/osrg/ OSR General - Choice Cut Edition

Yes indeed.

>kind of want Veins of the Earth but $70 and the home needs some fixing up...

Since there was a new thread right before I made my post, I will post it again.

Does anyone here have experience running Yoon-Suin?

If so, do you have any advice on how to run it? Other supplements I should check out that helped you with it? Even short tables possibly.

Plus if there are any modules that you recommend dropping in?

Thanks!

...

What is the best old school version of D&D? I'm thinking either OD&D (and maybe a suppelment or two) or AD&D 1E. What do you suggest?

>OD&D (and maybe a suppelment or two)
It's not OD&D without the supplements.

And while LBB is /very/ good, it's not what you're looking for.

>or AD&D 1E
Virtually indistinguishable from OD&D, but slightly less playable.
Good for poaching content, not so good for playing straight.

>What do you suggest?
B/X or 2e. With choice bits from AD&D, if you are a total baller.

Either B/X or AD&D 2e. B/X is the simplest and most bare-bones one, probably, with only the basic rules in it and the rest you can just come up with whenever it feels appropriate to you. 2e, meanwhile, is basically the exact opposite - combination mostly every rule published in D&D over the years, refining them to something more or less playable, then adding a whole bunch of its own shit.

Being a man that favors options over simplicity, I myself tend to go with 2e.

OD&D with all supplements plus Ready Ref Sheets. Make sure to use Chainmail for combat too.

DCC. Worth it? Looks like a playable HackMaster....

>And while LBB is /very/ good, it's not what you're looking for.
Why's that?

B/X is the best, hands down, IMO. Clean, simple, readable, easy to reference, tightly focused on doing what it does really well.

DCC has some cool bits to it, yeah. It's got pretty awesome and distinct classes, great philosophy on how monsters and magic work, neat magic weapon tables, and of course, some of the best adventure modules and campaign settings on this side of OSR.

I also rather like luck, though a lot of other people don't.

I'm on the fence for the new kickstarter, so thanks!

>Ready Ref Sheets
What are those?

You're in for a treat

Look it up in the trove. You'll love it.

I feel like B/X works really well for one-shot modules and tightly knit adventures, but OD&D seems more suited for big campaigns and emergent worldbuilding. Would you agree?

Anyone got the PDF? Its absurd you can't buy seperate considering the cost of the hard copy.

man that is some edgy crap

I can feel you, had to reduce my pledge on the ACKS Kickstarter from 55 to 10 dollars for financial reasons(unless I get lucky and can get some more money next week)

It'll most likely be up on rpg in a few weeks. Raggi had to travel to a convention as soon as the prints arrived, so he probably hasn't had time to deal with digital distribution yet.

>rpg
I meant rpgnow.com

I'm there with you.
I'm a completionist too with LOTFP so it's painful seeing something like this being so stupidly expensive.

Haven't played it straight but I use the tables and appendices for all kinds of stuff. Cults, shrines, omens, trade caravans, hoodlums, hirelings.

If you're running the yellow city I'd advise making a short blurb to get across important ideas and themes in the city while making characters and have a chunk of map made. It'll help them think of stuff to look for and try to do in the urban environment.

A map/1page dungeon of a noble/slugmen/opium house seems like a good idea. pdf attached seems like it would be handy for a rooftop chase in slums.

How do you turn The Mummy (2000) into a euro medieval D&D short campaign?

Eh, does it have to be medieval?
I'd just use a concept that a lot of people have toyed with for Ravenloft.
>advanced domains like Lamordia and Dementlieu experience a fad where mummies and shit are all the rage
>PCs are part of an "archaeologist" team sent to smash and grab in the Amber Wastes (specifically Har'akir and Sebua)
>you could even work in Touch of Death somehow

Or you could run The Awakening.

It's already up there for 20 bucks though. You can grab it whenever

>plan city crawls in Jerusalem
>intrigue and conflict between crusaders and caliphate
>wandering tribes of berbers trying to keep anyone from unleashing ancient evils
>cool themes of monotheist conflict that unearths older pagan bad times in desert tombs
>players stop in Constantinople first, loot the shit out of it, retire back to euope

checks out

Is there anything of substance in the AD&D2E DMG that's not in the PHB? I prefer hardcopies and I'd rather not buy and lug around 2 books.

