OSR Thread

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>Dungeonesque

It's 5E dressed in OSR packaging and art. So not interested.

Pretty sure it's old school modules and such for 5e, isn't it? That's what I got when I Googled "Dungeonesque Kickstarter."

Black Hack hacks.

>you literally only come to Veeky Forums because of the OSR thread
Pretty much, you guys are the best general on Veeky Forums.

>What are you sick to fucking death of seeing in the OSR?
Retroclones that have elves, dwarves, and halflings but never any interesting races, monstrous race options, or race creation guidelines.

>roll to bend bars
>succeed

Fuck that shit, this is why I don't like these super simple systems

alternately, it's why I'm currently obsessed with DCCs spell system.

So no human character should ever be able to bend bars under any circumstances?

No, just a level 1 magic user shouldn't be able to bend bars on a roll of 6 or less ever, or whatever he rolled for strength

Boring.

Oh, that makes sense. I just saw the greentext and didn't realize there was more going on than what you said.

I've finally finished my homebrew magic system- I'd like some feedback on it.

Basically each level magic users get one magic die. On a roll of 6 they go away for the rest of the adventure. The result of the die is typically the power or use of the spell.
For instance;
>Hex- Deal damage to one enemy
Each die rolled deals that much damage to your target. You can roll multiple die here, but rolling doubles causes the spell to fail. You could roll this every combat round if you want, but of course on a roll of 6 they go away after dealing they damage.
>Healing-
Heal that much to a party member. If you heal the same amount on the die, this causes the magic dice used to be used up for the adventure (like the doubles rule, but carried over)
>Enchantment
Creates a minor, useful magic effect that copies a physical item but in magical form. Such as a 10 foot pole, umbrella, tinderbox, wheelbarrow (floating disk), etc. Lasts for a number of turns equal to dice result, obviously rolling a 6 gives one hour but spell dice used up.

This is the basic concept, but I'd really like feedback! I'm very confident this system will work.

Okay what I do like though, is the random encounter rules, holy shit, why did I never think of this, does any other system do this? it makes so much sense, a party takes 3 hours to figure out a puzzle in one room with no consequences, back in the days of tournaments this was solved by having them be on a time limit overall, but now you can reintroduce that element without having to play it like a tournament, only problem is they can just leave the puzzle for another day and think about it in the time between sessions, but even then you could do Gygax' old thing of changing the dungeon every time they go in.

We just have wizards roll at disadvantage for strong things like bending shit. Have warriors roll at advantage for that sort of thing. ymmv tho.

I like that part too. Keeps things moving, adds time as a resource to manage which I'm autistic enough to enjoy. I like the armour as a dwindling resource to mange too. Makes everything feel dark and desperate.

What other rules light systems are worth taking a look at? What the hell is The Rad Hack?

Rad Hack looks like a cool Post-Apocalyptic Gamma World type version of Black Hack.

There's Old School Hack

Why do they say it's in the spirit of OD&D? Every time I read it it just feels like they kinda took some OD&D rules/ideas and made a stupid simple game to play over beer with it, doesn't really feel like the "spirit" of OD&D at all.

>made a stupid simple game to play over beer with

I fail to see a problem here.

No problem at all, I like that about the game, it's very charming, just doesn't feel very OD&D, but then again I see OD&D mainly as funhouse tournament dungeons, maybe I'm wrong

Into The Odd is neat. Its arcana system is worth looking at just too loot if you're not into vancian magic, the starting gear table includes weaker/softer people being more technological/arcane inclined while stronger/tougher folk get weapons and scars.

Only three stats might bug people, but its easy enough to add the missing ones if you want.

Having doubles be autofail and 6s be losing the dice seems a bit strong to me, or limiting enough that players might hesitate too much, but that's just an initial impression. Seems fun though. Gives tactical consideration to magic use without getting clunky, adds potential for magic items, environmental effects and monsters that change how magic dice work, stuff like that.

