/osr/ - Old School Renaissance

I only mentioned the time restrictions because I forgot to say when we finished; at 4:30 or so. Only took two and a half hours, pretty breakneck pace but I suppose the dungeon was small and not too complicated.

We talked for over an hour about the game once it was done. Hope /osr/ finds a use for my newbie dungeon, but you should probably take more then two starting characters here since it was pretty tough.

Is giving Wizard characters combat cantrips, or tying it to equipment like a magic rod, really so bad?

How do you manage cities and towns? Like one asking for herbs and shit

I'd say it depends on how strong the cantrips are, like if they do 1d4 or less damage I see no problem with including them(same if they have a very weak effect instead of dealing damage), heck I definitely find it preferable than Wizards using Darts, Slings, or Crossbows

Anybody got a copy of drivethrurpg.com/product/166076/Chthonic-Codex ? If it's in the Trove I don't see it, and it interests me but I don't have a group steady enough to be willing to buy it right now.

Good on you. Many people never GM because they're scared of failing. Keep plugging away and you'll come into your own quick enough.

In OD&D, the expectation was that you'd roll a wand or two by second or third level.
That edition throws out magic items like candy.

What other non d20 rpgs you think can recreate old school?

more points if it uses other system than Roll over DC, or is d100

It's not d100, but GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is made to do oldschool dungeon crawling fun. Good if you want less swingy rolls due to the bell curve, and is pretty lightweight when you use wildcard skills. It does expect you to use the tactical combat rules, though, which is mostly movement rules and rules government close combat. Some more optional rules like hit locations.

I was saying this because i think people could recreate the osr feel with other type of systems and see how it plays, you know like using a count success system like in donjon, storyteller and others

OSR as a feeling is definitely more reliant on the GM than the system (within reason, e.g. no Exalted OSR). You just need it to be fast in play and be easy to create characters for when they inevitably die. Beyond that, it's all on the GM to get the feeling right, the dungeons/wilderness right, the tables right, being impartial, etc.

I say Dungeon Fantasy does it well because it has lethal combat, which is always good for incentivizing smart play over dumb charge tactics, is reasonably fast in play (understandably slower as it's hard to beat the simplicity of B/X, but not by enough to matter IMO), and takes care of fast chargen with the liberal amount of templates it provides. You can just print them out, highlight your choices, and be done in five minutes.

Something like Savage Worlds or Fate, though, probably won't fly well for OSR. They rely too much on metanarrative currency that just doesn't mix well with the oldschool philosophy. Not that you can't use them or take out that metanarrative currency, but IMO you're doing it wrong if you do.

One thing i like about old dnd is that most of the pc/monster stats are so simple and can scale really well, you just up some numbers, and that feel that you see lvl 1 players and see a monster like an hydra and say "how are this guys going the beat this monster?"

>no Exalted OSR
What about MaidRPG OSR?

Doesn't exalted support mortal characters, though? Mostly I'd be worried about the storygame mechanics and the generally slow gameplay

>Characters wearing light armor gets bonuses to evasion/defense, chances to miss
>Characters wearing heavy armor don't get these bonuses/get negatives to avoiding hits (unrealistic I know)
>However characters wearing heavy armor get Soak; depending on how much armor they have how much damage they can take per round without taking any damage
>Example heavy armor with soak 4 means the first 4 damage they take in a round is ignored, you have to focus on them to defeat them with many attacks or use special attacks that ignore armor

How bad is this idea?

What if a character wears no armor at all?

They just have regular evasion. Like leather armor grants +2 Evasion, which is just renamed Ac. Heavy armor grants -1 evasion per piece but 1 soak.

Better bonuses towards evasion I'd wager.

>How bad is this idea?
Awful. As discussed earlier in this thread, damage reduction can never really work in an OSR game.

