Upheaval is a game based on v3.5 of open game content. It relies on tried and true character-building options while streamlining gameplay using modern, simpler mechanics. If you are used to newer versions, the gameplay in Upheaval will feel at home for you. On the other hand, if you like the wealth of character-building options offered by previous editions, we also expect you'll find Upheaval satisfying as well. We want you to feel like you have plenty of choices for character creation and advancement, all while keeping the gameplay simple and easy to manage. In short, we're shooting for the best of both worlds, and hopefully you'll find that we've hit that mark.
Like many others, Upheaval started as a homebrew system designed to solve a particular problem I had. I was stuck between game editions. See, after many years of playing games based on 3.5 content, 5th edition had just been released and we were playing a lot of it. Even if you prefer other editions, it's hard to deny how well the game designers revised and streamlined its game mechanics. Combat was simplified but still felt playable, character creation was quick and easy, mechanics like advantage made conditional modifiers a thing of the past, and magic rules received a long-overdue update. Overall, it is a very tight, well-designed system.
The only problem was that I personally preferred the character creation mechanics from earlier editions. I missed the choice you had in those games -- the ability to decide which skills you advanced each level, the way you could customize character progression with a wider choice of abilities and feats, the immense variety of spells and magical effects. Those kinds of choices felt lost to me.
So, I went back to the older editions. But…it also wasn't the same. I really enjoyed the more streamlined gameplay in newer editions; I just wanted more choices in how I built my characters. In my home games, we started playing a mix of editions, taking what we felt like were the best of all worlds and using them together. From people I've talked to, this isn't a unique idea. It sounds like many of you have been doing that as well.
We kept at it, and five years later Upheaval had evolved into its own free-standing game system. I don't think it's fair to say anymore that Upheaval is a mix of editions, though. It started as a way of solving that problem, but simply mashing rules from both systems together doesn’t work. Instead, we focused on building a game rooted in 3.5e SRD that had its own unique mechanics designed to find the balance between flexible character development and streamlined gameplay. We hope, though, that you find that the end result feels like both systems.
--Ben Strickling