Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
Not really. It's really any knock off of any D&D system where a good idea is buried beneath bad mechanics. Just ask the guy who coined the term in the first place:
The basic notion is that nearly all of the listed games have one great idea buried in them somewhere.... That's why they break my heart, because the nuggets are so buried and bemired within all the painful material I listed above. - Ron Edwards, 2002
The definition I remembered was that they were games designed by people that did not acknowledge gaming had evolved past AD&D.
The OSR bit was a joke.
Yea, although the usage of the term has broadened a bit over the last 20 years, and isn't necessarily a pejorative. It can also be used for any of the myriad games that are "like D&D but I made it better (for my values of better)".
Yeah, I think there's more to it than just that piece of what Edwards wrote. I understand that them having "one great idea" is what breaks HIS heart, but I encountered the term years before I ever saw it in Forge context.
Generally used for any indie game published out of someone's home as a labor of love aiming to challenge big games like D&D and failing utterly, thus breaking their heart. We saw these for decades, advertised in the back pages of Dragon, or sold by the author at a table they rented at a local convention or mighty GenCon itself! The 90s saw an explosion of them as cheap desktop publishing became available. I've still got copies of a handful. Synnibarr is a classic example of this sort of game.
I definitely agree that a very common element was that many of them clearly were trying to be "D&D but better". "Why would anyone want to play D&D when MY game has... [a "realistic" spell point system!, a "realistic" hit location and DR system!, a realistic setting based on real Medieval Europe; trust me I have a Masters degree in Medieval History!, etc.]" And a lot of them did show signs of being created by people who really weren't familiar with games other than D&D.