/osr/ - Old School Renaissance

Welcome to the Old School Revival General

>Trove:
pastebin.com/raw/QWyBuJxd

>Online Tools:
pastebin.com/raw/KKeE3etp

>Blogosphere:
pastebin.com/raw/ZwUBVq8L

>Previous thread:
What's your favorite dead OSR blog?

Other urls found in this thread:

antlerrr.blogspot.com/
hiyoooo.com/
bit
youtube.com/watch?v=mp_sIAqKc1Q
critkeeper.site88.net/
critkeeper.000webhostapp.com/
critkeeper.byethost7.com/dcc/dcc.html
youtube.com/watch?v=AI156dEQEvE
rottenpulp.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/summoner.html
maziriansgarden.blogspot.ca/2017/08/unfamiliar-familiars.html
maziriansgarden.blogspot.ca/2014/01/summoning.html
maziriansgarden.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-book-of-six-circles.html
lastgaspgrimoire.com/religion-is-a-nest-of-serpents/
gloomtrain.blogspot.com/search?q=Summoner
necropraxis.com/2014/02/26/genie-binder/
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/11/osr-attack-sheet-part-2.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

For me its ANT-LERRR.
antlerrr.blogspot.com/

It's a joke, but desu I'd be happy to use it. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

>What's your favorite dead OSR blog?
Planet Algol, no question. I wish Blair had got his fucking booklet out eight or nine years ago instead of vanishing from the internet.

Any good African themed hexcrawls? I'm already checking out World of the Lost.

>Any good African themed hexcrawls?
World of the--
>I'm already checking out World of the Lost.
Then no. You've got the one that exists.

Does anyone have the pdf of B/X Essentials? It’s supposed to be the best B/X clone out there and I’m trying to decide wether I should get a couple of table hard copies.

Spears of the Dawn

Grognarida, the original™ dead OSR blog, and scandalously so.

Jamal was a bitch and a free-rider from the very first.

Hill Cantons

I just want What Ho! Frog Demon!

Then I can tale your weird Slavic-acid setting and never need to be be bothered by their slow seclude and updates ever again.

Through the power of the Monkey's Paw your wish is granted.

What's the minimum required amount of DM effort must be put in before a game can start and stay "good"?

I love how Pits and Perils tweaks this by making stats something you either have or don't have.

You've got STR? you can bend bars
You've got DEX? you can be stealthy and pick pockets
You've got WIS? you can perceive things other cannot
INT? lore skill
CON and CHA aren't too well explained.

Anybody here can tell me which was the first OSR game to have a fancy character sheet that wasn't just some words and lines thown into a sheet, but actually crafted with some artistic vision in mind?

what's a joke?

Depends entirely on the type of game. We are in osrg so I am going to guess a typical dungeon crawl.

>Make a hex map of a region 10x10 will do
>Don't even bother populating the region, just the hexes around the players start point
>Make a start point, a small town or a big city or something, doesn't need to be fleshed out
>Find a module you like and read it
>Plonk it (or a dungeon from it if it is big) down in a hex
>Run the game

This provides endless growth potential. Just take your region and expand it. Or make a world map and find where to put that region later. As you go on you can put new modules in different places or make your own dungeons and stuff.

>What's the minimum required amount of DM effort must be put in before a game can start and stay "good"?
The absolute minimum required amount, assuming you already know the rules per se, is to use Donjon or equivalent to generate a large level 1, then read that level. Everything else -- overland maps, detailing a local town, lower levels -- can wait until later. Hell, that guy who ran Fellowship of the Bling never bothered with it at all, just kept running lightly-polished random dungeons until his group fell apart from lack of time, and they apparently had fun with it (despite the loot levels of his maps being mega fucked, natch).

I hardly need to tell you that's not the *optimal* way to run the game, nor the most fun for the referee, but it *is* all you *need*.

It is the absolute minimum to run a game but I really don't think that is going to start and stay good as he says

3 dungeon levels, the dungeon's profile, a map of the region, encounter tables by terrain, a page with 2 paragraphs on each city, and a page of what's for sale (and prices).
8 sheets of paper.

