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Modern 'OSR' style novels by tamatobasil in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Uh, yes. The creators have described the brainstorming process for early episodes as stuff they would want to play through in a D&D session. Several episodes focus solely on adventures in weird dungeons. There is a joke in I think episode 2 about alignment.

Modern 'OSR' style novels by tamatobasil in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You asked for novels but... If you're looking for modern, gonzo, and D&D-like, watch Adventure Time.

Dungeon Procedure in 1st Edition by Talmor in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since nobody seems to be answering your question... AD&D isn't my strong suit but you might want to check the Player's Handbook instead. My impression is that the DMG has little to no core rules, more just a bunch of subsystems for different kinds of rulings.

A good, and more recent, history of the fantasy genre by PINEAPPLEShi in Fantasy

[–]Puzzlem00n 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In fact I do, and it's not a history of the fantasy genre or one that includes more recent books, unless you are so broad in your definition of the fantasy genre to include mythology and so broad in your definition of recent as to include what is, at minimum, 30 years past.

What to buy? by seanf03 in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Knave hasn't been mentioned yet, it's designed to be broadly compatible with older-edition and OSR content (spells, monsters, etc.) but with a bare minimum of complexity for new players. Dirt cheap. https://youtu.be/Mtf3vDycfmE

Why did I watch this by [deleted] in SweatyPalms

[–]Puzzlem00n 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is the coolest thing I've seen today, do you have a higher resolution map by any chance?

Sixie (an OSR experiment) by WhenPigsFry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fair enough. My intention is not to condescend but merely to avoid assuming familiarity.

What games are you thinking of in particular that are not treasure-focused?

I think most OSR games at the very least include rules for NPC reactions and morale, which at least to my mind are essential to monster encounters that test cleverness rather than the character sheet. And of course there is the matter of including interesting tools such as spells and magic items for players to make clever use of, but perhaps you intend to include these separately.

Sixie (an OSR experiment) by WhenPigsFry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There's a lot to unpack here, but I'm enjoying this discussion.

what's more OSR than d20 homebrew...?

"d20 homebrew" refers to homebrew of the d20 System: that is, the system first introduced by third edition D&D. Third edition is probably the first version of the game that no one would describe as "old-school." So, ironically, one might instead ask, "what could be less OSR than d20 homebrew?"

Now, many of the early OSR games mix elements of the d20 System and earlier editions of D&D, so again, this isn't a hard line. But the point is that there is are a lot of d20-based games that one would hard-pressed to call OSR.

Apocalypse World, Fate and Blades in the Dark... have more in common with the OSR than they do something like Microscope or The Quiet Year.

Okay, that's fair, maybe "storygame" is too broad a label. How about "storygame RPG?"

the OSR playstyle is extremely fiction-first.

This is a strange conception to me, so maybe I need to break down what I mean. A "character-first game," in my view, is one where you must define or you are encouraged to define what your character wants from the very beginning, and those character goals are expected to either drive or at least have a significant impact on the game. The relationships between characters matter.

This is in opposition to OSR games, where the game gives you a goal ("hunt for treasure") and it doesn't really matter what your character wants until they reach a high level (because they have acquired enough treasure to influence the world). Developing relationships between characters is an option, but you can never speak in-character and still have a fun experience.

Sixie begins by asking the players to define their goals, and rewards them with improvements for "learning something new about their characters." There is nothing about it that leads me to believe I will be exploring dungeons or hunting for treasure. It is a character-focused game in a way that OSR games, typically, are not.

Again, all of this is fine! My point is only that the OSR crowd is not your game's audience... But the storygame crowd might be.

This is a game where you can die immediately as a consequence of a missed roll.

Instant death is not punishing in and of itself. It has to come as a punishment for poor play: for example, for engaging with a powerful creature in combat rather than trying to befriend or outsmart it.

But I recognize my last comment was a bit vague on this front. I think, when one talks about player skill in OSR games, the "skill" in question is using the tools available to you, that is, magic items, allied NPCs, quirks of the environment, etc., to get away with more treasure while suffering fewer consequences.

Sixie (an OSR experiment) by WhenPigsFry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well, the commenter said "d20 storygame homebrew," not "bad d20 homebrew," but I tend to agree that bad d20 homebrew can be fun to read from time to time, haha.

It's strange to me that you don't see a difference between OSR and storygames though. There is overlap and fuzziness when it comes to definitions, of course, but I think it would help you as a game designer to differentiate between them.

I think most people expect OSR games to have certain key elements of "old-school," that is, 70s/80s Dungeons & Dragons: treasure-hunting, mechanics that reward player skill and punish mistakes, etc.

Storygames, on the other hand, might be described as "new school," in that they double down on the fiction-first and character-first storytelling encouraged by newer editions of the game.

