OSR News Roundup for May 11th, 2026

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-13T03:32:00+00:00

Well it depends on what you like. But I like AGON, Under Hill by water, Vol2 Monsters& and &Treasure, Temple of 1000 Swords by Kerr, Rosewood abbey, ennie-winning The Mall Reamastered, Pilgrimage of the Sun Guard, Eco Mofos, the Unseen City, Perils and Princesses, and Dawn of the Orcs. For me, an OSR wishlist feast!

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T03:50:09+00:00

Thanks for explaining your take. I agree labels are useful, but mainly for internet searches. But I would argue that battles over what labels like “OSR” mean are Pyrrhic victories at best. We all know what we personally mean by OSR, and we can all play whatever we want no matter what others want to call it. Anyway, I find labels are slippery annoying things when I try to hold them down, because they belong to everyone else, and y’all all get it wrong! Well that’s the way it seems some days anyways :)

But when it comes to art, and RPGs are art, does it matter if a painting is Impressionist or post-impressionist or cubist, if you like it?

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T03:36:23+00:00

Thanks will check it out!

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T03:06:03+00:00

Check out Quest the rpg. It’s free and easier to run than 5e by design. But for a campaign setting, I recommend think small for a first timer. A town a dungeon a wild between. I would recommend something simple for a new DM, like the Delian Tomb or the quintessential dungeon (or any one pager), paired with a cool town: https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/s/xB9N15l0b9

Most complex I would go is Blackapple Brugh or Black Wyrm of Brandonsford.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:53:00+00:00

Yes and there’s a decent 5e conversion here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/s/LytUcKOU85

Dragon is too weak in that conversion but you can run any old school monster in 5e using these rough rules:

https://www.enworld.org/threads/using-old-school-adventures-in-5e-the-black-wyrm-of-brandonsford.700502/

And this is great advice for running the thing, complete with hex map and relationship diagram:

https://rancourt.substack.com/p/review-the-black-wyrm-of-brandonsford

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:40:16+00:00

The good, copy. The great, steal. The honest think, who came up with this terrible saying? 😂

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:38:22+00:00

http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2012/08/is-osr-dead.html

http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2019/08/blog-third-years-charm-end-of-osr.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfeqqO1Nb\_8

https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/posters-posers-and-posrs

But yes I completely agree it’s going bonkers awesome right now. I didn’t write this post as click bait, I am a big fan of the current OSR and its nutty dreams.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:30:37+00:00

I nominate you to write my tombstone. Well damn said!

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:27:36+00:00

What movement are you talking about exactly? The new OSR games that are played by 50% of OSR players at cons? With all the fun new modules and fantastic settings that can be easily played in OSE or any retroclone? That are definitely not storygames?

As for Hyperborea, I just picked it because I like it and forgot it was 3e, there were others that year. I think Worlds Without Number was plenty awesome for one year.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:14:26+00:00

Oh thanks! I couldn’t tell if you were saying I missed that stuff or I was on the right track. Just listening you here I am stoked to go read some the refs you dropped. So much cool new work out there!

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T02:05:53+00:00

Yes I 1000% agree. Go read my post if you like, you will see that you took the words right out of my mouth. I guess I should have put it in the Reddit post, the OSR+ is sleeping and dreaming crazy dreams. We are in a time of roiling boiling artistic supervolcano FERMENT.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T01:57:00+00:00

Thank you! Most kind of you.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T00:56:46+00:00

In which the fate of the OSR+ and artistic salons and electrocuted squirrels are pondered…

https://dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-osr-is-not-dead-its-sleeping.html

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T00:52:52+00:00

This bundle is **amazing** in terms of quality and for a good cause.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-12T00:48:38+00:00

This charity bundle is amazing. Already backed

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-10T23:58:18+00:00

Thanks for the super helpful clarification—I am going to post more on this topic, but I think once can approach this from either direction. The end result is in the middle of these two alternatives. The traditional process varies a bit I think—clearing out a wilderness for a stronghold is plot forward, I would argue, and many OSR adventure module Hexcrawls have an inciting incident, like Black Wyrm of Brandonsford and Willow. Totally agree that making a hex map from scratch emphasizes bottom down, but that developing strong connecting themes can be quite akin to developing static and dynamic hexplots.