Agreed wholeheartedly. Screw "balance" and all the other hokum that follows it. You're not going to have fun if you're lock-step with encounters appropriate to your level and know you can beat everything without even thinking, because it's "balanced" that way. It takes serious effort to take down a hydra when you're fresh off the farm, and it's going to feel so much better if you actually manage. Not when, if. That's the key word here. 90% smart play, 10% luck.

It's definitely not the intended use of Exalted, which is going to gum up the works even more than story mechanics normally would. Imagine trying to run Shadowrun in World of Darkness. You can, with enough hacking, but why bother?

I would pay one whole dollar to see this happen.

Cleaning up the master's really big, really old basement with really big rats. And slimes.

OK, first off. is wrong.
Crawford gets paid actual money for Bx as Exalted.
>03_OSR Games → Sine Nomine Publishing → Godbound
9.2 MB, so fetch it yourself.
It's kind of hard to appreciated it in the PDF, but the page layout is really nice.

More to the point; if you want to play MAID, why not play MAID?
It's a good system.

You know what had good armor rules? CHAINMAIL

...That's not really damage reduction. Reducing a flat amount of damage is not the same as having a damage threshold. Putting a lot of attention on the armored guy to kill him is something people would already want to do, but instead of gambling having some guaranteed protection would be a good way to do it.

i don't see where it was discussed

why isn't damage reduction a good idea in OSR

Damage reduction is great if you do it right, but most people won't be able to do it even decently. Better to keep it simple than try.

so, here's the issue. 'hit him lots' doesn't actually beat somebody in full plate, it just means you go CLANG a lot.
How do you beat full plate? You find the gaps in the armour, mostly. This means targetting joints with stabby swords and spears, or going in with a knife. Alternatively, some weapons that put massive pressure on a tiny point (such as arrows and picks) bust right through the armour.
I'd also point out that chain armour works pretty similarly, but you want to use different weapons (blunt force iirc) to batter through it. In either case, 'hitting the unarmoured bits' is still your best bet.
Not sure if that helps, or is even relevant.

>heavy armor with soak 4 means the first 4 damage they take in a round is ignored
why not just make armour give you more HP?It's how it normally works in larps, and works fine there. And it's really fucking simple.
For more realism, have armour HP form an ablative pool that gets hit first: attacks that ignore the armour (knife through the visor, hammer vs chain) bypass this and go straight to the flesh.

Splitting it up by rounds would force focus-fire on the armored characters and make them heavily resistant on AoE attacks and so on.

To be blunt, I really don't see what this sort of rules would even add to the game. It just smells of the usual "muh realism" that never actually works in practice.

Stick to AC and HP. It's as simple as it gets and still works great.

Literally in the post you are replying to it says it isn't realistic but it doesn't matter. This isn't about realism, it's about gameplay.

Some people don't like how armor is just a bonus to gambling. Why is the character with the most health the hardest to hit? Why is the AC method the most popular method? What mechanics does it actually add to the game and are they beneficial?

This isn't about realism you cunt, it's about different opinions on what is a good system to encourage some types of gameplay. Some people want fighters to be tanks, which would involve having abilites that let them take and reduce damage, instead of just gambling that blows will scatter off their armor. The ability to soak hits means that enemies have to gang up on armored characters and they're heavily resistant to small amounts of damage at once, like AoE spells. I've yet to see any indication that the standard AC system is better for making tanky fighting characters that encourage a style of play or defense.

"Gambling" implies there being a greater chance at losing than winning. Put up some full plate and a shield and it's not much of a gamble: most of the time you're going to win.

Make a request for a random table or something, please? I'm bored.

Has anyone ever run their campaign like the one described in here? Or known anyone who did? How did it work?

harbingergames.blogspot.com/2014/07/making-magic-amazing-without-touching.html

(Specifically the part about running the game without rule books. Or at least, without the players reading the rulebooks.)

Bizarrely overspecialized mercenary companies.

Unremarkably unspecialized knights

>which would involve having abilites that let them take and reduce damage, instead of just gambling that blows will scatter off their armo
they already get that because they have more HP than everybody else.

