#3E-Cautiousness

[heedra]

💢 exalted

what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it? Hoooo boy. Exalted’s first two editions are both products of the early-mid aughts and you can tell. There’s a lot of stuff in 1e and 2e that ranges from ‘painfully edgy and smug about it’ to ‘downright extremely offensive’, especially in terms of how casually the writers employed sexual violence in lore points. For all i love abt the settings lore its really hard to make it all the way through early sourcebooks without grimacing at least once. I’ve been really grateful to the current dev team for 3e for being really thoughtful about how they’ve adapted and updated the setting. The dedicated fan community can also get pretty gungy, especially outside of tumblr. Because previous editions were often so self-congratulatory on their edginess, they attracted a lot of the sorts of chodes who love that kind of stuff, and who now spend a lot of time getting mad on 4chan about the fact that the books repeatedly acknowledge the existence of trans people nowadays. It also runs into many of the problems you get at times with white writers and white players tackling a setting intended to be largely nonwhite. Their writing team has really expanded in terms of diversity and sensitivity consultation with 3e, though, as far as I’m aware, so this is another thing I’m cautiously optimistic about.

[cosmic-zephyr]

Christmas/Birthday- (Karushuu Week 2019)

If Gakushuu is being honest, he didn't have any plans for Christmas this year, being too swamped with work. Maybe he would've refilled on his sleep or just laze around in his apartment and watch a Netflix movie or two.

Maybe he'd been generous enough to let Karma cuddle him on their couch as they watch the movies. Or maybe- well you get the gist of it. He'd have done many things in the week he had off for Christmas and new years but none of them included this.

This being a crowd of around 25 drunk, seemingly high adults camping in his living room as they laugh about things Gakushuu lost track of in the first two hours.

He doesn't even know where his boyfriend is, having lost sight of him when Nakamura tackled him in a chokehold for 'shipping the wrong ship'. Gakushuu doesn't really have a clue, and, in the ten years that he had bonded with Nakamura (and the eight he had been in a seemingly normal? Relationship with Karma) he had learned to not question it.

But it was 11:45 on Christmas Eve and Gakushuu wanted to be the first to wish his boyfriend a happy birthday as well as get the whole cake cutting ordeal that Kayano-er...Yukimura- insisted on out of the way so he can save some years of his lifespan by not worrying over any of the drunk people knocking the cake over on his expensive carpet.

So he casts a weary eye over the crowd, cautiously removes the wine bottle away from Terasaka's grappling hand and makes his way to the bedroom, hoping he finds his boyfriend there.

Thankfully that is the case. He finds Karma and Nagisa sipping wine as they chat on the bed, Karma leaning on the headboard while Nagisa rests on his elbow.

Karma looks over, gives him a small smile before returning to his conversation with Nagisa. Nagisa waves at him, too drunk to actually act proper and sit up. Gakushuu doesn't mind.

He leans against the closed door and observes as his boyfriend goes off on a tangent about Terasaka being an absolute dofus in the office.

Maybe it's the wine or the questionable soup Okuda brought in (the girl might be sweet and shy, her chemical concoctions certainly aren't) but Gakushuu, giddily, thinks that Karma looks especially handsome tonight and that he'd really like to make out with him right now. Yeah, its definitely the wine.

Once he has had enough of his dream make out with Karma, he calls for attention from the two best friends.

"Let's go cut your cake," he says, "It will save me few years in my lifespan to move that cake away from the living room."

Karma's eyes twinkle, the dim light in the room making them stand out more. His boyfriend grins, "C'mon Nagisa, I don't want him to die yet, I need someone to annoy."

Gakushuu throws a cushion at him as Nagisa sighs, "I don't think dealing with you extends anyone's life span. "

"How rude! You hurt me!"

"Okay," Gakushuu says before Karma can start a rant, "Let's get going."

