D&D General Do You D&D OSR?

Do You D&D OSR?

  • I played TSR D&D when it was current and now I play OSR games exclusively or nearly exclusively.

    Votes: 25 13.2%
  • I played TSR D&D when it was current and now play OSR games along with WotC D&D.

    Votes: 61 32.1%
  • I played TSR D&D when it was current and DO NOT now play OSR games or WotC D&D.

    Votes: 13 6.8%
  • I played TSR D&D when it was current and DO NOT now play OSR games but DO play WotC D&D.

    Votes: 56 29.5%
  • I did not play TSR D&D when it was current; now I play OSR games exclusively or nearly exclusively.

    Votes: 4 2.1%
  • I did not play TSR D&D when it was current and now play OSR games along with WotC D&D.

    Votes: 9 4.7%
  • I did not play TSR D&D when it was current and DO NOT now play OSR games or WotC D&D.

    Votes: 7 3.7%
  • I did not play TSR D&D when it was current and DO NOT now play OSR games but DO play WotC D&D.

    Votes: 15 7.9%


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Aldarc

Legend
I actually looked at Stars without Numbers for a space RPG that never quite got put together
The basic version of WWN is also free on DTRPG. This comes with the Warrior, Expert, and Mage.

Additionally, the Mage gets magical traditions, which are like subclasses. These traditions come with various "arts" that they can choose from, which are like talents or feats. However, Mages have the option of either going Full Tradition or even Partial Tradition/Partial Tradition. The Warrior/Expert + Mage version of the Adventurer (the general dual-class class) can pick up a Partial magic tradition.
  • High Magic (wizard)
  • Elementalist
  • Healer
  • Necromancer
  • Vowed (monk)

You can use this system to create mix-and-match characters like a Healer/Necromancer, a Warrior/High Mage, an Expert/Healer, Warrior/Vowed, or the super fun Warrior/Necromancer.

If you get the full version of the book/pdf, there are additional player options towards the end in the "Arts of the Gyre" section. Most only exist as Partial mage traditions, so you can only hybridize with the latter.
  • Invoker (full or partial): i.e., the spontaneous casting sorcerer
  • Skinshifter (partial only): a shapeshifter
  • Duelist (partial only): a swashbuckling swordsman*
  • Beastmaster (partial only): it's your pet subclass
  • Blood Priest (partial only): more traditional cleric performing miracles, smiting, etc.**
  • Thought Noble (partial only): psionics

There are also additional rules in the full version for more "Heroic" characters. These rules supplement or replace class abilities. These options will make characters hardier and more powerful. So this is better if you like the rules but don't necessarily want OSR "lethality."

* The Duelist has an interesting sidebar that lets us know the design philosophy of this choice as well as the general design philosophy of classes:
Making Magical Warriors and Experts

The Kistian Duelist is just one example of a common fantasy trope; the warrior with some sort of innate magical power. The same trope is often applied to skill-based concepts as well, producing shapeshifting assassins, sorcery-singing bards, or artisans with frankly impossible creative powers.

There’s nothing wrong with this trope in of itself, but it’s a hard one to execute in a balanced way. The natural assumption when adding magic
to something is that it makes whatever it is even better. If a warrior is good, a warrior with magic must naturally be superior.

Resist this urge. Unless you want your entire campaign to consist of multiple flavors of mage, a plain, untainted warrior or straight-up thief has to
be better at something related to their role than the magical equivalent. In Worlds Without Number, the Warrior has class abilities that make them better at general slaughter than the Duelist. If you make a class that can do as much reliable damage and take as much punishment as the Warrior can, you risk the deprecation of an entire swath of concepts.
This is also why the Duelist/Warrior is more fragile than both the Warrior and the usual Warrior/Mage hybrid.

** The Blood Priest has abilities to heal; however, the Healer is overall better at magical healing. The Blood Priest also has abilities to turn away false life (e.g., undead, automatons, extraplanars, etc.). However, the Necromancer is the best at fighting undead with their spell "Smite the Dead."

As I said earlier, Atlas of the Latter Earth also adds four new partial classes:
  • The Accursed (partial mage): i.e., the Warlock
  • The Bard (partial expert)
  • The Wise (partial expert): the low-magic mage or hedgewizard
  • The Mageslayer (partial warrior): partial mage is prohibited, so it is only either Warrior/Mageslayer or Expert/Mageslayer.
 

Voadam

Legend
I played TSR stuff at the time and play mostly 5e now. The last time I played a TSR era D&D game was in one of my Pathfinder 1e games (Reign of Winter AP) when the party went into the First World/Feywild I converted everything into 1e AD&D (and OD&D bard rules) rules for while they were in the primal land of faery where reality works in arcane unknowable laws that most do not really understand. :) I was even able to throw in a little Hackmaster monsters since the mechanics were close enough.

I still get a bunch of OSR and old TSR PDFs for use with lore and inspiration and such in my current games. My current 5e game I DM, for example, uses a bunch of religious lore on the dragon god Asterinion from the 2e Draconomicon and the 2e Monster Mythology.
 

Libertad

Legend
3.0 was the first Edition of D&D that I played. My exposure to TSR-era D&D came through OSR retroclones, and I played quite a bit of those along with some AD&D. I still play my fair share of 5th Edition and am not currently in any old-school campaigns, but I would definitely be up for doing so in the future if I find enough time and interested players.

My favorite official Editions are Basic and 5e. 3e and Pathfinder still have a special place in my nostalgic heart, but they're just too rules-heavy for me to get into again.

For my favorite retroclones and Basic-inspired systems, the Stars/Worlds/Cities Without Number line have been the ones I read and use most. Dungeon Crawl Classics is a close second, although I haven't had the chance to run or play in any DCC games yet.
 

DammitVictor

Trust the Fungus
Supporter
I played TSR D&D-- mostly 2e and Player's Option-- when it was still current, and my favorite editions of D&D still include Player's Option and the Rules Cyclopedia. I play both "modern D&D"-- mostly PF1 and 5e-- and OSR D&D games, mostly Old School Essentials Advanced and White Star.

Generally speaking, it's not to much that I prefer one to the other-- it's that I'd wish that any game could do both without a ton of work.
 

Foodgeek

Villager
Yes, we are playing a B/X OSR as an engine for Aaron Reed's Skycrawl (sky ship addon).

I will say it's difficult to find players for OSRs in person in Washington, DC. We had a player move and are looking to fill 1-2 spots. 5E is really big here.
 

Turgenev

Legend
I'm currently running a Swords & Wizardry D&D game (based on B4 The Lost City) and a Greyhawk 5e game (base on the Ghosts of Saltmarsh - my players have become privateers in the employ of the Keoland Royal Navy). That was the case when I originally voted in this thread. Things have changed slightly (for the time being).

My 5e players are a bunch of (relative) newbie 16 year olds who've been playing for 2 years now (they're DMing their own games at school as well). A couple of weeks ago we decided to place our 5e game on hold while we try something else for a change. My 5e group are now playing Warhammer Fantasy RPG (1st edition). That's old school but not D&D related. ;)

Cheers,
Tim
 


Foodgeek

Villager
Oh, it will be fine. We have 2 players that shows regularly and one that can't always show but let's us run his character. we can keep playing as is if we have to. There is a local D&D LFG happy hour coming up and we can talk to people there.

Yeah, Skycrawl is fun.
 

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