this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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Old School Revival

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Old School Revival - Classic Rules Table Top Role-playing and the OSR Hobby

Rules- The community is to tiny, we can be really rules light at this point.

  1. Don't be a jerk.

  2. Everyone is welcome.

  3. Try to stay kind of on topic.

New to OSR?

Here are three widely tested systems which offer free PDF rulebooks.

Basic Fantasy Created to be compatible with 3/3.5e, this is fully fleshed out OSE goodness written to be more approachable. Uses ascending armor class. Print options are sold at near cost and are very very inexpensive.

Old School Essentials Basic OSE is the most popular reproduction of the original B/X set. Uses descending armor class. With several different iterations at several different prices, this PDF is free and covers the basics. Enough to get a game going.

White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game A spiritual successor to Swords & Sorcery White Box. This is the complete OSR experience. Uses descending armor class, but contains alternate status for ascending. Like Basic Fantasy, the print version is under five bucks on amazon.

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OSR system with specific 'low level' rulebook? (Holmes/Moldvay/Mentzeresque) (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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One thing I loved about Holmes and Moldvay /Mentzer red boxes was having a set of rules that didn't overwhelm new players with lots of material that they won't need until later.

I know that most osr games are rules light enough that it isn't too much, but I was wondering if there are any systems out there that seperate out the 'basic' and 'expert / advanced' levels like that?

A particular peeve of mine is that spell descriptions seem so often to be presented alphabetical so that the 10 spells that might matter are lost in a bunch of pages. But even just class descriptions or saving throw tables that cover the whole range make level 1 look like a stepping stone, rather than a satisfying place to play many an adventure!

Any suggestions?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

White Box: Fantasy Medeval Adventure Game is a great choice. Everything caps around level 5.

Blueholme Pretense caps at level 3. Another great choice.

I thing Dungeon Crawl Classics has an into version as well, though I have never read it.