Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Rules Tome is a complete in one rulebook combination of 1981’s Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Expert D&D by Tom Moldvay and David Cook. The rules have not changed but are combined using well rendered modern layout and amazing art. The possibilities for fantasy adventure are endless.
I ran the D&D module The Lost City using my PDF copy of Old-School Essentials at Gen Con. I printed out the pre-gens from the modules, the two page class spreads from OSE, and the two and three page print outs of 1st level cleric and 1st level magic-user spells. This worked out because some of the nine players showed up expecting Basic D&D 5E the PDF. They were in for a pleasant surprise.
I also had both of the two page spreads of combat and combat tables from OSE. With these handouts my players had all of their abilities including attacks, saves, class abilities, and spells and I had everything I needed for the monsters including attacks and saving throws.
Basic D&D and OSE runs fast. The PCs found themselves lost in a sandstorm with only the top portion of the Lost City offering shelter. They went to investigate and within a couple of minutes the adventure was up and running.
Exploration and combat in OSE can be brutal. Most 1st level PCs have hit points in the single digits and many traps and monsters do a d4 or d6 of hit points in damage with poison requiring a save or die d20 roll. We cycled through a few characters and those that survived felt real accomplishment when they finally leveled up.
While combat and exploration were deadly dangerous, the PCs had a real chance to rest and find aid if they worked together and used a bit of diplomacy and careful thinking. The Lost City offers PCs the chance to form alliances with up to three factions. They had to weigh the odds of benefit versus complication each alliance might bring. And each faction favored certain classes and alignments over others.
I ran two sessions of The Lost City with the first covering the first few levels and the next continuing right where the first session ended. I actually had two players from the first session show up to the second with generic tickets hoping and eager to continue playing their PCs. I ended up with eleven players at the table!
And it ran well and fast. The print outs of needed rules speeded play along. Fast paced exploration slowed down naturally when the PCs stopped to discuss options among themselves or roleplay with the various NPCs in the Lost City. They also took the time to test out a few magic items they found, which greatly enhanced their exploration and combat abilities.
In the end, most of the characters made it to second level at some point over the two four hour sessions. The sigh of relief when the clerics could finally cast cure light wounds was heartfelt. The extra hit points really mattered and the improved armor some of the PCs had claimed increased their chances of survival.
One thing I came away with as the GM was the power of holding all the rules for D&D in one tome (or PDF at the time). The players had more than enough options to entertain them. It wasn’t so much character abilities (although earning new hit points and new spells was always welcome) but it was more the thrill of delving into a deeper level of the Lost City, having a forged alliance help them survive a later encounter, the excitement of finding a magic item for the first time, and the joy of finding treasure hauls that if successfully recovered would net a large pool of highly desired experience points.
Old-School Essentials combines 1981’s Basic and Expert D&D into one solid book that can be used for a variety of campaigns. Old school modules can be run, Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures work with it, and many of the strange and wondrous new settings and adventures designed for older versions of D&D work easily with the rule set. I am planning future reviews of some of the more interesting options like Slumbering Ursine Dunes that will work with OSE and Basic D&D. Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Rules Tome is my all-the-rules-in-one-book D&D rules of choice. Highly recommended.
I ran the D&D module The Lost City using my PDF copy of Old-School Essentials at Gen Con. I printed out the pre-gens from the modules, the two page class spreads from OSE, and the two and three page print outs of 1st level cleric and 1st level magic-user spells. This worked out because some of the nine players showed up expecting Basic D&D 5E the PDF. They were in for a pleasant surprise.
I also had both of the two page spreads of combat and combat tables from OSE. With these handouts my players had all of their abilities including attacks, saves, class abilities, and spells and I had everything I needed for the monsters including attacks and saving throws.
Basic D&D and OSE runs fast. The PCs found themselves lost in a sandstorm with only the top portion of the Lost City offering shelter. They went to investigate and within a couple of minutes the adventure was up and running.
Exploration and combat in OSE can be brutal. Most 1st level PCs have hit points in the single digits and many traps and monsters do a d4 or d6 of hit points in damage with poison requiring a save or die d20 roll. We cycled through a few characters and those that survived felt real accomplishment when they finally leveled up.
While combat and exploration were deadly dangerous, the PCs had a real chance to rest and find aid if they worked together and used a bit of diplomacy and careful thinking. The Lost City offers PCs the chance to form alliances with up to three factions. They had to weigh the odds of benefit versus complication each alliance might bring. And each faction favored certain classes and alignments over others.
I ran two sessions of The Lost City with the first covering the first few levels and the next continuing right where the first session ended. I actually had two players from the first session show up to the second with generic tickets hoping and eager to continue playing their PCs. I ended up with eleven players at the table!
And it ran well and fast. The print outs of needed rules speeded play along. Fast paced exploration slowed down naturally when the PCs stopped to discuss options among themselves or roleplay with the various NPCs in the Lost City. They also took the time to test out a few magic items they found, which greatly enhanced their exploration and combat abilities.
In the end, most of the characters made it to second level at some point over the two four hour sessions. The sigh of relief when the clerics could finally cast cure light wounds was heartfelt. The extra hit points really mattered and the improved armor some of the PCs had claimed increased their chances of survival.
One thing I came away with as the GM was the power of holding all the rules for D&D in one tome (or PDF at the time). The players had more than enough options to entertain them. It wasn’t so much character abilities (although earning new hit points and new spells was always welcome) but it was more the thrill of delving into a deeper level of the Lost City, having a forged alliance help them survive a later encounter, the excitement of finding a magic item for the first time, and the joy of finding treasure hauls that if successfully recovered would net a large pool of highly desired experience points.
Old-School Essentials combines 1981’s Basic and Expert D&D into one solid book that can be used for a variety of campaigns. Old school modules can be run, Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures work with it, and many of the strange and wondrous new settings and adventures designed for older versions of D&D work easily with the rule set. I am planning future reviews of some of the more interesting options like Slumbering Ursine Dunes that will work with OSE and Basic D&D. Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Rules Tome is my all-the-rules-in-one-book D&D rules of choice. Highly recommended.
