Most of the links on this page broke when my old computer suffered a catastrophic breakdown of the hard drive. Coming back to gaming and blogging, I will try to fix this going forward, but it will take time.
If you’re interested in something particular, please write a comment and I will try to set you up.
I considered a few different game systems for this campaign: my old trusty AD&D (1e) from TSR (now Wizards of the Coast), Old School Essentials (Advanced) from Necrotic Gnome, and Castles & Crusades from Troll Lord Games. The final decision came down to Castles & Crusades due to many factors.
Back in the OSR heyday, I was super fascinated by all the retro-clones and simulacrum games. I own too many of them and have played or GM: ed most of them as well: Labyrinth Lord (AEC), Swords & Wizardry, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Blood & Treasure (1e and 2e), Basic Fantasy, OSRIC, and Fantastic Heroes & Witchery (plus a few more in PDF format). After the initial fascination, I discarded most of them based on the fact that I already own the originals. The main win with these, however, was that they allowed you to write and publish new material for those venerable game systems, which is super cool and led to an upswing in new old-school compatible materials.
On a personal level, the OSR games that really added something new to the mix for me were Blood & Treasure and Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. Not true retro-clones but rather constructed using a more modern rule set, but dialed back to old-school aesthetics, power levels, and above all old-school feel. During this period I got interested in Castles & Crusades but the books were not available where I live and the cost of importing them from the US was all too steep, so I finally went with Blood & Treasure which I used for my Lost Lands (by Frog God Games) game.
Fast forward a few years and the OSR movement had gone in a direction that did not sit well with me. Google Plus was discontinued and the earlier free-sharing spirit of the OSR was replaced with endless Kickstarters, Patreons and what have you. And since both my favorite OSR flavors were one-man print-on-demand shows with little support in the OSR community, I decided that I would henceforth go with professionally produced game systems from actual publishers, like in the olden days.
Today, I have settled with three different game systems:
I have owned AD&D since back in the day when I bought the books as they came out. The books I did not get back then, I have collected as an adult. I have the original covers as well as all the orange spined ones and also the 2016 reprint edition, along with a metric ton of old modules, boxes, and supplements. AD&D is sheer nostalgia and I love those books, but reading them now with the intent to play is a mixed bag. Too many complex sub-systems and many unnecessary special rules about just anything. These days I mostly use the books for information (especially the Dungeon Masters Guide) or maybe I might use them for a special nostalgia game with my old gaming buddies. For me, the rule set feels overly complicated these days, but who knows in the future…
Verdict: To be used as reading material and for nostalgia games
Old School Essentials (OSE) is a very close adaptation to Moldway-Cook b/x D&D, which is the game version that I started with back in the early 1980s, and because of that it automatically has a special place in my heart. These days I’m not too fond of race-as-class and some other b/x things, so for me the Advanced Options version of OSE is the right one. OSE is great for those shorter spur-of-the-moment adventures or one-shots, but for me it falls short in a few departments. One is the adherence to some outdated rules from earlier times. Others are the limited selection of spells, gear, and monsters. Also, at the moment I only have the base book. I sold the advanced expansion books to get the newest collected basic plus advanced books, but my FLGS is still waiting for the new books to arrive.
Verdict: To be used for one-shots and shorter adventures
Over the last five years or so, I have collected Castles & Crusades and have GM: ed some games and played in others. The game feels like a modernized version of AD&D 1e, but it is built from the 3E OGL and was one of the first D&D-derived alternatives. For me, the most important features are that it plays pretty close to how AD&D played back in the day, but it is achieving this with a much sleeker game engine. I also like that there are tons of classes, races, spells, monsters, weapons, gear, and so on. The Castle Keepers Guide (CKG, akin to the DMG) is also very good, second only to the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, providing optional solutions to things like advanced combat, critical hits, hero points, talents (a bit like 3e feats), and even alternative spell casting systems and several multi-class options if that floats your boat. The base rules are easy to grasp but it is also easy to add mechanics to the base engine thanks to the toolbox approach of the CKG, allowing GM: s to create the game and the complexity they want for their particular campaigns.
I also like the fact that it is very easy to run other games’ modules with Castles & Crusades. Conversion is simple, especially from pre-3e versions of the game including most OSR games, but it is perfectly possible to run 3e and even 5e adventures using Castles & Crusades.
I could continue with many other cool features of Castles & Crusades, but I think that I will stop here as I think that I have made my point.
Verdict: My go to game system when it comes to D&D-style gaming
If I captured your interest with these thoughts, please keep your eyes open for the next post in this series, which will discuss choice of setting!
Since 2016 my GM efforts have been exclusively in BRP/d100-land, playing the original version of Masks of Nyarlathotep for 6th edition Call of Cthulhu. The campaign was set on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic since we wanted to play live. At the same time, one of my players started an online old-school D&D game on Roll20 to keep us in play. The module chosen was Night’s Dark Terror and the rules were Rules Cyclopedia/BECMI. Playing online is not as fun and immersive as playing live, but it got us hooked and after the pandemic, we have alternated between my Call of Cthulhu game and my buddy’s D&D campaign.
