7 Best Friends & Fables Alternatives in 2026 (Free Options Too)
By Nayan Dhabarde · Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026
Friends & Fables is still online, but its team has paused big F&F updates until 2027, and the cheapest paid plan is $19.95 a month. Here are seven places F&F players go instead, in order of fit, with what each one keeps and drops.
| # | Alternative | What it keeps from F&F | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI Realm | 5e SRD rules, solo play at any hour, a free tier | Big parties and F&F's homebrew suite |
| 2 | Old Greg's Tavern | One person pays, invited friends don't | 5e itself: it runs a house system |
| 3 | RoleForge | Dice and saving throws, now settled by an engine | Your party, for now; it's an alpha |
| 4 | Craft | The same studio, plus rule systems you design | Simplicity: it's a power user's builder |
| 5 | Mythx AI (made by us) | Fantasy adventurers and a tavern to run | Sheets, dice and the group |
| 6 | Everweave | D&D classes, now in a store app | Homebrew, worlds and hosting |
| 7 | AI Dungeon | Freedom to type anything at all | Rules of any kind |
We build Mythx AI, which is why its row is marked. It sits fifth because it suits F&F players less well than the four above it.
What happens to your F&F campaigns
Nothing is being switched off. Patch notes 26.05 came out on September 4, 2026. In them, Side Quest Labs says it will "keep the development focus on Craft and put big new F&F updates on hold until 2027."
The same notes are firm about the rest: "F&F is not going anywhere. We're committed to keeping it running for as long as people love it and want to keep playing." The team calls this "a pause in new development, not the end of F&F." It still intends to return to F&F in 2027.
What that means for a group mid-campaign:
- Your campaigns stay where they are. The service stays up, so there's nothing to rescue in a hurry.
- Bug reports still land. The same release swapped the old Featurebase board for an in-game bug report, opened from a campaign message's menu or the home sidebar.
- The free tier is a fallback. F&F's free plan still includes 25 turns a day, unlimited campaign slots and three-player campaigns where a friend plays free.
So the real choice is what to play next to F&F until 2027, or instead of it.
The other reasons F&F players leave
The pause is the newest reason. These have been around longer:
- Solo play is pricey. Paid tiers are $19.95, $29.95 and $39.95 a month. That's fair when one host carries a table of friends. Alone, it's steep, and premium models and pictures draw on credits on top.
- Long campaigns drift. The F&F community keeps reporting forgotten items, quests and NPCs, and rules mixed up mid-combat.
- You end up co-running the game. The control F&F gives you over the AI's context often turns into managing it. Tinkerers love that; players who just wanted to play get tired.
- Browser only, words first. There's no store app, and a scene picture costs a click and a few credits.
Friends & Fables' pricing page on October 4, 2026: campaigns seat 3 players free, 4 on Starter ($19.95), 5 on Pro ($29.95) and 6 on Legend ($39.95).
The seven, measured against F&F
1. AI Realm: the solo 5e game without the subscription
AI Realm is the nearest swap if you mostly played F&F alone. Both build on the 5e SRD. AI Realm adds a free tier that asks for no card, a clickable character sheet with 3D dice, and three image generators.
Next to F&F, the table is smaller: four seats at most (you and three friends), depending on plan. Group games always open in Al'mundi, its house setting, and nothing in it matches F&F's world-building depth. Memory lives in Notes you curate; its Player's Guide warns, "if it's not in your Notes, the AI will eventually forget it."
2. Old Greg's Tavern: the group night, on phones
Old Greg's Tavern keeps the deal F&F groups already know: the host pays and invited friends don't. Up to five friends can join, and it has the native iOS and Android apps F&F never shipped.
The differences: it runs its own rules, not 5e, and it bills by the round instead of a flat fee. After a free first hour, $5 buys 50 rounds once, while $15 and $25 a month buy 200 and 450 (pricing).
Players must be 18 or older. We cover the rest in a separate Old Greg's Tavern guide.
3. RoleForge: for the times F&F botched a ruling
Mid-combat rule slips are a familiar F&F complaint. RoleForge takes rulings away from the AI altogether; its site says "the AI narrates the outcome but never decides it." An engine works out saves, advantage, cover and critical hits, measuring range across hand-drawn maps that stay dark until you explore them.
What an F&F group loses: no party yet (co-op sits on its roadmap), no world-building suite, and a web-only alpha. While the alpha lasts, it's "Free during alpha. Every feature. No limits."
