/osr/ - Old School Renaissance

>Almost nobody answers them
Make good questions and people will answer them

>Where do you get your minis?
I tipped into the first Bones kickstarter and that's served me well ever since.

>Do you prefer old dinky army toys or really slick painted professional ones?
Depnds on what you mean -- I definitely prefer really slick painted minis on the table, but I can seldom be arsed to paint everything up.

Why was BECMI more popular (and sold a lot more) than 1e, and why was it supplanted later by 2e?

Note that spell level doesn't directly map to power (2nd level spells are typically worse than 1st, etc.) and that around 4th/5th level you start getting CHAINMAIL spells that don't make much sense in the dungeon.

More splats? Gazetteers? Modules?

BECMI isn't the product that sold well - it's specifically Mentzer Basic, which sold well because it's a fucking starter set and advertised itself as being suitable for kids. It didn't get supplanted by 2E, either - they kept printing versions of The New Easy-to-Master Dungeons & Dragons Game and The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game well into at least '94.

TSR, of course, kind of fell off the wagon in '95.

Mystara eventually got shuffled off to 2E, but that was in combination with creating a new setting for Basic: Thunder Rift.

It was cheaper and got sold in more places. One box vs. three+ books. Funky dice were included.

As an all-in-one game, it could get sold in bookstores, toy shops and supermarkets. It also didn't hurt that they launched a cartoon alongside it.

Do note, however, that spells do not compete with spells outside their level: in OD&D, 1E and IIRC Basic (I don't know about 2E), you cannot prepare a 1st-level spell in a 2nd-level slot.

In 3E 2nd-level spells being worse than 1st wouldn't make sense, since you'd just prepare more 1st-level spells in those slots. In OD&D it just makes you more versatile.

lego, user.

Neither. I like the old-fashioned pewter (I assume) minis, either bereft of paint or hand-painted.

And one of these days I'm going to learn how to make them myself.

What's a mini?

miniature, a little army man or plastic monster or figure representing a medieval person that you can use when you play to represent the characters

I've never seen any evidence of that.

No, I mean: "what's this strange thing you speak of that has never been a part of any of my games?"

This
Or pick a really good spell from each level and calibrate against it if you're optimizing or giving the players loads of spells. If the players have few spells, or less choice, balance matters a bit less, because they'll have so many fewer points to compare against your spell.

Or do levelless GLOG spells.
Recently? The Hyqueous Vaults is pretty great. All the Trilemma adventures are fun, even if they're not perfect.
No minis, or I sculpt my own for one-off gimmicks or gifts.

>spoiler
never

...

I know that 3 miles per hex will cause some fairly heavy hex-bloat, but 6+ miles per hex is even worse if it is simply a solid color/terrain. How do you account for where something actually is in a hex such as a landmark or an adventure site without using another set of notes (which sort undermines the point of having a reference map in the first place)

>I'm still waiting for someone to give a general guideline for the power of each spell at each spell level for invented/homebrew spells.
Good luck. The official spells are all over the place in terms of power. Sleep is the same level as ventriloquism.

Arnold had some leveless wizard magic going on before he made the GLoG. I remember some user saying he was going to try to finish what he started.

Never. I'll never turn to the GLOG Side.

Another set of keyed notes. The map just gets terrain, proximity, and major landmarks you couldn't possibly miss even if you were blundering through blindly.

Your mileage may vary. As long as you can use it, you can use whatever symbols you'd like.

Also... that is a lot of hexes. Over 700 if I'm not being dumb on the math. You may want to zoom in, unless you've already got a ton written.

...

I like a bunch of stuff from Dungeon of Signs. The Red Demon and the Kugelburg Flood especially, but there's some other good shit there.

How much of a holy cow is it to have class-based saving throws instead of unified saves for all classes?

The way I do it is that I don't worry about it.

That said, I already have another set of notes to say what all is in each hex. Adding a little extra wouldn't change it all that much.

I blithely assume anything interesting is in the center of the hex, and there is only one interesting thing per hex.

I got mines from the boardgame Talisman

That's purely a balance tweak, you could do it if you like. It'll make some classes stronger, some weaker, but won't really have a huge impact on gameplay or anything.

What's your opinion of Crypts & Things?

It's nothing worth shilling about, like you are going to do when you pretend to reply to yourself.

I find it much more elegant in play with people who only play occasionally. Less stuff to look up when rolling a new character.

>using a dedicated hex map

I'm not in the habit of talking to myself! But, thanks, user. I won't bother getting it then.

