I'm back and what better way to celebrate than to give you an idea on what I think OSR means via OSR Guide for the Perplexed
1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:
Taking a Bite Out of the Dungeon.
If there is something that dominated DIY D&D from the first fanzines through the late 80s it was new classes. Matt at Land of Nod is a class factory, but this one to me shows the wild inventiveness of the OSR the best. Still, the Gourmand has a better reason than many to enter the dungeon. He's just hungry.
2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:
How I Want to Hear About Your Setting
Zak gives the best explanation of what the old writer's advice "show, don't tell" means in terms of writing game material.
3. Best OSR module/supplement:
Slumbering Ursine Dunes
Speaking of laying out your setting by showing, not telling, Slubmering Ursine Dunes is a great model. It also brings in one of my favorite ideas from the article "Believe It or Not, Fantasy Has Reality" from Dragon #40.
4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):
Party Like It's 999
Carousing is a great rule to explain how gold pieces become experience. Plus, if things go back it makes it a lot easier for the DM to come up with next week's adventure.
5. How I found out about the OSR:
I had been making sure to read James Edward Raggi IV since his series on Big Purple about runing AD&D. Later, I wanted to reference his writing about how to find players, based on the game, and found them on his blog. Through it I found other early OSR blogs. His post Media Influences inspired the first post on this blog.
6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:
Random Class Advancement System
I don't use it and probably won't any time soon. However, it is full of ideas and does the best thing the OSR does: it makes you think about this game into which you invest so much time and energy.
7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:
I would have said G+ of late, but that is ending. I am hoping that between the end of G+ and problems with Facebook and other gated internet communities that the OSR blogs will restart (as I'm looking to do) and grown.
8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:
I am not active many places outside my table, but I'm on a few Facebook groups, a couple of MeWe groups, and a couple of Discord servers.
9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:
That memoir is a model for story emerging from RPG play, especially for old school play styles.
10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:
This is hard for two reasons. First, what is the OSR? Is Runequest an OSR game? Traveller? Rolemaster? (my answers are 'maybe', 'hell yes', and 'I think so, but I'm probably in the minority'). Second, I like a lot of games.
In terms of having consumed the most cycles with trying to play it I'm going to say Mage, but I will cheat a little and not say if I mean the Ascension or the Awakening
11. Why I like OSR stuff:
Because it reconnects me with what got me into this hobby in the first place. I don't consider that nostalgia, but more a touchstone. It is similar to why I re-read certain books on a regular basis.
12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:
The Flailsnails Conventions bring back a type of play I remember from the 70s that seems to have died off.
The Forty Questions: Jeff's Twenty Questions and Brenden's rules follow-up.
13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:
For a variety of reasons I'm going to say Matt's Land of Nod. It has some of the more creative energy and has sustained it for longer than most of us. It also is not as well known as it should be.
14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:
Clockwork Skeletons
15. I'm currently running/playing:
Type IV D&D based on Greyhawk Grognard's ideas about the G/D series with Drow replaced with The Hadal.
As no plan survives contact with the players it has gone way off the rails, but the goblin tribe of which the party is honorary members does supply all the chicken wings and sauce used in taverns in a dwarven city.
16. I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:
I can figure it out. It isn't that hard people.
17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:
The place where (for me) it all started:
1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:
Taking a Bite Out of the Dungeon.
If there is something that dominated DIY D&D from the first fanzines through the late 80s it was new classes. Matt at Land of Nod is a class factory, but this one to me shows the wild inventiveness of the OSR the best. Still, the Gourmand has a better reason than many to enter the dungeon. He's just hungry.
2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:
How I Want to Hear About Your Setting
Zak gives the best explanation of what the old writer's advice "show, don't tell" means in terms of writing game material.
3. Best OSR module/supplement:
Slumbering Ursine Dunes
Speaking of laying out your setting by showing, not telling, Slubmering Ursine Dunes is a great model. It also brings in one of my favorite ideas from the article "Believe It or Not, Fantasy Has Reality" from Dragon #40.
4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):
Party Like It's 999
Carousing is a great rule to explain how gold pieces become experience. Plus, if things go back it makes it a lot easier for the DM to come up with next week's adventure.
5. How I found out about the OSR:
I had been making sure to read James Edward Raggi IV since his series on Big Purple about runing AD&D. Later, I wanted to reference his writing about how to find players, based on the game, and found them on his blog. Through it I found other early OSR blogs. His post Media Influences inspired the first post on this blog.
6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:
Random Class Advancement System
I don't use it and probably won't any time soon. However, it is full of ideas and does the best thing the OSR does: it makes you think about this game into which you invest so much time and energy.
7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:
I would have said G+ of late, but that is ending. I am hoping that between the end of G+ and problems with Facebook and other gated internet communities that the OSR blogs will restart (as I'm looking to do) and grown.
8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:
I am not active many places outside my table, but I'm on a few Facebook groups, a couple of MeWe groups, and a couple of Discord servers.
9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:
That memoir is a model for story emerging from RPG play, especially for old school play styles.
10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:
This is hard for two reasons. First, what is the OSR? Is Runequest an OSR game? Traveller? Rolemaster? (my answers are 'maybe', 'hell yes', and 'I think so, but I'm probably in the minority'). Second, I like a lot of games.
In terms of having consumed the most cycles with trying to play it I'm going to say Mage, but I will cheat a little and not say if I mean the Ascension or the Awakening
11. Why I like OSR stuff:
Because it reconnects me with what got me into this hobby in the first place. I don't consider that nostalgia, but more a touchstone. It is similar to why I re-read certain books on a regular basis.
12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:
The Flailsnails Conventions bring back a type of play I remember from the 70s that seems to have died off.
The Forty Questions: Jeff's Twenty Questions and Brenden's rules follow-up.
13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:
For a variety of reasons I'm going to say Matt's Land of Nod. It has some of the more creative energy and has sustained it for longer than most of us. It also is not as well known as it should be.
14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:
Clockwork Skeletons
15. I'm currently running/playing:
Type IV D&D based on Greyhawk Grognard's ideas about the G/D series with Drow replaced with The Hadal.
As no plan survives contact with the players it has gone way off the rails, but the goblin tribe of which the party is honorary members does supply all the chicken wings and sauce used in taverns in a dwarven city.
16. I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:
I can figure it out. It isn't that hard people.
17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:
The place where (for me) it all started:
