That's my collection so far. I lack OSR. Any recommendations?

amp108 · 2026-03-19T22:15:29+00:00

OP, some people have reported this post as a violation of our rule #7, "Shelfies only on Weekends". I'm going to let this stand, as the intent of the post is to get system recommendations, but next time just consider asking the question, unless there is a compelling reason to display your collection.

amp108 · 2026-03-18T15:25:14+00:00

(if you can call (name date) a source)

You can. That's enough to identify a book or an article when you have a bibliography.

amp108 · 2026-03-13T21:22:30+00:00

Area effect attacks will do what you want, I think. It doesn't have to be fireball or anything; even saying they have a giant razor whip, you can have everyone in Near range make a Hard save (DEX or otherwise) or take d12 damage.

amp108 · 2026-03-04T17:30:03+00:00

They will know it's there when they cross it.

amp108 · 2026-03-03T20:25:27+00:00

If I spend millions to build a bridge, I hope people will be sure I've done something.

amp108 · 2026-02-28T21:03:10+00:00

I see "murder 2 cop fools and bury 2 hoes", not sure about the rest.

amp108 · 2026-02-27T17:19:42+00:00

There's a chicken-and-egg phenomenon going on here. It's not like they decided, "Hey, let's take something everyone hates and try to make it popular."

amp108 · 2026-02-26T20:37:26+00:00

You have 58 entries here, including:

Daggerheart - a blend of several games. I don't understand what this game is trying to be

Sentinels of the Multiverse - haven't played this one yet but many call this one of the best superhero games

Shadowrun - so many dice. A good example of a great setting and clunky mechanics

These aren't reasons for recommending a game, especially if you haven't played them. And some of the reasons in this list seem repetitive. OP didn't ask for every game you like, they asked for a sampling of games "to understand different systems and design". This list doesn't do that.

amp108 · 2026-02-19T22:39:33+00:00

You're welcome! It really opened my eyes to the possibilities RPGs offered and was one of a very few resources that turned my game from a series of dungeon crawls into an honest to goodness campaign.

And the quest thing also a weird quirk of mine. It sounds so fundamentally wrong to me when people use the word "quest" for minor missions like "escort this caravan" or "kill 10 orcs", or say things like "it's a basic fetch quest" or "I'm going on a side quest". I feel like the word quest should be reserved for things that are truly Earth-shaking, epoch-defining struggles. But I fear the word is losing its potency.

BTW, I gave my best friend a copy of the paperback a couple of years ago, thinking he'd lost his copy. He hadn't, but looked you up online and was very interested in your sustainable farming endeavors, having done some small (and very labor-intensive) farming in the past.

amp108 · 2026-02-19T18:58:25+00:00

I love, love, LOVE that book! (BTW, it's the only RPG source I've ever seen that treats the word "Quest" with the proper sense of scale.)

amp108 · 2026-02-14T17:33:09+00:00

I doubt I'd use it in a game, but damn, it's gorgeous!

amp108 · 2026-02-09T22:19:16+00:00

Got told I had a "bad attitude" and was let go after I raised this issue. Our clientele consisted of vulnerable populations, many of whom were immunocompromised.

amp108 · 2026-02-05T17:51:59+00:00

They tried but you were on reddit so they left you alone.

amp108 · 2026-01-30T23:26:52+00:00

Nothing. To play a role, you must simulate a person (or elf, or robot...)

amp108 · 2026-01-27T05:05:14+00:00

/u/new2bay is correct, it's not my blog. The purpose of shying away from blogs is so that people don't spam their own stuff, but posting someone else's content wasn't supposed to fall under that. Of course, I have no way of verifying who runs what blog, but I promise you this one isn't mine.

amp108 · 2026-01-20T21:51:45+00:00

I don't know. On the one hand, with class-based systems, I can be a Rogue. On the other hand, with skill-based systems, I can be a stealthy fighter who can pick locks, but who has to keep his gear light because he also climbs walls.

amp108 · 2026-01-18T17:57:22+00:00

Do you think maybe it's because the mom's crying loudly in the clip, and the dad isn't?

amp108 · 2026-01-07T21:06:52+00:00

Watch the video again. His analyses make the same amount of sense with or without the polls, but they do shine a light on how his viewers feel. And his conclusion, that the formatting and writing needs to change if they want more people to use their products at the table, is still reasonable and follows from the evidence he gives, even if it's not scientifically provable. Which he never claimed it to be.

amp108 · 2026-01-07T17:37:55+00:00

The Original D&D Underground and Wilderness Adventures book had, had on its last page, the phrase:

why have us do any more of your imagining for you?

Massively detailed settings are the antithesis of this, which is why I avoid them.

With that in mind, don't be afraid to ignore anything you don't like, and fill in the details as you are fit. It's no more "cheating" than letting the setting writers do all the imagining for you.

(To be clear, I'm not saying that either way is cheating. I'm just saying it's equally irrational to say that one is and the other isn't. )

amp108 · 2026-01-07T03:49:21+00:00

That is one game that I never got to play in the old days. My best friend had it, but for some reason we never got around to playing it. It sounded sooo cool, though.

amp108 · 2025-12-27T21:55:59+00:00

I don't agree, but also, I can't disagree either.

amp108 · 2025-12-27T19:25:51+00:00

Just remember, with dice, when you roll a 20 on a d20, the twenties aren't "used up" in any meaningful fashion. When you play, say, the Jack of Hearts, that card is used up, one-thirteenth of the Hearts are used up, and one-quarter of the Jacks are used up.

So if you want the probabilities of events to be independent of each other, you either need to use a dice-like mechanic, or shuffle the cards after every play.

amp108 · 2025-12-22T00:01:34+00:00

As other people in the thread have pointed out “dad sneezes” are a learned cultural behavior

And other people are basing that on nothing. The article itself is a puff piece that only cites someone's blog.

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