Multiverse: Dungeoncrawler
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This dungeon crawling game¸ entirely unrelated to anything owned by Hasbro¸ comes packed with strange new ideas ready to be dropped into any campaign setting. Elves are sung into existence by powerful fey¸ and different kinds are associated with different songs. Goblinoids are hyper-adaptable creatures capable of mutating during their own lifespans based on diet and environment into various goblinoid sub-types. Your main front line classes are things like the Chaos Knight¸ who carries a sword¸ suit of armor¸ or some other armament possessed by a demon¸ and the Rune Knight¸ who inscribes onto their sword runes that repeat the foundational fractals at the floor of reality for magical effect.
The book also has a bunch of more familiar stuff. The Reaver is a class whose features mainly focus on pure martial prowess and skilled technique¸ so yeah¸ that's basically a Fighter. The Hunter class has a big emphasis on ranged combat and having a cool pet¸ so there's your Ranger. The Assassin has poisons and traps and stealth¸ which makes them - you guessed it - the Sorcerer.
The whole system is powered by Fate¸ but heavily modified for the D&D audience. Fate is a very flexible system that can have almost any gameplay added into it¸ so if you've tried Fate before and didn't like it¸ that's probably because you were either playing the core Fate system¸ or else the expansion book you were using didn't add in any of the things you actually want from a game. There's a saying in Fate¸ which goes something like "when you decide to play Fate¸ first you finish building the game.” Well¸ I finished building the game for you¸ and now it includes tactical combat¸ dungeon crawls¸ sieges¸ character classes and ancestries that make building a character easier¸ an attritional damage system that wears you down over the course of an adventure in that fantasy style going back to Lord of the Rings¸ and more.
If you've tried to play Fate before and found you didn't like¸ I have a question for you: Did the person or book who was teaching it to you act like aspects were the most important part of your character? Well¸ there's your problem: Aspects aren't the core of your character¸ skills and stunts are the core of your character. Even the Fate SRD doesn't seem to get this¸ probably because aspects are Fate's best selling point¸ they're the thing that sets Fate apart from other systems¸ encouraging more roleplay and in-character thinking in a way that¸ yes¸ is very innovative and cool. But in emphasizing aspects so much¸ they treat stunts as an afterthought¸ which is a problem¸ because stunts are Fate's class features¸ the core character mechanics that express their special capabilities¸ whether that's sword techniques or magic or what. Fate doesn't spend much time on stunts because almost every game has some kind of equivalent to them¸ but that's because they're important. You can't just gloos over them!
Multiverse: Dungeoncrawler does not repeat this mistake. It is filled to bursting with stunts¸ and the stunts are organized into ancestries and classes that make it easy to see which ones your character should be taking. I'll have an update going into more detail on this kind of thing a few days into the campaign¸ so check the updates for that if you're interested.
If you're a Fate veteran¸ then no fear¸ you know what stunts are¸ this book has a bunch of them¸ just like a lot of other Fate books do¸ you know how this works. When I say that Multiverse is built to appeal to D&D players more than Fate Core¸ I am partly talking about new mechanics and systems that emphasize tactical melee combat¸ but I am mostly talking about presenting the game in such a way that makes it easy to learn rather than the exact opposite of that. If you already know how to play Fate¸ then just like any other good Fate sourcebook¸ Multiverse: Dungeoncrawler is a treasure trove of new stunts and new mechanics and you can use your own judgement as to which ones suit your specific campaign.
So whether you're a D&D player looking to branch out in the wake of the OGL crisis¸ a Fate veteran looking to expend your library¸ or if you're in the market for a single system covering many genres and want to give this series a good strong shove towards accomplishing that¸ there's something for you in Multiverse: Dungeoncrawler.