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

 

[Gus L]

If you're feeling rusty on older style stuff, I think the key thing to remember coming from 5E (or at least this is one adjustment I've seen 5E players struggle with) is the way that non-combat solutions are available and generally a better choice when possible (not that combat can be avoided all the time, but it's something to enter into with a plan when possible). On the referee side this is generally helped by:

1) using morale and reaction checks.

2) Knowing what your monsters want so that even if the reaction goes well they aren't pushovers. The example I always use is that even an ogre that's positively disposed to the party will still think it deserves anything it wants from the PCs because it's an ogre and they are little, it will certainly try to charge them a toll (perhaps even demanding to eat one of the party members etc) - it'll just be friendly about it.

Secondly, 5E acclimated players seem to at times forget the goal isn't to beat up anything that looks at them funny, it's to get the money. This can lead to a lot of frustration as killing monsters is hard and it doesn't help the characters' level much.

Have fun!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

even an ogre that's positively disposed to the party will still think it deserves anything it wants from the PCs because it's an ogre and they are little, it will certainly try to charge them a toll (perhaps even demanding to eat one of the party members etc) - it'll just be friendly about it.

Oof. Too real.