OSR Taking the OSE Initiate Feat

[Mannahnin]

At some point, I will likely pick up the Advanced OSE set, as it sounds as though I will still get a lot of use out of that even with other things that I play.

I prefer the smaller booklet format, so I hope that's still an option for Advanced. I vaguely recall seeing a comment that it may not be for 2026.

I understand consolidating Basic and Advanced because it honestly was a little confusing to figure out what I needed to buy, but I find that I much prefer the boxrd format with the smaller booklets.

I have Classic in a single-volume A5 (digest sized) hardcover and Advanced in a two-volume (Players and DM) A5 hardcover set.

I hear you on the smaller booklets, but I don't know if they did a divided version into smaller books for Advanced.

I'm less interested in extra damage (in the way that modern damage does it) than I am in extra effects. I could try to incorporate either the DCC tables or something from one of the other games I play. Something to spice up rolling a 20 for some of the players that I have.

I getcha. Part of the appeal for most people with OSE is the simplicity, with a lot of folks being able to memorize quite a lot of the rules, so big tables of criticals and fumbles are not normally part of it.

You could absolutely incorporate stuff from DCC as house rules. That's part of the joy of OSE, that the base rules are simple and clean enough that it's easy to add in house rules for anything you want to flesh out more.

In keeping with the principle of simplicity, my own house rules for crits for OSE are:

Crits and fumbles:
20 to hit = +1 damage, OR you may declare a cool situational effect- disarming, knocking a foe back or prone, overbearing, etc. If the effect is particularly devastating, I may grant the victim a save vs poison/death to avoid.
I do not use fumbles on a 1 (it’s just an auto-miss), though I may narrate amusing fumbles for hapless bad guys.

On the weekends, there's a guy at one of the flea markets near me who has a bunch of old D&D stuff for sale. Honestly, most of it is in rough shape (so wouldn't be worth much of anything got collectors,) but it's still okay enough to be readable and usable. Honestly, I kinda like that they're a little beat up because that makes me feel less guilty if I need to highlight something or make a note in a margin.

Most recently, I bought N1 - Against the Cult of the Reptile God.

Sounds cool. I've picked up some nice old modules myself that way.

 

[Argyle King]

Are there OSE (or OSE compatible) resources for more of a sword & sorcery vibe?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are there OSE (or OSE compatible) resources for more of a sword & sorcery vibe?

What sort of resources do you mean? Bestiaries? Adventures? Settings?

My first instinct would be to switch to a different OSR system, Through Sunken Lands, although that could probably be used with OSE Advanced pretty easily, since it's largely AD&D under the hood.

It's only $10 on DriveThruRPG and like all of the Flatland Games books I've tried, is basically multiple toolkits for creating adventures on the fly.

 

[Piperken]

...At some point, I will likely pick up the Advanced OSE set, as it sounds as though I will still get a lot of use out of that even with other things that I play...

Likely aware, but there is a cleaned up version of the core books due to be published sometime in 2026, around the 3-4th quarter (estimated). So if you decide to go with print, may want to keep this in consideration!

 

[Argyle King]

It's tough to convey things like feel and tone through a message board, but I think it would be a setting and maybe some alternative class/race options.

Like many people, I do enjoy Tolkien and his influence on fantasy. But, for a lack of better words, what attracted me to DCC was that it was a little dirtier and bloodier around the edges. Things aren't quite so clean and pristine as a general norm. I have some other literary influences that I would like to incorporate that don't fit so neatly into OSE's Classic Fantasy genre.

If there's a middle ground between the AD&D aesthetic that OSE covers and the "...reaver, cutpurse..." mantra of DCC, that would be nice. I'm not looking for anything super serious or grim, just feeling like stakes matter when they do; sometimes shades of gray exist; and magic shortcuts to power often come with a cost.

In my mind, some examples of what I think are similar to classic fantasy but with some darker touches would be "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis (which I remember as having some harsher tones than other Narnia books,) the Tom Cruise movie "Legend," and the setting of the old Golden Axe video games.

I know that's a broad range, but that's because I don't have a strict view of how exactly things should be down to the letter - just a little more primal and dirtier than "Classic Fantasy" (and a lot more than the current D&D 5E baseline).

...and maybe lizardfolk or something other than one of the usual class/race choices.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's tough to convey things like feel and tone through a message board, but I think it would be a setting and maybe some alternative class/race options.

Like many people, I do enjoy Tolkien and his influence on fantasy. But, for a lack of better words, what attracted me to DCC was that it was a little dirtier and bloodier around the edges. Things aren't quite so clean and pristine as a general norm. I have some other literary influences that I would like to incorporate that don't fit so neatly into OSE's Classic Fantasy genre.

If there's a middle ground between the AD&D aesthetic that OSE covers and the "...reaver, cutpurse..." mantra of DCC, that would be nice. I'm not looking for anything super serious or grim, just feeling like stakes matter when they do; sometimes shades of gray exist; and magic shortcuts to power often come with a cost.

