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Played It Review of Old-School Essentials Using D&D ‘s The Lost City
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<blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 7928865" data-attributes="member: 17913"><p>The Rules Cyclopedia was cool for its time -- really cool, IMHO -- but it still suffered from D&D's inability to organize information very well: certain rulings remain buried in a wall of text about exceptions, and there was often more words than necessary to describe something, leading to confusion. Worse, because certain wording wasn't standardized between spells and abilities, the "natural language" aspect could create confusion in interpretations. Last but not least: there was still some errata that never made it in.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, OSE cleans up all that. It is incredibly terse, and uses standardized language for abilities and spells to ensure there's a minimum of fuzzy interpretations. They've incorporated official errata and made a few judgment calls -- only when necessary! -- to make sure everything sings. The exceptional layout and terse text makes it a breeze to find what you need and grok it as quickly as possible.</p><p></p><p>Another important note: Rules Cyclopedia had additional levels and content borne out of BECMI that doesn't appear in OSE, which is by design only the B/X system (14 levels). OSE's add-on supplements like the "Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules" and "Druid & Illusionist Spells" are a completely different interpretation of those subjects to keep them 100% in line with OSE's B/X foundation. They don't ever "expand the game up and down," but rather do so "sideways" if that makes sense. It's about providing additions to the B/X ruleset, not expanding the B/X ruleset to do different stuff. (A very fine line, I know.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="timbannock, post: 7928865, member: 17913"] The Rules Cyclopedia was cool for its time -- really cool, IMHO -- but it still suffered from D&D's inability to organize information very well: certain rulings remain buried in a wall of text about exceptions, and there was often more words than necessary to describe something, leading to confusion. Worse, because certain wording wasn't standardized between spells and abilities, the "natural language" aspect could create confusion in interpretations. Last but not least: there was still some errata that never made it in. Meanwhile, OSE cleans up all that. It is incredibly terse, and uses standardized language for abilities and spells to ensure there's a minimum of fuzzy interpretations. They've incorporated official errata and made a few judgment calls -- only when necessary! -- to make sure everything sings. The exceptional layout and terse text makes it a breeze to find what you need and grok it as quickly as possible. Another important note: Rules Cyclopedia had additional levels and content borne out of BECMI that doesn't appear in OSE, which is by design only the B/X system (14 levels). OSE's add-on supplements like the "Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules" and "Druid & Illusionist Spells" are a completely different interpretation of those subjects to keep them 100% in line with OSE's B/X foundation. They don't ever "expand the game up and down," but rather do so "sideways" if that makes sense. It's about providing additions to the B/X ruleset, not expanding the B/X ruleset to do different stuff. (A very fine line, I know.) [/QUOTE]
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Played It Review of Old-School Essentials Using D&D ‘s The Lost City
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