Roll at disadvantage, and you can apply modifiers. It'd work virtually the same way in any other OSR system - You'd have a target number, difficulty check, etc. Same shit over and over. I don't know why nerds keep trying to reinvent the wheel. Just roll the dice and do (or don't do) the thing.

>What are you sick to fucking death of seeing in the OSR?
In products: unimaginative shit that I could write the equivalent of at home, but with nicer maps. I know how to technically not since he gives it away steal shit from Dyson, publishbros.

OSR Movement: people who want to change the saves just because the categories annoy them.

>>tfw you literally only come to Veeky Forums because of the OSR thread
Same, famblr.

I posted this last night, but its my homebrew rules for Swords and Wizardry. It's a complete player's handbook with new rules, races, and classes. I hope y'all enjoy and feedback is fully welcome

Here's the spell book for it

Thanks! I kind of wanted to keep the doubles rule so magic spells of high power, as in with many magic dice used have a bigger chance to lose dice and also fail the spell. Maybe increase it to triples, so the chance of failing is a lot less, increasing only when you get into really big spell categories of 4-6 or more.

The other thing I needed help with was more spells then just 3 to start.

Does anyone have

The Demon Stones (Swords & Wizardry)

Its not in the trove

How does /osr/ feel about having a 'luck' stat?

whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2016/07/fighting-fantasy-luck.html

I think its an interesting idea and really cool for some classes/races/magic stuff that could manipulate it, but at the same time it seems unnecessary since your 'luck' is just what you roll on normal dice.

Of course I really like the meta game of the GM awarding luck points for a character doing something kind of reckless or stupid, or by calling the GM's bluff- As a player I tend to do stuff like this just to see what would happen.

Plenty of OSR games already include a LUCK stat, some as one of the BIG SIX.

r u habbin a giggle m8?

A couple of years back, I was working on a system that included a Luck stat. The way it worked in that game was that everyone had a Luck stat - there were something like fifteen basic stats in that game - but it didn't do anything at all unless the character decided to invoke it.

To translate it into D&D terms, imagine that it was just another stat that you rolled that ranged from 3-20. Once per day, a character could make the conscious decision that they were in over their head, and just leave it all up to chance. Instead of trying to attack or use a skill the normal way, you would use your Luck bonus in place of whatever bonus you would normally use (so if your Luck bonus was +4, but you were trying to pick a lock and you only had a +1 Dex bonus, then you could just flail wildly and make the lockpick check at +4). If you were successful on the Luck check (you managed to blindly guess and open the lock) then you could just ride it out, leaving everything up to luck (using your Luck modifier in place of every bonus on every check until you failed one).

Once you fail a Luck check - or if you decide to make a check the normal way, instead of leaving it to chance - then your luck has run out, and you have to use your normal bonuses from that point on. Nobody can invoke luck more than once per day, because you lose confidence in your luck once it fails you.

I know it's not quite what you're looking for, but it's an idea of how to approach luck from an in-character perspective.

I wonder if a Luck stat would be affected if one was playing a cleric of a fortune-related deity.

Hey, looks like the thread's picking up!

I'd really like some advice on what sort of name to name my OSR game.

The current one I've been using is Fearsome Gods, which I think is an alright name though it may be kind of generic. What do you think?

I've been reading a lot of different OSR games recently and noticed that the Crypts & Things Remastered Edition (not yet released) is going to make use of some kind of Luck mechanic in substitution of saving throws (from what I can piece together, I don't have access to the backer's PDF, alas, I didnt know about this product until recently).

As I understand it the Crypts & Things Luck mechanic was inspired by the old Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson Fighting Fantasy books, which used an oscillating Luck score as the adventure book progressed.

I think this is a VERY interesting idea that has the potential to add some great twists to traditional DnD and other roleplaying games.

