The opposite of OSR
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
What's the opposite of OSR? In general tone, I can think of:
--- unkillable or plot-protected PCs (e.g. player permission is required to kill a PC)
--- same players play the same party of PCs for the whole campaign i.e. little or no in-campaign turnover of either PCs or players
--- one character per player; no henches, backups, etc.
--- players expect mechanical benefits/support for quirks, characterizations and traits of a PC
--- short, fast campaigns where level-ups or power-ups fly at you faster than you can catch them
--- greatly diminished (or even zero) chance of outright PC failure, both on the micro (cf. fail-forward) and macro scale
--- players able to use metagame mechanics (e.g. Plot Points, fate points, etc.) or straight narration to influence* in-game fiction
--- PC resource management (e.g. ammo, rations, encumbrance, even finances) is nonexistent, or nearly so
--- expendable PC resources e.g. hit points, spell slots, etc. are quickly and very easily recovered, and there's more of them to start with
--- design-side discouragement against tweaking the rules or kitbashing the system to make the game your own
--- combat as sport
* - always to their advantage, of course.
Howzat for a start?
--- unkillable or plot-protected PCs (e.g. player permission is required to kill a PC)
--- same players play the same party of PCs for the whole campaign i.e. little or no in-campaign turnover of either PCs or players
--- one character per player; no henches, backups, etc.
--- players expect mechanical benefits/support for quirks, characterizations and traits of a PC
--- short, fast campaigns where level-ups or power-ups fly at you faster than you can catch them
--- greatly diminished (or even zero) chance of outright PC failure, both on the micro (cf. fail-forward) and macro scale
--- players able to use metagame mechanics (e.g. Plot Points, fate points, etc.) or straight narration to influence* in-game fiction
--- PC resource management (e.g. ammo, rations, encumbrance, even finances) is nonexistent, or nearly so
--- expendable PC resources e.g. hit points, spell slots, etc. are quickly and very easily recovered, and there's more of them to start with
--- design-side discouragement against tweaking the rules or kitbashing the system to make the game your own
--- combat as sport
* - always to their advantage, of course.
Howzat for a start?
Older Beholder
Hero
I was going to say 5E MTG settings such as Ravnica and Theros.
Aldarc
Legend
I can't believe we spilt so much digital ink over this question. It's really quite simple. If we take it that A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on, then O-S-R is 15-19-18. If we reverse the alpha-numeric correspondence of this cipher, then 18-19-15 becomes L-H-I. So the opposite of OSR is clearly LHI. We just have to determine what LHI stands for.
Bedrockgames
Legend
I don't know much about 2nd edition pathfinder, but I do think that one of the things the OSR defined itself against was mainstream D&D in the 2000s (there are other things as well but that is one of the big ones) and pathfinder seems like a continuation of the trajectory of 3E. I think it really depends, but two areas leap to mind as being very different from a lot of OSR inspired stuff: the complexity and comprehensiveness of the rules of pathfinder and the tendency towards more linear adventure paths (which again, I am not very familiar so I am not sure how accurate this characterization of pathfinder is at this point). Also the aesthetic is very much at the opposite end of the pole in terms of art.
aramis erak
Legend
The opposite of OSR is "what man
y of us actually did with the rules in the first decade of publication" - what the OSR describes is nothing like anything I've heard from people I know...
Key concepts like
y of us actually did with the rules in the first decade of publication" - what the OSR describes is nothing like anything I've heard from people I know...
Key concepts like
- "Rules as rules, not advice"
- When in doubt, set a difficulty and roll the dice
- "All your speechifying is in vain if the modified reaction roll is a failure."
- D&D as a press-your-luck game
- Rules Lawyering