So what you can tell me about castles and crusaders? is it better than ACKs?

I heard it's crap.

>It's nothing worth shilling about, like you are going to do when you pretend to reply to yourself.

Oh, I read that it's nothing worth shilling about, like you are going to do when you pretend to reply to yourself.

I don't use a hex map, just a hand drawn map and
about 1cm= 1hex= about 5km. Hexes look cool, but I draw encounters from a deck based on area instead of having to key a bunch of hexes.

This seems neat. How well do they roll or fold up?

They roll OK, they don't fold.

Plastic transparencies are less than $1/sheet, but you can only buy them in packs.
You'll need to take them to a print shop, too. "Intended" use is sharpies.

>sharpies
*wet erase markers

>sharpies

>People can't ask about things.
Fuck off.

We're not here to spoonfeed you. Google, check the trove and download the thing yourself, and make your mind. Don't make excuses for shill drive-by posts.

Oh that makes sense.

If you do accidentally a permanent marker on a whiteboard you can go over it with erasable and both come off.

>If you do accidentally a permanent marker on a whiteboard you can go over it with erasable and both come off.
What the fuck is this wizardry?

Fuck you, don't tell me what to do!

Yeah, shove your spoon up your ass!

God, I love it when you're angry. Turns me on.

Miniature market, mostly, although Arcknight's plastic pawns are good for non-"important" encounters

Castles & Crusades streamlines AD&D, and by going with the universal d20 mechanic, it makes pretty much everything function the same way. Accordingly, it uses BAB (it calls it Bonus to Hit, but it's the same thing) and ascending AC. So essentially, the rules are a bit more involved than with most Basic clones (more classes, more class powers, etc.) but they're also more elegant.

Pretty much everything is an attribute (modifier) check, including saving throws and it uses something it calls the SIEGE engine, wherein you choose primary and secondary attributes for your character. Humans get 3 and demihumans get 2, with one of these being determined by your class. When making a check against your primary attribute, your base target number is 12, while it's 18 for a secondary attribute. So what you pick as primary makes a significantly bigger difference than your attribute modifier (an effective +6 vs. the +3 you get for an 18). Additionally, you add your level to class-related skills and saving throws (as well as spell challenge difficulty*), which makes for a rather extreme advancement. I think the SIEGE engine is the main thing that turns people off of C&C, and I understand why. In addition to being a bit wonky, it's decidedly un-old school.

I like it being attribute-based, I like it making everything work the same way, and I generally like the way it approaches its classes (for instance, taking vancian magic away from rangers, paladins and bards). I'm not fond of the overly long equipment lists (with something like a dozen types of helmets and way too many kinds of armor).

*Unfortunately, spell saves start off difficult to make and don't get any easier, which removes one of the most important ways that old school D&D limited the power of high-level casters. It's a glaring oversight, but one that is easily fixed: add only half a caster's level (rather than their full level) to their spell's challenge level.

Hur hur. This was me replying to myself. LOL

>Asking to get other people's perspectives is invalid.
Your assumption that anybody asking about anything is shilling is just stupid.

>Your assumption that anybody asking about anything is shilling is just stupid.
Besides which, I've got nothing against somebody shilling something, as long as they don't go overboard.

Shut the fuck up Skerples.

>unironic use of LOL
I want this OSRICuck to leave.

Your hp is meat points and food is healing... is lunch a type of surgery?

>OSRICuck
>trying to insult the sole reason /osrg/ even exists
I want /5eg/ to leave.

And I want a cheese sandwich, but since I'm the only one here likely to get what I want, why don't we all try to get along?

Wizard needs food badly.

Worth bearing in mind that sometimes, the main hook a class has is it's brilliant saves. For example, in LotFP, the Dwarf and Halfling would both be mediocre without their good saves. So by giving everybody the same save, you take away that class's niche.

Have any of you ever considered selling your material on something like drivethrurpg? What are the requirements? Or is it like most "artistic" businesses where all that really matters is your name recognition?

Erase Permanent Mark
Range: 0
Duration: Permanent
By casting this spell, magical words, runes or other permanent forms of writing may be erased from existence. This spell removes 1d4 pages worth of writing +1 pager per caster level.

Cavegirl does that. Ask cavegirl. No.

Maybe those classes need something else going for them anyway. What kind of “niche” is “less likely to get hit by spells”?

There might be something if they had a way to force spells to target them first.

