For us OSR is a game perspective and choice of game play style. We luv the high risk and tension of an early demise. Keeps players thinking more than combat during encounters.
Btw in the Dungeons and Dragons film with Chris Pine, there is some play with ‘rocks fall, everyone dies’. One of the villains is killed by falling rubble.
I love World Anvil!!! Being able to share maps/keep track of a group's progress in a campaign is so help, especially in an OSR context of the hex crawl!
You nailed it, Old School Renaissance, is not a game system, but a way playing Role Playing Games, rulings over rules, role playing over roll playing, a high potential for PC death, and high player agency. The OSR best supports the three pillars of social interaction, exploration, and combat and brings out more creativity.
Nice content! I didn't know this was a term for my friends and I playing games everyone else had forgotten. Rolemaster, Chaosium, Traveller, and others.
I've been running a campaign in Five Torches Deep for over a year now. Still going strong. All of my players are on their second characters now (Although some of the original characters are either still alive or resurrected.) FTD is OSR feel more or less using 5e mechanics. I'm thinking of going back to white box plus Greyhawk with some mechanics cleanup though. Or just force the new 5e to do OSR, lol.
OSR (Oh shit, run!) or Old-School R (Renaissance, Revival, etc, depending on who you ask) games are fantastic. I started with 1st Edition AD&D in 1984, and still design my home game around the 2nd Edition AD&D rules. I would say the OSR definitely has a different design philosophy, and consequences are more dire if the players are hapless with their PCs.
Im a big fan of Classic Traveller. Its not technically OSR but its a great ruleset and cheap to boot. You can get the whole set from Far Future Enterprises for 35 bucks on CD.
I love the aesthetic of classic d&d 1e and ad&d content but i dont want to play a game that's more of a "dm vs players" style. Did i misunderstand or are these style games not really like that?
Think about it, a game with weird, ugly or terrible monsters in which you can die if you make bad choices, or fate decides to dislike you in a serious way...that's a horror game. And that's a big part of the design. Old D&D is Tolkenian good guys on adventures like Conan and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad movies, and, in places, the riskiness of survival horror video games, and with monsters and bad guys from all those stories and games. And if you survive long enough, you can gain fabulous magical power and items, and become a super powerful and influential person in that dangerous world. From a neutral standpoint, a DM is operating the ruleset, presenting situations, and offering opportunities for players to find solutions with their resources. DMs are people, and make choices about their attitude, like we all do. Being a combative jerk and running the game like a power-tripping adolescent is an option available to anyone running any game. Also, I think, the random encounter table gets misunderstood. Just because you ran into a something on the monster list doesn't mean you have to fight that monster. There's a system for discovering the disposition of the encountered persons or things towards the players, with reactions from ignoring or being standoffish, to straight up murderous aggression...OR in the other direction towards friendliness with a willingness to converse or trade. The old games also had an encounter distance, so if they're far enough away you can just not approach them. Finally, most importantly, you can run away if you feel overmatched. Players can run away. If the DM doesn't like you that day, or decides to ignore the disposition of the encounter, the enemy could chase you, but the baseline assumption is that every dangerous person or critter has their own agenda, and the players aren't necessarily on it.
It would be really helpful if you redid some tutorial videos. I am having so many problems with this website that I am paying a monthly subscription for and all of the tutorials are several years old and the website is very different from then. I have a private world and 2 subscribers to playtest it. But they can't view any of the articles even though they are in all of the subscriber groups. I can't find any useful information anywhere.
Hey there, thanks for the comment - will keep this in mind! We moved to a written-first documentation style, so the LEARN guides are always the most up to date. Here is the guide to subscribers, which should anwer your questions! www.worldanvil.com/learn/access-rights/subscribers Otherwise, you can shoot an email to contact[at]worldanvil.com!
I actually like 5e, but I think it very much depends on the DM, you don't have to be a slave to rules. I developed my own steampunk rules based on D6 and used to enjoy Traveler (pre GURPS) despite its bewildering unplayability, if only someone had mentioned Star Trek, our games were more like H2G2 🤣 That said, our dungeon crawls were rather Pratchettesque too.