MU attire.

Is that a weighted table with only one entry?

I'd bet that you wind up in about the same place with both systems. Instead of taking fewer hits, the fighters with DR are hit more often and take less damage. The most obvious result being that combat is slightly less risky (a fighter with high DR is less likely to take a large amount of damage).

So unless you balance it for some effect, it's just adding another node to the combat flowchart.

I guess I'd rather have armor that grants DR *or* improved AC. Into the Odd does it well IMO--armor grants DR, and there is no armor class (every attack deals damage automatically). This has the added benefit of making combat quick and decisive rather than a whiff-fest.

> Or at least, without the players reading the rulebooks.

But that's every campaign

Not in the OSR sense, but I did play HERO system as mentioned in that post and can speak from there.

Players had spells that were just 2d6 killing attacks maybe with some advantages like armor piercing, but Special Effects, the 'flavor' of the power was always really fun. Even if the players knew the rules, flavor was important for a sense of wonder and occasional creative trickery.

I think I'll steal this for sure though.

>54561168
>responds to one post
>quotes another
>makes an off-topic asshole comment

seems like b8

>harbingergames.blogspot.com/2014/07/making-magic-amazing-without-touching.html

Seems like storygame garbage.

>off-topic
I'll call a square a square and a circle a circle.
It's on par with GLOG's Motivations and DW's DRAGONS WITH 5 HP!!!!

>What other non d20 rpgs you think can recreate old school?
Pretty much only WFRP, assuming you count old D&D editions as "d20" (not really accurate if you ask me, but whatever.) Warhammer Fantasy's rules really support gritty low-level-type dungeoncrawl play well.

Sorry, still seems like b8 or a pointless emotional 'I don't like thing'
So you don't like story games, glog motivations, and DW 5hp dragon's.

'ok'

You haven't expressed your emotions in a very detailed way so if you wanted a discussion you better go into more detail about why you find these things unfun or why you think players with system mastery>players intentionally limiting their information to preserve the 'newbie sense of wonder'

And how this is at all related to metagame narrative currency or alternate combat rules in DW. Because that bit just seemed like you lumping 'other things you don't like' into your initial 'don't like thing,' they really don't seem at all connected to me.

>if you wanted a discussion
Who said I did?

In any case it's vapid smoke-and-mirrors that only works because the GM is hiding the rules. It's an approach that only works with total D&D virgins and/or people too lazy to learn rules. If my GM refused to give me a mechanical explanation of my character's spells I'd drop that game in a second. Even an OD&D-tier one-liner would be enough but ain't dealing with ambiguous fluff bullshit. It also adds more weight onto the GM, who now has to remember 20 refluffed Magic Missiles for 20 different characters.

They know the effects of their spells, if you actually bothered to read the post. They get 3x5 index cards with them.

Not to mention it was the players' idea.

>Who said I did?
You implied it by making a post instead of just writing in your diary.

And did you speedread the post?... they know how Elf Bow and The Motes work mechanically. All they don't know is that they're both slightly altered 'Magic Missiles' and that 'Magic Missiles' are a 'thing.'

And frankly, remembering different nifty spells sounds easier than remembering 'generic' spell lists. If Belchor the Black Sky knows Summon Miniature Galaxy instead of fireball, that's memorable. If 'Fireball' is generically scrawled through 10 of 20 different characters, it would be easy to forget whether it was Belchor the Black Sky or Melkar The Milky who knew fireball.

I ran a session without rule books once. I was at a buddies in delaware and had dice but no books. It ran pretty well. I didn't run it RAW but it's not hard to remember the basic jist of d&d rules.
Yeah, I at least want an explanation of what a spell does if I'm going to pick it. Hiding a players class abilities from them is some sort of pretentious osr extremism.