------------------------

They cut the cake about three minutes early but no one is too bothered by the time precisions, instead jumping to get a piece of cake each as soon as Karma puts the knife down- Nakamura might be as much of a crackhead as Karma, but she is the Goddess of Sweets made human.

With everyone bustling around the cake, Gakushuu finally gets Karma to himself and he utilises the time well.

Karma is all glinting eyes and teasing grins when Gakushuu stalks up to him, standing in the corner with a slice of cake. Gakushuu is ashamed to note the lack of hesitancy on his part as he pulls on Karma's jacket and presses their lips together.

When they pull apart, Karma is still wearing a grin but this one is soft and gentle, fond- the one only he has the privilege to see.

Gakushuu cups his cheek with his empty hand, offers a smile of his own and presses another kiss on the taller's lips, "Happy Birthday."

"Hmm." Karma hums, pulling him closer, "This is very unlike you, Mr. I-hate-all-kind-of-physical-affection."

"What can I say?", Gakushuu drawls, "My boyfriend looks extra fine today."

"Does he now?"

"I would suppose so, yes."

Karma snorts, but before he can comment, Terasaka yells at them to, and I quote, 'stop being so disgustingly in love and disrespect all the single people around.'

To which Karma only grins bigger before making a show of kissing Gakushuu. Gakushuu doesn't even blush anymore, too used Karma's shenanigans.

They do separate however, and join the rest. Gakushuu dutifully snaps hundreds of pictures of 3E and their devil genius, gets hundreds of pictures snapped with his devil rival-turned-boyfriend and eats too much sugar and finally drinks a whole bottle of wine by himself after Nakamura dares him to.

By the time they call it a night, or morning seeing as it was already 4am, Gakushuu is exhausted, wasted and way too nauseous. He bids them goodbye as Karma sways against him, giving one armed hugs to everyone.

Promptly both of them collapse on the couch and Karma rolls over until he is curled around Gakushuu. If it was a normal day, Gakushuu would have thrown him off or poked him hard enough to ache, but right now Gakushuu is drunk, exhausted to the bone and very Karma-starved. So he moves up the couch, let's Karma rest on his chest as he presses a sleepy kiss on the mop of fiery red hair and wrap his arms around his boyfriend.

"Merry Christmas," he says, before giving in and following Karma to dreamland, back ache be damned.

@karushuu--week :))

[bretongirlwrites]

To my fellow mages

Julianne Traven’s address to the Guild of Mages, on the occasion of her being elected Arch-Mage, 3E 428

My dear fellow-mages,

I am, of course, most honoured to stand before you, as Arch-Mage: I am truly thankful that you consider me worthy of such a position and title, and I shall do my utmost to ensure that I deserve it. The Guild of Mages has ever been close to my heart, and it is my promise to every one of you that, under my leadership, we will continue to hold to the tenets laid down by Vanus Galerion, and which were so honourable and forward-thinking as to deserve reverence even today.

Firstly, that the Guild be a means of bringing magical education and services to every level of society. Galerion risked, and indeed faced, vitriol for such ideas, and yet today, the idea of a society where magic is kept within exclusive circles is absolutely inconceivable, and should continue to be inconceivable.

For a thousand years, we have ensured that even those who cannot do magic, are allowed access to it: whether it be through the sale of spell-scrolls and enchanted items, or through enchanting services, or through commission work. For a thousand years, we have defied the exclusionist teachings of those who would oppose our mission: unlike the Psijiics, we believe that education in magic should be available to the masses; unlike the College of Winterhold, we believe that resources and knowledge must be combined and cross-examined, to be of any use; unlike the Telvanni, we believe in helping each other, and others, rather than insisting upon internal and external competition.

We will continue this mission under my leadership, and it is in pursuit of this mission that I introduce some reforms as to the admissions process. While it is wise to have some measure of checking process, I intend to do two things: the first one being to relax the rule regarding postulating members with a criminal record, using common sense to determine if the aforementioned candidate is reformed, and will not cause trouble; the second one being to lower slightly our subs overall, and to exempt from paying them any member who can prove that they are in financial difficulty.

