r/rpg•
RiverMesa

Are there any 3.5/d20 System-descended RPGs on the market anymore?

Discussion

Last weekend, Starfinder Second Edition officially came out.

Starfinder's 1st edition came out in 2017, at the time still mostly based on Pathfinder 1e, itself derived from the 3.5 D&D SRD - while twice removed, it definitely carried a lot of the hallmarks of that ruleset.

And while I'll mourn many of SF1's quirks, this got me wondering - is there any other TTRPG that's still being published that can, in a mostly direct way, still trace its rules lineage back to the 00s' most (in)famous fantasy system? Not just the general shape of it like D&D 5e and its own family tree of games, but actually originating by taking the OGL-licensed reference document and going from there.

The main one that I can think of would be Mutants & Masterminds, though after 3 and soon 4 editions (and no first-hand experience with the thing), I can't speak to how strong that connection is - but I'm curious what else might be out there, with Starfinder 1e out of the running.

^(I know arguments can be made that PF2/SF2 is still in that family tree, but it made enough changes to both the baseline framework and even the license that it's kind of a separate thing in my head.)

Posted Aug 4, 2025, 4:28 PM UTC

3065
Loading comments…