OMG! How can you talk about OSR in 2024 and not touch on Mork Borg and all of the weird and wonderful spin offs? CyBorg, CorpBorg, Pirate Borg, Forbidden Psalm, Solitary Defilement, Cloth goblins, Heretic, The Last War, Feretory etc etc etc. ??? The hallmark of all the Mork Borg and related supplements and spin offs is a unique artistic setting. It almost focuses on grim, funny, artwork more than rules. But as you point out as in other OSRs it has just a few clean game mechanics that can be applied universally to all gaming situations. Much Much more of an emphasis on game playing, chaos, over rules. Take a look! ;-)
Oh. This is interesting. I knew what OSR stood for. However I didn't know the features. I had no idea that OSR was rules lite and heavily dependent on player creativity. Mind blown. Now I am wondering when exactly DND got the most crunchy. I think that the current fifth edition is a bit too crunchy and clunky. I think it would need some streamlining. I recently learned what THACCO is. Then I was absolutely horrified by it. Seriously dude! What the heck?! I am not using that abomination of a game system. If I want to streamline a game system, the OSR would be helpful. I can learn the bare bones of a system. Then I can refine from there. DND 1E is obviously the best place to start. I do like the focus OSR has on exploration. That is something I enjoy. That reminds me of the first Legend of Zelda game. I never played it, because it is before my time. I love playing Breath of the Wild. From what I heard, the first Zelda game has the same sense of exploration even if it had severer technology limitations. I am intrigued. The one thing I don't like about DND is the severly punishing death mechanic. It seems like the OSR makes it even worse. I definitely want to fix that. I think losing a battle should not permanently kill a character. There should be some method of either revining the character or starting the combat encounter over again. Wow. I didn't know World Anvil was used for RPGs. I thought it was just used for novels. That is nice. I wonder how well World Anvil handles wierd mechanics. I come up with many creative ideas when developing mechanics. Here are just two basic examples. This is just the tip of the iceberg. One is that attacks have perfect accuracy and fixed base damage. So they are not random. Another is that spells use specific types of mana as a resource. So I may put numbers and letters in a cost. Things get tricky like this. I think giving plenty of space to write basic rules would make sense. A basic template of just writing text would help. There are no prompts. The rules are written straight out.
I think Dungeons & Dragons began crunchy when they rolled out the 4th edition. It got crunchier with the 5th edition. I still have my early AD&D manuals as well as a collection of edition 3.5.
I've tried OSR once, twice, and thrice... The players/DMs were a bunch of grumpy grognards 100% rules and no improvisation, some of them would forget my name every time, and one of these group's DM kept calling my female elf "he" all the time (Im male), all in all these experiences made me avoid OSR completely and for life. I know not every group is like this but I just dont have the energy anymore
Realizing TTRPGS are social opportunities for nerdy, weird, or socially disfunctional people: 👍 Realizing those social opportunities are full of bunch of nerdy, weird, and socially disfunctional people: 👎 Remembering that, according to the odds, you are one of the nerdy, weird, or socially disfunctional people: 😭
I came for the ShadowDark reference and was not disappointed! 😊
In other words, playing OSR's nowadays is like hearing synth wave music, it's like the old times, but it is not exactly the same.
That's a really good analogy.
Using B/X and the reaction roll, there is only a 1/36 chance that an encounter is immediately hostile.
Hmm...
For us OSR is a game perspective and choice of game play style.
We luv the high risk and tension of an early demise. Keeps players thinking more than combat during encounters.
Sounds intriguing
Btw in the Dungeons and Dragons film with Chris Pine, there is some play with ‘rocks fall, everyone dies’.
One of the villains is killed by falling rubble.
Classic Fantasy by The Design Mechanism. Love me some OSR!
Nice! Thanks for the addition.
I love World Anvil!!! Being able to share maps/keep track of a group's progress in a campaign is so help, especially in an OSR context of the hex crawl!
