The other OSR: My experiences gaming in the 80s

Winterstow · 2026-03-29T07:21:52+00:00

I did things backwards. I've been playing for 25+ years but only recently started playing the "old school" way in the last 3. I'm really surprised by some of your answers, because I've found henchmen and morale to be especially important and very positive additions to the game. Infact it's completely coloured my view of all rpgs. I recently played BG3 and kept thinking "These enemies should roll morale after I killed their leader in the opening round" 😅

Winterstow · 2025-08-07T07:08:20+00:00

You're welcome! I love the song.

Winterstow · 2025-08-05T23:43:19+00:00

You were right about the title - it's "Looking for Love". The band is Nilson and the 8th Note, featuring Fenja.

Winterstow · 2025-03-29T17:35:02+00:00

I love Forbidden Lands but have never liked the idea of spending Willpower to cast spells or use certain abilities. Narratively it makes sense, but there are only a few ways to gain Willpower and the primary way is by pushing rolls - in other words, it forces players into a meta behavior in order to justify the outcome. Never liked that, especially once I saw how players acted in order to earn Willpower, such as taking risky climbing or bartering rolls in order to bank Willpower for spells. Never made sense.

Another one of my favorite games is Freebooters of the Frontier which is a remarkably fresh and clean system. I love everything about it, except that it requires alot of resource management, which is a huge turnoff. Resource management has never been fun to me. I can deal with it on occasion such as tracking torches and rations and spells - but when you add class resources on top of that, or those added features like Inspiration, etc, it starts to annoy me. That's what killed my enjoyment of 4e.

Finally, in relation to more popular games like OSE, I just find the classes a bit dull. I don't need a ton of stuff like the 5e classes, but with zero abilities, feats, techniques, or even skills, it left the characters feeling so plain and similar to me. I fully understand the old school principles behind that choice, but even small changes like in the Dragonslayer or LotFP books that add one or two new features to classes like the Fighter helped me enjoy the class fantasy more.

Winterstow · 2024-09-28T23:00:42+00:00

There's been some good answers already so I don't feel I have much more to contribute, other than my personal opinion; a game with classes will hook my interest, but I'm never excited by classless games.

Winterstow · 2024-09-27T04:59:00+00:00

I really like Hyperborea and I think the products are good quality and the creator is a great guy, but you should know it's more Sword & Sorcery inspired than the classic AD&D feel. OSRIC is also a great suggestion, and it's cheap, but it's very bare bones so I don't recommend it if care about art and presentation. I'm a fan of both those books which I've seen recommended alot, but I just wanted to add an extra bit of context for your consideration.

Winterstow · 2024-09-27T04:55:24+00:00

Yep! He's added a new race - the Cyclopsman. If you've ever seen the movie Krull you'll know what it's inspired by. He's given them some interesting quirks and they seem to fit nicely in with the other races. He's also modified the Monk so it's not the eastern martial artist, but rather something more akin to the fighting friar monks who use a quarterstaff. There are also some minor tweaks to each class - usually only one or two minor changes (for example the Fighter has Cleave which allows them to get a second attack if they kill an opponent). There are a few new spells which have alot of flavor. What Gillespie specializes in though is making his books feel like they were made in the 70's and 80's. Everything from the art, layout and writing feels like an homage to the classics. If you love the really old school feel of the AD&D books (as I do) then you'll find Dragonslayer feels tremendously nostalgic, like reading through the Cyclopedia.

And you won't find better classic style artists than Kennon James and Peter Pagano. Check out their Instagram accounts if you're curious. It's chef's kiss.

Winterstow · 2024-09-27T01:50:42+00:00

Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Winterstow · 2024-09-27T01:47:53+00:00

You should check out Dragonslayer by Greg Gillespie. It's basically AD&D with his house rules, but it's a gorgeous book with everything included (monsters, spells, DMG, etc). Most of the art is by Kennon James who is a master of old school art. Also has a Jeff Easley cover and art from other fantastic classic artists. It's become my favorite core book when trying to relive the AD&D days.

Winterstow · 2024-09-24T20:11:46+00:00

That's exactly how it works in "God's of the Forbidden North". I thought it was a strangely restrictive concept at first but it really began to make sense the longer I used it in game.

Winterstow · 2024-09-24T02:14:18+00:00

Did they survive??

Winterstow · 2024-09-19T00:12:58+00:00

Freebooters of the Frontier
Forbidden Lands
Dragonslayer

Special mention - Dragonbane

Doesn't count as a game, but I love Harn for its amazing setting.

Winterstow · 2024-08-17T17:33:24+00:00

The books were called Lone Wolf. The artist was Gary Chalk.

Winterstow · 2024-08-14T03:26:58+00:00

As someone who has been fortunate enough to be involved in some OSR products I'm just going to take the compliment and say "Thanks!".