Others have noted balance issues, but it'd be easy enough to just have certain classes have the same saving throws but, say, get the better of two dice rolls on them. Or just get a +3 bonus (which technically means they don't have the same saves, but also means they're easily derived from the normal saves).

>advantage disadvantage saves with notes
I have been thinking of something like this every time people start arguing about saves for the last few weeks.I'm not too bothered by writing down the different types of saves, its not that much. But it does seem like a middle ground that streamlines for people worried about bookkeeping but maintains class distinctions.

Why does the OSR have such a hard-on for demons but not devils?
Why does no one but me like daemons?

That fact that "devils" and "demons" have to be separate things is the worst bullshit of all.

> Why not devils
redundant

Help me create a campaign setting /osrg/ i will use whatever you reply to this post

sheeeeit! what's this product called?

also what's your favorite mapping software? i do my stuff freehand, but I don't have a scanner. i'd like something that can do towns/cities and dungeons too, without too much hassle.

if that exists.

There are no demons, only devils
Thri-kreen ate 90% of the world's elves
Draenei are a player option
Humans are the bad guys

amazon.com/dp/B00IDBZPIU

perfect for those campaigns where everyone is a skeleton

Milennia ago, after the most terrible war the universe ever knew caused the World above and the World below to agree to seal shut the gates that linked them for ten thousand years so they could rebuild. The first gate reopened yesterday.

>perfect for those campaigns where everyone is a skeleton

and a giant

Devils and demons are two words for the same thing.
It takes place on Not-Arrakis.

Any good modules you could suggest for a funhouse dungeon?

zombie apocalypse?
try an entire undead apocalypse
the world is full of cysts of negative energy
people survive in small pockets
wights wander the landscape in gangs of four or five
knots of negative energy come forth from these cysts, and are sentient
they can raise corpses as zombies and skeletons at will, and command any number of them
the only way to stop them is by destroying these cysts
each cyst requires the life energy of a powerful living being, to be channeled through a ritual, in order to destroy it
if that's too grimdark, it just requires a ton of positive energy channeling, in a ritual that takes at least an hour, and all the while gangs of wights occasionally happen by to attack you

What are the best DCC modules and why?

Oh, good question. That's a very subjective question so you're going to get some different answers, but for me personally I would have to say DCC #79 Frozen in Time. It's just gonzo as hell and it's a good level 1 module.

A while back, my Pathfinder group tried AD&D. They absolutely hated it, and I feel that it is because the rules were inaccessible (in their mind) and arcane in a lot of respects. I also feel that lack of "build" options soured them toward the game, but I'll leave that issue for another time. I decided to work on a light OSR system, being disappointed with a lot of what was out there, and decided to keep it under 30 pages, and go for the "rulings not rules" approach (though rulings that come up often tend to turn into houserules, which for a personal system might as well be included in the rulebook). What do you think? What should I keep? What should I remove? I am especially curious as to your opinions on:
>character hit points progression
>the critical hit mechanic, where a crit is not necessarily extra damage but could be
>how death should work
>saving throws: one save, or several?
>the "weapon styles" for fighter to make weapon choice matter a bit without overcomplicating the game
>the equipment table (meant to make players focus on leather armor at lower levels and make metal armor rare, amongst NPCs as well as PCs)
>the spell progression (meant to be very minimalistic)
>attack progressions (want to have "bounded accuracy" but not quite as far as 5th edition does it)
>my hunting rules (and how to simplify them)
>the Design Notes section in the back, which contains the wanky pretentious opinions that shape my design (every game should have this section)
Any feedback would be appreciated. I'm also working on a zombie apocalypse OSR game but I'll wait til next thread to share that (can't decide if characters should roll for random occupation, or random skills).

osr is light, bro

Seems like a good start though it feels, to me at least, to skew more towards modern style games than old-school ones.

It is if you don't play the editions no one plays anymore precisely because they're a mess to run

That user's experience with AD&D is essentially the reason why everyone in this thread says to play Basic instead

White Plume Mountain

But
>muh builds

WG7 Castle Greyhawk

Trying to make some wandering monster tables for my dungeon, all of the interesting monsters only start appearing around level 2 or so.

Does anybody have any decent or interesting monsters I can stock a level 1 table with aside from various forms of undeads or oozes?

Monsters don't have levels so I assume you mean HD, yes? Just throw in whatever the hell sounds fun up to around 4 HD but make sure that your party has the chance to flee/lure the enemies into their own traps/pit enemy monsters against one another.