OSR Why does OSR Design Draw You In?

[Micah Sweet]

Haha, this was my first guess since I'm in the same boat. Luckily, I have a very patient wife who will play cooperatively with me time to time when I can't get a normal group together.


Agree here too. I shower the players with XP when I'm running OSR games, especially the lower levels. My attention span for any given campaign is about a year - two years if things are going really good.

I have a similar issue with players who prefer more narrative-focused, character-primacy games. It's frustrating, because that's just not the way I enjoy the hobby.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Speaking for me here. Although sandbox style can be ran in 5e, it's a lot more work on the DM since the core books lack the world building tools and built in exploration mechanics that other OSR games have. Also, creating monsters/items/NPCs/etc... on the fly is more involved and harder to balance in 5E.

Same goes with PF2, but exponentially more so thanks to level bonuses, more complex stat blocks, and tighter math.

That's why I play Level Up instead of WotC 5e. It's not missing those tools you mentioned.

 

[Xenolith234]

Fair enough. Good points.

The PCs in 5e also get exploration-negating spells/skills at a fairly low level that make the challenges of wilderness exploration moot. Then, if you ban or alter those spells, skills, or rules, you run into a player-culture issue.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The PCs in 5e also get exploration-negating spells/skills at a fairly low level that make the challenges of wilderness exploration moot. Then, if you ban or alter those spells, skills, or rules, you run into a player-culture issue.

See my message above. Not playing WotC's version of 5e fixes this problem.