OSR Trying Out Old School Essentials

[GothmogIV]

Got the books, have it set up on Foundry/Forge. Any advice, thoughts, suggestions, reviews? It looks great!

 

[Evaniel]

Love me some OSE. What is your previous experience with B/X or other clones? What sorts of adventures/sites are you seeding?

 

[GothmogIV]

We played it back in the olden days, but sort of mashed up together with D&D 1e and AD&D. Right now I am just reading the rule books and trying to figure out how to use Forge after spending the last six years on Roll20.

 

[cbwjm]

My advice is to remember, and remind everyone, that it is much deadlier than later editions. If players are coming from 5e, it can be a bit of a shock. I lost 2 PCs in 3 sessions when my friends and I started playing. I do love it though, currently running dolmenwood for friends and we're all having a lot of fun with it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My advice is to remember, and remind everyone, that it is much deadlier than later editions. If players are coming from 5e, it can be a bit of a shock. I lost 2 PCs in 3 sessions when my friends and I started playing. I do love it though, currently running dolmenwood for friends and we're all having a lot of fun with it.

Yeah, there's definitely a learning curve when it comes to acclimating to OSR games.

I strongly recommend groups run Tomb of the Serpent Kings as their first serious OSR adventure, so that everyone, including the GM, gets a handle on what to expect from these games.

 

[GothmogIV]

I am flabbergasted by how different a 5e character is compared to an Advance OSE character. Holy smokes, I had forgotten how hard AD&D is. This is even more challenging than Castles&Crusades (re: player power).

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

My advice from running multiple campaigns with OSE:

Your Table Will Vary. Change the game as needed while you play to make it more enjoyable for yourself and your players - talk to them about what they do/don't like. Don't do something a certain way just because you've seen it done that way online.

B/X was designed for larger player counts - the numbers and challenges in old TSR B/X adventures and in the bestiaries usually assumes a party size of 8-12 PCs/retainers. Necrotic Gnome's adventures seem to have been tuned for smaller modern party sizes, though.

A lot of rules in OSE are tagged as optional despite being pretty important - Morale, in particular. Be judicious on which ones you use/exclude.

 

[Simon Miles]

Got the books, have it set up on Foundry/Forge. Any advice, thoughts, suggestions, reviews? It looks great!

It's a great game system and properly presented. If you need some adventures, check this out www.dunrominuniversitypress.co.uk