Read Fellowship of the Bling nice digits.

>what's a joke?
A joke is something that is said or done to make you laugh, such as a funny story, but that's not important right now.

>A joke is something that is said or done to make you laugh
Too bad you couldn't give him an example.

yeah, i think that's the thing
bumpitto, maybe someone will remember

What's the difference between a duck?
One of its legs are both the same.

Please click on Saint McMahon's head.
hiyoooo.com/

I've been looking for a biotech/organitech dungeon. Think HR Giger's Aliens Warhammer 40K's Tyranids and the Xiticix from Rifts RPG. I haven't found a suitable adventure yet so I've been writing and play testing an adventure using my intrepid ACKs group as guinea pigs.

Using a old set of Advanced Space Crusade (aka Tyranid Attack) tiles as the basis of the floor plan of the dungeon. A derelict nest ship of a communally intelligent (hive mind) alien insects has crash landed and buried itself in the medieval fantasy countryside. Our intrepid adventurers will descend into the still smoking impact crater probe its debts confronting a terror from beyond the stars.

One idea for layout and aesthetic is maybe to look at classic XCOM (not the new Firaxis XCOM). I remember alien bases in that game were a crazy mesh of tech and like weird plants and shit.

This is an awesome resource, but i'm looking more for detailed hexes that I can straight up rip and put into my hexcrawl.

this might make for a decent base

I am having issues making a map.
I own campaign catographer 3, have hexographer and another hex program a kind user posted in last thread. I cannot decide between index card maps, regular paper, or lightly printed hex maps.
I want to create a world that I can use for multiple campaigns. A points of light world built from a ruined empire.
I've imagined several factions so far: epic level lich who is also a demon summoner, elder Dragon and his half Dragon sons who command his domain, and a warlord whose soldiers keep captured communities under an iron grip. And the good guys nation that is very small, perhaps sheltered on the other side of the mountains from all this insanity.
I got burned out on my last world because I made it too big and put in a bunch of deities (fuck having multiple major deities) and just fucked the worldbuilding in general. I'm running it in Mathfinder right now and even the low powered classes are just ridiculous.
Index cards are nice because I can develop a small area and "tile" new areas later with additional cards.
The issue is them being small, and players might not want to look at them.
Regular paper is okay, I guess its not hard to tile but it's indiscrete and hard to keep a sense of scale.
Hex map is nice except it makes the map look like a hex map unless I subtly disguise it (which I will, perhaps defeating the purpose). Also has the benefit of being discrete.
I want to make a world that I can run for multiple campaigns, as in, one group defines the history of the setting, then the next campaign can be a time jump 30 or so years as a new "plot" arises. Thinking of having a mordenkainen- style wizard NPC leader who can be a constant source of advice across campaigns but that raises the issue of why he doesn't get shit done himself.
And how for the love of God do I get my players to stop playing Mathfinder?

There really should be some practical use for the raw eldritch hate-wisps other than just destroying them. Just disposing of it seems like the whole operation is utterly devoid of funding, which would make no sense at all.
Who pays the minders? Do they really do it out of charity? That's unlikely, since it seems incredibly dangerous. And seeking donations for the task is out of the question since if people knew there was an eldritch abomination the size of a mountain who might wake up and destroy the world, there would be a mass-panic.

The hurdle with a biotech/organitech dungeon is that it's just a normal dungeon with aesthetics. Detailed art and handouts are required to really hammer home how weird stuff is.

Take a sheet of blank printer paper. Doodle on it in pencil. Once you are satisfied, take another sheet of blank printer paper.

Redraw it a bit nicer.

You can make a hex map of that, or you can leave it as is. Doesn't really matter.

ONLY DRAW ONE REGION, not the whole world. The important picture is more important than the big picture.

>epic lich [...] >elder Dragon >a warlord [with] an iron grip
This is masturbatory. Your players will have minimal interaction with it and
>the good guys nation
is tacky and
>[...] from all this insanity.
clearly shows that you know this will play like bullshit.

If the demonologist-mayor is head and shoulders above the players, there should only be one top dog in the region. The other campy villains should stick to their caves.