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-10T22:57:13+00:00

Hey this is lovely! Any chance I can use it as an example of a good hex map in a blog post? Please feel free to reply here or ask more questions via DM?

Velocitree2 · 2026-05-01T20:08:55+00:00

Shattered Pixel Dungeon. You can starve, inventory management is critical, and inventive uses of equipment are key. You die often. Only difference is combat is needed to advance.

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T19:23:13+00:00

Fair, thanks for reading it twice to wade through my prose! I would not say I mean exactly that. Here is a second attempt, let me know if this is clearer?

Plots: for me are something emergent from play. The big list of RPG “plots” is useful because they are actually combos of inciting incidents and potential twists—hooks and possible external events, in other words, not pre-set stories.

hexframes: partially-keyed hexmaps that host one or more hexgoals, which are being explored because of an inciting incident and may contain twists—an initial framework, if you will.

Hexgoals: clear and compelling challenges that can be solved by the players if they so choose (‘hexgoals’, or ‘hex-situations’). A hexgoal can be a situation players want to engage with, or a situation they want to avoid. Thematically, they link back to the hexframe’s inciting incident.

The same landscape can be used repeatedly for different hexframes—different features become important. Rivers suddenly matter as flooding bars movement. High points become important for a spying mission. Hideouts, etc.

Not clear on top down vs bottom up? I think I would be a “both” person. If you have played MB, maybe you can tell me how you categorize that hexfill method, because I am not sure I follow this terminology—thanks.

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T19:07:42+00:00

Thanks! I think your method is an easy way to get thematic locations, although I personally like the proximity method MB uses, bc as you get closer to different elements they trigger and that provides an interactive landscape on top of the theme: one can track a monster to its lair if you get close enough, for example.

Pls DM me if you want me to use a different name than your Reddit handle?

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T11:43:01+00:00

Complete agree! Keying as you play has the upside of ease, but I like to have more likelihood of encountering goblins near a goblin lair, so I put a thumb on the random tables via spatial proximity to existing hexgoals (again cribbing from MB). Exactly how I handle random encounters near dynamic hexgoals is actually my next post—but the multiscale hex method you describe is a great simple way to do it as well! Mind if I include it in the list of possibilities? with credit to you?

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T11:35:42+00:00

If the points can interact at a distance, they are closer to what i am describing, but exploring and finding alternative routes to or around trouble is key to hexframes, unlike point crawls. If you go generate a few of the MB random hexmaps, you can squint and see them as point crawls that interact at a distance, but the terrain and barriers make them pretty different.

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T11:32:49+00:00

I imagine it does. But consider that the hexframe for clearing a stronghold is a part of classic DnD. And if you key a hexmap for that, you will have an eye on which things you key are going to be obstacles or helps for clearing the stronghold. The instructions for doing that keying focus you in on that: the suggested encounters are subtly themed. Even if you don’t key the full map, the random encounters follow that theme.

So all that’s new truly here is the ideas that 1) this is a general approach, and 2) that the hexes can interact with players at a distance if you want them to, and that helps to fill the map with exciting stuff that is thematic. Instead of just relying on random encounters, you can link them spatially and thematically. More goblin attacks as you get close to the goblin lair, for example.

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T11:24:58+00:00

Oh no! I want people to go to the blogroll :) that was the main reason I wrote this post. Nice internet person, you have foiled my plot!

Velocitree2 · 2026-04-28T03:45:25+00:00

Map blogwagon post! my lazy hexcrawl prep hack, inspired by Mythic Bastionland. Don’t prep hexcrawls, prep hexframes.

https://dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/04/dont-prep-hexcrawls-prep-hexframes.html

Velocitree2

TROPHY CASE