OSR New edition of OSE in 2026 (updated with some links)

[Scribe]

I understand, I guess, why WotC feels obligated to do the Great Wheel and traditional demon lords and archdevils, but it depresses me when I see other folks doing their own riff on them. There are so many other interesting things that can be done with the planes.

If you want to do the infernal realms, start with Dante, Hieronymus Bosch or Clive Barker, not Gary Gygax, you know?

Fair. I've been poking around at a lot of things today as I try to avoid the inevitable 'tear up your house again and then clean up' that is marching towards me this weekend, and I think that at least in the OSR/OSE space, so so much of it is beholden almost to the original D&D, that it just makes sense.

I mean especially OSE?

 

[aiouh]

I understand, I guess, why WotC feels obligated to do the Great Wheel and traditional demon lords and archdevils, but it depresses me when I see other folks doing their own riff on them. There are so many other interesting things that can be done with the planes.

If you want to do the infernal realms, start with Dante, Hieronymus Bosch or Clive Barker, not Gary Gygax, you know?

As far as I understand it, OSE products do this on purpose to maintain compatibility and vibes with the original materials it is based on.

Their "new stuff" product is Dolmenwood.

 

[Nikosandros]

As far as I understand it, OSE products do this on purpose to maintain compatibility and vibes with the original materials it is based on.

Their "new stuff" product is Dolmenwood.

I'm not an expert on the various supplements for the "old" Basic line, but my understanding is that the Great Wheel was an AD&D thing. BECMI, for example, had the Spheres of Power, IIRC.

 

[aiouh]

I'm not an expert on the various supplements for the "old" Basic line, but my understanding is that the Great Wheel was an AD&D thing. BECMI, for example, had the Spheres of Power, IIRC.

I'm not an expert either but I think the main OSE Line, Advanced Fantasy is supposed to wrap AD&D stuff into B/X (Moldvay/Cook) and is not based on BECMI (Mentzer), so it doing Great Wheel into B/X instead of recreating BECMI Spheres of Power would be in line with that philosophy.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not an expert on the various supplements for the "old" Basic line, but my understanding is that the Great Wheel was an AD&D thing. BECMI, for example, had the Spheres of Power, IIRC.

At this point, OSE is a "good parts version" of AD&D. They don't have stupid crap like weapon vs. armor tables (to my knowledge), but they have all the monsters, classes, spells and magic items from AD&D. It's not a surprise that they feel obligated to have planar stuff, too.

Still, I do think it's a shame. They've assembled a lot of the best creators in the OSR, and instead of saying "dazzle us," we get "dazzle us within the broad framework of early TSR stuff," which feels like a wasted opportunity.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not an expert either but I think the main OSE Line, Advanced Fantasy is supposed to wrap AD&D stuff into B/X (Moldvay/Cook) and is not based on BECMI (Mentzer), so it doing Great Wheel into B/X instead of recreating BECMI Spheres of Power would be in line with that philosophy.

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The next version of OSE, coming later this year, basically merges the Advanced Fantasy stuff with the main line into one set of unified core books.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

All of that said, I do think this new infernal sourcebook will be great, as I'm sure the necromancer book will be.

 

[Nikosandros]

At this point, OSE is a "good parts version" of AD&D. They don't have stupid crap like weapon vs. armor tables (to my knowledge), but they have all the monsters, classes, spells and magic items from AD&D. It's not a surprise that they feel obligated to have planar stuff, too.

Still, I do think it's a shame. They've assembled a lot of the best creators in the OSR, and instead of saying "dazzle us," we get "dazzle us within the broad framework of early TSR stuff," which feels like a wasted opportunity.

I agree. I mean, I love the Great Wheel, but I don't lack sources about it. Something new would have been cool.

 

[darjr]

I pledged early for the cards. Not sure I want this vs the new core book. Tempting

 

[Scribe]

I pledged early for the cards. Not sure I want this vs the new core book. Tempting

Oh those are for early pledge? Then...I may need to do that.

How's the quality of the books if anyone has the current ones? I'm going to wait for the new 2026 set but I've not had any OSE in print.