Retro Clones

[Chainsaw]

Anyone care to compare, contrast or discuss their experiences with the various D&D/AD&D retro clones?

I've got all the old AD&D books and have considered a campaign using them, but reading a few threads with references to the clones (Labyrinth Lord, Castles and Crusades, etc) piqued my interest. My background includes tons of experience with 2E, a session or two of 3E, right when it first came out, and about 8-10 sessions of 4E.

 

[Crothian]

I'll be honest, I much perfer the real games to these new clones of them. I have though been buyng OSRIC modules though to help boost up the 1e collection

 

[Chainsaw]

I'll be honest, I much perfer the real games to these new clones of them. I have though been buyng OSRIC modules though to help boost up the 1e collection

I hear you. I'm just curious.

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, I vastly prefer retro clones at the current time given that legal PDFs of original TSR games are no longer available and physical copies are becoming increasingly hard to find. It's already an uphill battle for me to get players for something other than the most recent editions of D&D (to say nothing of non-D&D games). Why make it harder by telling potential players that they need to go scour ebay or garage sales for rule books? Instead, I can direct them to the sites for Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry where they can download all of the rules they need to play instantly and for free.

As for the actual systems, OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord are nearly verbatim ports of AD&D 1e and B/X D&D, respectively. They still have percentile Thief skills, assume combat matrices, etc. Of the whole, these two games are closer to being true clones than the other systems that claim the status. On the other end of the spectrum, you have games like C&C or BFRPG that are nominally clones but crib significantly more design philosophy from the D&D 3x SRD than they do from older editions of D&D. Finally, in the middle, you have Swords & Wizardry which takes some obvious points from both ends of the spectrum.

Or that's my take on the systems in a nutshell, anyhow.

 

[Desdichado]

Word on the street is that the clones may have benefitted from better organization and excising a few of the most problematic and consistently disliked elements in favor of something else, but yeah... if you've got all the AD&D books, you don't need a clone. It won't do anything for you (much) that your original books don't already.

That said, Castles & Crusades isn't a retro-clone. It's a game, based on the 3e SRD, that is retro in style. OSRIC is the actual retro-clone for AD&D.

 

[Remathilis]

Just to leapfrog off what jdrakeh said, there are some clones that are "clonier" than others. Some take the idea of "I like the idea of 3.x, but with it was more like AD&D/Basic" which is C&C or BFRPG. Others basically are "Lets make the most faithful clone we can" which is OSRIC or LL.

I much prefer the first two style, but those looking for the faithful translations to supplement the originals will prefer the latter...

 

[Dyson Logos]

I've been running Moldvay D&D since forever (well, since 1981). Labyrinth Lord has effectively given me the ability to have my players have copies of the rules - with a few minor changes. For most of our games I run Moldvay out of the box, but for the game I'm a player in, and for the group where no one else has a copy of Moldvay basic, we are running using the LL rules set.

I'm a big fan.

 

[Crothian]

physical copies are becoming increasingly hard to find.

It depends what you are looking for. If you are hunting for the White Box set I'll agree with that. But 1e AD&D books I always see at the local used books stores. When I went last week I stopped counting when I found a dozen of the PHBs. I've found and bought three copies of the Rules Cyclopedia so while that's rarer it is out there. And I know at Origins in a month I'll see plenty of the old D&D stuff for sale.

 

[Grimstaff]

If you want a recommendation, imo you can't go wrong with Swords&Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord. For links to the downloads of these and other RC's, as well as links to some good blogs so you can check out what this active gaming community is up to, check out the blog link in my sig below.

The best way, as always is to just print one up, get some buddies together, and run a session. You might be surprised how easy it is to get into. Also check out Matt Finch's excellent Primer to Old School Gaming, also linked from the blog below, its a great introduction to the play style.

 

[Nikosandros]

W
On the other end of the spectrum, you have games like C&C or BFRPG that are nominally clones but crib significantly more design philosophy from the D&D 3x SRD than they do from older editions of D&D.

It is true that BFRPG is much less of a clone than LL, but it is still way, way closer to B/X than to 3x.