Thanks so much!
You nailed it, Old School Renaissance, is not a game system, but a way playing Role Playing Games, rulings over rules, role playing over roll playing, a high potential for PC death, and high player agency. The OSR best supports the three pillars of social interaction, exploration, and combat and brings out more creativity.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
Nice content! I didn't know this was a term for my friends and I playing games everyone else had forgotten.
Rolemaster, Chaosium, Traveller, and others.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the insight! much needed in this day and age
Loved the explanation and presentation 👌
I've been running a campaign in Five Torches Deep for over a year now. Still going strong. All of my players are on their second characters now (Although some of the original characters are either still alive or resurrected.) FTD is OSR feel more or less using 5e mechanics. I'm thinking of going back to white box plus Greyhawk with some mechanics cleanup though. Or just force the new 5e to do OSR, lol.
Interesting stuff
OSR (Oh shit, run!) or Old-School R (Renaissance, Revival, etc, depending on who you ask) games are fantastic. I started with 1st Edition AD&D in 1984, and still design my home game around the 2nd Edition AD&D rules. I would say the OSR definitely has a different design philosophy, and consequences are more dire if the players are hapless with their PCs.
Lol i will.borrow that descriptor tyvm Oh Shit Run!!!
Luv it
Nice overview of OSR's!
REACTION ROLL = FRIENDLY :)
Im a big fan of Classic Traveller. Its not technically OSR but its a great ruleset and cheap to boot. You can get the whole set from Far Future Enterprises for 35 bucks on CD.
It's a game from the old school era, for sure.
Advanced Old School Essentials is the way.
Good shout.
My most choice is cairn, currently working twords it's 2e
Interesting option!
I love the aesthetic of classic d&d 1e and ad&d content but i dont want to play a game that's more of a "dm vs players" style. Did i misunderstand or are these style games not really like that?
Think about it, a game with weird, ugly or terrible monsters in which you can die if you make bad choices, or fate decides to dislike you in a serious way...that's a horror game. And that's a big part of the design.
Old D&D is Tolkenian good guys on adventures like Conan and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad movies, and, in places, the riskiness of survival horror video games, and with monsters and bad guys from all those stories and games. And if you survive long enough, you can gain fabulous magical power and items, and become a super powerful and influential person in that dangerous world.
From a neutral standpoint, a DM is operating the ruleset, presenting situations, and offering opportunities for players to find solutions with their resources. DMs are people, and make choices about their attitude, like we all do. Being a combative jerk and running the game like a power-tripping adolescent is an option available to anyone running any game.
Also, I think, the random encounter table gets misunderstood. Just because you ran into a something on the monster list doesn't mean you have to fight that monster. There's a system for discovering the disposition of the encountered persons or things towards the players, with reactions from ignoring or being standoffish, to straight up murderous aggression...OR in the other direction towards friendliness with a willingness to converse or trade. The old games also had an encounter distance, so if they're far enough away you can just not approach them.
Finally, most importantly, you can run away if you feel overmatched. Players can run away. If the DM doesn't like you that day, or decides to ignore the disposition of the encounter, the enemy could chase you, but the baseline assumption is that every dangerous person or critter has their own agenda, and the players aren't necessarily on it.
It would be really helpful if you redid some tutorial videos. I am having so many problems with this website that I am paying a monthly subscription for and all of the tutorials are several years old and the website is very different from then.
I have a private world and 2 subscribers to playtest it. But they can't view any of the articles even though they are in all of the subscriber groups. I can't find any useful information anywhere.
Hey there, thanks for the comment - will keep this in mind! We moved to a written-first documentation style, so the LEARN guides are always the most up to date. Here is the guide to subscribers, which should anwer your questions! www.worldanvil.com/learn/access-rights/subscribers
Otherwise, you can shoot an email to contact[at]worldanvil.com!
Love me some Old School gaming.
It's classic!