--------

Secondly, that the Guild promote a safe use of magic, that it dissuade its members, and others, from the corrupting arts. While this has been variously upheld by the leaders of the Guild, we have for ten years now seen devoted pursuit of this ideal, under my predecessor Hannibal Traven, and I am much inclined to continue such a method.

For ten years, the Guild of Mages has refused to deal with anyone suspected of practising necromancy. While this was at first a near-necessary measure, and while I do not disagree with it, I should say that under my leadership, we shall be cautiously allowing those who formerly practised the dark arts, and who have since repented, to join the Guild, or to use its services. This is in the hope of encouraging necromancers away from their art. Of course, this will require very careful examination of every candidate; however, I hope that it leads to some reform.

The practise of necromancy by Guild-members will continue not to be tolerated, and anyone found guilty of it will be expelled. While expulsion may be contested, and potentially reversed, it is to be understood that necromancy in all its forms violates the most fundamental aspects of the Guild, and judgement will be accordingly.

Members in Morrowind should be aware that I am currently in talks with Skink-in-Tree’s-Shade as to the status of necromancy in that province, and it is possible that, following local custom, necromancy will be treated there as it was under Hannibal Traven, that is, with less laxity than in Cyrodiil and elsewhere. Its status in Skyrim is also yet to be confirmed.

--------

Indeed, the Guild is keen to work with local governments to ensure that its practices respect and mirror cultural variations. As a member of the Council of Mages, I was interested to see the respective attitudes in the other provinces towards the works of the Guild, and I will be sure to apply what I learnt to my future dealings in those regions. It is imperative that we as the central government of the Guild do not ignore those further out.

I am the Arch-Mage: that means that most, if not all, Guild-business, goes past me. I do not wish it to be the case that I wield all of the power, and that I should make all of the decisions, or indeed that the Council of Mages should act without first consulting those elsewhere in the Guild. Each province will retain its own Arch-Mage, reporting to the central authority, but acting with essential autonomy on all but the most significant matters. Each province will also from now on be able to elect, and, equally, protest and remove, its Arch-Mage, without central intervention.

I hope that such changes will be of reassurance to provincial members; and indeed, that even within Cyrodiil, every member not residing in the University itself will feel just as involved in Guild-matters. Unlike many Imperial organisations, we are devoted not to politics, but to study, and as we all know, collaborative efforts are the key to stability and progress.

-----------

I have outlined the important changes which I pledged to make prior to my election, and which I now promise to implement, as quickly and as effectively as possible. I will not go on all evening regarding these; there are other matters to attend to, and I sense that you rather expected my speech to be brief and to the point.

I wish to reiterate, above anything else, the purpose, word-for-word, of the Guild of Mages, as laid down in the Mages’ Guild Charter. This is: that the Guild be dedicated to the collection, preservation and distribution of magical knowledge, with an emphasis on ensuring that all citizens of Tamriel benefit from this knowledge. It is easy, in academia, to lose sight of the outside world, to lose sight of any purpose beyond one’s single discovery. But, as I have already said, we have a duty broader than that, and it is important, every so often, to remember it.

My father told me, on the revelation of the election result, to ‘Lead your fellow mages, and lead them well’. It is a simple sentiment, to be sure. I hope that I shall fulfil it. I hope that you will be content that I have fulfilled it. In such simplicity, it is easy to miss the word ‘fellow’...

Fellow mages. I address you all as fellows; and you interact as fellows. All of us work with and for each other. The Guild of Mages is an altruistic guild as well as an academic one. I shall lead you, my fellows, and I shall, with any luck, lead you well. But my greatest pride comes not from being at your head, but from being with you. My fellow mages, know that you are all extraordinary people, with extraordinary potential: and know that my speech has been in the full knowledge that every one of you is capable of realising the Guild’s tenets.

