Catching up with the OSR

I have a confession to make: I missed the Old School Renaissance or Revival or whatever entirely. This is because I stopped roleplaying for more than twenty years, concentrating instead on ancients figure wargaming, with some Napoleonics thrown in for good measure. It just slotted better into that period of my life. However, now that I have started RPGs again courtesy of my kids, I am taking advantage of the fact that in the meantime this internet thing has happened.

The other thing that has happened is the OSR, which mostly seems to be a kind of play (and associated aesthetic, perhaps?) that tries to return to the roots of roleplaying - mad, bad and dangerous to know. And deadly. Very deadly. I don't play D&D in any of its manifestations, having lost interest around 1980, but I did get right into Chaosium's BRP-related systems when they first came out. I went through an intensive period from around 1983-1990 playing Stormbringer, Hawkmoon and Call of Cthulhu. Not Runequest, though, I really didn't dig Glorantha at all. I guess the reason for this is that I just don't relate to systems that use character levels; skills and stats seem more intuitive to me. The combination gives a wide range of options to the players, so that they can concentrate on developing certain aspects of their characters in addition to those that come about logically due to the circumstances in which they find themselves.

I suppose all of this makes me old school; not just because I am old, but also because I started at school - and then again while I was a student. Poor jokes aside, a game like Stormbringer fits the Old School feel even though it's not D&D. It's deadly and lends itself to really trippy scenarios and plot-lines. Using the D20 because the kids are playing also makes the system much more consistent, almost invisible in fact. After the most recent session I asked Thomas, who is the oldest player at the grand age of 15, what he liked most about it. His answer: "No combat." I like that. They know fights are potentially lethal, so they would rather negotiate and talk their way out of a situation; for them, combat is the vehicle of last resort. They'll do it quite happily when it happens, but only if and when it is necessary.

In a round about sort of way, I have a point to make. My chosen system might not be OSR-style D&D, but its ethos is almost identical, and I am beginning to find out just how much really good, inventive stuff is out there on this new-fangled interwebs thang. I have always had a penchant for converting scenarios from other systems, which in practice mostly means D&D because that's what is out there - now joined by the likes of Pathfinder and Dungeon Crawl Classics, of course. I have been catching up with the various Old School blogs out there, and started to amass a next generation of modules, adventures and supplements to help with my epic campaign, with the goal of running it across three planes of existence, riffing off Moorcock's Eternal Champion ideas. So, without further ado, here are some of the sites I have been devouring recently:

These probably don't all consider themselves to be Old School; one of them is a webcomic. Besides, I've probably just annoyed the Angry DM, but that's all part of his charm. I'll add more to the list as and when I come across them.

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