the roots of the rpg hobby

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/passstab on 2024-04-10 03:38:07.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/GreenGoblinNX on 2024-04-10 03:29:25.

Noticed something that doesn't seem to have popped up here, as far as I can tell:

There's a new printing of Swords & Wizardry: White Box Rules

I myself prefer the Complete Revised version, but I thought I'd throw this up here just so that there's awareness.

Speaking of S&W: Complete Revised, there's also a Kickstkarter for TWO supplements:

• The Book of Options - 11 new classes, new spells, new magic items, and more
• Fiends & Foes - 300+ monsters
• plus a couple of adventures, a GM screen, and other add-ons

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Jarfulous on 2024-04-09 22:35:35.

Where can I get my hands on this classic module? I can't find anything recent. Apparently Goodman Games has the license, but they're sure taking their time doing anything with it.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/thropwurst on 2024-04-09 06:10:27.

Can someone explain the pros and cons of a d20 system that uses a static number for defense (d20+str modifier vs AC) vs a system where both the attacker and defender roll? (d20+strength modifier vs d20+ dex modifier) Knave vs Durf for example. Or is it really no difference? Just a Preference?

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Luvnecrosis on 2024-04-09 21:56:20.

Hey everyone, I'm going to be running an OSE game (hopefully) after a year since the last one ended. It will take place in a mostly understood location and I'm wondering, how much does travel matter? And by that I guess I mean, "does it need to have hex crawl aspects?" I'm not sure how fond my players are of it and sometimes it leads to me feeling stressed as I have to make up for their work as well. That being said, here are the reasons I am not simply going to something else:

1: I like the "zero to hero" feel that comes with OSR games. Life is cheap but if you're smart you can overcome it.

2: The character sheets don't come fully loaded with checks that can be made to circumvent having to think through problems. I like that OSR games expect you to work with the character and not the character sheet

As for why I want to know what else is available:

1: My players like being able to fight. And to my understanding, OSR treats combat as a failstate instead of a "yeah lets have a combat session!" I would like to be able to give them the ability to fight and stuff in a way that doesn't make it hard for me to run combat but is also going to be deadly enough that they won't try and fight just for the sake of fighting

2: I'm not super sure if it is taboo to run an OSR game that doesn't actively have travel and exploration. There WILL be other things for the players to experience but I want to run the game "right" and operate within the bounds of what the session is supposed to handle.

But yeah, the main thing I'd like to know is if I can run OSE the "right way" without having outright exploration and travel. Any experience? Advice?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask or if the answer is obvious, but I really want to run a game that is enjoyable for the players and myself. If there's a better place to ask these questions I'd gladly go there.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Megatapirus on 2024-04-09 19:20:24.

Here.

There's a hardcover of new character options and rules (that also includes an updated version of the venerable Primer for Old School Gaming), a hardcover monster book, an updated Tomb of the Iron God adventure, a new hex-crawl sandbox adventure, and a Referee screen. It seems pretty flexible in terms of being able to get any given combination of them in print or PDF if you don't want them all.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/ShadowPlay246 on 2024-04-09 08:21:07.

As it says on the tin. What do you think of games that have static hit point maximums like The One Ring and Dungeon World. I'm thinking about maybe having static HP as a way of avoiding power-creep, along with being able to add the Endurance mechanic from the One Ring. That being said, I wanted to know what y'all thought of static HP in general when compared to the traditional increasing HP.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/CastleGrief on 2024-04-09 20:54:48.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Baptor on 2024-04-09 20:10:30.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/ludifex on 2024-04-09 18:20:19.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/CrumblingKeep on 2024-04-09 16:11:04.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Brittonica on 2024-04-09 13:47:59.

The AC Club stealthily returns to the Well of Light, with hopes of befriending a giant four-armed ape and perhaps ambushing the mad druid Gerrilad.

But, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Find both the video and audio podcast versions of this episode -- plus a whole lot more --on 3d6 Down the Line!

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/LemonLord7 on 2024-04-09 08:48:11.

I'm looking for general advice, but I am playing OSE if that matters.

As far as I understand in OSE/BX, fleeing in a dungeon does not use any tables or rules in a dungeon for what percentage chance the group has of fleeing. It seems to be more freeform, and wants players to improvise. That's all ok, though I'm happy to get advice on how to handle this.

What I am more interested in for this post is - when fleeing before or during combat - handling movement speed, traps, new encounters, and most importantly getting lost and which rooms characters end up in.

• How far do characters get when fleeing?
• Do the players/characters know which way they took or was the running too frantic?
• Do traps trigger as normal while fleeing?
• How are random encounters handled while fleeing?
• How are pre-set room encounters handled?

I'm not expecting you to have clear answers (as in look to page X of book Y), but some guidance and examples for how this can be handled in a fun way would help me a lot.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/TheUninvestigated on 2024-04-09 13:34:58.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Calum_M on 2024-04-09 04:34:04.

A big, (almost definitive) part of the OSR ethos has been the DIY ethic. AI works really challenge this, and while I have nothing against creators using AI, I would like it to be clear when a product or artwork being posted or promoted here has been produced this way.

Thoughts?

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/_musterion on 2024-04-08 11:39:19.

I really like the simplicity of the rules-lite systems in the title, but play-tested combat with my kids today and they did not enjoy the auto-hit mechanic. They really wanted to roll a d20 in addition to the weapon damage die.