Ours is an extraordinary mission, and a fine one: as mine is. But, as with mine, it hides a delicious simplicity... We have lasted a thousand years, and we shall last a thousand more.

--------

I shall not keep you too much longer. It remains only, I think, to thank my father, Hannibal Traven, for his own service as Arch-Mage. I trust you will agree with me that he has been an excellent Arch-Mage, that his tenure has been splendid, despite everything that might have aimed to make it otherwise. A round of applause, then, for the outgoing Arch-Mage!...

Hannibal Traven, as the applause fades: Another round of applause for the incoming Arch-Mage!

Julianne Traven: I cannot tell you how proud I am to be here... I shall lead you, my fellow mages, and I shall lead you well! Thank you, and goodnight!

[3e-manamiokuda]

19. — fireworks -Akabane

It was the afternoon of the school fair, and the sun had gone down yet the surrounding area was rather bright. Coloured with lanterns and sparklers it almost seemed like daylight yet the night sky was pitch black with only a few stars dotted here and there. But even though they were surrounded with beautiful scenery the class of 3e waited for the most exciting event of the day, the firework display.After spending time with Kanzaki, Okuda wondered off, lost in her own thoughts she found herself standing next to Karma. Looking up at him she could see that he had his arms folded back behind his neck in a casual manner, looking up at the sky expectantly. not wanting to disturb his tranquility she started to walk off as quietly as she could.“Okuda” she jumped at the sudden noise before cautiously spinning around “y-yes Karma-kun?” he hadn’t moved from his earlier position, still gazing at the sky. “what’s your favourite firework?“ blinking in surprise she let down her guard “o-oh, well I think Catherine Wheels are quite pretty. But the Fountain ones remind me of experiments so they’re quite nice too, not very loud” she gazed back at Karma now rather curious of the sudden question “w-why are you asking?” A cheeky grin made itself onto the red head’s face as he turned to look down at her “so i’m assuming you don’t like sudden noises then”“w-well no not really, I” Okuda’s face turned to one of shock as Karma suddenly reached down a hand to dig around in his pocket for piece of paper, getting it out he jotted ‘Fun Snaps’ on what seemed to be a small list of future pranks to pull on the class. After returning it to his pocket he turned back to gaze at the scenery- continuing the conversation. “well I like the big ones, rockets are my favourite”“they’re quite… scary” Okuda mumbled looking down at the ground as Karma smirked “I’ll protect you from the loud noises for now”Embarassed, Okuda looked away and they stood in a comfortable silence, observing the fireworks being set up below.Hearing what sounded like a the sound of a match against a box from her left Okuda spun around to see Karma holding two sparklers. An excited look appeared on her face as she reached for one, yet to her shock the sadist pulled it back away from her hand- sticking out his tongue in the process, however seconds later offering her it again.Cautiously she reached for it and after grasping it held it happily in the air, smiling at Karma as the first firework of the night went off behind them spreading colourful bursts across the sky.

[derkastellan]

Old School vs Truth

The “Old School Revolution” (OSR for short) is a niche within the wider role-playing ecosystem that has attracted my attention over the years. By now, it has diversified into people experimenting more with rules, but right now I want to look at the origins because frankly that is so much easier and is also something I have the most beef with.

Without mincing too many words the OSR seems to be about emulating the play experience of the versions of Dungeons & Dragons that were around during the Gygax era, so mostly Classic D&D (Original Edition or Oe, 0e), Basic D&D (Basic/Expert mostly), and Advanced D&D (AD&D 1st Edition or 1e). Most of this was done by writing retro-clones which either emulated the original rules, stream-lined and cleaned up the original rules, or versions that added popular house rules. The strongest contenders were Swords & Wizardry (based off of Oe mostly), Labyrinth Lord (based off of Basic mostly), and OSRIC (based of 1e). 