>storygame
Refluffing basic effects as other things is a long-standing foundation for superhero systems. The blog even quotes one.
>It also adds more weight onto the GM, who now has to remember 20 refluffed Magic Missiles for 20 different characters.
It, again, works fine for superhero systems. To give an example for M&M, Tinkerman's rocket boots and Colonel Australia's kangaroo stance would both be Leaping effects. You write them down in your sheet for ease of reference, then maybe the GM keeps it written down in a notepad and all is well in the world

>is a long-standing foundation for superhero systems
I wasn't aware D&D was a superhero system. Outside of OD&D of course.

>other guy makes a post asking opinions
>I give an opinion
>REEEEE STOP BEING NEGATIVE

Eat shit, my dude.

The point of the superhero system comparison was that you were off-mark with the storygame memeing and that several systems successfully use the basic concept

>d8 Knights

1. Sir Roland. Loud, boisterous, aging, going to fat. He loves to regale people with stories of his martial feats, but he has not actually fought- not on the battlefield, not in a tournament, not in a duel, he barely even trains anymore- in years. His armor no longer quite fits over his expanding stomach anymore, despite the fact that he had it re-fitted just a year ago. Pointing out either of these things will earn you an enemy.

2. Sir Nathan. Loves the hunt and his dogs, skilled with lance and bow. His personal lands are some of the finest hunting-grounds in the kingdom, and many fellow nobles will travel for miles to attend his feasts. There have been a few suspicious 'hunting accidents'; some whisper in dark corners that he is an assassin, eliminating troublesome nobles for the king. Quietly.

3. Sir Barcus, a dark-skinned man from a foreign land, awarded by the king with title and land for his service in the civil war. Wields a strange forward-curved blade and paints his armor in clashing, jagged patterns that defy all principles of conventional heraldry. Enjoys telling tales of his native land and especially how much better everything was there, which wins him no friends. Many of his neighboring nobles would like it very much if he were to suffer an unfortunate accident one day.

4. Sir Hawthorne, a fallen knight. He has lost his title, his land, his castle, his wife, everything but his armor (dented), his warhorse (aging), and his sword (rusting). Little more than a petty mercenary, but still tries to maintain an aristocratic air. His fellow mercenaries mock him relentlessly behind his back. Never to his face, though, he'll duel anyone at the drop of a hat.
-

5. Sir Aran. Drinks heavily, although it never seems to really affect him, and loves violence. His armor and blade are scarred, worn, and well-cared for; his fingers are crooked from all the times he's broken them. Any martial-seeming visitors to his manse will certainly be challenged to a spar or wrestling match. Loves women as well; at least a dozen bastards hanging around.

6. Sir Archibald. A courtier of refined manners, and once member of the central court. He throws lavish feasts, dresses in the finest clothes, decorates his home with elaborate tapestries. Even as the actual structure of the home itself decays for lack of maintenance and his province slowly slides into ruin.

7. Sir Tethys. Back from the war, minus a leg and plus religion. He stared death in the face and counts himself lucky to get away as lightly as he did. He prays, constantly and fervently, at the chapel. As much of a way to just stop himself from thinking about having been made less of a man as any genuine piety. He doesn't eat and drink as much as he used to, as much as he should, slowly wasting away as he desperately prays for- something.

8. Sir Nagant. Hard and bitter. Lord of a cold and icy province. Poor and hardscrabble. The lords hardly eat better than the peasants. He envies and hates the soft southerners, and draws plots for rebellion. To no avail; he has no allies, no resources, nothing that would make it anything more than suicide. He hates this. He hates everything, at this point. His family and servants move carefully around him, for fear of his rage.

>54562375
Actually the guys didn't ask for opinions, and the only one here reeeing is you.

And now I really don't think you're trying to make intelligent posts, I think you're trying to stir shit, and I'm done.

Didn't actually expect a deliver, godspeed user

I want to protect Sir Tehys' and Sir Nagant's smiles.