If you insist on a power struggle, tone them down so your players can do some king-making. Don't waste words on chaff
>One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn't going to go off. It's wrong to make promises you don't mean to keep.

>ONLY DRAW ONE REGION, not the whole world. The important picture is more important than the big picture.
Another user here. This is important advice. Create content on a just-in-time basis. If you have ideas by all means get them down on paper while you have them in mind, but try not to think too hard about the details outside the starting region until you have to.

>The hurdle with a biotech/organitech dungeon is that it's just a normal dungeon with aesthetics.

I feel like that’s every thematic dungeon. It’s just new clever ways to re-skin those dungeon delving tropes. Instead of a physical metal key that opens doors you have a pheromone spray you have to take from a glandular sack off a defeated foe. Instead of a quicksand trap you have acidic mucus pools. Instead of a orc with a crossbow you have alien ant man with a bio-pneumatic spore gun.

That was sort of the basis for my index card idea. Start small and "tile" outward as the world expands. Start with rumors and vague snippets of orcs to the north undead to the east and go from there.

Only reason I want such big bosses is that I want taking them down to be a real accomplishment. Not just "lol emd of campaign" but that even with all that they are fairly likely to fail. Or at least that they are cornerstones of the world like the faerun Mary sues.

>What's your favorite dead OSR blog?
Veeky Forums

>like the faerun Mary sues
Don't imitate garbage.

>That was sort of the basis for my index card idea.
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing on a full sheet of paper. Also bit ly/2Ap0SWs
>Only reason I want such big bosses is that I want taking them down to be a real accomplishment.
You're not aiming to make a setting or run a game, you're aiming to write a mediocre book.

I've heard that somewhere in the blogosphere is a neatly condensed version of the hexmap descriptions in Rob Conley's The Majestic Wilderlands. Anyone happen to know what i'm talking about and have it laying around?

I've looked through the trove, but had no luck. Would a kind user point me in the direction of the Hot Springs PDF if it exists?

Thank you, gentlemen.

The what?

Hot Springs Island:

youtube.com/watch?v=mp_sIAqKc1Q

Fileshare thread doesn't have it either.

Thanks for looking user.

So, I should be starting a new group with some friends soon --- finally! I'll be running a stripped down version of B/X (I guess) with some house rules. I've been practising learning the system with a friend for a while and now I'm going to get it to work for a larger group.

Since most of the prospective players are new (one has played AD&D and another I've played VtM with, but the rest are new), I'm planning to run them through ToTSK. Unfortunately I'm not very used to running prepackaged modules. So it's not really clear to me what the flow of information is.

Like, room 2 --- am I supposed to tell them that the statues are hollow or just assume they will tap on them or try to lift them or break them? (I wouldn't myself.) Room 4 sort of indicates that maybe they don't automatically know that the statue is hollow without tapping and they find out when they try to pull the ring off, but it's not clear.

Room 9 --- how obvious is it that the statue is out of alignment? Do I tell them that? Or do I wait until they inspect the statues (if they do)?

Room 12 --- how obvious is an electrum plate on the floor? Electrum seems like it might be shiny. People say that you should forecast traps ahead of time, but I'm not sure about that. It seems like it would be pretty easy to just avoid all traps completely if I did that.

Room 23 --- Judging based on what I know of fountains, I'm assuming it would be clear that the statue's been removed?

In general it's not always obvious what information is supposed to be DM information only, what is supposed to be immediately obvious, and what the party can tell by investigating in specified ways.

Also, I know it's supposed to be system-neutral, but it's not clear to me how the various saves included map to the standard five saves. Should I just use a Dex check for the hammer traps and the swinging blades? Actually, how are traps normally handled in OSR games that have the normal 5 saves? And vs fear?

I'm not Skerp but here's my thoughts

>room 2
The players shouldn't know a statue is hollow unless they tap or otherwise investigate

>room 9
This is something that could be easily missed, point it out only if they decide to investigate the room (not just the statue specifically)

>Room 12
According to wikipedia search it's shiny as hell.

