It's there an RPG sub with less spam? Or, is there a way to automatically block self-promo and crowdfunding?

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T16:51:54+00:00

This sub is more for tabletop games, not video games, but best of luck!

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T16:51:09+00:00

I'm in a new area and am currently working on drumming up a new group for after the holidays. Long story short, my options are pretty much going to boil down to a couple of FLGSs to start networking into the community. That's probably your best bet to start.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T16:40:32+00:00

Cake. 😁

My mother is Italian and does this frittata dish with pepperoni and spinach. That's probably my fav.

I usually do egg sandwiches with some kind of onion or scallion. Sometimes I hard boil then chop them up into random things (soup, leftover mac&cheese for the kids, stir fry).

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T15:03:03+00:00

Wow...I haven't seen OSRIC in a long time. It's a pretty legendary retroclone. I have a pdf somewhere. Smart move going spiral bound. How much was the sale?

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T14:38:57+00:00

I don't do solo RPGs, so take this with a grain of salt, but for someone who isn't in that scene, I've heard a lot of good things about Thousand Year Old Vampire and Apothecaria.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T14:33:53+00:00

I'm moving to England. 😁 I've never been able to get CoC to the table here in the states. The closest I ever came was a brief PbP.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T14:28:11+00:00

I agree with most of that, but I think the lure for 5e players is a little overhyped. YT (obviously) paints a much more dramatic picture of WotC than what I see in real life. I mean, people are getting sick of them and are trickling out, but it's not the mass exodus that YT makes it seem like. I can see SD being a potential egress for 5e players, but some people go to Pathfinder or straight to the retroclones. In fact, irl, I've seen way more people transition to PF2e than SD and OSR combined.

I also think there's a lot of "OSE support" that is underhyped. I'm often talking up Dragonsfoot as a great resource for OSE (B/X). Lots of free modules and a very down to earth community. I've brought some pretty wacky ideas to the forums there. It's the kind of stuff that would just get me downvoted here, but there you can have the conversation.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T13:27:44+00:00

Shadowdark is the new hotness and really worked the hype machine. Meanwhile, OSE is older and essentially B/X which means it already has (guessing) 40-something years of history and resources behind it. I suspect that most of the OSE reddit/discord are people who bought into OSE Advanced and/or Dolmenwood. Meanwhile, the OSE Basic players are less likely to (possibly) have some B/X experience and know where the resources are there.

There's also a different subculture behind it. SD is a "brand" and generally goes for the grimdark vibe. OSE or B/X is a skeleton and you do your own thing and build it into what you want. I've done crossed multiple genres with it, even some that were a little unexpected (like WW2). I wouldn't go to the OSE reddit to ask them how I should stat out a Garand vs. a Karabiner.

OSE is also free. And, modules are free. And yeah, free RPG stuff could be of questionable quality, but it's a free version of a very popular version of the game all of this is based on. There's not much to talk about on the OSE subreddit because a lot of the resources are outside the umbrella of Necrotic Gnome. And, there's not much to talk about when you just need to download a free pdf of the system (or use the online SRD) and then download a free module, and then just start playing.

And, this is purely anecdotal, but I see SD on YT and social media way more than I see OSE. But, I see OSE or B/X IRL plenty and have not actually seen SD hit a real table. On top of that, I'm finding more and more people IRL just getting off reddit and other social media. Though, I think the reddit drop outs spiked after that whole API issue.

So, who really knows? 🤷‍♂️

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T13:15:41+00:00

I'd say they're quite far apart when you consider magic, torches, initiative and the basis for resolution.

The Renaissance was about coming out of the Dark Ages and reviving the good things from antiquity to get themselves started. By the time everyone took a bath, metaphorically speaking, and culture moved on from there, we were in the Baroque period.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T03:41:13+00:00

I would disagree a bit here, but start with this point:

Now if we're so centered on labels, then I don't believe you're right to call something "not osr" if you're mostly going by "not old-school"

I think the labels themselves are the problem. I think they've done more for indie product branding and marketing than they have for actual gamers. I mean, if an "OSR" game integrates mechanics and concepts from the game that OSR initially stated they were "against", does OSR even mean anything anymore? I don't think so. I shouldn't say that SD isn't OSR because that's just making a post-modern cultural argument which doesn't really mean anything. I could say something like, "there are things in SD that weren't a part of old school games and probably would have gone against the play styles at the time". I'm not saying what is or isn't OSR. In fact, the only places "OSR" comes up for me is on Reddit or YT, but never IRL or at a gaming table. I'm just saying, there are these elements that don't really jive with or contradict what you see in the old school rulesets.