Well in that case I don't know what the other guy was talking about.

Race generation if you're into that sort of stuff, spell research and magic item creation rules, class-specific experience point awards, rules for getting lost, and of course treasure tables.

Oh this is awesome. I think this is how I will start the campaign. Maybe I will need to go through the One-Page dungeon contests and put them in

So really nothing with the rules of playing, just helpful stuff for running a campaign? Probably won't bother then. Thanks.

Yeah, most of those things can be found from a bunch of other books, not the least the 1st edition DMG, which is pretty superior to 2e's all around.

Are there any good source books for fun, fair, non-Grimtooth traps?

Just whipped this simple thing up. Is it helpful to anyone?

what crazy nested folder am i looking for?

Check Judge's Guild.

Speaking of Judge's Guild... outside of Tegel Manor, Dark Tower, and Caverns of Thracia, what worthwhile adventure modules do they have?

02_Supplements, and then Judges Guild (the company that made Ready Ref Sheets). That's where it used to be, listed as JG14, though it isn't even there anymore, which sucks.

that sucks. who is the custodian for this mega?

Was going to order Veins of the Earth, but €56 for just S&H to the US? No thanks.

It's in the "main stuff" folder.

Neat.

Might want to use some modifiers, unless 2 rations for a village is going to mean "famine and possibly cannibalism in short order". Maybe 1d100+party size, or +10?

That's also interesting.

If you can stomach all abstractions, every day, forever, then go for it.

But it only superficially resembles other editions of TSR D&D.
A lot of paradigms you're used to (6 attributes, etc.) /look/ like they're there, but actually aren't.

One thing I think is seriously underrated about LBB is how high ability scores are of tremendous value, but its done in a far more tasteful fashion than BECMI, B/x, WotC editions, etc., and you're hardly fucked without them.

ah, cheers. my tablet was in portrait mode, I didn't see the file name.

>What font is thatr?
Blurroon.

So I didn't read this as "edgy" at first. I read it as "kind of comical".

I imagined the lizard people as fat little crocodile dudes with skinny arms. They keep scoffing down kittens and mice. You can order an Imperial Pale Ape at the bar. They are completely baffled as to why humans cook meat or think it's somehow kinder to kill an animal out of sight before eating it. The animal dies anyway, right?

The lizard guys /love/ eating people though. They aren't subtle. They don't consider it an offense or even a problem. They'll eat each other too, if they get bored. They drool a lot. They haggle. Only the most credulous person would ever accept an invitation from the lizard guy who keeps staring at them and holding their cutlery. If you've got slaves to spare, there are worse fates than being coated in delicious sauce and sold to the lizard guys for lunch.

Good point, I might do that. Although I guess the current one allows for some emergent storytelling to happen. Maybe the settlement can only sell two rations because they are constantly attacked by raiders? Maybe the PCs can do something about that?
By the way, nice taste in art user.

Yeah I agree, it's more comical than anything else. I like the detail you added about them eating each other when they're bored, too.

Yeah, you could add a line about emergent story elements (famine, tool shortage, a recent plague or war) and that might cover it.

As for the lizard guys... you know what the really dumb thing is? They buy each other to eat. And they haggle over it too. I mean, you're going to get eaten, and you don't exactly have a lot of heirs or charitable causes to give you legacy to because you're a lizard guy. Why haggle?

Also, they aren't cruel about it. Vegans or religious ascetics see regular people like we see lizard people, but even then, the lizard people just don't give a fuck. They follow the laws - no eating things you didn't pay for - but they don't get what all the fuss is about. Of course you can eat a baby. You eat eggs, right?

Be sure to stick a mellified man in there somewhere.

None of them are bad.

All right, so getting treasure is even more important in OSR, where it also gives you the vast majority of your experience.

But all those piles of gold coins as treasure are not only boring as hell, they're also nonsensical and stupid - there are entire essays on the subject of why so much gold just lying around won't make a lick of sense.

