for official (and new) magic items in 5th Edition D&D, something that's in demand in quite a few circles.



I've been intrigued and tempted by the spheres stuff, I did not know there was a wiki. Thanks.

Just FYI while I like the MM Expanded stuff too they are DMs Guild and not OGL.


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## delericho

For me, Level Up and the Tome of Beasts trilogy (in four parts).


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## J.Quondam

I really enjoy Andrew Kolb's sandbox setting books, *Neverland* and _*Oz*_. They're both excellently laid out and beautifully illustrated. Their flexible take on the rules makes these books "5e-ish" rather than pure 5e, and is a point that is especially appealing to me.

And though I haven't yet played it, I dig @Sacrosanct's simplified 5e system, *Bugbears & Borderlands*. His  _*Twilight Fables*_ bestiary is also a lot of fun (and comes in a OSR flavor, too, iirc).


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## carmachu

Goodman games original adventures reincarnated are great

Seeing Promise rereleased was great

Couple mega dungeons released in 5e was great


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## Splinterverse

There are so many great OGL 5E releases. I've enjoyed a lot of Kobold Press' stuff as well as that of Ghostfire Gaming. I also like the Beowulf series from Handiwork Games; it's a great option for dual play.

I cover lots of great D&D 5E OGL releases each week on my YouTube series (latest episode here). 

We've released two OGL books of our own. They were among my favorite to make:

Potions Unlocked 
Swarms of the Multiverse

If the leaks are true, it will definitely impact what Splinterverse Media does moving forward. We were actually in the midst of preparing a Kickstarter when the leaks were released. 

I hope WotC reverses course (if the leaks are true).


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## Corinnguard

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition.


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## Greg K

5e OGL? Would this be non DMs Guild products?


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## CleverNickName

I'll echo @carmachu:  the Original Adventures Reincarnated series, from Goodman Games, is one of the highest quality OSR products out there.  I'm running The Isle of Dread right now, in 5E... but I really appreciate how they include both the conversion and the original module (both versions, even...orange cover and the blue cover) for back-checking and overview. 

I'm also a huge fan of "The Seas if Vodari" campaign setting, by Tribality Games.  It's a really vibrant nautical campaign setting, with some pretty great rules expansions for races, subclasses, equipment, and naval combat.


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## Splinterverse

Greg K said:


> 5e OGL? Would this be non DMs Guild products?



Yes.


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## Micah Sweet

Level Up (all), many products from Mage Hand Press (especially Dark Matter), AiME, many OSR games (especially DCC and ACKS).  I didn't realize that the ...Without Number games weren't OGL, but if I'm wrong about that then they're on the list too.


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## Voadam

Greg K said:


> 5e OGL? Would this be non DMs Guild products?



Correct. DM's Guild are not under the OGL, they have a separate license. My understanding is they can use certain D&D IP like specific official setting stuff and art in their products in return for 50% of all revenue, exclusive selling on DM's Guild, and the license is subject to revocation and change by WotC.

OGL stuff allows for the free use of a lot of core D&D rules and monsters and magic items and such but not specific setting stuff or non-core 5e WotC expansion things. So a lot of third party settings, monsters, player stuff, and adventures can be published under the OGL.

You can find a lot of 5e OGL things on DrivethruRPG. Rule system can be filtered by a category on the left. Most everything non-WotC 5e there is OGL. Filtering for the 5e compatible tag I currently get over 8,000 PDFs including things like the Hellboy RPG, stuff from Kobold Press, Green Ronin, and a ton of others. Currently.


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## Greg K

I have not run 5e (There were plans for me to do so onlne , but I got COVID). Most third party material that I have and planned to use were from ENWorld's forum, Reddit/Unearthed Arcana, GM Binder, DMsGuild, and some websites- nothing I think are OGL without checking  some of the non-DMsGuild.  However, I do have several OGL products I want to buy,  but only bought some Fat Goblin things that were on sale. What I bought looks pretty good- especially both Horror and Simple Settings: Fairy Tales.


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