/osrg/ - Old School Renaissance General

It's honestly not that great, but B2 is the usual suspect to parade around.

If you're willing to do some leg work, you could adapt this to a dungeon?

It doesn't need to be too elaborate in how you socialize with people. But more dungeon diplomacy is generally what I am looking for. The party was having fun with one guy being the goblin king, until they figured out the entire secret behind it. Though even without a dungeon that PDF you posted actually sounds like a pretty fun module. I will need to run that sometime.

>And 8. Because a new player very excitedly said "HP goes over twenty!?!" when leveling and it made me ask why. All the other numbers on the sheet are 20 or under.
Why does level go over 20?

Level usually caps at 10?

>All the other numbers on the sheet are 20 or under.
I guess maybe he was putting hit points on the same scale as attributes. It's still weird.

bump

GLoG level has a +1 row after 10. All you get for it is 1hp:500xp, but it does raise the level.

Was that your first session, or just your first session with that group?

Wait, so you played a one player game and they still play? Not bad.

Nothing too complicated or unusual. I asked him to play, and he said sure. He never did any fantasy rpgs before so it took some time before he warmed up to the idea, but eventually he got hooked.

I guess i'll repost for new thread.

>be a dm in 2ead&d teaching ppl who only know 5e
>only have the books to help me dm it

So... questions.
1- the six base stats, from 12 to 16 seem utterly meaningless in difference between eachother.
2- Are ABI's only given out by rewards from the dm? I don't think I saw "stat increase" once in the entire phb and dmg.
3- the big one- initiative

>I'm using the default 1d10 for each side, and everyone says what they want to do before it's rolled, and you roll each round.
Is order determined just by clockwise around the table? Arbitrary?
What if p1 kills what P2 said they were going to kill, does P2's turn fizzle?

and...

Because we were pouring through an archive of old edition pdfs and found a flyer advertising 2e to the ad&d crowd. PDF was super fucking old.

We read about how Rogues get exp for stealing or earning money. Priests can get exp from preaching. Wizards get exp for casting spells (in the right situation)

We all thought it'd be hilarious if party got stuck at low levels and couldn't progress a difficult area, and needed to grind. But were too pitiful to fight kobolds- so they all split up for a month. Thief gets a job, priest goes on a short pilgrimage, wizard casts cantrip for tips at a bar.

1. That's accurate. How good you are at things is mostly tied up in level, not stats.
2. There's treasure (rare on the random tables) and one spell (wish) that can do it. A side effect of stats not being important is that raising stats isn't important.
3. The imitative rules are pretty crappy at times, in the examples it's just who speaks first (or decides first, if they talk it out before declining). Yes P2's round fizzles. Note that rounds are a minute long, so fluff wise they killed it together.

I can't seem to upload files for some reason, but
img.fireden.net/tg/image/1511/88/1511886631513.pdf

>Level usually caps at 10?
The fuck system are you playing, 13th Age? Generally in OSR it's either 3, 14, 36, or unbounded. I think I've seen some 20s as well, I guess.

nayrt
They're discussing the GLOG. I agree that 10 is weird.

Sure, make it a quest reward. Go find someone who can do it and get them to teach you or bash their head in. As for the actual mechanics, I'd just go with "it takes up a spell slot until you get better at doing it" or "you can raise them but controlling them takes effort" or "there's an expensive material component needed".

Costs should be balanced against hirelings.

>Hope this encyclopedia will be a resource I can check out.
Maybe one day. I doing all the proofreading now actually... i need to do the layout, add images etc. I have a shitload of my 2e resources i should release.... never thought there would be interest.
(Its a compilation of cleric spells, wizard spells, classes i created, proficiency rules and updates etc etc)
>What about the WotC 2nd edition Greyhawk stuff (published 97-00)? I've been reluctant to pick up any of it because it moves the timeline again, and I can't stand that shit. Is any of it good, or generic enough timeline-wise to make use of during From the Ashes?
Marklands is a good resource to have. I own all the stuff for 2e, but the WoTC stuff you mentioned i dont use, with the exception of a small bit of ivid the undying
>Not familiar with the Horned Society, other than it being a place on the map. I'll look into them. What's the problem with Iuz? (aside from seemingly being overused
Overused for sure, also, consider the following:
Demons are chaotic, they dont have order and all that in thier thoughts and their planning and execution of a world war would be shit. The Horned Society is ruled by 13 Heirarchs that have all made pacts with Devils, which are lawful evil. Yeah they're evil, but their lawful system of evil,with its inherant order and structure would be better served at waging a world war. Also: Iuz is a half demon cambion thats also a demigod (maybe), yet the heirarchs are the worldy representatives of the 9 archdevils that rule hell itself, including Asmodeous, the biggest of all devils. They wouldnt let the heirarchs to get rolled like a pack of retards like in the official cannon version.

