OSR Are There Any OSR (or OSR-adjacent) Games With Modern Sensibilities?

[cavalier973]

Taboiaddcsbbaf is the name of the albino frog god in my new campaign I am starting.

Edit: spoilers

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

yeah, @Sacrosanct has Chromatic Dungeon with most of all you seem to require.

I'm a big fan of Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, the tones is way lighter than OSR regular edginess, the character have a nice resilience and the game works well to help both the DM and players have fun and progress the story, no adversarial DMing stuff or gotcha. It does have some ''roll under'' mechanics in the game though, but it's not so bad, IMO.

 

[Aldarc]

yeah, @Sacrosanct has Chromatic Dungeon with most of all you seem to require.

I'm a big fan of Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, the tones is way lighter than OSR regular edginess, the character have a nice resilience and the game works well to help both the DM and players have fun and progress the story, no adversarial DMing stuff or gotcha. It does have some ''roll under'' mechanics in the game though, but it's not so bad, IMO.

There is also Through Sunken Lands, which is a more Sword & Sorcery take on BtWaOA.

Black Hack also has some modern design sensibilities to it as well.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

Another shout for Beyond the Wall and Through Sunken Lands. Flatland Games also produce Grizzled Adventurers, which is very similar to the others but lets you put together a group of higher-level characters and send them through a dungeon in a single session.

 

[demoss]

I call upon thee thread, from the dark of the grave! Raise, raise, RAISE!

A shout-out to Macchiato Monsters as well: it's a mix of White Hack and Black Hack. The big thing for me is that it does away with set ability lists, allowing players to come up with their own.

Obviously that can go deeply wrong as well, but if the group can handle it, it's the way I like my games.

(Sorry about the necro.)

 

[Ondath]

I call upon thee thread, from the dark of the grave! Raise, raise, RAISE!

A shout-out to Macchiato Monsters as well: it's a mix of White Hack and Black Hack. The big thing for me is that it does away with set ability lists, allowing players to come up with their own.

Obviously that can go deeply wrong as well, but if the group can handle it, it's the way I like my games.

(Sorry about the necro.)

No worries! I got too busy with other plans to check the systems yet, but I seriously tried tinkering with Chromatic Dungeons for a while, but I'll give Macchiato Monsters a read too.

 

[The Stray]

Probably trying to capture that "terrified and bleeding out in a dark, damp cave surrounded by blind albino frogs" motif that the OSR loves.

If you want that, You could always check out Lamentations of the Flame Princess for a laugh.

If you, you know, hate yourself.
And all your friends.
And every woman in your life.

On second thought, maybe skip LotFP. 'Tis a silly game.

 

[ruemere]

Forgotten Lands - levelling through equipment and resource management.

Cypher system fantasy - the growth is about gaining more options and being able to do more. There are several systems to pick, there may be insufficient background. Check MonteCookGames shop for their offer.

Worlds without Number (and its old kin, Godbound, Scarlet Heroes) and its setting book, Atlas of the Latter Earth - OSR at its finest (IMHO, it owns OSE in everything except presentation and organization of content). Note that world building, while lovely, still takes time and you want to consider appropriating someone else's campaign material.
WwN is a testament to Kevin Crawford being a titan (and somewhat inhuman).

OSE - the grandaddy after extremely successful plastic surgery. Love the way it is presented, all core issues of oldest gaming system still there.

Honorable mentions:
Whitehack, Black Hack, Nightmares Underneath - great games, none or little setting material.

Electric Bastionland and Into the Odd - eclectic and eccentric fantasy.

Fantasy Age, with Dragon Age and Blue Rose implementations.

Tecumel.

Arcana Unearthed by MCG.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

One of the reasons I never bothered with 4E was how it offered a game where the fiction didn't matter and only the strict rules interactions (which were presented in video-game like terminology) yielded results.

This is a false statement about 4e.

 

[ruemere]

If I were to run a game in Game of Thrones world:
- Forgotten Lands.

If I were to run a games in a realistic fantasy world, like Symbaroum, with some mysticism, magic that comes at a cost, and wuxia thrown in:
- WwN, with Legacies (aka demigod levels)

If I were to run games in typical D20 style:
- OSE

For Final Fantasy VII:
- Into the Odd