>Room 23
Go with your gut

>how the various saves included map to the standard five saves.
I don't know what kind of hipster shit Skerps threw in so I'll leave that for him to answer.

So since critkeeper.site88.net/ is dead, does anyone know of a replacement?

I'm not skerples, but I'll do my best
>am I supposed to tell them that the statues are hollow or just assume they will tap on them or try to lift them or break them?
Don't tell them until they interact with the statues in a way that would reveal that they're hollow.
>how obvious is it that the statue is out of alignment?
Don't mention it immediately, but if the party asks about the statues or decides to search the room, you can tell them that they notice one of statues is out of alignment.
>how obvious is an electrum plate on the floor?
The electrum plate isn't necessarily on the floor, the pressure plate is. The electrum plate is what fires the lightning bolt.
>Judging based on what I know of fountains, I'm assuming it would be clear that the statue's been removed?
You could just say that there's a fountain, if they look at it or spend some time in the room, you could tell them it looks like something was ripped off and that there are bits of gold left on the fountain.
>saves
For the saves, I always used a handy trick Jeff Rients pointed out. You look at the saves in the order
>Paralyze, Poison, Breath, Device, Magic
Think about the effect and what it's trying to do, if it's a paralytic poison, it's save vs paralyze. But if it's a magic poison that turns you into a wheel of cheese, it'd be save vs poison because poison comes before magic.

I found this with a quick google search
critkeeper.site88.net/
As far as I can tell, the original site isn't dead, but the University's firewall threw up a big warning page and wouldn't let me access it.

critkeeper.000webhostapp.com/

>critkeeper.site88.net/
I am an idiot
critkeeper.byethost7.com/dcc/dcc.html

Skerples was lasted spotted in , if you're interested in flagging him down.
They find out the statues in room 2 are hollow if they break them, and they break them if they try to remove the ring.
it's implicitly the same plate.
It's 'system neutral' so figuring out saves is on you. The GLOG has a unified save, 'vs. Fear' is a cue for what happens on a fail.

I'd run them as
• breath for the poison in the statues
• death for both hammers
• rod for the electrum plate
• breath for the spikes on the ramp
• 5-in-6 check for jumping on the ledge
• no save for the CON damage pit
• spell for the succubus
• breath for the blade trap
• death for the no save neener neener poison
• rod for the throne
• morale check for hirelings smelling the goblin ferment (just describe it to the PCs)
• rod for the crown
• attack roll for the guardian's shields
• attack roll for the guardian's jump
• morale check for hirelings seeing the lich (just describe it to the PCs)
• stone for the basilisk's gaze
• morale check for hirelings seeing the basilisk (just describe it to the PCs)
• attack roll for the basilisk thrashing
• morale check for hirelings when the basilisk rages

So what is your favorite setting and why?

I am looking for one

>Skerples was lasted spotted in →, if you're interested in flagging him down.
What is this, Skerplespotting?

>So it's not really clear to me what the flow of information is.
It's not the clearest flow of information ever put to paper, but it seems like you've got the gist of it.

>Like, room 2 --- am I supposed to tell them that the statues are hollow or just assume they will tap on them or try to lift them or break them?
Information like this comes up if the players take actions to discover it. Put yourselves in their shoes; see what they see. If they ask what the statues taste like, tell them - I didn't put that information in the module because it didn't seem like it would come up a lot... but the statues should taste like something.

You can also guide your players' hands a bit. If they start fiddling with the statues, doing anything to them that might knock or jostle them, tell them they sound hollow. You don't have to wait for them to ask that specific question.

>w obvious is it that the statue is out of alignment?
How obvious do you want it to be? I give this kind of information out if the players ask almost any question about the statues, or say "I'm going to examine the statues."

>- how obvious is an electrum plate on the floor?
By my recollection, the electrum plate is on the wall, dead ahead of the doors. The pressure plate is on the floor. The pressure plate is dark and like stone; the electrum is shiny and obvious.

"In general it's not always obvious what information is supposed to be DM information only, what is supposed to be immediately obvious, and what the party can tell by investigating in specified ways.
All information in the module can be discovered by the PCs fairly trivially. There's nothing included for the GM's benefit alone. The players can find out all sorts of things just by asking about them.