It’s interesting that OSRIC basically became the least used of these systems. This doesn’t mean there are no people playing 1e, though. For example Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is a 1e-based ruleset that seems to go strong. Also Labyrinth Lord incorporated the Advanced Edition Companion. 

All of these games benefit from the basic compatibility provided by the D&D stat block. While details may differ on how to do such things as saving throws or attack rolls, in general monsters and other trappings can be shared with these games with minimal hassle - or used from the original game materials from the 70s and 80s. After all, the purpose of a retro-clone was in part to play a game that is out-of-print. (And to clean up rough edges of which there were plenty.)

“Virtues”

Having spent a few years browsing or participating on OSR boards, groups, forums - whatever was at the time an appropriate social medium - I came across various arguments in favor of old school play.

There were claims that old school gaming is...

Fostering emergent story.

More creativity-driven on the GM side because it is less defined. “Rulings not rules.”

More problem-solving-driven on the player side.

Inviting GMs to tinker with the system and getting into a do-it-yourself culture.

Overall more challenging than later games (mostly iterations of D&D).

I think it’s also perfectly fair to say that a lot of people are attracted to OSR because either of nostalgia, like I was. I see an old adventure book with black line art and I can get giddy. But somehow the OSR always wanted to rationalize an emotional response into something that is of presumably higher virtue. You may like or dislike various editions of D&D for various reasons. The question is whether you make a high horse of it to talk down from.

The list above is basically the “best of” of rationalized boasting about why older is better. The amount of claims that “D&D used to be more challenging” or “D&D has been dumbed down” and the endless amount of “war stories” from playing classic modules were truly legion. 

One could easily rephrase this list to a critique of something else and not be far off, I think:

Modern-day D&D...

Is more story-oriented or “railroady.”

Defined the GM’s job very narrowly and the rules claim to cover everything.

Diminished problem-solving on the player side.

Encouraged GMs more to be consumers than producers.

Is less challenging.

And in fact, this is the variation you will find more often expressed in the player base. It has a bit of “old man shaking his cane” at all those people playing mostly 4e or 5e D&D. 

It is also, if you ask me, partially true. It depends on how you select your data. 

You may find decades-old grudges against Dragonlance as the TSR setting that introduced rail-roady gameplay into D&D more heavily. And with the advent of unified rules the mindset of “I roll a die to succeed” has become more prevalent in both many GMs and players heads. In fact, many players come from very different backgrounds now, having cut their teeth on video games and MMORPGs.

But here’s the thing. Nothing requires you to run a 5e game as rail-roady, roll-driven, or less challenging. And while I can see how it encourages a certain mindset, style of play, and attitude, there’s plenty of systems around that one might chose instead. The world is larger than D&D, even though it ends up cornering so much of the US market for itself.

Wild times

I have no doubt that uninspired modern modules exist aplenty, providing unchallenging diversion to players. (The deluge of material for 5e is mind-boggling even when considering 3e flooding the market with 3rd party product.) 

But this already started from the days of AD&D 1e, with people clamoring for TSR to release stuff to run. And in fact, people in the OSR cite such modules also as their influences, with a very few standing out. And in fact a lot don’t stand out so much! The Greyhawk setting has probably around a hundred modules associated with it (though some or many may be set anywhere).

B2: Keep on the Borderlands was released in 1979. Tomb of Horrors in 1978. Within 4 years after the original game’s first release the idea of a game module as consumable product takes shape for TSR. Before that it took TSR about 2 years to publish “supplements” which added rules and general game stuff - as opposed to “adventures.”

The very first players had nothing to guide them by - no true introduction to running the game, for example. The first introduction as to how to play and run the game would be left to later products, like Basic D&D. So the first players pieced together what they could from a jamble of rules, thing they had heard, etc. 

How vague are we talking about? If my index search doesn’t betray me, only one of the three books contained in the original boxed set contains the concept of “caller” (without explaining it) and an example of an actual gameplay conversation between caller (on behalf of players) and referee. From this and the rules you had to deduce how the game is played. (The role of caller appears in other products but the Players Handbook of 1e finally casts it as the leader of a party, requiring “obedience” or the party is penalized for their confused actions.)