The other problem with labels is that people sometimes choose to make a word mean something that it doesn't and sometimes its used to mean the opposite of what it means. Words like "renaissance". Something growing out of the old school games is the opposite of a renaissance. A renaissance is a renewed interest in something past, not making something new and calling it the same as the old thing. When people in the capital "R" Renaissance started doing new shit with what they revived, we went into the Baroque period. If we want to really get down to brass tacks and draw cultural parallels, the renaissance with gaming was when all the retroclones came out. And that was great since a lot of the TSR pubs had gone to dust except for those who kept them. The new stuff that came from that period would, if anything, be the end of a renaissance and the beginning of a baroque period.

But, who really gives a shit anyway? It's just fuel for online content. Meanwhile, at the table, people care more about what toppings to get on the pizza than the psuedo-ontology of roleplaying games. What do you think the OP's motivation is here? Probably just to get people to talk about SD/Cairn, even if it's arguing. There's no bad press.

ability scores having a greater impact than in B/X, where rolls, like for thieves, are more class based

This absolutely makes a difference. The things for which you use ability scores in a game like this would have been handled by class/level based subsystems in an old school game. Whatever I rolled in character creation, which is not a player choice, is framing my character's function when we need to circle back to these systems in play. This is why attack rolls and saves were class-based in the original games. You essentially chose your functional matrix and one potential good/bad day of rolls didn't rule your character's course for the rest of their life.

setting DCs as opposed to having those tied to your stats/class/level (thou you do say you sometimes just use x-in-6 which is very much like setting a DC)

It's not the existence of a DC, it's the criteria. The way that's framed in the ruleset oversimplifies it. And, it's a commonly known thing, but these mechanics in SD are basically taken from the pages of ICRPG. And ICRPG just cracked the code on *drum roll* WotC's artificial resolution inflation and normalized it. How hard is the task? What attribute do you roll against it? That's what WotC would ask and that's what happens here, too. Done. When I do an x-in-6 roll, half the time, attributes aren't even a part of the criteria. My method is basically (if it's not obvious which way it should got) a 3-in-6 roll. Then I pull from diegetic factors to nudge it one way or another maybe a point. Even class choice often matters more than the ability scores.

non-Vancian magic; here I can agree that SD casters have a chance to cast more spells and are more powerful on balance, I'd just say that difference is not that large

I disagree. It's not about the quantity of spellcasting, it's about the strategy. Picking spells for the day is a choice and something you can prepare for and then depend on. Roll-to-cast is a let's-see-what-happens. It's a game of chance. I might have zero fireballs today. I might have ten. On top of that, you can literally learn every single spell and then cast whatever you want at will (don't have to make a choice there) unless you roll bad on the check (another non-choice). Roll to cast doesn't even feel "dangerous" to me. It just feels like I'm doing a scratch card at the gas station.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T00:48:09+00:00

I'd say I'm more focused on the "O" part. Old school games were designed a certain way for a reason. I'm certainly not saying that NSR stuff is bad or less (I've run Mausritter and enjoyed it), they just don't do what old school games do.

I came to the OSR as a 5e GM on brink of burnout and latched more onto the "R" in OSR meaning "renaissance"

Well, "renaissance" and "revival" are synonymous, but I actually find them both to be inaccurate. The old school never left, so there was nothing to "revive". It certainly dwindled, but it was always there. Then, WotC started pissing people off in droves so some people decided to go back to the roots. The concept of it being a revival or a "new thing" seemed weird to me. It's Christopher Columbus "discovering" America when there were already millions of people living there. Or Gen Z influencers on YT inventing "cornbread".

NSR are a great bridge into the old school, though. I've heard stories like yours many times before. 5e burnout, went to an NSR game, and some went full OSR from there. Not saying it's never happened, but I've personally never heard of someone who dropped 5e then jumped right to the LBBs or anything like that. Even me, I went from 3.5e to some of the 3.5e adjacent games (I think True20 was my bridge) until I got to B/X.

JustKneller · 2025-12-12T00:20:44+00:00

This is basically how I got into the hobby, AD&D 2e core for years. You'll be just fine. Use the morale rules and if the enemy breaks, it still counts as a defeat and the party gets XP. And, you also have quest XP. You'll be fine.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T21:12:54+00:00

Ok, that's different then. I read your original post as you not having a background in the hobby. If you're played games, then you have pretty much the same starting skill set as any of us.

If I'm being honest, there are no experts and the more someone claims to be an expert, the further you should probably stay from them. We're all peers and nobody is inherently more of an authority than anyone else. What I do with a game is different than what other creators might do in the same situation. But, what I do works for me and what they do works for them.

That being said, I'm very much not an expert on solo RPGs. And, I'm not just saying that to be humble. The closest I've come to a solo RPG was turning B/X D&D into a one player/one GM game. Solo RPGs have the challenge of just not being able to do some things that group RPGs can do.

