OSR Dolmenwood to be published as a standalone game

[kenada]

I wasn’t sure whether this should be a new thread or part of “Gavin Norman on the future of OSE” thread, but I think it’s worth its own thread.

The gist of it is the Dolmenwood books will be expanding to include the core rules. In addition, they will be tailored to Dolmenwood. Gavin writes that there were some ideas they had to shelve (such as distinguishing magic weapons by their origin) that they are going to bring back into the game. He also notes they decided to go this route because waiting to base Dolmenwood on the non-OGL Old-School Essentials risked delaying it considerably.

Gavin closes with some comments regarding the non-OGL OSE. They are still going to go forward with doing it, but there are still some things left to be decided. He mentions that they may use the CC-BY 5.1 SRD, but that will require reworking some things that aren’t present in the SRD. The non-OGL OSE could also include elements from Dolmenwood, but that’s something they’ll assess later. He says he won’t start working on it until after Dolmenwood is released, which would be 2024 (or later).

Dolmenwood Developments

It's been a very hectic last month, with leaked documents indicating Wizards of the Coast's intent to "deauthorize" the Open Game License, massive public outcry, and then their surprise release of the D&D 5e SRD under an ultra-permissive Creative Commons licence. The aftermath of these events is...

necroticgnome.com

 

[reelo]

I'm optimistic. I'm sure he won't veer too far away from OSE standards, but also the things that will get changed will probably be for the better.
There were a few things in the old "Wormskin" zines that got dropped, and whenever I asked about them on Discord, Gavin's answer was along the lines of "I had to make the decision to not stray too far away from standard BX procedures."
With that restricion now lifted, I hope that a few of the old Wormskin quirks make a comeback. Possibly the exploration procedures.
Also the origin-specific magic items are flavourful!

 

[Yora]

OSE is really just the old B/X source code.
Which has been hugely popular for the last 10 years because it lends itself so much to modding it (as the computer kids would say) to support all kinds of more specific settings and styles.
I think any OSE setting should come with it's own custom rules mods.

 

[reelo]

OSE is really just the old B/X source code.
Which has been hugely popular for the last 10 years because it lends itself so much to modding it (as the computer kids would say) to support all kinds of more specific settings and styles.
I think any OSE setting should come with it's own custom rules mods.

Exactly. I reckon Dolmenwood will end up being as close/far removed from BX as (Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of) Hyperborea is from AD&D 1E.
Meaning: quite close, but with any changes made to rules done so in order to better support the setting.
Excising the OGL is a nice catalyst for such stuff.

 

[deganawida]

On the one hand, I am very annoyed that this will be delayed more. I've been looking forward to final release.

On the other hand, I am a proponent of detailed campaign settings getting their own rules, either heavily customized from a base rules set, or being totally bespoke. So, I am also very happy that Gavin Norman is doing that for Dolmenwood.

 

[reelo]

On the one hand, I am very annoyed that this will be delayed more. I've been looking forward to final release.

On the other hand, I am a proponent of detailed campaign settings getting their own rules, either heavily customized from a base rules set, or being totally bespoke. So, I am also very happy that Gavin Norman is doing that for Dolmenwood.

Yeah, the delay sucks, of course.
But as you said, a setting as detailed as DW deserves no compromise when it comes to rules as applied to setting-specific stuff.

 

[overgeeked]

While the delay is disappointing, Gavin needs to do what’s best for him and his company and this setting. CYA on all the legalities is a pain but absolutely necessary.

 

[schneeland]

Thanks for sharing! (I think NG is less active on Twitter these days, so I read about it here first)

Contentwise it sounds like a net plus to me. While I very much look forward to the Dolmenwood books (probably one of my most expected RPG products this year), the delay is not too long and having the rules reinforce the themes of the setting a bit more, and maybe also a bit more streamlined here and there, definitely sounds good. Personally, I would even be ok with just broad compatibility with typical OSR stat blocks, but as already mentioned by @Yora and @reelo, I expect Dolmenwood will not stray too far from OSE / B/X standards.

 

[kenada]

Thanks for sharing! (I think NG is less active on Twitter these days, so I read about it here first)

Twitter is in such bad shape these days. I haven’t really checked it since they broke third-party clients in January. If you use an RSS reader, Necrotic Gnome syndicates their blog at https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news.atom. (Though I saw the news on reddit first because I usually check my feeds in the evening.)

 

[darjr]

Oh! By the chatter I thought it was going to be an entirely different game.

This is fine, fantastic even. Thanks for posting this.

Not the delays and OGL debacle though. That sucks a lot.