Osprey Games RPGs - What's that all about then?

[darjr]

Wow! Wow I need to investigate.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

The thing is: none of them have anything in common other than bring RPGs and being published by Osprey.

They are a publisher, and little more. So different books by different authors have different systems.

These both confirm what I was thinking with different writers and sounding like very different games but no real indicator of system style/complexity etc. it makes it hard to decide if a game is one I'll enjoy.

It just feels a bit strange to find this hitherto under explored range of well made, really reasonably priced games with cool settings just sat there. (Nice shiny, illustrated hardbacks from £15-25 crazy.) However we all know shiny things with cool settings can hide clunky games that don't live up to the hype.

I've tapped out of buying anymore games for a while (he says) but I'm pretty sure I'll find myself looking over some of these in the future for an impulse buy. After all why wait 6 months for a Kickstarter when the book delivers in 2-3 business days.

 

[BigJackBrass]

They also seem to go on sale at least once a year, at a pretty fair discount. Makes up for the high price of the PDF versions.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

Would anyone say that this book would be a great resource for other RPGs?

For example, would there be enough "system-agnostic" material in here for use with Vaesen: Mythic Britain? Or is the "time travelling" a fundamental key part of it? Could that be adapted regardless?

I'd say not really. It has some very flavour full baddies but they are so tied into its own system/setting and the stat blocks are very flavour over numbers it wouldn't give you much detail to port over. Apart from threat level (which is the number of rounds you have until you win or lose, peril which is like damage per round the rest is all keywords and sorta kinda make the rest up) For example I'd say it would be easier to port things the other way round and bring in Vaesen monsters as you'd be stripping away stats and just picking some keywords such as evasive or deadly or invisible etc.

 

[aramis erak]

These both confirm what I was thinking with different writers and sounding like very different games but no real indicator of system style/complexity etc. it makes it hard to decide if a game is one I'll enjoy.

It just feels a bit strange to find this hitherto under explored range of well made, really reasonably priced games with cool settings just sat there. (Nice shiny, illustrated hardbacks from £15-25 crazy.) However we all know shiny things with cool settings can hide clunky games that don't live up to the hype.

I've tapped out of buying anymore games for a while (he says) but I'm pretty sure I'll find myself looking over some of these in the future for an impulse buy. After all why wait 6 months for a Kickstarter when the book delivers in 2-3 business days.

Jackals is well worth it, if one wants a slightly different approach to a bronze age setting than Glorantha/RuneQuest.
It's a modification of a variant. Combat and Magic are rather different from any of the RQ/BRP, but still not too far.

Paleomythic has good character gen, great setting... but I suspect if I run it, I'll be using the End of the World rolling mechanics instead.

Those Dark Places is close enough to Alien and Mothership in tone, tropes, and setting to be only mechanically semi-interesting to me. The 1d6+Attribute makes it lighter than either.

IMO, Romance of the Perilous Land is best as a sourcebook; the rules have fairly rigid advancement.

Gaslands isn't an RPG, but it's fun! It also got a supplement

Keep in mind also: Osprey got its start doing painting guides with historical notes for minis wargamers and for scale modelers. Then into Minis games, and finally some RPGs. Excellent layout and great art are their value-add as a publisher.