D&D General Why is "OSR style" D&D Fun For You?

[Arilyn]

To restate @Reynard’s point if I might.

When did OSR become almost synonymous with OSE?

I have to admit, reading through this thread I was so confused by all the comments about simplicity because I still think of OSR as OSRIC and variations of ADnD. I think I missed a memo somewhere.

Basic became the more popular choice to clone, giving us Labyrinth Lord, Mazes and Minotaurs and, of course, OSE. OSE rose to the top in popularity. Crawford's line of "Without Numbers" games also became popular. And of course, Castles and Crusades has been humming along for many years.

The OSR grew past cloning and very short, simple games like Maze Rats, Knave, Cairn and Mausritter erupted, all sharing DNA from Into the Odd and with each other. Many games in the OSR field have become very Indy, like Troika, Heart and Spire.

There's a split in the OSR between what's being coined NewSR and the old guard who believe only games coming faithfully off the old D&D games count. And what about other old, non-D&D games? What about Mothership or DM Scotty's EZD6?

Now Shadowdark dropped, with its wildly successful Kickstarter, marrying some 5e concepts with Old School...

 

[Micah Sweet]

I like OSR for the same reason I've liked every other edition of D&D... I'm able to ignore most of it when we're all spending our time improvising instead.

When all parts of the "game" are considered merely just a method for generating new ideas to improvise off of... it doesn't matter how light or how heavy those methods are. We will take just enough from any of them to redirect how the story goes and then follow those paths further.

If that's how you enjoy playing, then great! But a lot of us still like systems and rules, and aren't interested in making most everything up on the fly. Those things are a big part of what makes it a game and not free-form improv.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If that's how you enjoy playing, then great! But a lot of us still like systems and rules, and aren't interested in making most everything up on the fly. Those things are a big part of what makes it a game and not free-form improv.

I know! I think all you crazy cats are missing out, but hey! Whateva floats yer boats!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The other big OSR splash around that time was Mork Borg, which I think still has a very enthusiastic and creative player base.

Yeah, Mork Borg is very big and has a very enthusiastic fanbase that doesn't entirely overlap with existing OSR fans, and thus expand it instead.

I had been hoping to play Pirate Borg at GenCon this year, but no luck.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have to admit, reading through this thread I was so confused by all the comments about simplicity because I still think of OSR as OSRIC and variations of ADnD. I think I missed a memo somewhere.

The OSR scene is incredibly fertile, producing dozens (hundreds?) of games, many of which flourish in little corners as though they're the biggest thing around, but which most folks -- especially in the 5E scene -- never hear of.

Looking at the Spearwitch store the other day, I was introduced to Bastards, a simple RPG distributed by itch.io, which Spearwitch sells a whole line of adventures for.

The folks who wanted something that simulated a TSR D&D tend, in my experience, to look around for their perfect ruleset and then sit still. But the OSR scene is also full of experimenters, who are constantly tearing apart the relatively simple old school rulesets and expanding, reducing and replacing elements as they see fit.

 

[jdrakeh]

The OSR scene is incredibly fertile, producing dozens (hundreds?) of games, many of which flourish in little corners as though they're the biggest thing around, but which most folks -- especially in the 5E scene -- never hear of.

This is why I chose to publish my own OSR D&D (1974) homage now. Seemed like the time was right.

 

[Malmuria]

If that's how you enjoy playing, then great! But a lot of us still like systems and rules, and aren't interested in making most everything up on the fly. Those things are a big part of what makes it a game and not free-form improv.

What's appealing about OSR is that it is often a rules lite framework to which you can add things as you need them. For example you can take any OSR game and then add procedures from Errant for specific purposes, changing them to suit your needs. You can tap the OSR blogsphere for subsystem ideas. Gygax's DMG is basically just a series of subsystems--often not integrated to each other--that provide DMs with a little (or a lot) more structure.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Exactly...I see people talk a lot about the lack of character "customization" in OSR games. My feeling is that a character can be as customized as you like, but its defined by what you bring to the table and what you do in the game, not a menu of pre-written options. "Every fighter is the same" is only true if you only have one way of imagining and playing a fighter.

I think this requires a view of distinction that doesn't care if the distinction has mechanical teeth. That's not a position all of us share.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What's appealing about OSR is that it is often a rules lite framework to which you can add things as you need them. For example you can take any OSR game and then add procedures from Errant for specific purposes, changing them to suit your needs. You can tap the OSR blogsphere for subsystem ideas. Gygax's DMG is basically just a series of subsystems--often not integrated to each other--that provide DMs with a little (or a lot) more structure.

That's true, but not everyone whose a fan of the OSR wants rules-lite (weirdly becoming a synonym for "well-designed" in some circles), and not every OSR game is light in that way. My preference is for "rules-right", where they are enough rules that answers can be found to any world questions the players have such that informed decisions can be made and agency maintained.

 

[jdrakeh]

That's true, but not everyone whose a fan of the OSR wants rules-lite (weirdly becoming a synonym for "well-designed" in some circles), and not every OSR game is light in that way. My preference is for "rules-right", where they are enough rules that answers can be found to any world questions the players have such that informed decisions can be made and agency maintained.

Fair. I for instance, like my D&D fairly rules-lite, but I may also have recently jumped back into Rolemaster (which isn't OSR, but just regular Old School).