Being an old-school D&D player has been great fun and over time the notion of getting an OSR-style campaign going has grown on me, to the point that I have now begun planning for such a game after we finish the current Call of Cthulhu campaign. The system I have chosen is Castles & Crusades and the setting will be in Greyhawk in the time frame of the 1983 gold box.
More on this will follow in my next blog post…
Old School Essentials by Gavin Norman (Necrotic Gnome)
Type: Clone of B/X Dungeons & Dragons (Moldway/Cook)
Availability: Free basic version. Full art PDF and print versions (box with separate hardbacks and collected hardback) from the publisher’s website. PDFs also at DTRPG. I would also add that the pricing is very reasonable, considering the high quality of the printed materials. There is also an online SRD for those who prefer that.
Form factor: The game is published in two variants. Variant 1 is as separate books (base rules, magic, treasure etc) and variant 2 is a rules tome that collects all the books in a hefty tome. The separate books can be purchased as a complete box set but is also sold separately.
All print variants are of very high-quality, with sewn bindings and thick paper, and from a bona fide “real” printer, i.e. no print-on-demand. The print is two-tone (b/w with light green accents, reminiscient of TSR:s old Rules Cyclopedia) and also containing some full colour art pages and covers. In my opinion, the art itself is definitely old school and of varying quality, but generally very cool and fitting the old school theme and aesthetics. Also, the format is A5, providing a smaller form factor at the table as well as increasing portability for traveling GM:s and players.
The author have furthermore gone to lengths to ensure that the game is friendly at the gaming table, with super clear and modern page design, aiming at minimizing page flipping. Most topics have been laid out so that all pertinent information is available in a single page spread.
Community: Support for OSE is mainly from the publisher’s web site. There are also very active OSE groups on social media such as Facebook, MeWe and Discord.
Product support: As for now mainly through the publisher. However, there is licensed support for 3rd party products, of which there is a also a listing at the Necrotic Gnome web site. These 3rd party products are then hosted on DTRPG. Currently, the publisher is developing two different product lines, one of which are various additions to the OSE rules themselves and the other is Dolmenwood which is a setting that explicitly uses OSE. The publisher is also behind the fanzine Wormzine, which primarily supports Dolmenwood, but also OSE.
Tinkerability: Very good. As an old school rule set, it is very easy to insert stuff ad libitum from other old school games, without disturbing the game mechanics.
Compatibility: The game is 100 % compatible with D&D b/x (Moldway/Cook) and very close to OSR clones like Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy RPG. So, conversion between all pre-third edition versions of TSR D&D or clones thereof are easy.
Flavor: OSE is basically an updated version of D&D b/x, which should cater for fans of both b/x and the other b/x clone – Labyrinth Lord. If you like old school basic D&D – this will surely be your jam.
AC: Descending (unarmored man is AC 9), with optional rules for using Ascending AC instead
Combat: Attack matrices (or THAC0), with optional rules for using Attack Bonus instead
Saves: 5 (old school style – Death or Poison/Wands/Paralysis or Petrification/Breath Attacks/Spells, Rods or Staves)
Level range: 1-14 (with optional rules reaching level 36)
Race & Class*: Combined (Race-As-Class)
Classes included*: Cleric, Fighter, Magic-user, Thief, Dwarf, Elf and Halfling.
Hit Dice: Varying according to class
Monster Hit Dice: Static, d8
XP Charts: Variable, each class has its own xp chart
Multi-class*: No
Dual-class: No
Demi-human class and level restrictions: Demi-humans have level restrictions as opposed to humans
Class requirements: Yes (for example, to play an Elf you have to have minimum Intelligence 9).
*The additional book OSE Advanced Fantasy genre has rules for a range of new classes such as: Acrobat, Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Drow, Druid, Duergar, Gnome, Half-elf, Half-orc, Illusionist, Knight, Paladin, Ranger, and Svirfneblin. It also covers optional rules for separate race and class as well as multi classing.
Thoughts
D&D b/x (or as we called it back then, “Basic D&D” was my introduction to role-playing games, and because of that it will always hold a special place in my heart. That said, I must also be honest with the fact that I prefer AD&D these days.
I would say that the main strengths of this game lies in compatibility, simplicity, modularity, quality and support.
As a very close clone of b/x, all materials for that game as well as for BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia D&D, Labyrinth Lord and Basic Fantasy RPG can be used as is, which is great if you have old modules lying around waiting to be played. A little conversion is needed for AD&D (1e and 2e) but conversion is pretty simple and can mostly be managed on the spot. This also goes for those popular OSR clones. This means that you have a vast library of modules and settings that easily can be run with OSE even if you’re not an old GM that was there when b/x was new.
The major strength of this game is it’s simplicity. The rules are easy to grasp and pretty short, so for ideal for those minimal prep pickup games or convention games. Earlier this year I had signed up to GM my first con game and for that I chose OSE. Sadly, that never came to pass, because of the corona virus. Also, the small footprint of the books makes them ideal for the travelling GM – no more hauling of 1 ton of books to the playing spot.