In my mind, some examples of what I think are similar to classic fantasy but with some darker touches would be "Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis (which I remember as having some harsher tones than other Narnia books,) the Tom Cruise movie "Legend," and the setting of the old Golden Axe video games.

I know that's a broad range, but that's because I don't have a strict view of how exactly things should be down to the letter - just a little more primal and dirtier than "Classic Fantasy" (and a lot more than the current D&D 5E baseline).

...and maybe lizardfolk or something other than one of the usual class/race choices.

Some of the classic B/X adventures have definite swords & sorcery vibes. B4 The Lost City, or X1 The Isle of Dread are good examples.

In the OSR scene, over the ~20 years since it cohered and people started publishing modules and retroclones, originally AD&D 1E and OD&D were the primary systems, but after a while B/X became more popular as such a clean, efficient and succinct presentation of the core old school D&D rules and became kind of the lingua franca of OSR publications, so you can see ALL SORTS of different tones in products for it, since there are so many. Dark fairy tale (like Dolmenwood, and adventures like Winter's Daughter or The Hole in the Oak) has been pretty common, and Weird Fantasy/Horror like LotFP or classic adventure X2 Castle Amber, or Gonzo like Anomalous Subsurface Environment, but definitely lots of Swords & Sorcery style adventures as well.

I'd describe all four adventures from OSE's Adventure Anthology 1 as solidly Swords & Sorcery. As is their recent module The Grotesques' Grotto. The Evils of Illmire and In the Shadow of Castle Silveraxe are two 50+ page digest-sized modules which each contain a small hexcrawl campaign and several dungeons, and I think S&S is probably the best label for both of them as well. Dyson Logos' free Challenge of the Frog Idol I recall is S&S as well.

As far as alternate races and classes to support a more S&S vibe and break from Tolkien more, the Carcass Crawler zines from Necrotic Gnome are good for that. Carcass Crawler 1, for example, includes the Acolyte and Mage as alternatives to the traditional Cleric and Magic-User, which instead of casting normal spells, roll % chances to invoke each of a half-dozen useful magical effects, plus some minor healing. Or the Kineticist, which is a psionic character. Plus new race classes like Goblin (as you'd expect), Gargantua (like a half-ogre or Goliath), or Hephaestan (basically Vulcans from Star Trek).

 

[kronovan]

But I do have questions:

• How compatible is OSE with OSRIC? While I have not (yet) played OSRIC, I did back the upcoming newer version. From a lot of what I have read online, both games share the same roots, so are said to be mostly compatible with minor adjustments. However, I am new to OSR games as whole, so I am still figuring things out.?

It's compatible for the most part. I've recently been converting some AD&D1e bestiaries to OSE, so I'll highight a few differences.

Base movement rate (distance per combat round); it's very different between OSRIC/AD&D1e and OSE. In OSRIC base movement is stated in inches as 12", which OSRIC multiplies by 10 to arrive at the feet equivalent; 120'. That's significantly different from OSE where base movement is 40'.

Time per Round: in OSRIC there are 60 seconds/round, which is significantly greater than OSE's 10 sec/round. That accounts for the big difference in base movement. While turns are the same 10 minutes long in both, the rounds/turn are very different; 10 rnd/turn (OSRIC), 60 rnd/turn (OSE.) If you're adapting OSRIC/AD&D1e spells to OSE, this may be a big consideration for any that list a duration in rounds.

Base Armor Class: base armor begins at 10 in OSRIC, while it begins at 9 for OSE. That may not seem like much of a worry, but considering the lethality of combat in OSE, it shouldn't be taken lightly. So, lower the AC by 1 point if you're converting OSRIC/AD&D1e/2e monsters to OSE.

Monster To Hit: OSRIC/AD&D1e uses the Fighter's THAC0 table, by converting monster HD to an equivalent Fighter level. While OSE monsters have their own table and have a better To Hit than a Fighter.

Saving Throws: Monster saving throws for Both OSRIC and OSE are based on the Fighter's saves, but OSE has it's own table for monsters. With the result that the monster's tables lists values above the Fighter's level 14 cap. There's also some universal differences between the 5 saving groups. In OSRIC rods, staff and wands are placed under Aimed Magic Items, while in OSE Wands (W) have their own category/value and rods and staves are grouped under Spell (S) saves. OSRIC has Paralysis covered by the save for Poison and Death, while in OSE it's under Paralysis or Petrification (P.) The bigger difference is the required save rolls - in OSRIC they're more challenging. If you'e converting monsters or NPCs from OSRIC/A&D1e/2e, you don't want to be carrying over the save values.

• Does a critical hit on an attack roll do anything extra in OSE?

It doesn't, but like other D&D editons a natural attack roll of 20 is an automatic hit.

I'm no doubt missing some other differences, but those are what come to mind. While by no means a big difference between the 2 TTRPGs, I personally wouldn't be comfortable with stating they're completely compatible. The differences are subtle, but IMO based upon how easily lower level PCs can be killed in OSE combat, care should be taken whenever converting from, or using, OSRIC/AD&D1e/2e content.