So, for many years people basically had only the vaguest hunch of how to play the game at all. It would be a bold claim to say people had a strong idea of how D&D was meant to play unless they made it to a convention and played with people who had in turn played with original players. Or read about that in a zine.

Gygax tried to make the game more uniform and defined in AD&D 1e, which in turn also curbs the most free-flowing aspects of the game and drives it towards “weapon speed factors” and a detailed list of armaments. 

The “advanced” in AD&D certainly stands for more detailed. It also stands for the end of a free-wheeling era and aims to be definitive and unifying. It goes from “you could do it like this” (even suggesting other games as part of the game) to “this is how it is done”.

“Rulings not rules” was necessary during this time as the rules were incomplete, haphazardly organized, lacked uniformity (yes, this includes AD&D 1e), and relied on the GM to fill the gap. AD&D 1e partially fills this gap but in my opinion is lacking a coherent design. It is more like an “opinionated, polished, and edited” version of the original game. It is one possible thing that could have evolved from the original soup and canonizing Gygax vision of the game.

So within a few years of the first D&D release into the wild we move from “rulings not rules” to “my rules, not your rulings.” Except for the areas like social interaction where D&D left it vague, probably for its benefit in the longer run.

It was a creative time... a time of problem-solving and challenge!

But what did players do before that? Now here we have mostly accounts of people chosing to involve themselves with the OSR in the sense of a wider audience, shaping a legend of how play was, leading to the claims I listed above.

I have heard numerous claims, in one case in person, of how this was a time where smart people devised ways to assure winning by avoiding combat or dice-rolling altogether because it was so damn risky. And this is how it was meant to be played. One played carefully, probing floors for traps with 10 foot poles, always on the lookout what GM (and module) might throw at you, and this is how you won the infamous Tomb of Horrors. 

It has a sense of e-sports athletes, doesn’t it? Because Tomb of Horrors was a tournament module you could test your gaming mettle against. Depending on who you ask it is a great challenge or a screwjob. 

Now, there are good examples of disabling traps that I do like from these accounts. Freezing traps or pouring concrete into a mechanism - good stuff. Some solutions were decidedly cool. This is certainly the response some players had to the game. They adopted a gameplay driven by cautiousness, avoiding rolls, bringing hirelings and henchmen, and otherwise minimizing risk and optimizing chances.

Reading around the internet I found other accounts - like people saying that characters used to die a lot and having a 2nd level elf was special. Running away is also mentioned as a valuable reaction to encounters. Of course, breaking the enemy’s morale also played a role, not running all encounters to the very end.

My bet is, however, that many people house-ruled D&D to be more heroic before D&D canonized step by step with 2e and later editions. My bet would be that people not only awarded more hit points, they might also fiddle with tables, the rules for dying, etc. And why shouldn’t they? If it was desirable to modify the game, why not modify that? If D&D was a means of having fun, people probably modified it to have more fun which was probably not had by dying a lot, no matter what certain GMs or Bill Webb or whoever claim.

My suspicion is that most experimenting and problem-solving went into puzzles and tricks, and occasionally traps, especially if they resembled puzzles and tricks more. And I see no true difference here today - if you provide players with something complex that they have to figure out, a lot of them will pool their problem-solving skills and try to reason it out and some will mash buttons or smash it. What has changed is that detecting traps became a lot more passive. (And traps have always been a divisive topic - how to run them well, what makes a good trap, and what outcomes are appropriate traps vs death traps, considerations of fairness, etc.)

In general, the challenge argument hinges on very few things. Part of it is that players had so few hit points on the lower levels, their survival was constantly at stake even from small challenges. On higher levels, save-or-die effects could easily kill the PC just the same. Sudden death was certainly possible enough. In other words, being vulnerable, often crazily and unrealistically vulnerable, was part of the game. A level 1 wizard might have less hit points than a cat and might be killed by one.

