OSR Red Box, but like modern I guess?!?!?

[darjr]

There must be a chart somewhere of which OSR game is copying which edition of TSR D&D?

There IS!

 

[teitan]

There IS!

Where?

 

[Monayuris]

Outside of it's reputation and history, what is everybody's opinion of Lamentations of The Flame Princess?

Granted, I guess the way to answer that question better is to ask what is the opinion of the B/X version of DnD? Since apparently LoTFP is a retro clone of the B/X edition of DnD. So Elf/Dwarf/Halfling as class and all.

B/X D&D has become the baseline of the OSR. For good reason. It is a fantastic game. It is a rosetta stone for Old School D&D experience. It is (in and of itself) probably the best version of D&D ever produced. But some modern clones have taken it and improved on it. I particularly like Old School Essentials and Basic Fantasy.

LoTFP is interesting. It's main departures from standard B/X is that only fighters improve in attack bonus and Thieves (Specialists) get to allocate points towards their thief skills.

I don't personally care for the tone and themes of LoTFP. I'm not a fan of the aesthetic associated with it. I'm also not sure about the people involved in the game.

Other people may like it and I hope they have fun with the game, but I'm a hard pass on that game and any of the modules and adventures written for it.

 

[SPECTRE666]

Where?

Check this out.

D&D Retroclones

Here is an overview over all the retroclones and OSR systems based on the various editions of D&D as well as other RPGs that are based in D&D in one way or the other. A thank you goes to the RPG.net...

taxidermicowlbear.weebly.com

 

[Mannahnin]

If you want all the old school stuff with the modern ways of doing things....

Just play 5e with these limits:
Humans - can be Fighters, Clerics, Rogues, or Wizards.
1/2lings - can only be Fighters
Dwarfs - can only be Fighters
Elves - can only be be MC Fighter/Wizards. They must meet the MC restrictions at 1st lv, they begin with both classes at lv.1, and as they advance they must divide their xp in two & split it between their two classes (essentially it takes an elf double the xp to lv up as they're supporting two classes)

There are no other classes, there are no other races, there are no other race/class combos and other than with Elves there's no MC allowed. And Tasha's is not allowed.
No other changes to 5e.

There, I've saved you from having to read through about a dozen things all trying to copy the old stuff. Or having to rewrite the attack & save charts if you just pulled out the actual old stuff.

And just download the 5E Basic doc I linked above.

 

[Mannahnin]

B/X D&D has become the baseline of the OSR. For good reason. It is a fantastic game. It is a rosetta stone for Old School D&D experience. It is (in and of itself) probably the best version of D&D ever produced. But some modern clones have taken it and improved on it. I particularly like Old School Essentials and Basic Fantasy.

LoTFP is interesting. It's main departures from standard B/X is that only fighters improve in attack bonus and Thieves (Specialists) get to allocate points towards their thief skills.

I don't personally care for the tone and themes of LoTFP. I'm not a fan of the aesthetic associated with it. I'm also not sure about the people involved in the game.

Other people may like it and I hope they have fun with the game, but I'm a hard pass on that game and any of the modules and adventures written for it.

LotFP has a bunch of subsystem changes which vary it from B/X. In addition to Fighters being the only class to advance in attack bonus and the very good fix to how Thief skills work (which is grounded in OD&D "skills" like Open Doors and Hear Noise all characters can do), the other classes are also better differentiated, it has one of the first slot-based encumbrance systems (and still quite a good one), and the spell lists are tweaked to let the game function a bit better for mystery and horror themes, and avoid casters being able to just fix everything. No Raise Dead or Resurrection, for example, and no detecting alignment. The spells also have some wonderful eldritch horror flavorings in how they're described and some of the mechanics. If you want magic to be a bit darker and more mysterious, it's a great take.

Overall it's probably my favorite single coherent package of house rules for B/X, though B/X itself is still excellent.

 

[Mannahnin]

BECMI i believe.

Labyrinth Lord is based on B/X, though with a bunch of little tweaks (and some additions from AD&D, like additional weapons and armor types), like giving clerics a spell at first level. The xp charts are also tweaked and there are other little changes here and there. At least one of the monsters was renamed too (Thoul to Throghrin; I think there may be a few others).

Some of this was due to the author's preference, and some of it was change for the sake of change, because it was one of the first retro-clones and people were less confident then of how firm the legal ground was for an EXACT clone. US copyright law says game mechanics aren't subject to copyright, but something along the lines of "unique artistic expressions thereof" are subject. So one of the rationales behind all the little changes was to make it more clearly legally distinct. For a while it was one of the most commonly-used systems for OSR module publishing (Stonehell and Barrowmaze both used it, for example, IIRC), but eventually a lot of B/X fans got annoyed at all the little changes which made their LL rulebooks not perfectly compatible with their original B/X books, so it's fallen out of favor.

 

[Weiley31]

Which version of B/X or it's Retro Clones have the best Thief Skill fix? Because I may want to take elements from those and add it to LoTFP.

 

[Mannahnin]

LotFP has arguably the best Thief skill fix built right in. All skills in the game work on an "x in 6" chance on a six sider, like Open Doors or Hear Noise do for everyone anyway from OD&D through AD&D. Everyone basically starts with a 1 in 6 chance for all skills. Specialists (the Thief substitute class) are the only ones who get to add pips, and add more as they advance in level, choosing where they want them to go. Their backstab multiplier on damage is also a skill for them, which they can choose how much to invest in.

The other popular house rule I've seen people use in recent years for B/X is simply dumping all the percentages, and having all the Thief skills work on their Hear Noise check (except Climb Walls, which gets some bonus like +2 or something). This simplifies it down to a single d6 roll, again in keeping with OD&D elegance, and improves their odds. With that one there's no juggling points at all.

 

[Weiley31]

LotFP has arguably the best Thief skill fix built right in. All skills in the game work on an "x in 6" chance on a six sider, like Open Doors or Hear Noise do for everyone anyway from OD&D through AD&D. Everyone basically starts with a 1 in 6 chance for all skills. Specialists (the Thief substitute class) are the only ones who get to add pips, and add more as they advance in level, choosing where they want them to go. Their backstab multiplier on damage is also a skill for them, which they can choose how much to invest in.

The other popular house rule I've seen people use in recent years for B/X is simply dumping all the percentages, and having all the Thief skills work on their Hear Noise check (except Climb Walls, which gets some bonus like +2 or something). This simplifies it down to a single d6 roll, again in keeping with OD&D elegance, and improves their odds. With that one there's no juggling points at all.

Ooooh I think I'm gonna do that then.