On the other hand, trying to give the players other sort of treasure - art objects, gems, etc. - overwhelms the campaign with needless detail, to the point where they're so overwhelmed they tend to just put them to the bottom of their inventories and forget all about their existence. That's even worse!

What's a good balance to this? How can you make treasure that's sensible, not boring, and actually acknowledged by the players?

That's a lot of name-dropping, user.

Turns out that pickling your dead in ooze makes them immortal, or so the ancients believed. They moved and acted like men. Slow, hungry, and confused men, but still. Why not make your king's body immortal, so that when his soul returns from the attentions of the 1072 Extremely Large Breasted Maidens of Paradise, he'll be able to hop right in and rule his kingdom?

Of course, this means you've got tomb complexes full of ooze-skeletons who are immune to pretty much everything except completely squashing, fire, or acid. They are dumb as rocks and extremely slow.

Unless they ate a wizard. That's a recipe for trouble. When a wizard dies, any spells in their brain gets stuck their and start to ferment. Wizard skulls are pretty much spellbooks in some areas. And an ooze that slowly, over a decades-long embrace, eats a dead and fully loaded wizard is going to turn out /really/ weird.

Now all I want to know is where that money goes once the seller gets eaten. It wouldn't really be a deal if the eater just takes his money back, so where does it go? Perhaps it's used to pay for the seller's funeral, or maybe it goes into some kind of lizardman social assistance program...

Change to a silver standard like in LotFP. Throw in some art and gems for good measure.

Presumably, the lizard eats it alongside their meal.
I guess that makes it a condiment?

I don't really see how silver standard would fix the problem. There's still a lot of wealth out there that came apparently out of nowhere.

Cleric.
Fight + Spells.
Plate armor + smashy hammers.
Fucks undead up.
Aleena.

Why?

This is a perpetual problem.

Some people say you only get XP for gold you spend, so the issue is moot - you need to get that stuff into the economy in order to progress. No hoards for you.

And "art worth 100gp" is just "100gp I can't fit into my pocket".

Give players things to spend a ton of money on. Castles, guilds, followers, politics, religion, a brothel, a village, and taxes. Always taxes. Adventurer tax is 20% in most kingdoms, and in return, the King still thinks you're disreputable disorderly shit-disturbers.

And tune down the XP values a bit. Readjust currency so that a small purse full of gold /really/ feels important. I mean, it would be important to you, right?

Next nearest lizard that isn't busy eating. "Oh hey look, a penny!"

Lizard guy funerals are basically "oh hey look, he's dead, and reasonably fresh too. Mmm..." If the victim died of something horrible or unflavourful he's just chucked onto the nearest rubbish pile. Lizard guys understand gods exist, but are too stupid to invent any, and are slightly resentful of this.

I bought it. With shipping to Australia it came to ~$120.
I will likely regret this, as the Easter long weekend followed by ANZAC Day will reduce my income considerably for the rest of this month.

But LotFP hardcopies have always been worth buying 100% of the time.

Sorry, I will not share the PDF so don't ask.

And will vanish into apparently nowhere when your wizard summons one demon too many.
Or when your fighter decides to pull The Tower from your Thief's magic tarot.
Or when your bard's half-dragon daughter's boyfriend kills your Cleric and steals his motte-and-bailey.
Or when you die in the pitfall, and your /secret/ base falls off the map.
Or when the travelling merchants hike up prices, then tank their homeland's economy.
Or when your illusionist eats his share of the gold, then hibernates for the winter.

Because B/X seems to be very heavily focused on rules for dungeoncrawling and overworld adventuring. It's clear and rigid in almost a boardgame sense. OD&D however feels more loose, like what's in the books is but one way of doing things. It feels like it's made to be expanded upon in a greater sense than the more "complete" B/X.

>There's still a lot of wealth out there that came apparently out of nowhere.

>his setting doesn't have a vast howling wilderness full of monster-haunted ruins from the collapse of the Great Golden Age, where the vast wealth of lost empires is gathered by barely intelligent creatures to impress both rivals and mates with its shine

Man, you are fuckin' up.

>That's a lot of name-dropping, user.
No point in mentioning a setting if your aren't going to drop specific names.

