Travis Henry
First Post
I'm looking forward to the Old-School Essentials RPG by Necrotic Gnome. It's an exact replica of the B/X D&D rules of Moldvay/Cook/Marsh, but newly (and beautifully) reformatted.
(If you missed the Kickstarter, a pre-order site is supposed to go online in the next couple weeks.)
One thing that I'm especially stoked about is how once the solid, Classic Fantasy core is established, the publisher is aiming to release a series of Genre Rules books which expand B/X into new genres, the first being:
Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules, with all of the 1E PHB and 1E Unearthed Arcana classes and races (bard, acrobat, drow, svirfneblin, etc), but converted into B/X rules!
I'm the author of a summary of existing D&D/WotC genres and RW cultures:
https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/genre-books
https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/culture-books
The possibilities for Genre Rules are limitless!
To round out the "real world" culture Genre books (such as Asian Fantasy and African Fantasy), the books could be wonderfully (and easily) made to encompass literally all of the iconic cultures of those continents, simply by giving an official OSE translation for the names of the classes, races, equipment, spells, and monsters into the key languages of those continents.
For example, for the (East and South) Asian Fantasy Genre Rules book, instead of only using a mish-mash of Chinese and Japanese names, could also include an appendix consisting of a detailed glossary with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Vietnamese, Khmer, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Malay, Tagalog, Sinhalese, Tamil, Nepalese, and Tibetan synonyms for all of these features. I mean, all of those cultures have "Fighters" and "Thieves." (e.g. "Fighter" = Japanese "Bushi", Korean "Musa", and Vietnamese "Võ Sĩ.") Could even look in the official foreign-language translations of the D&D Basic Set and PHB for Chinese and Japanese.
And for the African Fantasy book, could include an appendix with official OSE synonyms for all the Africa-relevant classes, races, equipment, monsters, and spells in the Swahili, Amharic, Hausa, Yoruba, Zulu, and Maasai languages (and others).
If there's some sort of "Magical Medieval Genre" (Western European and Eastern European), and/or Renaissance Genre book, could give the official OSE names for the classes, races, etc in all the main European languages: Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, etc.
Once OSE is rolling, I'd like Necrotic Gnome to also consider trying one or more licensed properties (such as anything from Appendix N!) and rendering them as OSE Genre books.
(If you missed the Kickstarter, a pre-order site is supposed to go online in the next couple weeks.)
One thing that I'm especially stoked about is how once the solid, Classic Fantasy core is established, the publisher is aiming to release a series of Genre Rules books which expand B/X into new genres, the first being:
Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules, with all of the 1E PHB and 1E Unearthed Arcana classes and races (bard, acrobat, drow, svirfneblin, etc), but converted into B/X rules!
I'm the author of a summary of existing D&D/WotC genres and RW cultures:
https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/genre-books
https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/culture-books
The possibilities for Genre Rules are limitless!
- Asian Fantasy Genre Rules. Convert not only the 1E OA classes and races, but also those from DRAGON magazine (Piao-Shih), and the other 3E OA classes.
- African Fantasy Genre Rules. Based on Nyambe Open Game Content, but converted to OSE B/X.
- Arabian Fantasy Genre Rules. Covers the ground of BECMI D&D's Emirates of Ylaruam Gazeteer and Al-Qadim, but converted to B/X!
- Master Fantasy Genre Rules. Expands the game from levels 15-36, converting Mentzer's Companion and Master rules into B/X form. Or if it synthesizes other editions as well, could go up to level 40 (based on 3e) or 100 (as seen in 1E's H4: The Throne of Bloodstone)
- Deity Fantasy Rules. Synthesizes the AD&D deity rules, the Mentzer Immortal rules, an Aaron Allston's revised Wrath of the Immortals rules. ?
- Third Edition Fantasy Genre Rules. Convert all of the many other classes and races of the 3E era into B/X rules. Might need to be multiple volumes!
- PF Genre Rules. Converts into B/X the Open Game Content races and classes which are unique to the Pathfinder game and setting, both PF1 and PF2!
- Creature Genre Rules. Focuses on converting all of the monster race-classes of the BECMI Creature Crucible series and 3E's Savage Species race sourcebook.
- Anime Genre Rules. Convert BESM OGL/d20 to B/X!
- Superhero Genre Rules. Convert MnM and/or other OGL Superhero systems to B/X.
- Western Genre Rules. Convert Boot Hill etc to B/X.
- Modern Genre Rules. Convert d20 Modern etc to B/X.
- Sci-Fi Genre Rules. Convert Alternity, d20 Future, Star Wars, and Star Trek (e.g. Prime Directive d20) to B/X.
To round out the "real world" culture Genre books (such as Asian Fantasy and African Fantasy), the books could be wonderfully (and easily) made to encompass literally all of the iconic cultures of those continents, simply by giving an official OSE translation for the names of the classes, races, equipment, spells, and monsters into the key languages of those continents.
For example, for the (East and South) Asian Fantasy Genre Rules book, instead of only using a mish-mash of Chinese and Japanese names, could also include an appendix consisting of a detailed glossary with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Vietnamese, Khmer, Thai, Lao, Burmese, Malay, Tagalog, Sinhalese, Tamil, Nepalese, and Tibetan synonyms for all of these features. I mean, all of those cultures have "Fighters" and "Thieves." (e.g. "Fighter" = Japanese "Bushi", Korean "Musa", and Vietnamese "Võ Sĩ.") Could even look in the official foreign-language translations of the D&D Basic Set and PHB for Chinese and Japanese.
And for the African Fantasy book, could include an appendix with official OSE synonyms for all the Africa-relevant classes, races, equipment, monsters, and spells in the Swahili, Amharic, Hausa, Yoruba, Zulu, and Maasai languages (and others).
If there's some sort of "Magical Medieval Genre" (Western European and Eastern European), and/or Renaissance Genre book, could give the official OSE names for the classes, races, etc in all the main European languages: Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, etc.
Once OSE is rolling, I'd like Necrotic Gnome to also consider trying one or more licensed properties (such as anything from Appendix N!) and rendering them as OSE Genre books.
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