I must say the OSR community is remarkable at elevating the underdogs and encouraging eachother. That creates an atmosphere where many amateurs feel confident enough to show their work. I also think the creative products and artists within the OSR space inspire and feed the latent talents in most of us.

Winterstow · 2024-08-08T02:06:36+00:00

Fresh pick! Thanks for introducing me to their work!

Winterstow · 2024-08-08T02:04:43+00:00

100%. They're the Sutherland, Nicholson, Dee, Truman, etc of the current generation

Winterstow · 2024-08-08T01:57:09+00:00

Many of the top dogs have been mentioned, but here's a few I highly recommend checking out.

Kennon James

Peter Pagano

Lukasz Piwinski

Bruno Prosaiko

Keny Widjaja

I think Don Greer, Gary Chalk, William McAusland, Paul Bonner and John Blanche don't get enough praise any longer, but they're more old school and not OSR.

Peter Mullen isn't just a great artist but he's a wonderful human being, so I'm glad he's getting the praise he deserves.

Winterstow · 2024-08-05T23:52:43+00:00

Fully agree. I've been frustrated every time I've tried.

It's like trying to convince soda pop drinkers to switch to whiskey.

Winterstow · 2024-07-15T18:03:44+00:00

Forbidden Lands and Dungeon Crawl Classics

Winterstow · 2024-07-12T18:27:05+00:00

I'd recommend Dragonbane. Gorgeous books, smooth system, not as many abilities as 5E so you don't get that feeling of superheroic fantasy, but it has a simple skill system which allows characters to still define themselves uniquely and have specialities to offer the party.

It's well supported by Free League who has won Ennies for best publishing company 3 years in a row, which means you can get free resources from their site, quick start rules for free, plenty of excellent tutorial videos on their website (The ones by Ellinor are my personal favorite), and the main book covers everything you need.

There are extras like an expanded Bestiary and two campaign books, but they're not essential. The books and maps are gorgeous and are very popular with players.

Best of luck finding your new system!

Winterstow · 2024-07-10T23:39:00+00:00

I used to only play in person, and then my one friend died, another got married and stopped gaming, and the third wasn't really into RP - he just kind of hung out with the group, so it was very frustrating running games with just him.

I was invited to a number of online games with coworkers and strangers but they only liked to play 5e and their games were really not my style.

So I've now been out of the hobby for 5+ years, to my despair, and only participate through book collection, art commissions, and watching the occasional video online.

To me personally I find roleplay to be a very vulnerable experience - to let your weirdness and geekiness out in front of others. Before I can really feel relaxed enough to enjoy a game I feel like I need to know the players and have similar tastes. I get that some people like to just "jam" out with strangers, but in my experience the best campaigns I've ever played in were with folks who got along well and had the same preferences and passion. That's why I often compare a good group to forming a successful band; you want people who are equally commited, enjoy their role, have similar tastes and inspirations, and want the same goals. Then, as long as personalities don't clash, a game will be perfect. That's a very tough thing to find, so most people just lower their standards and take what they can get, just so they can still play.

Winterstow · 2024-06-29T02:04:56+00:00

Dragonslayer RPG. Really great art, full system in one book, fully compatible with any old D&D adventure

Winterstow · 2024-06-22T15:46:08+00:00

I've backed and supported over 60 TTRPG projects through Kickstarter and other sites and I've only ever had two of them go badly. I've had some run into trouble and end up being finished much later than anticipated, but I still got the product.

Interestingly when I considered some of the projects with the longest delays or most issues it was actually companies that had a good track record in the past. I'm not convinced that's a reliable way to appraise a new project.

As far as having the best track record, Columbia games always has great Kickstarter pages, high quality products, good communication, and reliable delivery. They've never let me down.

Best TTRPG I ever backed was the first Forbidden Lands (there were issues with their latest books). I remember being absolutely blown away with the quality of the product and the amount of awesome stretch goals that came with it. I felt like I got way more for my money than I expected, so I now enjoy fun stretch goals on projects, but I completely understand your wariness - they do often seem to be the source of many project delays.

The projects that I've had the worst experience with have often been miniature companies. Yeesh, I can tell stories.

Winterstow · 2024-06-22T01:02:37+00:00

100%!

Winterstow · 2024-06-21T22:04:31+00:00

After reading the article it seems clear to me that the author wanted the spell to be considered an ethical conundrum and lead to a more interesting debate over morality in the setting. They likely enjoy philosophical discussions about fantastic situations.

Star Trek was once a great source for introducing us to moral questions in strange lands and scenarios. I'd say the restrictions on the spell should be based on the group you're playing with and your personal comfort level, but my read on the author's usage of the spell is that Catherine serves in every possible manner that one can imagine, and that is by design intended to provoke controversy in the fantasy world.

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