Currently I'm working on a Low Fantasy OSR/d20 hybrid game system (working title "Low Fantasy Gaming" or LFG), and the Luck mechanic is a critical enabler for a number of design options. Some ideas that I'm experimenting with are:

Rolling the Luck attribute (4d6 and drop the lowest) at the start of every adventure. So this attribute varies from module to module for each character. Some adventures the thief will be luckier, other times the warrior (note characters also have an increasing "Reroll pool" as they advance, which applies to Luck checks and skills).
Luck replaces saving throws. Instead of making a save, the character makes a Luck check (sometimes modified by an attribute modifier like Dex, Con, etc). To make a Luck check, you must roll 1d20 and score under your current Luck (attributes range from 3-18, so 3 or less always succeeds and 19+ always fails). Every time a character succeeds in a Luck check, the Luck attribute is reduced by 1 point.
Because the Luck check reduces by 1 on every success, and does not refresh on a daily basis like most resources, Luck becomes a precious resource each player has to manage.

This means that the party is strongest at the beginning of an adventure, and dwindling Luck acts as a kind of natural incentive for the party not to delay or dillydally - to get on with achieving their primary objective. A party can only push their luck so far before it runs out.
"Martial Exploits" (a tweaked version of DCC's "Mighty Deeds of Arms") operate off Luck. After a character (any class) hits and causes damage, they may attempt a Martial Exploit (a physical feat of great strength or skill that turns the tide of battle, left to players to determine but subject to GM discretion, including for example: knocking prone, kicking someone off a bridge, disarming, cutting off a beholder's eye stalk/a harpy's wing/an orc's arm, and so on). In order for the exploit to be successful a Luck check is required (Fighters get to roll twice and use the best result, making them the masters of exploits), which inherently (a) caps the number of possible exploits over the course of an adventure, and (b) incorporates an opportunity cost and meaningful decision point (if Luck is used for exploits, it becomes harder to resist spells and other hazards later on).
Luck can be used to avoid a fumble.

The above are just some Luck dependent ideas I'm tinkering with for LFG. I hope they might inspire you to consider using a Luck mechanic of some variation in your own game. If you have any ideas on how we can use Luck in a DnD like game, by all means let me know!

Do you like the above ideas? Hate them? I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.

Tell us more about it, and the themes / Heartbreaker elements you wish to include.

Hello to your all, what the is closet thing to the Shadowrun OSR games right now available, I'd be interested?

>Tell us more about it

Sure.

The game only has 3 classes. The races are not classes, but there are many playable- Gnomi (gnomes), monkey men, lizard men, trolls, hobgoblins, trolls, beastmen, maybe half giants if I ever decide to include them (I still need a 'good guy' large race). Each class has a unique mechanic or methods of leveling (Fighters evolve either attack and defense, thieves get luck die, and Wizards get magick dice plus weird abilities they get randomly called Arcana.)

The setting itself is supposed to be a bit gonzo but not too hard to follow. The cosmology involves the planets and moons as being Gods, the heavens being a great Bureaucracy, the money is porcelain coins usually with donkeys on them in respect for the working man and the lowly donkey. Not that many elements have been solidified beyond that besides a few of the nations.

I was originally going to call it 'Under Heaven' but then I realized it was already the name of a fantasy book, so darn. Fearsome Gods is pretty cool too, but I'd love suggestions.

sounds interesting, you should put it up on (or if you already have elsewhere, link it to) the osr wiki

Did the user that was posting Dust Princess ever update her initial draft? Haven't seen anything posted on it in a while

I've posted it a couple times in the thread actually, but I'm doing a huge overhaul right now and will post the updated version when it is finished.

I've got an old-school fantasy setting of mine to share, too. Enjoy!
mega.nz/#fm/vV5zUYbT

I like this. I like the wide selection of classes, and especially the goblin. It seems interesting to have a class with such a low level cap and relatively inexpensive levels. Since there are so many classes available already, it makes me wonder how a class with extremely limited advancement would work out. Like, what if some class like the Automaton started out very durable but was restricted to level 1? Maybe with rare upgrades available, but overall very little advancement. It'd probably be interesting if you had a group that actually played through from level 1, that kind of character would have a totally different power curve and party dynamics would shift around it as the campaign went on.

