Leadville, Colorado: Wyrmworks Publishing is launching Free5e, a fully free, open-source 5e alternative, with a Kickstarter campaign going live on March 25, 2025. Designed to remove financial barriers to play, Free5e offers a complete core rule system that anyone can download, use, modify, and share forever.
Why Free5e?
The D&D core books remain locked behind high price points, no accessible formats for players with disabilities or inadequate internet access, and few translation options, limiting access for many players. Free5e is built from open-license content from Sly Flourish, KibblesTasty, EN Publishing, and Wizards of the Coast, ensuring everyone can play without restrictions.
With this Kickstarter, Wyrmworks Publishing aims to fund professional editing, layout, and human-created illustrations, ensuring Free5e meets the highest production standards while remaining free to all.
What Free5e Offers:
- Three Full Core Books: Full Player, Game Master, and Monster guides, over 1,000 pages of content.
- Inclusive Design: The first 5e variant ruleset to include disability representation options and edited to respect all players.
- Cross-Compatible: Designed for full compatibility with the 2014 Dungeons & Dragons ruleset with simple conversion notes for 2024 D&D, Level Up Advanced Fifth Edition (A5E), and Tales of the Valiant (ToV).
- Fully Open & Accessible: Available to download for free in multiple digital formats, including dyslexia-friendly PDFs, ePub, digital braille, and more. All internal artwork is black and white for improved accessibility and lower print costs, and the entire project has an open (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0) license, including the artwork.
- Affordable Print Copies: Hard copies will be available in various formats at or near the print cost.
- Community-Driven & Expandable: Customize, translate, and adapt Free5e for any purpose, setting, or playstyle without restrictions.
Manuscript Drafts Available Now
Early-access drafts of all three core books are already available for free on DriveThruRPG, allowing players and GMs to start using, testing, and providing feedback to refine the final version. Direct grassroots feedback ensures that the project meets the needs and desires of the community.
Join the Movement
The Free5e Kickstarter goes live March 25, 2025. Supporters will help make tabletop gaming truly free and accessible for everyone forever. Because the books are free, backer rewards include tabletop accessories and unique mementos created in-house using Free5e art.
Follow the Kickstarter and learn more:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wyrmworkspublishing/free5e-a-free-open-source-dungeons-and-dragons-alternative?ref=87jll5
About Wyrmworks Publishing
Wyrmworks Publishing is dedicated helping you make lives better through tabletop roleplaying games. Through Free5e, we aim to ensure that financial and corporate restrictions never prevent anyone from benefiting from TTRPGs.
Read more at this site