>Also, I know it's supposed to be system-neutral, but it's not clear to me how the various saves included map to the standard five save
There's enough variance in the OSR world that I left it unspecified. But
has the right of it, if you're going with the classic 5 Saves.

>does the air taste like a lesson wafted to the bottom of the room?

Not the original user, but made no sense to me. Does anyone have a guideline for the more abstract versions of the five saves?

If you're unsure what save to use, why not just give out one universal save that increases with level? Grant bonuses to relevant stats or classes when they happen.

death/poison/paralysis - taking you out of action
stone/polymorph - shape change & milder death
rod/staff/wand - magic tied up in items
breath - unavoidable, but reducible, damage
spell - magic not tied up in items

There's a few weird outliers that specify otherwise,
but generally you go through in order and save as the first fit.,

Tastes like hipster grease, scotch, and sawdust.

Speaking of, you should totally make hardwood a lootable treasure for your games. That shit, especially the rarer woods, is valuable. Plus it usually floats!

youtube.com/watch?v=AI156dEQEvE

What is the best OSR Summoner class?

Don't post it, Skerp.

Don't.

DO IT, SKERPY

rottenpulp.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/summoner.html
>inb4 GLoG isn't OSR debate
>but screw you guys, this one's definitively OSR

FINE YOU BASTARDS
maziriansgarden.blogspot.ca/2017/08/unfamiliar-familiars.html

Ok, fine, how about
maziriansgarden.blogspot.ca/2014/01/summoning.html
maziriansgarden.blogspot.ca/2014/01/the-book-of-six-circles.html

or maybe adapting lastgaspgrimoire.com/religion-is-a-nest-of-serpents/

gloomtrain.blogspot.com/search?q=Summoner

I feel like writing random tables. Someone suggest some tables you'd like to have.

Settings

There was a neat looking biotech plant dungeon in 2015(?) one page dungeon stuff. Don't have my copy. Bioprospecting Report X or something like that.

necropraxis.com/2014/02/26/genie-binder/

Heirlooms from retired adventurers.

Different possible origins for a classic D&D monster.

Things that fight as gnoll.

A table that generates random table topics to write.

1d8 Adventurer's Heirlooms

1. A lead lockbox full of trap-coins; they seem to be supernaturally attractive to thieves, and the true owner instinctively knows where they are. Only lead blocks the effect.

2. A nub of a sword, the blade melted by a beast with acid for blood.

3. A fighting manual for combating various types of obscure humanoid monsters, with outlines of their preferred fighting styles and how to counter them.

4. A glass gem that catches the light oddly. Worth nothing monetarily, but he spent hours staring at it while he sat beside the fire...

5. Totem to a now-dead snake god. At first glance appears incredibly valuable, but the gems are fake and the gold only a thin layer of gilding.

6. A battered shield made of some unusually light yet strong metal. Writing in unknown, bizarre language around the edge.

7. A bizarre convolution apparently made of several portable holes jammed inside each other. Painful to look at, even worse if you try to touch it.

8. A truly staggering collection of ancient coins. Every kingdom from the past thousand years is represented. Totally unsorted.

Table Generation Tables (3d6 down the line)

1. 1d4...

2. 1d6...

3. 1d8...

4. 1d10...

5. 1d12...

6. 1d20...


1. magical...

2. famous...

3. just plain bizarre...

4. painfully generic...

5. malicious...

6. actually quite helpful...


1. weapons.

2. NPCs.

3. locations.

4. minor gods.

5. local rumors.

6. items.

Rolled 3, 1, 3 = 7 (3d6)

Rolled 1, 4, 5 = 10 (3d6)

good chart, it's got all the basics

Thanks all. That's mostly what I was figuring.

I hadn't realized the electrum plate was supposed to be on the wall. That makes a lot more sense.

This is exceptionally useful. I may end up using this more-or-less directly --- though I might use Poison for the poison in the statues. I might change how that works as well, since I'm using variant poison rules.