1. More like Sir Rotund
Lets hope he doesn't hear my backtalk and become my enemy and eat my whole larder

n-no bully

Sir 'Rollin' is more than enough of a man to take some banter. More than enough of two men, even!

Not a fan if that post, but you'd have to be delusional or foolish to keep books at the table during play.

Players knowing rules is NOT approved by GG

things approved by GG:
>in-game punishment for out-of-game behavior
>swindling your partners out of royalties
>polearms

things NOT approved by GG:
>players knowing rules
>thieves
>3d6 down the line

So I've been experimenting with giving the classes all limited use abilities, to make them all feel a little more similar and to recover that feeling of losing resources and conservation.
>Clerics get limited number of heals and undead turning per day
>Fighters get limited numbers of 'special attacks', anime style power attacks like shockwaves and automatic hits and making your sword go blue and phase through armor, etc.
>Wizards naturally get limited numbers of spells per day

What should thieves get? Escape artist = number of things slipped out of per day? Can sneak past X number of foes without notice freely per day?

But you gotta admit 'this book is the exclusive precinct of the DM, you must view any nonDM player possessing it as something less than worthy of honorable death' is goddamn hilarious

Say what you will, but it DOES nip min-maxing and metagaming at the bud.
>in-game punishment for out-of-game behavior
Charisma draining obnoxious assholes in genius.

Skeleton keys that break after opening locks

Let them (and anyone CLOSELY following them) ignore traps, locks, and wandering monsters.
Make it run on usage dice.

>That comic is a decade old now.
Goddamn.

your first setting is bound to be terrible, right? I'm going into this with ideas that I'm pretty sure will fall flat on their face. just hope my players will like world I'm making.

Yeah, but terrible=/=unfun

Do the denizens of /osrg/ have any favorite bosses they've either encountered or devised?

Apocalypse World.
Double the hp and weapon damage to have more granularity. Heavily modify/nerf the move and add more combat and dungeon/survival related ones.
You will have to design a magic system from the ground up though but something like this should do it :
When you cast a spell, name it and describe it, your DM will adjust the description as needed, then roll+MagicSkill. On a 7-9 chose 2, on a 10+ chose 3:
>you are not drained and will be able to cast more spell today
>your spell affect all your targets and only them
>your spell is contained in scale and last just the time you descided
>their will be no side effect or unforseen consequences to your spell.
On a miss, chose 1 nontheless but the DM can fuck your shit up.

I personally don't think so. You certainly feel more confident the more you do it, but it also makes you an edgy contrarian.

The Mad Slasher from Night of the Walking Dead can be really fun if you just cut loose and ham up combat with banter.

>captcha: wizard alvina
And Alvina is cool too.

>tfw fresh play report and an entire dungeon is almost totally ignored but b8 posts get mad responses

Your dungeon was fine. Not great, just fine.

i thought your dungeon was alright as well. i think you should also slow down if you find yourself forgetting simple things like reaction rolls and such.

>Glacalics
Googling this turned up our thread and Igor's facebook.
What exactly is it?

>b8 posts get mad responses
So take a page from them.

*

This is a boring dungeon
nothing is happening

It's literally just Glacial + ics. They've got icicles stuck in their heads. It's fitting. Funny that there's a random guy called Igor related to it, what a coincidence.

Is that an actual Rogue port with graphics or a different game?

So what was up with GG's obsession with halberds anyway?

it's an axehead on a bigass stick, what's not to like?

He was a typical neckbeard. Much like the Blue Oni of Japenese myth, who were far superior to their Red cousins because they could see through exactly ONE layer of deception, Gary was a neckbeard who could see through exactly ONE trope and invert it.

He would go "oh shit polearms are so cool let me write down a bunch of random names and polearms types despite them being more or less interchangeable", unable to see past the second layer of coolness; that polearms are actually a shitty fucking weapon to use in the enclosed space in a dungeon and swords are much better.

Actual.

I reckon it has something to do with Chainmail.

A better question is, what is history's obsession with halberds anyway?