 Visit Our Sponsors | | | | | | Retroclones and Older D&D Editions  There are many out there who enjoy the style and feel of older editions of D&D. While it's certainly possible to find these products on eBay and the like, you may not be aware of the concept of a retroclone.
A retroclone is, as the name implies, a published version of D&D under a different brand name. Often these products use the Open Gaming License to create, for example, a 1E AD&D clone such as OSRIC (Oldschool System Reference and Index Compilation); other times a game system might be "inspired" by an older version of D&D, trying to capture the look or feel of the game without necessarily emulating the mechanics. Therefore retroclones vary widely from almost exact copies of older systems (although not using the exact text, of course), through "revised" versions of older systems which clean up or enhance the mechanics of that system, to those which merely resemble them in look, feel, or mechanics. One of the latter category, Old School Hack (a free download) won an ENnie this year.
This article lists a few of these retroclones. There's a lot of them out there, and so it's not intended to be exhaustive in any way - although free to add any others in the comments. The point of the article is to show you ways to obtain and play old versions of D&D - or games very similar to it. Thus I include Pathfinder as a current updated version of D&D 3.5, and the d20 SRD as a resource for d20/3E rules.
I've marked the "cloniest of the clones" (i.e. the ones closest to the original systems) with little graphical tags, below. This doesn't mean they're better than the others, just that they are the most "clony".
Contents |  | | | |  If you're a fan of the Moldvay red box set, from the early 80s you might like to check out Labyrinth Lord. Produced by Goblinoid Games, it has a couple of versions - "Original" and "Advanced" depending on whether you want the original character options from early D&D or a bunch of AD&D character options, monsters, and so on. You can download free no-art versions of both, or buy prettier versions with art in both PDF and print formats, along with a few adventures.
- Swords & Wizardry, from Mythmere Games, clones the original 1974 rules. It's available free as a PDF, or you can buy softcover and hardcover versions, all from here. They also produce a "White Box" version (not actually in a box) which clones the three boxed booklets of 1974's OD&D, plus a small collection of adventures, sourcebooks, and the like. Swords & Wizardy won a silver ENnie when it came out!
- If you enjoyed the BECM (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master) sets from the mid-80s, you should take a look at Dark Dungeons, self-published by "Blacky the Blackball" (website here). As with most of these, you can download the PDF version for free or purchase a hardcopy version.
- It's definitely worth checking out Old School Hack, a free ENnie-winning game inspired by OD&D. It's not so much a clone as retooled system, and is a version of Eric Provst's Red Box Hack, itself a re-imagining of Basic D&D and can be obtained from the same site.
- Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game brands itself as an "old-school roleplaying game in the style of Moldvay and Cook" and can be found here. Free to download or with print versions for purchase, it's based loosely on the d20 rules, but rewritten in the style of older systems, it's largely compatible with the Basic and Expert sets from the early 80s, although with some notable differences.
|  OSRIC is a well known retroclone of 1E AD&D - it's almost exactly the same, but re-organized. It's free in PDF form, or you can buy a big thick hardcover version or one with more art and better paper here. There are also dozens of adventures available for it, including a whole slew of them at RPGNow.
- Castles & Crusades is kinda to 1E what Pathfinder is to 3E. Well, kinda - it's more 1E reimagined with 3E rules, but it feels very similar. It's published by Troll Lord Games and is well supported. There are free quick-start rules, or you can buy the actual game.
|  For Gold & Glory is a not-yet released clone of 2E; it's a "close adaption" of the three core rulebooks combined into one single book, with error corrections and minor updates. At present, you can check out a preview version which contains chapters 1-11 - all the rules from the PHB and DMG, but not the spells, items, or monsters.
- For a less "clony" version, check out Myth & Magic which is built from the core of 2E but advances the mechanics. The player's and GM's starter guides (taking you to 10th level) is available only to members of of the website.
|  If you're a fan of 3E, you can probably still get the core rulebooks quite easily - they're not that old. Alternatively, the d20 SRD is freely available in various forums (including hyperlnked websites, PDF published compilations and the like), which contains all the rules (but not the fluff text).
- The Pathfinder RPG is, of course, a major player in the RPG scene. You've probably heard of it! It's pretty much D&D 3.75, and is produced by Paizo Publishing. It's well supported with sourcebooks and adventures, as well as a thriving third-party industry of smaller publishers. It has a freely available SRD just like 3E had.
- A kinda streamlined version of 3.5 is Trailblazer from Bad Axe Games. It's kind of a "fixed" 3.5 ruleset which addresses "most common 3.5 complaints" and adds stuff while streamlining other stuff.
| There are more. If you're interested in a more detailed list, I'd suggest checking out this web page which seems fairly comprehensive. You could also check out websites such as OSR Gaming, or Dragonsfoot.
"Cloniest of the clones", a phrase too cool to pass up, coined by @JeffB . | | |
Created by Morrus , 20th August 2011 at 05:44 PM
Last edited by Morrus , 19th April 2012 at 12:23 AM
Last comment by hollowleg on 24th April 2012 at 01:49 AM 29 Comments, 6,428 Views
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