Character First? Or Company First?

There are many great versions of 5E, but my two favorites are Level Up Advanced 5E and Tales of the Valiant. Some would throw in 2014 D&D and possibly 2024. Still, Wizards is a terrible company (primarily for the OGL, private security incident, how they treat the original authors and Christmas firings), so they are no longer part of my 5E discussions. I don't like the constant negativity around them; it becomes a drama chase instead of a game of imagination.

When you talk 5E, it mostly comes down to what "flavor" of a class a company gives you. The ToV fighter is better because... The LUA5E fighter is the best because... You can't beat this version's...

Etcetera.

With any version of 5E, to judge if I like a game, I need to put that company's ideas before my own idea of my character. My character will "morph" to fit someone else's idea of a bard, wizard, fighter, ranger, or whatever. This happened to us in 4E, and instead of our characters being themselves with their own identities, powers, and class flavor - it was the company's ideas, not mine.

Every time, every version of 5E, it is the same.

My fighter isn't "my" fighter, but Kobold Press' fighter.

My bard isn't "my" bard; it is Wizards of the Coast's bard.

My druid isn't "my" druid; it is EN World's druid.

While game designers can develop something cool, their ideas come before mine. As a result, my character becomes their character, not mine.

Sure, they have options and ways to customize a character, but ultimately, more is needed. A few hundred or thousand dollars in third-party books doesn't help; it keeps putting a band-aid on the problem. Of all the 5E clones, Level Up is my favorite because it appeals to the old-school play that I love.

It does not fix the issue of my fighter being "some company's" fighter rather than mine. The original idea of my fighter, all the cool character concepts, ideas for how he fights, and the power he could have been subsumed to "my version of choice."

My character isn't mine anymore. He or she may have a personality I can decide, but beyond that, all choice stops. It is a company's idea of my character. As they level, it goes from "my dreams of how things work" to "the level chart's dictates of what the company gives you."

The mirage of infinite possibilities fades away, and we are stuck with the powers they choose to give us.

But for imagining a character, placing them in a world, and allowing them to go in any direction the story takes them? Give me GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy any day. The rules don't force me to be a killer. I can go from a wizard to a fighter with magic in my progression. I don't need the artificial constructs of "class" or "multi-classing." I can develop pure skills and social character. If I want a hero with "superpower-like" abilities, like a cleric with a "heal" superpower-like non-spell magic ability that costs fatigue, I can design the power myself. If I want a realism-based character, the rules are there.

Once you leave the "cave" of classes and subsume your identity to corporate flavors of hero concepts, your eyes open, and you see roleplaying and the world in an entirely new light.

You can be anything.

Your fighter doesn't need to be a corporate-approved "flavor" - he or she can be anything you imagine.

It's more than what a version or edition gives you.