Old School Essentials

[GothmogIV]

Thoughts, comments, reviews, suggestions, observations, rumination, primal screams?

 

[Aldarc]

It has almost become the gold standard of the OSR that has made a lot of other B/X retroclones obsolete.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

It has almost become the gold standard of the OSR that has made a lot of other B/X retroclones obsolete.

Pretty much that. Moreover, it's made it into the distribution chain in a way few other OSR products have, which helps gets people looking at it in stores so that's boosting the fan base as well. Lot of people who still rely on their FLGS to know what's available, and if you can't get a distributor to stock you reliably you're not going to be in very many stores.

 

[Bomberooski]

Would love to know some some recommended OSE modules

 

[Jack Daniel]

I really, really, really dislike the uninspiring name.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I really, really, really dislike the uninspiring name.

I think it's an artifact of when OSR games were just meant to be toolkits to let you produce new TSR-compatible material and not a brand in themselves.

Dolmenwood, in many ways, feels like the game he really wanted to make, and it has a better name, oozes flavor and has bespoke classes, etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Would love to know some some recommended OSE modules

All of the modules have very good reputations. Hole in the Oak is probably pretty close to the OSR's Keep on the Borderlands in terms of widespread acceptance and love at this point.

 

[Ondath]

Would love to know some some recommended OSE modules

The Incandescent Grottoes has some minor issues, but overall I think it's a very fun low-level dungeon.

Also, I have to say I love OSE's layout as a no-nonsense rules reference book. Though I think Dolmenwood is better in terms of being accessible to non-OSR players. The OSE rendition of B/X might be my favourite iteration of D&D's rules engine.

Also as a final point, though I really found the fantasy of having a separate small book for different parts of the rules great, but in practice it becomes really tedious, especially when you need to parse through 4 different Basic Set books, Advanced Set books and the Carcass Crawler supplements to find a specific race or item... I really like my boxed sets, but in hindsight, I should've bought the Player's Tome/Referee's Tome set.

 

[Sandbox Plots]

Would love to know some some recommended OSE modules

The official material is extremely easy to use at the table. It is well organised and terse. The critisism could be that is offers only the outline of an adventure. But for me it works great. I would recommend:
Halls of the Blood king
The Hole in the Oak
The Incandescent Grottoes
Winter's Daughter
These anthologies consist of four adventures each:
Old-School Essentials: Adventure Anthology 1
Old-School Essentials: Adventure Anthology 2

EDIT: I am forgetting my other favourite material.
Silverarm Press has two great adventures. The layout is a little different.
Secret of the Black Crag
The Shrike (more prosaic)

 

[Arilyn]

Brad Kerr's Wyvern Songs is an excellent anthology. We had many hours of enjoyment from this collection.