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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 9541006" data-attributes="member: 86653">I think we're talking past each other somewhat. Shenanigans with spells is not unique to the OSR, it's a core part of D&D. Always has been. It's necessary for something to have that old-school feel, but it's not sufficient. There's so much more to it than just that. Maybe a comparison would be apt. Shadowdark is an OSR game built on the 5E chassis. When 5E plays like an OSR game it looks like Shadowdark. All the ways that 5E is different from Shadowdark...yeah, those are all the changes you'd need to make to get 5E to feel like an old-school game. At least to me. Plus all the cultural changes you need to bridge the gap between modern-style play and old-school play.Okay. Random example, ancient white dragon. Their cold breath is "72 (16d8) cold damage." So for your games that would be 96 (16d8) cold damage? That's moving in the right direction to feel more like an old-school game. That will certainly drop PCs more often. But you're still dealing with death saves, ubiquitous healing, free-casting spells, etc. It'll drain the PCs resources slightly faster, sure.I've done something similar. Solo monsters get attacks equal to the PCs they're facing and can do whatever as their attack. I usually don't bother keeping track of spells, instead just describing the attack however I want.It's not only from people on the internet, it's my read from running 5E for all kinds of people in meat-space and online for the last decade. The vast majority was easy-mode power fantasy. Nothing wrong with that. It's just not what I'm interested in.The first half is accurate, the second is not. We have had players who want Monty Haul dungeons and easy-mode D&D from the beginning of the hobby. There are Dragon Magazine articles about it from the earliest issues. Other hobby magazines have similar. Humanity hasn't changed so much in 50 years that suddenly the idea of power fantasy in a game has evaporated. Different players want different things. And they tend to gravitate towards games that give them what they want. Hence 5E attracts people who like what 5E does. 5E does power fantasy by default. Nothing wrong with that, but if that's not what you want from the game, it's going to be hard to fight that current. Players who want OSR-style play flock to OSR-style games.Yeah, it's all on the referee. 5E certainly doesn't help you deliver much beyond the default power fantasy.</blockquote>

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