What's a good program or guide for making random tables look neat?

>docdroid.net/WjLZISs/rotdp.pdf.html

This is the current playtest. Its missing stuff on companions, etc but those rules can easily be taken from LotFP (obviously) with the occupations tweaked. I haven't had much free time this past month or two to work on it.

There are a couple of OSR-coapatible cyberpunk books that you could just port D&D races into them.

Microsoft Word 2010

...

I was messing around with some MW2010 settings and I made this sample page for a non-existent dungeon.

How does it look?

Distance between the columns could be a little wider (just suck a little bit off the left and right margins), I wouldn't center justify the section headings, the lines that end with excessive white space should probably be rewritten so they are less jarring, and the table would probably look better borderless. If you leave the 8th row on the table at 2 lines in height, vertically center the 8 inside its cell.

I have nothing resembling professional design credentials so this is all layperson opinion that you shouldn't be offended by or obliged to listen to in any way.

I'm no designer either, I'm just trying to find something aesthetically pleasing.

Good suggestion about the borderless tables by the way.

bomp

Anyone have the Goodman Games D50 book?

What is the purpose of recording the opposite scores?
It says when rolling abilities to record the rolled value and it's opposite; what for?

I literally put this together in between when I posted and when it refreshed.

Thanks, I appreciate it
In terms of classes that would be restricted to level one, I'd say something like a Death Knight, Sorceror, or maybe even Dragonborn (I'm not the biggest fan of them, though)
I'd have to look into it
What did you think of the Artificer?

This is pretty legit. Thinking I might print this out and use it myself. Thanks!

There seems to be a consensus around here that DCC is good overall but terrible for long-term games.

In your opinions, what's the ideal length of DCC campaign? At what character level does chart fatigue usually set in?

I wouldn't say DCC is terrible for a campaign at all, so long as you don't assume your relatively powerful level 5 character should be immune to ever fumbling, miscasting, corruption or dying. There's nothing about its setup that makes it any better or worse to run a long term game with: its just slightly more deadly than most OSRs.

I've been writing up a magic rulebook since yesterday and I have this many non-combat/utility based spells.
>Mask (Magic Disguise)
>Warp (Shape objects materials like clay, change environment)
>Enchanting/Animating Objects
>Guiding towards locations, objects or creatures
>Transforming
>Creating Illusions
>Transporting stuff
>Conjuring stuff (creatures or objects)
>Ward (keep away certain creatures)
>???

I think I covered all the bases for the most part- but I'd like a good solid 10. Any others I should add? I'm keeping the weirder shit like rain dances, speaking to animals, alchemist stuff and entering dreams and the like to Arcana.

Did you see this thing that was posted last thread?

I've been playing S&W Complete and I like it, but I'm curious, what does it have that Core doesn't? Gonna be spending real money soon to get a hardcover copy and I want to know all my options before I decide.

Those spells are too specific for what I'm looking for, but thanks.

Is there a list anywhere of the languages that exist in a "default" OSR setting? Basically, I want a list of languages for players to pick from.

I would assume if it's a fantasy setting they could chose from "common", and then the languages of the races that interact nicely with men, like dwarfish

One more question for the general;

If I am planning to give players magical powers, typically at level 1, and I want to give them out randomly, should I put these powers in the main game document I send them so they can see what they could get or should I keep them totally a secret so nobody can know until it happens?

It's compressed 5e, oriented to OSR sensibilites.

I pledged to the earlier IGG campaign. 5e's power level is more of my thing, but it has too many fiddly bits for me ATM. Dungeonesque is helpful in that specific scenario.

Literally just look at the index of your monster manual-equivalent and keep an eye on whose actually intelligent.

