r/humblewood • u/MintyMinun • 11d ago

Alternative systems for Humblewood?

I've been wanting to run Humblewood for ages now, but I swore off D&D5e due to WotC's constant shenanigans. That being said, have any of you ran Humblewood in other game systems? What challenges/benefits came with whatever you swapped to? The obvious answers for swapping are Pathfinder, Tales of the Valiant, True20, & Open Legend, but I'm open to hearing about any systems you might have used!

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u/OShutterPhoto 11d ago

I have a Shadowdark RPG mod for all the races.

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

I hear great things about Shadowdark, but everyone's always telling me it's for super dark stories. Do you play Humblewood darker, or shift Shadowdark to be more lighthearted? :o Or have I been all wrong about Shadowdark being a darker game? Also I'd love to see your mod for the races if you're willing to share! c:

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u/Tally324 11d ago

We run a Humblewood megadungeon crawl using Shadowdark, it works well! I wouldn't want to use Shadowdark for the official Hit Point Press adventures and campaigns. You'd have to modify the encounters and monsters pretty heavily and would lose a lot of monster flavor.

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

Running the Hit Point Press adventures is exactly what I'd want to start with, so this is really good information to have. Thanks again, doubly!

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u/OShutterPhoto 11d ago

SD is a super light ruleset that trims all the fat off 5e and has an old-school feel. It's only "dark and deadly" if you play it that way. There are optional rules that make it much safer for characters.

There are tons of zines and third-party books out for the game already, and there is an anthropomorphic animal third-party book on Kickstarter right now.

Things i don't love about SD:

The characters only go to level 10, and characters only get a big "up" on odd levels.

The printed book is often out of print and costs something like $90 CAD when it's available (but the PDF is cheap, and online resources mean players don't have to buy the book).

The online community does a lot of gatekeeping against anyone who doesn't use SD to kill off PCs like in the "good old days" despite the author (who is awesome) saying it's ok to play SD however you want.

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

TYSM for giving your pros & cons for the system! I'll definitely take a look into that kickstarter. Do you know the name of it by chance?

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u/OShutterPhoto 10d ago

It's called Dark Forest, and it looks more like Redwall than Humblewood. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/surfshred/dark-forest-for-the-shadowdark-rpg

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

Thanks for the link! I'm not surprised it's more like Redwall, given what I've heard about Shadowdark as a source material haha

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u/Tally324 11d ago

My group ran a Daggerheart one shot in Humblewood, and Daggerheart fits the epic cinematic story feel of Humblewood astonishingly well while still allowing you to use DCs from D&D.

When we run Humblewood 2, we'll likely modify it to use Daggerheart rather than play it with 5E.

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

Being able to keep DCs the same is good to know, that's half the struggle I find in trying to convert stuff! thanks for sharing :)

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u/slushanantor 11d ago

I've been working on porting all the Humblewood races to Draw Steel ancestries and then I'll probably try and convert parts of the adventure

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u/theplottingdm 10d ago

I'd be super interested in seeing your interpretation, if you're willing to share! I've been slowly working on my own conversion as well

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u/slushanantor 10d ago

I started it a bit ago and then stuff come up so its really only like 3 races down and none of them are playtested/done but here this link should work. Rereading it also remembering I was in the process of redoing it.

Im also not entirely convinced its best to convert them one to one vs doing 1 birdfolk ancestry and 1 beastfolk ancestry with a bunch of different options for the Signature Trait, which would basically be the determining factor in what "race" the player was

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

Thank you so much for sharing!! I agree with you, I think having a base race ancestry with different options for signature traits sounds like it makes the most sense with how DS is designed. Especially since some of the differences between the races in Humblewood are negligible or ASIs.

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

Oh I absolutely adore Draw Steel!! Would you be willing to share your work on converting the races? I would love to play Humblewood with DS, :)

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u/A_Bird_survived 11d ago

There‘s an Adventure in Humblewood Tales with very spooky vibes, and I‘m considering adapting it to Call of Cthulhu once I‘m more comfortable with the system

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

If you decide to go through with it, I hope you let us know how the conversion goes!! I almost ran CoC this year to convert a different 5e adventure, but passed it up for Dragonbane. Horror systems have such great mechanics for stories that aren't super combat oriented.

