The Free5e Kickstarter Is Live! Join the Movement

For years, financial and corporate barriers have kept people from experiencing the magic of Dungeons & Dragons. But today, that changes. Free5e, the first fully free, open-source alternative to D&D 5e, is now live on Kickstarter.

What Is Free5e?

Free5e is a complete, fully compatible TTRPG system based on the 5e rules, built for accessibility, community, and creative freedom. It includes three core books—the Player’s Guide, GM Handbook, and Free Range Monsters—all available for free download and licensed under Creative Commons (CC-BY). That means you can play, modify, publish, and even sell Free5e content—without restrictions.

Why Free5e?

TTRPGs should be for everyone. Free5e removes the financial paywalls and corporate control that have locked too many players out of the game. With print-at-cost books, accessible formats, and no licensing fees, Free5e ensures that everyone—players, Game Masters, teachers, libraries, and publishers—has the freedom to use and expand on the game as they see fit.

Key Features of Free5e:

• Completely free, forever – No paywalls, no subscriptions, no corporate restrictions.
• Compatible with D&D 5e – Play with your existing adventures, monsters, and modules.
• Fully open-source (CC-BY licensed) – Modify, translate, publish, and sell your own content.
• Disability representation – Three different systems for including disabled characters.
• Designed for accessibility – Dyslexia-friendly PDFs, digital braille, audio, markdown, and more.
• Affordable print options – Hardcover and softcover books available at or near cost.
• A massive bestiary – Over 500 monsters, plus templates to create thousands more.

Why a Kickstarter If It’s Free?

We’re funding Free5e through Kickstarter to cover professional editing, layout, and all-new, human-made artwork—all of which will also be released under Creative Commons for anyone to use. Backers will get exclusive rewards, including printable GM tools, engraved wooden accessories, and collectible metal art.

Join the Free5e Revolution

Help us change the TTRPG industry forever. Download Free5e today, share it with your friends, and support the Kickstarter to help make this vision a reality. Let’s set 5e free—forever.

👉 Back Free5e on Kickstarter now!

The most common question we get about Free5e is, “Isn’t D&D already free to play?”

Technically, yes, the 2014 Basic Rules are available in PDF, and the 2024 Free Rules are on D&D Beyond, but both are limited. Like a drug dealer’s, “The first one is free,” once you’re addicted, it gets expensive, about $50 for each core book, so if you don’t have a group to join, you’ll need about $150 for the set. That’s not to disparage the free options, as they’re better than nothing, but a sample isn’t the whole experience.

Neither of those free options are available as print books. The 2024 Free Rules aren’t even available as PDF — you need an active Internet connection to use them on D&D Beyond. And only the D&D Beyond versions have illustrations.

Because Free5e has an open license, it can be translated and adapted to any context. We will make as many formats available as possible to make it easy to adapt. (The 2014 rules were translated into 8 languages. Mandarin Chinese and Hindi are the 2nd and 3rd most spoken languages in the world, yet they’ve never had a D&D translation. This makes that possible.) Even though Wizards promised a braille version, it still hasn’t happened, but Free5e will have a digital braille version on release day. We’ve already been contacted by schools for the blind who are eager for copies.

And then there’s the difference of what’s included:

Free5e Contents Comparison

Feature	Free5e	2014 Basic Rules	2024 Free Rules	D&D 2014 Core	D&D 2024 Core
Ancestries/Species	9	9	4	9	10
Cultures/Subraces	21	8	3	9	14
Classes	12	12	12	12	12
Subclasses	24	12	12	38	48
Backgrounds	1	6	4	13	16
Feats	52	0	15	42	75
Spells	323	304	314	361	391
Magic Items	269	20	124	263	350
Monsters	424	169	138	483	501
Monster Variants	140	1	0	0	0
Total Monsters	564	170	138	483	501
Monster Templates	16	0	0	3	0

This is, of course, not an exhaustive list of features, but it gives you a sense of what you can get for free. Free5e also includes monster-building guidelines to quickly create infinite monsters in a moment, a background-building formula, and other features to help you expand its offerings as the need arises in your game.

Free5e is also built with our commitment to accessibility and inclusion, featuring:

• Culturally respectful language
• Mix-and-match PC ancestries and cultures
• Disability representation options
• Intentionally accessible formats
• Ancestral and Cultural Variants for Monsters
• Compatibility and conversion guidelines for other 5e systems

Help Us Set 5e Free!

Join us March 18th as we launch our Kickstarter campaign to fund this monumental project to set 5e free forever!