Knowing Dwarfish is actually less useful than knowing Goblin, though, since the former are probably on your side if not neutral but the latter might need to be talked down from violence.

Also, the number of languages you get to choose from rapidly outnumbers friendly demihumans. And said demihumans typically get a small array of monster languages they understand as part of the package.

Makes me wonder how they want to OSRify 5e? I mean if we are talking about the strong sense of system purpose like B/X, so that 5e somehow becomes focussed on resource management dungeon crawling, I wonder how they'd do that.

DCC has a languages list/table.

TFW everyone is shitting out uninspired, 3rd-rate Black Hack supplements/clones.

God damn it, I keep getting 'free bandwidth quota exceeded' on Mega, even though I haven't downloaded anything there in weeks.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Keep them a secret and don't tell them that everybody has a power. Tell them that they vaguely know of these powers, and that you can gain them by killing and eating the brain of someone who has one.

Does anyone have the ORIGINAL T&T rules pdf?

Like, the first published edition of the rules. I can't find it anywhere.

Why do they even do these things? Surely anyone who would need these things would just adjust the rules themselves in under an hour?

With that said, The Black Hack might be my favorite rules-light osr game I've ever seen, makes me wanna take a look through microlite74 again

>tfw there are plenty of awesome OSR games and clones out there from the lightest to heaviest rules with all kinds of fluff, interesting mechanics and classes, both with race as class and without, with all kinds of equipment and optional rules
>tfw you have to make your own shitty version of every game because it doesn't feel like you're really 'owning' your campaign and what you created

Someone save me from this curse.

What level would these be? all level 1?

Left up to the DM's judgment, I guess, but personally I'd make most of them level 1. Maybe 2 for Hand of Glory and Bungle, both of those are real handy and level 2's a bit dry of good spells as-is in most editions. Except for Knock, which is kinda shit in the opposite direction.

It was never specified.

Learn to steal without remorse. Pic related

My last DCC game lasted to lvl 3 before everyone was visibly bored with constantly looking up table results.

Everyone was having the most fun during and just after the funnel.

Ymmv

Bungle still seems pretty damned powerful.
I mean
>Fail to cast spell
>Fail to fight
>Fail to drink potion
>Fail to flee
>Fail to breathe
It's basically a localized FU spell, and pretty much a shorter but more powerful Bestow Curse (which is level 3).
That reminds me of how stupidly important it is to not fail spell saves. How do people handle save-or-sucks?

This needs to go in Issue 2 of TrollGods
Guess what I'm finishing as we speak?

That would be really fun. In fact, I wouldn't mind doing some more random and spontaneous collaborations with /osrg/.

So are you aiming for it being a yearly or biyearly 'zine?

I kid, I kid. Can't wait to see what it's actually going to be like - I should probably also try to get something done for Issue 2. You're doing good things, TroveGuy.

I'm going to -try= to get one out once a month, now that things are settling down. I wound up having to do all the editing myself, in addition to layout and finding more images, editing some of the submitted images, etc.

Also, anyone want to get me a live text version of so I don't have to type it all up myself later?

They're all replies to a question in the previous thread, post

Same desu familia

If anyone is good at web stuff, it'd be great if we could get someone to make a blogger layout for Troll Gods that doesn't look like ass.

Were you using the Crawlers Companion App?

I have this in reverse. I feel like I'm not being impartial if I'm using something that I made. I feel like all of the things and situations that I want in my game influence me too much; I'd rather build them with tools than have them already and build the tools on top of them. Post your homebrew so I can steal it.

Oh fuck, that's great!
I have a thing I wrote for Issue 2, should I post that up now or wait until later?

Oh yeah, and you should talk to user who asks for a random-table prompt sometimes, if you can find him. That guy wrote a ton of good encounters for various biomes.

Has anyone played in a campaign that takes place in the real world? How did it go and what problems did you come across?