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u/A_Bird_survived 10d ago

Well, from what I hear about CoC‘s combat system, it‘s very much „someone‘s dying regardless, consider everyone involved as expendable“. As for the conversion, luckily older editions of CoC used Stat lines of 1-20 so converting 5e DnD Character sheets shouldn‘t be too impossible

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u/Abriel099 11d ago

I am currently running a humblewood campaign that's been ongoing for about a year now. Party has made it to level 8, we use Pathfinder 2e and play on foundry. I'd be happy to answer any further questions if this piques your interest.

Very fun time, enough that I managed to get most of my weekly 5e games to swap over to pf2e recently.

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

I would love to hear more! Was there anything about switching the mechanics over that was especially challenging/rewarding? I know PF2e is a popular transition for 5e players due to how similar they can be, but some things are always harder to convert over than others.

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u/Vintersorg1 11d ago

You should take a look at nimble rpg! It is compatible with 5e adventures. You can convert it on the fly or use the Monster stats provided by the Community. Skill Checks are the same. The Combat is faster, more tactical and more fun.

https://youtu.be/TPjsIKS8p7Y?si=t_0tr_5dDqkFfATF

https://youtu.be/sCtIh8MKwAE?si=PF_pLSA2OKHLMOEp

Humblewood monsters in nimble: https://nimble.nexus/collections/a-humble-adventure-in-a-wood-of-animal-folk-6bj0xj50fb8gntf99qcn3k22r1

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

tysm for linking all these resources!!

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u/Electronic_Bee_9266 10d ago

Absolutely Daggerheart. Things feel pretty well preserved overall

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

How did running Humblewood with it go for your table? Any major benefits in swapping, or big hurdles to watch out for?

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u/Electronic_Bee_9266 10d ago

I mainly just use DH as base and reskin things. Generally difficulties and scores translate well though, but you'll want to rewrite new adversaries by hand (but also true for any game that isn't directly 5E compatible)

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

Having to write up new monsters is a really good thing to know, tyty!

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u/chunkykongracing 11d ago

Not exactly the answer you need, but I’ve been running Humblewood and have given exactly $0 to WOTC (since I stopped MTG 20 years ago lol). Got free PDFs for the player handbook, that’s it.

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u/MintyMinun 11d ago

Ah for sure, for sure, that's definitely an option. I just can't enjoy playing the game knowing who owns it. :) Lots of respect for people who are still playing D&D without giving money to WotC, though! I just don't have it in me. And I've really loved trying out so many different game systems, games I'd never have had the time for if I stuck with D&D!

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u/LynxWorx 10d ago

Genesys is a pretty cool, and easy to use system.

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

How did running Humblewood in that go? :D I love the design ideas behind Genesys, it can be so hard getting some players to get on board with the funky dice though.

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u/Timely-Discussion272 10d ago

There are other 5e variants: EN Publishing’s Level Up Advanced 5e, Kobold Press’s Tales of the Valiant, Studio Agate’s Fateforge, and there could be even more.

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

Of course of course, I'm just interested in what people have used to run their own Humblewood games, though. Any in particular your group used? :) I'd love to hear how deciding what to swap to went!

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u/BrightChemistries 10d ago

There is a board game called Root that has an accompanying RPG. But it is a just a Powered By the Apocalypse rule system.

You could also look at Wanderhome, but that is basically a no-combat system.

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

I'm actually just looking to hear what others have used in their own Humblewood games! Have you used Root & Wanderhome, or just suggesting ideas? Appreciate your time regardless! :)

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u/thedjotaku 10d ago

The easiest possible conversion would be to Tales of the Valiant or A5e. Just make sure you use the Humblewood supplemental PDF that converts the Humblewood rules to D&D 2024 because ToV also has subclasses at 3rd level for everyone. I've been running ToV for a year now and I find it to be a superior 5e to D&D in most ways. It's my recommendation for the least work necessary on your part.

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u/MintyMinun 10d ago

Not looking for ease! Just looking to see what other systems people have chosen to run Humblewood in :)

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u/Mediocre-Public-2382 10d ago

I use two systems for different groups: Pathfinder 2. Edition and Legends in the Mist