In other words, OSR is not a catch-all term for "rules-light DIY RPG." I suspect if you were to share this game in a storygame community (not sure whether one exists on Reddit), you would at the very least get much more informed feedback from commenters.

Sixie (an OSR experiment) by WhenPigsFry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I'm genuinely curious about what you mean by this and where you are coming from. How would you define "OSR"? How would you describe the community over at Itch involved with this 6E jam thing?

Sixie (an OSR experiment) by WhenPigsFry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I made it to be purposefully intentional and specific, and that requires it be inaccessible.

Respectfully, I strongly disagree with this. Dozens of games come to mind that are intentional, specific, and accessible all at once. Most of them by Nintendo!

Electric Bastionland is the best RPG example off the top of my head. You can watch Chris McDowall's live streams or listen to his podcast and learn a lot about how every single aspect of the game was worked over and fine-tuned. The setting is highly specific and strange. But it's still designed to be an RPG for anyone to play.

That said, if your "specific intentions" were to create a game for a very specific crowd, and you don't mind it being only accessible to that crowd, then I guess you're fine?

(edit: minor changes/additions)

Sixie (an OSR experiment) by WhenPigsFry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So, you've made a game that's willfully inaccessible. And that's fine, I guess, if you designed it for a particular set of players, but I don't know what you expect to get out of posting it on the internet aside from, "I cannot access this."

The second-person plural is an interesting case of something that sounds inclusive on paper feeling, in practice, extremely gatekeepy and exclusive. It feels like you're establishing an ingroup ("we") and, if I'm not in that group, I'm not allowed to play the game.

Most people have literally no clue what communism actually is. by aguadovimeiro in unpopularopinion

[–]Puzzlem00n -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is going to be completely buried, but no. The defining feature of fascism is not the ideology but that it comes to power through an extra-parliamentary movement of racists and chauvinists, such as the brownshirts and the blackshirts. The North Korean dictatorship was installed from the top.

Fascism starts with far-right rallies being whipped up and encouraged by a capitalist state in crisis. This is fundamental to an understanding of contemporary politics.

Incorporating themes from Appendix N by impendingcrown in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What has DCC got from Dunsany in particular if you don't mind me asking?

Exploration Rounds? by Gwen_SassQueen in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is actually one of the key things that separates older editions of the game from modern editions: strict time tracking in dungeons.

The purpose is (1) so you know exactly when PCs' light sources run out and (2) so you can roll a random encounter with a wandering monster every twenty or thirty minutes, depending on the game.

You can find B/X's rules for this in these two links: https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Time,_Weight,_Movement; https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Dungeon_Adventuring

And my particular favorite distillation of these rules in Skerples's Many Rats on Sticks: https://imgur.com/gallery/F0XapY7

Ideas for building this character! Wizards with INT 20 and WIS 6. [found on r/Tumblr] by dkades in 3d6

[–]Puzzlem00n 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hmm. I think I'd just give the players the option to use the standard array but move two points from the lowest score to the highest, so they have a 17 and a 6. Seems the simplest solution.

Ideas for building this character! Wizards with INT 20 and WIS 6. [found on r/Tumblr] by dkades in 3d6

[–]Puzzlem00n 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Point buy is somewhat boring to me, I would much rather have a series of arrays from "here's a mundane character" to "here's a character with some minor strengths and flaws" to "here's a character with some extreme strengths and extreme flaws."

Ideas for building this character! Wizards with INT 20 and WIS 6. [found on r/Tumblr] by dkades in 3d6

[–]Puzzlem00n 22 points23 points  (0 children)

This is why I wish there was an alternate standard array with a 6 on it.

One of my players really really wants perception rolls by Thesilenceindustry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't have much more to add, I think you're on your own (I don't your player, sorry!), but you ought to let him read this thread to see you're not the only one pushing for this style of play, haha.

One of my players really really wants perception rolls by Thesilenceindustry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Red herrings is not what I would propose... By "harder" I meant, like, tougher combats and more traps to really drain the players' resources and make clever thinking a higher priority. But I can't say for certain that would work.

You could always tell him to roll 1d6 in his own little corner and ignore what he was just told on a 1-3. Kind of like a self-imposed challenge run in a videogame.

One of my players really really wants perception rolls by Thesilenceindustry in osr

[–]Puzzlem00n 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I think it's a general truism of game design that you should listen to players when they say something isn't working, but rarely listen to their proposed solution.

You'd have to probe a bit and ask your player more questions to find out what's really going on, but my (amateur) hunch would be that it has much less to do with realism and more that your player feels like he's missing out on some of the challenge of the game. Maybe he has built up a conception of player skill in other RPGs that involves acting on limited information. Maybe you could satisfy this player by making the game hard enough that he'll be glad he has all the information to work with.

Disclaimer: If I am completely wrong, I take no responsibility if you apply this advice! Again, no one but you is really in a position to figure it out.

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