D&D General Why is "OSR style" D&D Fun For You?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just went to the website and says its no longer available

Ugh.

 

[Charlaquin]

For me:

It's tonally a different game, closer to a horror movie than high fantasy.

Ooh, yes, this too! With the gameplay heavily emphasizing survival in an extremely hostile environment, the game ends up taking on a tone similar horror, which I also love.

 

[Voadam]

I like that a lot of OSR things are just narration and judgment calls. I really like immersive experiences where I feel I am there and can vividly imagine the scene. More narration and less game mechanics works pretty well for that.

I love seeing people first person roleplay well.

I like player skill engagement. Getting an aha moment in puzzling something out is great, rolling for mental stuff less so.

I like focusing on player choice in the moment and not so much on builds or system mastery.

 

[Voadam]

I really enjoyed building up my spellbook over time as an AD&D magic user with no automatic spells when I levelled.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Like the OP, I started with the Metzer box and moved into 1e in the mid-80s. Even after 2e came out (which i loved and read obsessively) we mostly played with 1e's rules. In recent years I've moved into OSR stuff, my favorites being ACKS and DCC. Most of the things I love about the OSR are already called out above:

1. Dangerous situations feel dangerous. If my PC gets into it, they can easily fall and not pop back up later that round.

2. Resource management. It matters what you're carrying, and how much, and (if you're a caster) when and how to use your limited magic. Best solve to the fighter/wizard problem I know starts with the old school approach.

3. Exploration and worldbuilding. My favorite parts of the game, and most games in the OSR put a lot of effort into making a world that feels real and immersive, and has answers to the questions PCs ask to make informed choices and have real agency.

There's more, but that's good to start on.

 

[Reynard]

You all are making me consider that Shadowdark PDF real hard...

 

[DarkCrisis]

You all are making me consider that Shadowdark PDF real hard...

QuickStart is pretty much all the rules etc and it’s free. The full book is of course a great one and done book. Highly recommended

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The quickstart is a hell of a flex: "Hey, let me give you the equivalent of a Basic D&D boxed set for free, because I think it'll make you buy the full book."

You will get a very good feel for the game after playing with just the quickstart booklets, which cover everything you need through about level three.

 

[Stormonu]

I like it for all the old memories I have tied to it (1E, 2E, B/X). Also 2E's tons of lore and campaign worlds just gives sooo many places to play in all ready to go (as deep as you want to go down the rabbit hole to boot).

While 2E with all the bells and whistles can get very complex, if I wasn't doing 5E, it'd probably be the system I'd use. The old books could use a serious rewrite to put the rules front and center (most are buried in paragraphs, if not pages, of text) and touch up tone, but are otherwise quite usable. The magic system is just about right where I want it - powerful in later game, but certainly not an auto-take for most of the life of a campaign.

Also a huge shout-out to Old School Essentials - while I'm more of a 1E/2E fan the recompilation and presentation it does of the B/X rules is spot on to my tastes (in brevity and lightness) and makes me want to break out the likes of B4 - The Lost City and run a game, and the Advanced OSE books are pretty close to the sort of rewrite I'd like to see of 2E rules (though, I want wpn/non-wpn proficiencies).

The only thing that holds me back from going full-tilt back to those old rulesets is while they make perfect sense to me, my kids and wife recoil in horror/bounce off from those old mechanics - especially THAC0.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I like it for all the old memories I have tied to it (1E, 2E, B/X). Also 2E's tons of lore and campaign worlds just gives sooo many places to play in all ready to go (as deep as you want to go down the rabbit hole to boot).

While 2E with all the bells and whistles can get very complex, if I wasn't doing 5E, it'd probably be the system I'd use. The old books could use a serious rewrite to put the rules front and center (most are buried in paragraphs, if not pages, of text) and touch up tone, but are otherwise quite usable. The magic system is just about right where I want it - powerful in later game, but certainly not an auto-take for most of the life of a campaign.

Also a huge shout-out to Old School Essentials - while I'm more of a 1E/2E fan the recompilation and presentation it does of the B/X rules is spot on to my tastes (in brevity and lightness) and makes me want to break out the likes of B4 - The Lost City and run a game, and the Advanced OSE books are pretty close to the sort of rewrite I'd like to see of 2E rules (though, I want wpn/non-wpn proficiencies).

The only thing that holds me back from going full-tilt back to those old rulesets is while they make perfect sense to me, my kids and wife recoil in horror/bounce off from those old mechanics - especially THAC0.

Check out For Gold and Glory. It's 2E cleaned up. I use it when running 2E stuff