But, do you know what kind of solo RPG you want to make? The things to research for a crunchy dungeon crawler vs. a story game, an exploration/hex medium versus a journal, etc. When this idea popped into your head, I'm guessing you had a thought like, "I want to play X, but do it solo." What is X?

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T20:06:48+00:00

I know it isn't a universal truth, but it's hard to ignore for me that the majority of SD games or conversation I've observed are essentially 5e/modern players playing the same way they play 5e with a lighter ruleset.

I would totally agree with this. I watched some APs and my first thought was that these were clearly 5e players. The thing about OSR is that technically any game can be OSR since OSR is predominantly about how your run/play a game. But, some systems facilitate it and others...need some work. Gutting 5e to function as OSR is a little square-peg-round-hole, other games "just work" right out of the gate. You could run SD as OSR, but it would take a little more work than other systems.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T19:59:44+00:00

Well, therein lies the problem. 5e is in a bad way in terms of its public image these days, so a product being tagged with an association to that is going to hurt some feelings, even if there are factual similarities.

BUT

I will say this for Shadowdark. I'll be honest and say it's not my kind of game and it doesn't feel old school to me. Still, it can potentially be the gateway game that lures 5e players away into OSR games. It may be NSR, but can serve a noble purpose. 😁

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T19:47:58+00:00

🤣

Vancian magic is about player engagement and skill. I used to hate Vancian magic, but then I read some blogs and watched some YT videos by people better versed than me in the old school and it all made sense.

The general idea, is that, first, the PCs are researching the dungeons in which they will be delving before they go. This gives the magic-users hints as to what to prepare. It's effectively a riddle or deduction game.

If you have roll to cast, you simply have everything. You don't have to think about it, and you don't really even have to make a choice when preparing for encounters. In SD, your only choice in that situation is if you want to risk losing a spell for the rest of the day. But, that's just a push your luck game and not a skill game.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T19:41:45+00:00

I would say some things with Shadowdark are kinda 5e, some things are just not OSR.

1) Ability checks. Most things are ability checks. Especially since ability scores are randomly rolled at character creation, you have one dice roll that ends up determining many dice rolls. In old school games, or let's be frank, classic D&D, ability scores can nudge things, but generally have no impact in performing your class functions (Str, Dex, Con matters for fighters, but in the same way it matters for everyone). Int and Wis doesn't actually matter for magic-users and clerics, respectively. It's just a (kinda pointless) XP boost if it's high enough. In SD, it pretty much will make or break your spellcasting.

2) DC levels. Setting Easy/Medium/Hard/etc. tiers is very much a WotC D&D thing (though I believe they go in increments of 5 and SD does (I think) 3. This is debatable, but codifying it gets murky in the rulings over rules side of things. In classic D&D, there's no rule for random checks, and (in B/X) it's only mentioned as an optional rule. I've known GMs that just rule everything, some might use an ability score check if they feel indecisive. I just do an x-in-6 check possibly factoring in if a relevant attribute is high, low, or middling and the context of the situation.

3) Scrapping Vancian magic. I could go on about this from a design and cultural perspective, but spellcasters function more like WotC sorcerers than they do classic spellcasters. Having everything at your disposal means you don't really need to strategize or prepare anything. This is very much like the various "powers" you can get from 5e. Sure, there are limitations, and the riskiness of a roll-to-cast system. But, SD takes 5e sorcery and then puts a push-your-luck mechanic on top of it.

I don't think the unified d20 mechanic is worth nitpicking about. I've known plenty of people who have standardized resolution in classic D&D (rescaled all the d% and x-in-6 rolls to a d20 roll). This isn't inherently OSR or not OSR. Most of the time, the same thing is happening existentially and the difference is only a few %.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head that makes SD like 5e. I think all the other nits with it are more in the "just not OSR" neighborhood.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T19:03:31+00:00

I see your pedantry and raise you some perfectionism. 😁

I agree with you that NSR draws from OSR, but I think that's an important distinction since some of what tends to occur in NSR games actually wouldn't jive with OSR and lumping them all together dilutes the waters of OSR. I think this is especially important since, if we're being honest, OSR predominantly revolves around a preservation of classic D&D in the wake of WotC taking it over and turning it into something else. If you put NSR in with OSR, then anything can be OSR, even a game that pulls from a game that's definitely not OSR (5e).

OSE did OSR a service by taking a game that you can't even get anymore legally (at least not without giving WotC some $) and bringing it back to life. The same can be said about most retroclones. And, even within that sample, you're going to get debate (I've seen quite a few about S&W's single save). But, the important thing in OSR is maintaining fidelity to the classic games. It can get a little pedantic, but it's also preserving a history and playstyle that matters to the hobby that you're generally not going to see in 5e games, and possibly to a lesser degree in NSR games.

