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Do you want them to in the specific location you are using them in? I'm not one for monsters being entirely absolute or set - variation within monster types seems reasonable. Even if one keeps the "shadow" as a being of negative energy from D&D these could manifest differently. They might be...

One of the things that Snarf noted but seems slightly under-acknowledged in these responses (understandably for non-1e folks) is the degree to which early editions use magic items to increase PC power rather then stats (which of course can/are often be increased by items as well). Stats matter...

I am enjoying the way the words "character build" summoned a discussion of character building. It's not my thing, but I appreciate that it both is other people's thing and is great. Stay Gold! But to Flying Toaster's comment... I don't really see a contradiction here - I think the "OSR" as it...

Sure I'll give a go: "Old School" - RPGs from 1974 - 1989 (maybe), though the actual old school play has little consistency across the era, and various regional scenes - there's a huge variety of games in this era doing a lot of different things. "Classic" - Here a way of describing a possible...

I think it's been really useful and sanity making for me to draw lines between "OSR", "Post-OSR", and "Old School". The borders are fuzzy but it's useful because the OSR particularly has a reasonably solid play style, while Classic/Old School varied a lot from 1974-1988 (or whenever one marks it...

The most OSR logo is to just write "OSR" in sharpie marker on the cover. I am joking ... sort of. OSR isn't a brand, and while I like Robinson's old logo well enough (as well as Dyson Logos' Raccoon logo ...) it sort of feels contrary to the whole ethos to brandify/commodify the conceptual...

I think there's a bit of a tension here - while certainly one aspect of the OSR project was to look at old rules, in general the approach to this I recall and still think is great is to play with the rule and try to consider how it works, why it's there, and what fun it offers. So with this you...

This is one of the reasons I like to get away from "What did Gary/Dave/other Dave/etc play at their table" is precisely this. It is both unknowable to a degree (or constantly changing) and not recorded in a rules document. I think for AD&D it's even more of an issue because it (especially the...

I agree with this - I don't like love level drain myself, though it's easier if HP are rerolled at the start of each session ... but also it's a terrifying effect reserved for especially horrible undead. Don't let them touch your PC... The other issue is that levels in AD&D and similar editions...

So as the author of this. First, there is no "superweapon" in the Prison of the Hated Pretender. There is a broken down magical device for predicting the future that is tied to the wards of the tower. The Pretender (as detailed a bit in the follow up adventure) ruled through strange magical...

I tend to agree or even say that any split is artificial. Spelljammer and Dark Sun were certainly a subject of discussion (in a positive way usually) back when the OSR scene was a going concern. I don't just mean on G+ either, where bespoke setting creation (or adaption) was a huge thing...

It doesn't mention dungeons as much as it mentions blog posts and similar resources but it does include references to Thracia. The two main people involved are the designer of His Majesty the Wyrm and Warren of I Cast Light Blog who is a big Nightwick Abbey guy. In general I'd say the advice...

Recently a few friends of mine completed this course on designing dungeons, specifically old school dungeons. I haven't seen too many people talk about it, but think it's a pretty valuable resource if one is trying to get started on writing up something. The main caveats are: 1) This is...

Absolutely! I am big on these things as well and think they help, but they do increase length and complexity as well - still a good trade off for complex things like a mega dungeon. For simple things and like a 10 room lair with 2 factions though they aren't worth it. Also this 100% - What...

So I hear you one OSE - I think it's a useful game text, but I also think it came a bit too late ... It originally designed at the beginning of the end of the G+ era. That is to say when OSE was written there was a fairly strong consensus in the largest part of the OSR that B/X was the...

Absolutely, I think it would take a lot of prep to run Arden Vul no matter what. Even if the keys were streamlined in whatever one's preferred method is there's still so much dungeon, so many factions, so many interactions and so many connected details to the thing that it needs to be understood...

Hashing out what the OSR is or isn't is an impossible task. Personally I've been involved in the OSR and now Post OSR since maybe 2011 (at least that's when I started blogging). Personally I don't take a rules based approach to defining the OSR. I see the OSR as a RPG scene that started...

No - they tend on the longer side for what they are - very late TSR - but that one is exceptional. To some degree I have to forgive Arden Vul for this. Unlike a lot of other mega-dungeons it goes all in on Jaquaysian archeological complexity ... and it largely succeeds. It's a pretty amazing...