New changes are afoot for OSRIC!

As previously mentioned at https://reddit.com/r/osr/comments/16bjlpx/comment/jzf3o1i/ (among various places/sites), new changes are afoot for OSRIC!

Read-up, get current, and provide feedback on the Knights & Knaves Alehouse discussion thread started by Matt Finch at https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=18254

Allan.

Knights & Knaves and the AD&D community are not places I'm welcome, but I am happy to hear OSRIC is getting a new edition. Personally and I know the AD&D gang wants to hear nothing I have to say I think it could benefit from two different approaches that might be hard to reconcile.

1st - Simply streamlining and cleaning up the 1980's language and layout issues of AD&D and moving the disparate parts together from the various books ... even when they don't make sense. Example: bring the various lb and coin weight approaches to encumbrance together - the specific encumbrance by item and the generalized system right next to each other. Let the reader figure out how to use it best for their table, but present it all side by side. Let's call this the "OSE" format

2nd - Really build on the work of AD&D auteurs like Anthony Huso/Blue Bard and make a "best practices AD&D" from Gygax's creative slurry. Call this the "Errant" version.

Bonus Option ... guaranteed to provoke spitting and hissing among AD&D obsessives. Fix the system however, but spend the time lavishing love and creativity on what really makes AD&D special ... all the implied setting. The items, the random encounters, the spells and monsters. Just twist everything a bit. Put it into a slightly new setting. Not much, but maybe a bit more Dunsany or a stronger doom and darkness vibe. Heck go with the apparent AD&D end game (it's not domains) and make it a world of cosmic struggle where adventure consists of fighting against otherworldly incursion, and ultimately incurring into those other planes in revenge.

Anyways - glad to hear the project is going forward, and hope it can make something interesting in the end. The original OSRIC managed a solid retroclone, so something else is needed I think.

grodog said:

As previously mentioned at https://reddit.com/r/osr/comments/16bjlpx/comment/jzf3o1i/ (among various places/sites), new changes are afoot for OSRIC!

Read-up, get current, and provide feedback on the Knights & Knaves Alehouse discussion thread started by Matt Finch at https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=18254

Allan.

Click to expand...

Awesome news!

I’ve got a hardboard bought right from Your booth at GaryCon and the soft back players book.

I’d love a deluxe cover of the core and a softcover too.

I had read something about a new version coming out, I think it was on Dragonsfoot. Glad to hear that things are indeed moving forward.

I hope that the new edition will be less "cautious" in its approach to AD&D compatibility. I recall that when OSRIC first came out there were many voices in the old-school community that were skeptical about its legal feasibility and OSRIC itself was blazing new ground. With games like Old School Essentials thriving, I'm hoping that the game can be much closer to AD&D (while still maintaining its much appreciated improvements in clarity and organization).

EDIT: I see that my point has already been clarified by @grodog on Reddit.

My question is about the content from the Tome of Horrors (basically a lot of old monsters left out of the SRD), which is used extensively in the 2nd version of OSRIC.

Was the ToH content released under the CC license? I know the ToH gets released fairly regularly but the last version I have is from the 2000s (which used the OGL).

grodog said:

As previously mentioned at https://reddit.com/r/osr/comments/16bjlpx/comment/jzf3o1i/ (among various places/sites), new changes are afoot for OSRIC!

Read-up, get current, and provide feedback on the Knights & Knaves Alehouse discussion thread started by Matt Finch at https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=18254

Allan.

Click to expand...

Any update on this?

Well!

The Backerkit signup is live

Over 500!

So, I read some REALLY BAD things about this in it's development (JCBoney basically covered a lot of reservations in the development thread on K&K). Is this some monster hybrid that is trying to win players over but isn't really 1e at all anymore, or is this actually still a 1e clone?

I would prefer an actual list of what was changed. The sounds of what people were pushing for in development (ascending AC, more like 5e, etc) make it sound more like a new fantasy heartbreaker than anything 1e anymore, or did that direction change?

While being a new fantasy heartbreaker that uses some 1e concepts but is basically a new 3e/5e type game (with skills, ascending ac, and all the rest) may win more new players (just like OSe has) it's definately not in my wheelhouse for games I would want to play (or suggest, ironically I've always suggested OSRIC as an alternative to some who want to play AD&D but wanted an easier to access ruleset).

In that note, do you have a list of what has changed in OSRIC with this latest rendition?