Why 11:07 that is so specific 😂
I love playing with high risk high reward or casual and fun so i good for OSR. As long we dont bring Thaco
We call OSR dungeon survival horror and Neo-D&D super hero high fantasy. Neither is wrong. Just different.
I actually like 5e, but I think it very much depends on the DM, you don't have to be a slave to rules. I developed my own steampunk rules based on D6 and used to enjoy Traveler (pre GURPS) despite its bewildering unplayability, if only someone had mentioned Star Trek, our games were more like H2G2 🤣 That said, our dungeon crawls were rather Pratchettesque too.
More games = more fun!
Old school rules. I knew it, right thar in the video audio.
HackMaster 5e the best version of AD&D
Thanks for the tip
OMG! How can you talk about OSR in 2024 and not touch on Mork Borg and all of the weird and wonderful spin offs? CyBorg, CorpBorg, Pirate Borg, Forbidden Psalm, Solitary Defilement, Cloth goblins, Heretic, The Last War, Feretory etc etc etc. ??? The hallmark of all the Mork Borg and related supplements and spin offs is a unique artistic setting. It almost focuses on grim, funny, artwork more than rules. But as you point out as in other OSRs it has just a few clean game mechanics that can be applied universally to all gaming situations. Much Much more of an emphasis on game playing, chaos, over rules. Take a look! ;-)
That sounds really interesting, thank you for sharing!
Oh. This is interesting. I knew what OSR stood for. However I didn't know the features. I had no idea that OSR was rules lite and heavily dependent on player creativity. Mind blown. Now I am wondering when exactly DND got the most crunchy. I think that the current fifth edition is a bit too crunchy and clunky. I think it would need some streamlining. I recently learned what THACCO is. Then I was absolutely horrified by it. Seriously dude! What the heck?! I am not using that abomination of a game system. If I want to streamline a game system, the OSR would be helpful. I can learn the bare bones of a system. Then I can refine from there. DND 1E is obviously the best place to start. I do like the focus OSR has on exploration. That is something I enjoy. That reminds me of the first Legend of Zelda game. I never played it, because it is before my time. I love playing Breath of the Wild. From what I heard, the first Zelda game has the same sense of exploration even if it had severer technology limitations. I am intrigued. The one thing I don't like about DND is the severly punishing death mechanic. It seems like the OSR makes it even worse. I definitely want to fix that. I think losing a battle should not permanently kill a character. There should be some method of either revining the character or starting the combat encounter over again.
Wow. I didn't know World Anvil was used for RPGs. I thought it was just used for novels. That is nice. I wonder how well World Anvil handles wierd mechanics. I come up with many creative ideas when developing mechanics. Here are just two basic examples. This is just the tip of the iceberg. One is that attacks have perfect accuracy and fixed base damage. So they are not random. Another is that spells use specific types of mana as a resource. So I may put numbers and letters in a cost. Things get tricky like this. I think giving plenty of space to write basic rules would make sense. A basic template of just writing text would help. There are no prompts. The rules are written straight out.
I think Dungeons & Dragons began crunchy when they rolled out the 4th edition. It got crunchier with the 5th edition. I still have my early AD&D manuals as well as a collection of edition 3.5.
I think it started getting more crunchy as the Complete books started rolling out for 2e.
Sounds like you were really inspired!
Falling rocks are great for getting rid of problematic NPCs.
Or problematic PCs... 🤔
I've tried OSR once, twice, and thrice... The players/DMs were a bunch of grumpy grognards 100% rules and no improvisation, some of them would forget my name every time, and one of these group's DM kept calling my female elf "he" all the time (Im male), all in all these experiences made me avoid OSR completely and for life. I know not every group is like this but I just dont have the energy anymore
That comes across as false.
Sorry you had that experience.
Realizing TTRPGS are social opportunities for nerdy, weird, or socially disfunctional people: 👍
Realizing those social opportunities are full of bunch of nerdy, weird, and socially disfunctional people: 👎
Remembering that, according to the odds, you are one of the nerdy, weird, or socially disfunctional people: 😭
OSR is literally imagination first my dude, stop making stuff up lmao.