These don’t stem however from design, and came about at best unconsciously. If these are virtues they were at best acquired at random, not planned or designed for. They were at best happy - or depending on whom you ask, unhappy - accidents.

Dungeons & Dungeons

Looking at the material published for the OSR you notice a lot of dungeon crawls. Draw a dungeon, run a dungeon. I wonder what real story is supposed to “emerge” here? How I tricked that troll out of a magic sword? How we snatched the dragon hoard without fighting the damn thing?

The whole thing about “we evaded combat” and “not everything is scaled to your level” or “we did some pretty inventive things to disarm traps” tells a story of its own. The game itself was mostly about monsters, traps, and dungeons. Beyond that, any degree of freedom you might feel you had can frankly be had in most other RPGs with a willing and capable GM.

I have no doubt that a lot of interesting things went down in Dave Arneson’s games when everything was new and he had to adjudicate the game on the fly, stuff ideas in, make up systems, etc. It was less of a game in a codified sense and more of an experience. That must have also been born from this new sense of freedom of discovering the story angle of your avatars, and since they had all their own interests and turfs and stakes their adventures likely often had some ingrained motivation D&D often lacked. 

Evaporating marketplace

This aversion to “stories” is interesting. When you see what is published inthe OSR ecosystem, it quickly went away from plain dungeon modules to more exotic affairs. Weird set-pieces, playing to a heavy metal vibe, gonzo adventuring - I know several series of publications that thrive on that. And how about Sword & Wizardry? Half of the stuff published for it is also published for 5e. I think you will find nothing in there upsetting to “modern” sensibilities and yet it comes also for an old school system. Are we more alike than “they” think?

None of the actual retro-clones are truly thriving. They are multiplying, but who is publishing adventure modules for them? Fewer than you think. Labyrinth Lord had a pretty humdrum Kickstarter to get a new edition out, OSRIC is probably best considered dead,  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is selling as much a setting as a system, and Swords & Wizardry is also not brimming with new stuff. Look at the DriveThruRPG page of stuff for the S&W rules and you find that the section ordered by “Popularity” has barely seen any change - because no new major stuff got published for it. Labyrinth Lord in turn sees mostly publications for the compatible Dark Places & Demogorgons. Settings sell, retro-clones fail. Funny that. Games like the Black Hack stole most of the OSR’s thunder depending on how you want to see it, all these games like Polyhedral Dungeon that want to innovate the rules a bit, and encourage actual “hacking” instead of polishing slightly the “same ol’.”

So, unless we assume all of these happy OSR GMs homebrew, the OSR has largely failed as a marketplace. The ones succeeding to attract attention are the more gimmicky ones, the weird of LotFP, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and various module and adventure series heading into more gonzo, weird, and surreal directions. And some of the weird and surreal authors are leaving the OSR behind, like Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City or Electric Bastionland, having clear old school roots but playing them out their own way. Even seemingly successful publishers like Hydra Cooperative branch out into also providing their material to DCC. Both the Troll Lords and Frog God Games cater to the 5e crowd. Material palatable to more flexible old schoolers seeps into Dungeon World, the Year Zero engine, and other lightweight or even narrative systems. The OSR might not be dead, but it is not really expanding, nor is it getting stuff into stores unless you count the weird, gonzo offshoots.

Or let’s say, it’s not expanding the original OSR sphere. The old school’s influence is felt everywhere, including 5e itself. An old school vibe has reached far and wide in the RPG community, but left the OSR community behind. Unless you think that the Black Hack and other new systems are the inheritors of the OSR, that this next generation OSR will actually continue to thrive. I actually hope so. It might end up being less preachy. 

[fractal-grid]

party like it’s 3E 405 and you’ve got 6 days to get to Sentinel

that is 4.2 billion gold needless to say i decided to go cautiously and spend 10 gold