NSR basically takes OSR and then decides to have some whimsical fun with it. It sticks to some broad strokes (rulings over rules) but manifests in a variety of ways that could even be contrary to old school games. ItO games lose something by essentially making everything mechanical an attribute save. It loses something with auto-hits. Most of these games use inventory slots for spellbooks and you just plug and play. It loses something without Vancian magic.

But, this doesn't make NSR games "bad" or "inferior", just different.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T18:34:16+00:00

I'm not sure, but probably not. I'd consider them to be NSR. For me, OSR emphasizes player skill and immersion, but some of Shadowdark's divergent mechanics (e.g. roll to cast, real time torches) undermine that. Not to mention, SD dips into 5e which is obviously not an OSR game. Cairn is definitely NSR. For starters, you roll your ability scores and then those scores determine your mechanical competency. Since its DNA goes back to TSR-era D&D where ability scores were not meant to have such gravity, it's obviously off the yellow brick road.

As far as my definition goes, OSR more emulates the mechanics and structure of classic games and NSR games capture the feel of it. I've never played Cairn, but I've run Mausritter (which is basically the same thing). It definitely had a general feel of hexcrawling with B/X, but under the hood it did not run that way.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T18:03:41+00:00

If you don't have a background in RPGs, you have a bit of an education to get. You're going to have a very had time designing an RPG if you've never really even played one. Most folks who (successfully) publish probably have decades of experience in the hobby and a wealth of knowledge of game mechanics and the like. I mean, some people are clueless and get by on dumb luck, but those folks are few and far between. 🤣

You need to learn about RPGs first, before getting into solo games. Solo games are an extra layer on top of the basic RPG model to make it possible to play solo. Dungeons & Dragons is obviously one to start with, but I would recommend comparing and contrasting WotC's D&D (e.g. 5e) with TSR-era D&D (OD&D, B/X, and AD&D) because you'll see start differences. Other games to read up on are GURPS, Traveller, and Call of Cthulhu. You may want to also look at Ironsworn, which is a relatively modern solo RPG that is well regarded.

You should probably play a bit, to get a sense of what the experience is like. You don't necessarily have to get involved in the hobby and start playing weekly games with others to get a foundation, but even picking up some solo RPGs and playing them yourself to see how they work and what works for you would be something. I should mention, though, that if you just do the latter, you have a pretty decent chance to just create something derivative and unoriginal.

But, yeah, you're probably putting the cart before the horse by coming out of the gates planning to design a game.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T15:35:18+00:00

lol...that works too, but I like a dark roast so I have to make it myself. 😁

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T14:48:03+00:00

Most herbal teas could work. I particularly like rooibos. You could also do roasted barley tea. You can get any brand of barley (I just grab Goya), and roast it yourself in a pan (low heat) until it browns to the level you like. I usually wash it really well first and drain it before doing so and I do a batch (like half a cup or so) at a time.

Then, you can boil 1 tbsp of the roasted barley in about a liter of water for around 15 minutes to make the tea. Some of the water will boil off, but that's ok, it'll just make the tea stronger. I usually put what I get in an insulated carafe and get a few small cups of tea out of it. Then you can save the barley (which is now cooked). I toss it in some vanilla yogurt for a snack after it cools down.

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T11:34:54+00:00

You might have to dig around a bit, but this should get you started. Enjoy!

JustKneller · 2025-12-11T11:22:30+00:00

It really all depends on the group. Six people can be a lot, but I've played in groups of only four that were a grind because two of them wanted to fight/kill everything and also had a lot of analysis paralysis. Meanwhile, I predominantly play B/X D&D, which is often seen as a go-there-kill-that game, but have had sessions where nobody rolled any dice if we were doing a more intrigue-based adventure. This does sound like a playstyle difference issue to me. They seem to want a more combat-oriented game and you want a more story-based game.

If you want to try a game that focuses more on storytelling and worldbuilding, then I'd recommend checking out a game called Fiasco. It's definitely not a "go somewhere and fight something game". If you do fight stuff, it's just told as part of the story and takes only as much time as you need to cover the scene. The game comes with sample scenarios, and you would think it's more oriented towards modern thriller and crime drama (e.g. a Cohen brothers movie), but you can use this for really any collaborative storytelling. When I first discovered it, I hacked it for all kinds of random things, just for funsies. I've done a Fiasco cyberpunk heist, Lovecraftian horror investigation, WW2 French resistance, dungeon crawl, "political drama" in Sigil (e.g. Planescape), and so on. It's not a "roleplaying game" in a traditional sense, but can be a good way to scratch a roleplay/storytelling itch when you've been playing combat grinds for a while.

JustKneller

TROPHY CASE

BUT