4. Craft: follow the F&F team
Craft is where Side Quest Labs now spends its time, and it goes where F&F never did. You can design your own character sheets and rule systems, nest maps down to single rooms, and give characters expression art. Technical users can even edit world files locally with coding assistants.
The catch is more setup, not less. It's a beta aimed at power users, so if F&F already felt like co-running the game, expect more of that. A free tier allows limited daily use; paid plans cost $19.99 to $199.99 a month (October 2026).
5. Mythx AI: for the story more than the sheet
Disclosure: we make Mythx AI.
Mythx drops the 5e layer and the prep. You arrive in a built world as its newcomer and say what you do; the AI voices everyone else. Its people hold jobs, keep routines, remember you, and look the same from one picture to the next.
Sylvaine and Kethra, regulars at the Hollow Lantern, on Coppergate Street and in the market, drawn the same way in every scene.
F&F fantasy players should start at the Hollow Lantern. You inherit a run-down Coppergate tavern whose debt falls due on Quarter Day, and the regulars are retired and working adventurers.
Free play covers 10 scenes a day; the arrival scene and the next three come with pictures. Premium starts at $4.99 a week for unlimited story and up to 100 pictured scenes daily (pricing).
The catch for F&F players: it's single-player and filtered, with no sheets, dice or spell slots. Your group can't come along.
6. Everweave: D&D in a store app
Everweave has Android and iPhone apps plus a web version, which F&F doesn't. Choose a class such as paladin, warlock or monk, and the AI narrator shapes quests, conversations and battles around your choices.
Next to F&F, it's a game you play rather than a table you run: no homebrew, no world-building, no hosting. A free message allowance renews monthly; paid tiers cost $5.99 to $54.99 (October 2026).
7. AI Dungeon: if F&F started to feel like paperwork
AI Dungeon has no rules engine and no sheets. You type, anything can happen, in any genre, on web, iOS or Android. Ordinary play spends no credits on any tier, free included.
Against F&F, nothing keeps fights fair, and pictures come only when you ask. Long-story memory was its weak spot for years; it rebuilt that system in late 2025 and has added memory tools since.
Bigger models and longer context are paid. Our AI Dungeon alternatives guide maps that corner of the market.
Feature check, with F&F as the baseline
| Rules | Party | Phone app | Pictures | World tools | Free option | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friends & Fables | D&D 5e | Up to 6 (top plan) | Web only | Battlemaps; images for credits | Deep homebrew suite | 25 turns a day |
| AI Realm | 5e SRD | Up to 4, by plan | Installs from the browser | 3 image generators | Custom world text, NPC cards | Free tier |
| Old Greg's Tavern | House system | Up to 6 | iOS, Android | Character portraits | Community worlds | First hour |
| RoleForge | Rules engine | Solo, co-op planned | Web only | Tactical maps | Not stated | Free in alpha |
| Craft | Systems you design | Not stated | Web | Portraits, expression art | Custom sheets and systems | Limited daily use |
| Mythx AI (ours) | Story, no dice | Solo | iOS, Android | Every scene on Premium | Hand-built worlds only | 10 scenes a day |
| Everweave | Class-based D&D | Not stated | iOS, Android | Not stated | None | Monthly messages |
| AI Dungeon | None | Not stated | iOS, Android | When you ask | Player-made scenarios | No limit on ordinary play |
"Not stated" marks details the product's own pages leave out.
Questions F&F players ask
Is Friends & Fables shutting down? No. The September 2026 notes say F&F "is not going anywhere." The team has parked big updates until 2027 to work on Craft.
Will Craft replace F&F? The team hasn't said so. It describes the F&F pause as temporary and plans to return in 2027. Craft is a separate beta product for custom systems.
Which alternative lets my friends play free? Old Greg's Tavern: the host buys rounds, and as many as five guests pay nothing. AI Realm allows you plus three friends, depending on your plan. RoleForge and Mythx AI are solo.
What's the cheapest way to keep playing D&D-style solo? RoleForge costs nothing during its alpha, though it's a rules engine rather than 5e by name. AI Realm has a free 5e SRD tier with no credit card. F&F's own free plan still gives 25 turns a day.
A plan for the wait until 2027
- Keep the group's main campaign on F&F. If 25 turns a day covers your sessions, the free plan still seats three.
- Run solo fights in RoleForge while its alpha is free.
- Try Craft's free tier if you want to see what the F&F team is building.
- If the group wants phones, play one free hour of Old Greg's Tavern together before anyone pays.
- Check F&F's patch notes for the 2027 return the team says it intends.