The fact that OSE is designed in a modular way is a great feature. We have a simple set of base rules, with additional books covering plug-in rules and settings. For example, for me the Advanced Fantasy plug-in is the best. As an AD&D fan, I like my druids, rangers and paladins. And now I can have them work with this lighter rule set. That’s a huge selling point for me at last. The author has announced that the next modular book in the works is a monster book that brings in many of the traditional monsters from AD&D in OSE format. (And you can never ever have too many monster books, right?)
The physical quality of the books are outstanding, as they’re “real” offset printed books with sewn spines and sturdy covers, which means that they promise to last a long time. They are also pretty to look at and they do induce that sense of wonder that I experienced when I first started playing RPGs. The author has also gone to great lengths to ensure that the books are easy to use. All topics take up one page or a page spread, which means that flipping back and forth at the game table is a thing of the past. The text is also worded in a most economical way, meaning that great care has been taken to keep things short and to the point. So no more sludging through walls of text to extract the bits of information you look for. In these days, when most RPGs increase their wording to the maximum, this kind of deliberate minimalist design is a bliss.
OSE is published by Necrotic Gnome which is synonymous with Gavin Norman, a UK guy based in Germany. This far, most OSE publications are by them, but there is a third party license (OGL) for those that want to write and publish their own OSE compatible materials and so far there is a handful of them out there. Of particular interest is that Necrotic Gnome has made the SRD available online, along with a bunch of cool random generators for treasure, NPCs and so on. This is very handy and a huge plus for OSE, increasing the usability of the game immensely.
The only real bummer for me is the same as always when it comes to the slimmed down OSR variants – short lists of stuff such as equipment, weapons, monsters, magic items and spells. I like lots of choice in those departments and it is what usually bothers me with this type of game. Of course, I can import stuff from other games (and I do), but it’s much more convenient to have it all in one place. Hopefully, Necrotic Gnome will publish works that expand the lists some in that department.
This is a game that basically has rekindled my interest in the OSR genre. The last few years I’ve been focussing on other games, but now I’m back in OSR land. It has also rekindled my interest in writing and creating OSR stuff and I have already started work on a new OSE compatible dungeon adventure called “Tomb of the War-Pig”. I don’t think that this game will replace my all-time OSR favorite “Blood & Treasure” for my own games, but I will definitely use it for one-shots and convention games, and also for publishing my own content on DTRPG. Gorgeous books with high usability and online support as well. Love it!
Publisher: Necrotic Gnome
Other posts in this series: Flavors of the OSR
Symbaroum – battle outside the entrance to the Tomb of Dead Dreams
Last year was an all-time RPG low for me since our re-boot of playing RPGs back in 2010.
I can see several reasons for it.
One part is adult life – just not for me but for the players. Last year one of the players got divorced for the second time, resulting in him prioritizing dating and carousing instead of gaming. Another player lost his father, and several of us have had various problems with our teenage kids. Yet another player met the new woman of his life, so spending time playing games isn’t his main objective at this point. On top of that, there’s the ever-growing work thing as well as several of us either have changed to more demanding job positions of new jobs altogether.
And one player has stated that he will henceforth only play in our Call of Cthulhu games, while another won’t play Cthulhu at all.
Also, I have a rekindled interest in physical activity, so I’ve spent a lot of the time I previously used for game prep outdoors, trail running and road cycling.
In conclusion, many factors have resulted in less time and less interest in gaming during 2019. Which in turn has contributed to what I would describe as a GM burnout on my part. I have been GM:ing constantly for the last 9 years and now I feel I need a break and the developments of the last year have only reinforced this feeling, especially since I have felt that most of my “GM energy” has been spent trying to keep the group together and to actually manage to book some game sessions.
Thusly, I plan to take a GM timeout for at least 6 months, maybe the whole year. One of the other players is going to run a D&D 5e game instead, in which I will be a player for a welcome change. Also, I have started reaching out to other RPG groups and will, in fact, participate in a new Forbidden Lands campaign starting soon in a nearby game club. I will also try to go to various old school game conventions (one – KryptCon III – coming up this very weekend actually). I’ll also try to play more online games if possible.
And maybe, if the drive comes back, I’ll try to write and publish one or two adventures as well.
Hopefully, this will help to get both me and my table gaming group back on track…
Travis Miller's Blog About Sword & Sorcery Fiction and Classic Fantasy Adventure Gaming
Dungeons & Dragons and the World of Greyhawk
Retro musings on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and other tabletop games
Publisher of the Arkham Gazette and Others
Infernal adventuring...
Cycling adventures
Castles & Crusades RPG, Philosophy, History, Reflection
Exploring the original D&D
Fantasy novelist and roleplayer
A Geeky Grognard's Gaming Gazette
A Blog for http://redvan.wikidot.com/
Roleplaying Game Content for your Edification and Enjoyment
About role-playing games
A Library of Dark Thoughts
Exploring KULT: Divinity Lost
A place of gaming ramblings
From one GM to another.
about Traveller and other sci-fi RPGs
Nerd-O-Mancer of Dork 