I had some thoughts on how to do this in a roll-under system (rolling above the opponent’s STR to parry), but it got too complex.

So, I’m leaning towards converting these systems to a roll-above system (more intuitive) and rolling a d20 against STR for melee hits, DEX for ranged hits, and WIL for magic hits. Also, I plan on incorporating a Critical Hit mechanic for the excitement factor.

However, in the original games, I really like that as a player loses their STR, it becomes harder to make saves. How might one do this in a roll-over system without dice pools?

Or should I just keep the roll-under system and have 1 be the magic number in order to keep that “weakness” mechanism?

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/thirdkingdom1 on 2024-04-08 13:22:36.

It's the second Monday in April and, the big news is obviously the eclipse that will be visible in the US. Hopefully the darkening of the sun will not release the eldritch beasts that have been restrained for the good of humanity.

• Pocket Quest is an annual Drivethru event that I always seem to overlook, but I did see that Zadmar Games has published Conniving Cat Burglars, a one-page system/scenario that can also be used as part of the Tricube Tales system.
• When it rains it pours, because another entry to Pocket Quest is Mission: ImPAWsible, by T-Rex Games, a game of three raccoons in a trench coat trying to save the world.
• I'd mentioned the Fishing With John game jam on itch a few weeks ago, and one entry that's just been published is Way Down on the Waccamaw, by giantrobottackler. It's written for Cairn and is a little one-page scenario about a fishing contest that may or may not turn out badly for you.
• I'm a big fan of Emmy Allen's work, and Soul Muppet is currently running a Kickstarter for a remastered version of the Garden of Ynn, a procedurally generated, zero-prep adventure set in an ever-shifting garden.
• Eva K has released a pack of grayscale wilderness hexes, with the idea that they are a minimalist aid to writing an adventure rather than something to spend time fiddling with.
• One of my favorite parts of Worlds Without Number is system generation, and Robotic Topologist just released their Minimalist Solar System Generation.
• The pdf of Goodman Game's recent Dark Tower release is now available on Drivethrurpg. It's available in both DCC and 5e flavors.
• Hirelings is an interesting new release on Drivethru. It's billed as a fantasy heist game, suitable as a one-shot or a mini-game inside an existing campaign.
• I'd mentioned Prisoners of the Secret Overlord a few months back when it was on Kickstarter, and it's now out on Drivethru in pdf and POD. Written for DCC, it's a 2nd level adventure with science fantasy elements.
• Flooded Realms Adventure Press has released Oglia's Folly, a short (3-page) high level adventure for OSE. I like seeing shorter high level adventures that can be slotted in as part of a larger campaign or hexcrawl without the baggage of a longer campaign setup.
• Land of Mist is a campaign supplement written for Old School Essentials. It looks like it's got an interesting variety of new classes, monsters, and, what may be of interest to some people, rules for achieving Immortality.
• Populated Hexes Monthly Issue 32 is now available in pdf and print. This issue is the first in a two-part look at creating artifacts and relics for OSE and other similar games, and provides plenty of tables and tools to create both them and mortal magical items.
• There's about a day left in the BX Advanced Bestiary Kickstarter, which expands on monsters E-K in the Old School Essentials Classic rules. It adds new monsters, classes, spells, psionic powers, and more. Illustration below is bee-folk soldier, by Marco Ortiz Walters.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/wizardlylabs on 2024-04-08 15:20:23.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/CastleGrief on 2024-04-08 19:55:59.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/grodog on 2024-04-08 19:34:01.

FYI, in case you’re not aware of the looming change, Anthony Huso’s web site and blog will be going permanently offline effective this Thursday, 11 April 2024, due to Wix’s increasing hosting costs. See for details.

The blog posts and site content will be preserved at the internet archive at in addition to the offline archive mentioned in the post above.

Allan.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/vihkr on 2024-04-08 17:27:24.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/warriorbutton on 2024-04-08 01:17:53.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Orr_Mendlin on 2024-04-08 12:59:16.

So I was always torn about thief. I liked the idea of a sneaky class and more unique classes in general. And my players are 5e players so they like as much clases as possibe.

I tried running a game without the thief because of some post I saw and I must say, I feel the diffrence. The players are more active because anyone can do thief stuff. Not just the thief. Suddenly they try things outside of the "normal way" ie, the wizard lockpicks, the fighter scouts and so on. Now the players think more actively while dungeneering. How to open the door, how to deal with traps, how to hide and so on.

I still like the thief. But I realy like the effect of removing it had on my group.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/LemonLord7 on 2024-04-08 12:05:49.

Last session in my OSE game my team encountered a Gorgon as a random encounter. I thought this would be a pretty cool battle. I rolled monster reaction and the Gorgon was indifferent. Then my players decided to take a detour around it and skip the fight.

Is it standard to roll reaction roll like this? Or is that for humanoids only? Should a random encounter in wilderness automatically mean combat?

I think it is cool that my players decided to just not deal with an enemy they thought was pretty dangerous, but I kind of feel like maybe the enemy should have charged for attack. If I roll reaction rolls for all my random encounters in wilderness very very few will actually be fights, especially when the group can decide to just run away.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/maxdamageplus on 2024-04-08 03:13:48.