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Today D&D 5e is made for powerful fantasy heroes that rarely die and earn XP by killing things. If you aren't aware there is a whole movement called "osr" which

Today D&D 5e is made for powerful fantasy heroes that rarely die and earn XP by killing things. If you aren't aware there is a whole movement called "osr" which put more emphasis on finding treasure in very dangerous situations. There is even a game called Dungeon Crawl Classic that suggest doing a "funnel" to create new characters: each player starts with 3/4 weak characters. At the end of the dungeon you pick your official character among the survivor. Osr authors have produced many wonderful books. Definitely worth checking out. So games like OSE are carbon copies of older games. Other like knave try to modernise and streamline things while keeping the spirit.

YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago
It's a bit complicated what OSR is about and to be honest I'm very confused about it. There seem to be two categories of OSR games, as far as I can tell. One is a category of games that are more or less faithful reproductions of some pre-3.0 edition of D&D rules, without any setting information. This is possible apparently because of an (untested?) understanding that rules cannot be copyrighted. Most of those games are free downloads. Just the ones I have on my drive: OSRIC (Old School Reference and Index Compilation) Dark Dungeon (2nd ed. D&D?) Labyrinth Lord (1st ed) Old School Essentials Swords and Wizzardry Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland (1st ed. BX) Lamentations of the Flame Princess Lightmaster Dungeon Crawl Classics Some or all of those games are referred to as "retro-clones". As far as I've read up, DCC and Lightmaster seem to be the ones that depart the farthest from the original rulesets. The other category is a category of rules-light, low-effort games that are often no more than a commentary on D&D and TT-RPGs in general, sometimes in zine format. I don't want to give too many examples of those because my description probably sounds disparaging enough, but see this link for some such games (or "games"): https://liberludorum.com/2021/03/29/sword-satire/ https://liberludorum.com/2021/03/29/sword-satire/ And I'm probably missing a few categories of OSR games. For instance, The Black Hack, Rogue, Troika and Into the Electric Bastionland seem to be OSR, but I haven't had the chance to read them and figure out what they're about. Anycase, the OSR movement seems to have started around the time of this essay: "A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming" https://archive.org/details/a-quick-primer-for-old-school-gaming/A%20Quick%20Primer%20for%20Old%20School%20Gaming/ https://archive.org/details/a-quick-primer-for-old-school-ga... If anyone understands what OSR is, or means, better than I do, please help because I'm just confused. I don't even know what the comonly accepted definition of the "OSR" acronym is supposed to be (or if one exists even).
- uxp100 4y ago
  To speak to Troika just a bit as someone who read the rule book and played like one session: A lot of the Troika book is character profiles/archetypes/etc. if you tell someone this is a wild game, make up your craziest character, they will probably not be as “out there” as the provided archetypes. You roll 2d6, and get a refined alien cannibal (well, not exactly a cannibal, I guess, someone who wants to eat other characters) or a character that has become “enlightened” (chemically, surgically? I can’t remember) to the point they have very little thought. So anyway, between wacky characters and wacky skills, that’s what in the troika book. Some simple rules, No setting aside from a one session adventure, but flavorful skills and character ideas.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago
    Thanks! I kind of got that sort of vibe from descriptions of Troika I found online, but I looked for a quickstart and couldn't locate it, so I wasn't sure. What I don't understand is what common elements Troika and Electric Bastionland, for example, share with Dungeon Crawl Classics or Old School Essentials. They seem to me like completely different kinds of game, in tone, mood, rules, and everything else besides. Not that this is a bad thing, I just get confused about what's OSR and a bit frustrated that it seems a bit cliquey in the end. Like you gotta be an insider to get it and if you don't get it then you don't need it explained.
    - uxp100 4y ago
      I think the troika connection to OSR is somewhat tenuous, but the game system is inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of “interactive” novels that were popular in the UK in the 80s. But I think it is essentially a cliquey thing. It is general approach or attitude, plus just who is friends with a game designer that makes something OSR. It’s a scene.
- rtkwe 4y ago
  It's not just a kookie idea they've come up with though it's coming from Baker v Selden and the Copyright Act of 1976 which says: > In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work The core rules have no copyright protection and it's "untested?" because the language of the law and the interpretation of it is pretty clear and consistent. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2014-15/march-april/not-playing-around-board-games-intellectual-property-law/ https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law...

YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago

It's a bit complicated what OSR is about and to be honest I'm very confused about it. There seem to be two categories of OSR games, as far as I can tell. One is a category of games that are more or less faithful reproductions of some pre-3.0 edition of D&D rules, without any setting information. This is possible apparently because of an (untested?) understanding that rules cannot be copyrighted. Most of those games are free downloads. Just the ones I have on my drive: OSRIC (Old School Reference and Index Compilation) Dark Dungeon (2nd ed. D&D?) Labyrinth Lord (1st ed) Old School Essentials Swords and Wizzardry Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland (1st ed. BX) Lamentations of the Flame Princess Lightmaster Dungeon Crawl Classics Some or all of those games are referred to as "retro-clones". As far as I've read up, DCC and Lightmaster seem to be the ones that depart the farthest from the original rulesets. The other category is a category of rules-light, low-effort games that are often no more than a commentary on D&D and TT-RPGs in general, sometimes in zine format. I don't want to give too many examples of those because my description probably sounds disparaging enough, but see this link for some such games (or "games"): https://liberludorum.com/2021/03/29/sword-satire/ https://liberludorum.com/2021/03/29/sword-satire/ And I'm probably missing a few categories of OSR games. For instance, The Black Hack, Rogue, Troika and Into the Electric Bastionland seem to be OSR, but I haven't had the chance to read them and figure out what they're about. Anycase, the OSR movement seems to have started around the time of this essay: "A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming" https://archive.org/details/a-quick-primer-for-old-school-gaming/A%20Quick%20Primer%20for%20Old%20School%20Gaming/ https://archive.org/details/a-quick-primer-for-old-school-ga... If anyone understands what OSR is, or means, better than I do, please help because I'm just confused. I don't even know what the comonly accepted definition of the "OSR" acronym is supposed to be (or if one exists even).

uxp100 4y ago
To speak to Troika just a bit as someone who read the rule book and played like one session: A lot of the Troika book is character profiles/archetypes/etc. if you tell someone this is a wild game, make up your craziest character, they will probably not be as “out there” as the provided archetypes. You roll 2d6, and get a refined alien cannibal (well, not exactly a cannibal, I guess, someone who wants to eat other characters) or a character that has become “enlightened” (chemically, surgically? I can’t remember) to the point they have very little thought. So anyway, between wacky characters and wacky skills, that’s what in the troika book. Some simple rules, No setting aside from a one session adventure, but flavorful skills and character ideas.
- YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago
  Thanks! I kind of got that sort of vibe from descriptions of Troika I found online, but I looked for a quickstart and couldn't locate it, so I wasn't sure. What I don't understand is what common elements Troika and Electric Bastionland, for example, share with Dungeon Crawl Classics or Old School Essentials. They seem to me like completely different kinds of game, in tone, mood, rules, and everything else besides. Not that this is a bad thing, I just get confused about what's OSR and a bit frustrated that it seems a bit cliquey in the end. Like you gotta be an insider to get it and if you don't get it then you don't need it explained.
  - uxp100 4y ago
    I think the troika connection to OSR is somewhat tenuous, but the game system is inspired by the Fighting Fantasy series of “interactive” novels that were popular in the UK in the 80s. But I think it is essentially a cliquey thing. It is general approach or attitude, plus just who is friends with a game designer that makes something OSR. It’s a scene.
rtkwe 4y ago
It's not just a kookie idea they've come up with though it's coming from Baker v Selden and the Copyright Act of 1976 which says: > In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work The core rules have no copyright protection and it's "untested?" because the language of the law and the interpretation of it is pretty clear and consistent. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2014-15/march-april/not-playing-around-board-games-intellectual-property-law/ https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law...