Rivers of treasure abound but I give gold-per-xp in the following way:
>a. 2 GP looted = 1 XP
>b. 2 GP of mundane or adventuring gear bought/sold = 1 xp
>c. 1 GP of totally frivolous fluff expenses like gnome wine with buttered chuul legs = 1 XP
>d. 1 GP of sold treasure (art, gems, potions, scrolls) = 1 XP

>B/X seems to be very heavily focused on rules for dungeoncrawling
Huh, I only exclusively run megadungeon crawling adventures now, I should check out B/X.

>dragons are bower birds.

That'd do it.

"I have captured ALL the blue princesses in the realm. I'm very impressive. Have my babies."

I see. Maybe the haggling is actually them arguing what amount and kind of seasoning is the most flavorful. That might also be the reason why they don't just kill each other, it'll just taste bland.

Do you have a blog, dude? I'm digging this.

B doesn't even have rules for "outside the dungeon," those are in X.
*Probably has rules for towns, etc. Been a while since I've read it.

Not even Skerples, but here's his blog:
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/

I mean, the game has rules for how doors work and how long you must rest after fleeing. I don't see that much detail in most retroclones.

Pppft, seasoning. Like a human. That's craziness. Powdered vegetables and rocks on your food? I bet you peel them too.

Anyway, you can find my rambling here:
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/

Most of it's not as silly as the Lizard Guys though.

I might write them up.

Lower all EXP costs by 4/5ths. Make monsters give even less. That way you can get away with smaller treasures. Also, count land conquered as a treasure.

>coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/
I should have known!
I'd love a writeup, honestly. I might steal this idea for my own campaign.

Guess I'm internet famous now. My posts are regularly getting tens of views.

>Or when your illusionist eats his share of the gold, then hibernates for the winter.

That's dragons, user.

Or is it bears?

Dragonbears? Big, scaly short-faced lizard things with a fringe of quills and a mean temper.

It works for intelligent monsters, too. Even if they don't trade or have any use for it, they know that if you have some then dangerous humans will eventually try to take it from you by force.
If you have a lot, then you're clearly strong enough to keep it, so it becomes a symbol of strength, and then their chieftains fight each other to build the biggest pile and thereby prove himself the strongest and most dangerous of all.

>Also, count land conquered as a treasure.

Man, I always hated that shit. I don't like to play landowners or strongholds, I prefer walking the earth and going from an adventure town to another with nothing to bind you anywhere.

> That's dragons, user.
For a guy who likes weird magic, your magic-users are pretty... normal.

And that's fine. Just make sure the rest of the group and you GM are on board with that concept, or you'll run into problems.

>convince orcs that cats are valuable
>get rid of all local cats, plus, start a catpocalypse in the orc fort
>profit

I prefer "tropey".

The players asked for a "standard" game so I gave 'em "standard" wizards. A lot of the weirdness is emerging through gameplay and player choices.

>And that's fine. Just make sure the rest of the group and you GM are on board with that concept, or you'll run into problems.

Fortunately I'm a foreverGM, so it's hardly never an issue. I just give the party a bunch of lore on distant lands and hooks taking place therein, and they rarely see any reason to stick around in one place.

That picture is making me wonder, have you ever played GOBLET GROTTO?
Not sure if my perspective is badly skewed, or what exactly, but most of thecatamites work gives me an OSR vibe.

I have not, but some quick googling tells me it's interesting and weird and an excellent thing to steal from.

So hooray.

Pretty sure they got de-stoned by the potion she carries, though the DM made it a bit harder since she was friendly by making them kill the chief first. Its been a year or two since I read it, sorry, and also sorry for the really late reply.

>I'd love a writeup, honestly.

Ok, working on it now. Looks like animist wizards are delayed another day.

Just kidding. The post has barely been started.

Does anyone know of any good videos of people actually playing B/X or running a hexcrawl? I've started running loose B/X for my group, and I'm pretty sure I'm Doing It Wrong™.

52692258

We need an OSR art thread. There's some great stuff out there, both old and new.

No worries user. One day. One day.

In the meantime, to tide you over, an Animist Wizard in action: youtube.com/watch?v=0vgSMFLt_No