Into the "Odd-like Games"

[Aldarc]

Chris McDowall has basically inspired an entire sub-genre of NuSR games with his work Into the Odd, which I refer to as "Odd-like Games."

Odd-Like Games:
* Electric Bastionland (Chris McDowall)

• Mythic Bastionland (Chris McDowall)
• Maze Rats (Ben Milton)
• Mausritter (Isaac Williams)
• Cairn (Yochai Gal)
• Runecairn (Colin Le Sueur)

What is your experience running or playing these games? What do you like about this family of games? What other Odd-like Games do you like?

This thread is just for talking about Odd-like Games.

 

[loverdrive]

I only played Mausritter and enjoyed it a lot. I don't know if it's a common feature of the family or a thing unique to Mausritter, but I adored inventory/health management, I think it's very neat and creates this whole "inventory anxiety" that I ultimately want from an encumbrance mechanic

 

[Aldarc]

I only played Mausritter and enjoyed it a lot. I don't know if it's a common feature of the family or a thing unique to Mausritter, but I adored inventory/health management, I think it's very neat and creates this whole "inventory anxiety" that I ultimately want from an encumbrance mechanic

That's a pretty neat feature of Mausritter. I can't think off the top of my head of another Odd-like that uses this Encumbrance system.

 

[Aldarc]

Runecairn is having a Kickstarter for its Remaster Edition.

Runecairn is a post-Ragnarok Viking hack of Cairn inspired by Dark Souls. When characters die, they respawn at bonfires and so do their foes, but they have a limited number of times they can do so before becoming a Shade. Also, breaking off from the usual stats in Odd-like games, it splits Willpower into Wits and Spirit.

 

[schneeland]

I can't contribute a lot in terms of practical play experience, but from reading, I found especially the original Into the Odd booklet and Mausritter quite inspiring (from the list, I have read everything except for Maze Rats and Mythic Bastionland).
So far I tend to say that while I like some of the ideas, it's a bit too much on the lightweight side for me. But it's pretty likely that I will take another look at Cairn with the upcoming second edition, and I'll probably also check out Mythic Bastionland once it's available to the public.

 

[Arilyn]

I have played Mausritter and loved it. I briefly played Mazerats. I also have Cairn but haven't run or played it yet. I am very curious about Mythic Bastion lands.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

Electric Bastionland I think is my favourite but I haven't been able to get a proper ongoing group going with in. It's one of my play goals this year. I'm in the Kickstarter for Mythic Bastionland as well so running that's probably my number 2 goal.

 

[Aldarc]

I can't contribute a lot in terms of practical play experience, but from reading, I found especially the original Into the Odd booklet and Mausritter quite inspiring (from the list, I have read everything except for Maze Rats and Mythic Bastionland).

There's not really much to Maze Rats. It's probably the most "meh" of the bunch. In fairly typical Ben Milton fashion, his game is mostly charts.

So far I tend to say that while I like some of the ideas, it's a bit too much on the lightweight side for me. But it's pretty likely that I will take another look at Cairn with the upcoming second edition, and I'll probably also check out Mythic Bastionland once it's available to the public.

IMHO, the lightweight nature of these games is part of the appeal. These games are super easy to learn. Odd-like games feel like a distillation of OSR games that aren't as worried about "tradition" or being compatible with B/X or 1e D&D.

I have played Mausritter and loved it. I briefly played Mazerats. I also have Cairn but haven't run or played it yet. I am very curious about Mythic Bastion lands.

Mausritter does seem to have become the darling game of Odd-likes. It has an excellent premise, elegant design, along with great layout and production value.

 

[Fenris-77]

I own Electric Bastionland and love it, but haven't gotten to run it. I'm currently working up a Mausritter game at the request of my 7 year-old who was quite taken with the idea of playing a dashing mouse adventurer.

I really like the Mausritter mechanics. As mentioned above, the inventory system is clever and quite slick.

 

[schneeland]

IMHO, the lightweight nature of these games is part of the appeal. These games are super easy to learn. Odd-like games feel like a distillation of OSR games that aren't as worried about "tradition" or being compatible with B/X or 1e D&D.

I totally get that and, as mentioned above, it was quite insightful how Into the Odd condensed the rules for a D&Dish game play to an absolute minimum. It didn't really make me want to run a game, though.
Thinking about this, it probably gets down to a) my sweet spot for crunch in fantasy games being a bit higher (somewhere in the Dungeon World area) and b) the lack of a compelling premise. Because among all the ItO-offspring, I'm most likely to run Mausritter (the change to the mouse perspective is really neat).