It seems rather weird to me to use save vs Breath for the spikes and blade trap, but I guess it's the most sensible category if Breath is supposed to represent physical things. I might end up using a normal attack roll for those, come to think of it. We'll see.

Rolled 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 6, 4, 3, 2, 5, 2, 3, 3, 3, 1 = 53 (18d6)

1d8 What the fuck is an Owlbear, anyway

1. It's what you get when an owl and a bear fuck, obviously.

2. A rumor made up by druids to get people to stay out of the woods. Nobody has ever actually gotten a good look at one. The myth is sustained by a combination of costumes and drunk people.

3. There's a wandering magical portal that just spits them out occasionally. There aren't actually any organs inside, it's just an undifferentiated pink mass, like Spam.

4. They spontaneously generate inside caves from the accumulated pain and hate of predators killed by human hunters.

5. It's a naturally evolved species, a striking example of how unrelated species converge on similar forms. Convergent evolution and nothing more.

6. They're a peyote-fueled hallucination that somehow escaped from the dreamtime and into the waking world.

7. Zeus.

8. Wizard did it.

Here are 2 more silly creatures to Attack the Sheet. These ones were briefly discussed last thread. They go after your character's backstory.

Aww heck, I forgot to shill. coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/11/osr-attack-sheet-part-2.html

1d12 painfully generic locations
1d8 famous NPCs
1d4 magical items
1d10 just plain bizarre NPCs
1d12 famous locations
1d8 just plain bizarre weapons

>if Breath is supposed to represent physical things
Breath is a dude holding a shield against a dragon - he still gets burnt, but not as badly. Also he looks cool.
>I might end up using a normal attack roll for those
Also a fair call.

>1d12 famous locations
should be 1d7 really

1d10 Famous Arsonists and What They Done Burned Down

Alright fair point. I'll leave them out of it.

1d8 Magical Locations

1. Healing spring. Gains its power from the blood of an imprisoned chaos godling seeping up through the earth. Don't use its power too much.

2. Ruin of ancient courthouse. Enchantment that prevents any lie from being spoken within its walls remains in effect; now that there are no walls, it just gets gradually weaker as you move from the epicenter.

3. Laser Pit. Immense focused beam of light shoots up from the bottom into the sky at midnight every new moon. Local villagers use it as an incinerator.

4. Pillar of Infinity. People standing at the top can see around the entire world, untroubled by the horizon and with infinite zoom; if they wanted they could count the hairs on the back of their own head. It's all a complete illusion, of course.

5. House of Lights. Stone labyrinth filled with wandering lights. Endless rumors of man-eating monsters, all untrue.

6. Penrose Field. Floor mosaic with constantly-shifting patterns and colors. Sits in middle of otherwise unremarkable plain. Order of monks meditates contemplating it.

7. Forest ring. Ring of immense tree-sized mushrooms a mile in diameter. Portal to Fairlyland within. Steady stream of adventurers goes in; much smaller number trickle out.

8. Heaven's Peak. The peak of the highest mountain in the world. When the wind is right, you can see into the afterlife. Or so it is said.

One good way to do that is to scramble what players can do.

Rogue might be useless against doors but alchemists might get something done.

What is this image from?

google
yandex
saucenao
iqdb
tineye
image raider
bing

Whelp. Couldn't sworn Veeky Forums was happy with unicode check boxes.
Guess not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That's:

check
check
empty box
empty box
check
check
check

Sounds cool but I cant find it.

I’m thinking a War against the Chtorr style alien eco-system “terra” forming of the countryside around the crash site of the organitech alien craft. So not just aliens but the plants and animals of thier planet.....”The villagers have found the corpse of a monster no one has ever seen. It was struggling to breathe when they found it.”

Maybe the party’s ranger can find the scent glad that seems to control the sphincter doors inside the alien craft.

man old school runescape is the best, glad there's a general on here. anyone going to barrows? I want the dharok set

Gielinor OSR setting supplement when

I`m looking for some OSR-style ruleset about high magic/astral setting (Realms of Chaos-style, especially Tzeentch)

So how should I determine what spells the Spirit brings the Summoner?

One cleric and MU spell per level?

Two spells exclusively?