In earlier D&D, "hire armies and fight in wargames" level characters could cast that spell day after day after day with no cost or long-term limit.
IIRC, Deep Carbon Observatory has a neat magic item right up your alley.

Why exactly does B/X go up to 14, anyway? Is there a particular reason why they chose that number?

Castles and crusades caps at 12 not counting the optional rules in the dmg, I wouldn't call it OSR though

What are some OSR games wherein everything is broken and borderline unusable due to the incompetence of designers?

My homebrew.
Your homebrew.

Reposting this for the new thread.
I've been thinking of running Hammers of the God for my group. I looked through it, and it seemed okay. Is it actually good in practice, or does it turn out to be another linear grindfest?

Steam Hill session 8 and 9 are up, if anyone's interested. Hard to post right now. coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2018/01/osr-secret-of-steam-hill-session-8-9.html

I can only post using [Post a Reply] at the top of the page, which spins for ages, then sends me to a "Bad gateway" error page despite the post going through.
Still can't post images, for some reason. Anyone else having these issues?

>The Snakewood Staff

>The Staff can call the dead to walk and raise a corpse with just one
>touch. The mindless thing will serve whomever raised it till de-
>stroyed or worn to bits. Each use incurs an XP debt of 500 points.
>This will be taken from any experience earned. The staff gives no
>indication of this cost. Once used the staff cannot be discarded. If
>thrown away, the corpse closest to the staff reanimates and brings
>it back, by force if necessary. This will never stop. The staff cannot
>be destroyed.

>If broken, burned or crushed it seeps invisibly back into being by
>midnight the next day. If ordered to 'leave,' dead raised by the staff
>will walk for fifty miles, then get confused and come back. Oth-
>erwise they will do nothing other than follow and wait. They can
>understand only the simplest commands.

>"Bad gateway"
"Gateway time-out", sorry.

Yup. Takes about 30 tries to get through.
Tax dollars well spent.

Yup, having the same sorts of problems. My network report widget is blaming Chicago. I've had more luck phoneposting.

Test

I can't post from quick reply so if this works you'll be my one-time internet hero. Thanks hiroyuki. Can't believe I have to use Post Reply like a fucking caveman

>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢿⣶⣥⡘⢀⠉⢠⡌
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠐⢀⠘⣿⣿⣿⣦⣀⠠⠤⠤⢀⢀⠤⠤⢀⣀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⣀⣀⣀
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⡄⡈⢀⡿⠟⠋⠁⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠈⠐⢢⣴⣾⣿⣿⠟⠁⢀
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⡠⠓⢈⡀⠤⡤⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠙⢿⣿⡿⠅
>⢀⢀⢀⡠⠊⠔⠈⢀⢀⠈⣀⢀⢀⡠⢀⢀⢀⢀⡀⡀⠠⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠙⡁⠠⡀⢀⠃
>⢀⢀⠬⠊⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠁⢀⡠⠊⢀⡇⢀⢀⢀⠉⠢⢀⢀⢀⠈⢀⢀⢀⢀⠐⡔⠊⠌
>⢀⠸⡡⠄⢒⠈⠇⢀⢀⡀⠈⠈⠁⢀⠃⡆⢀⢀⢀⠔⢀⠁⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢡⢀⣁⠅
>⢀⠁⢀⢀⢸⢸⢠⢸⢀⢀⢀⡤⢀⢀⠘⣤⢀⢀⡂⢤⣀⣠⢀⡀⠐⡆⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⢀⡇
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⢸⠈⢸⡒⠛⠛⣻⣿⡇⢀⠈⠣⡀⡚⠛⠛⣛⣿⣿⢀⡇⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⡇
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⠘⢀⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⢀⢀⢀⠈⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿⢀⡇⢀⢀⢀⣼⢀⢠⠁
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⢧⠇⠘⠉⠛⠋⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠈⠊⠛⠛⠁⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢰⡿⢀⠆
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⠣⣀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠤⠔⠤⠠⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⠘⢀⠄⣰⡟⠁⠊
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⢀⢀⠹⡒⠤⢤⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣤⡤⢒⢃⢌⡼⠻⠐⠁
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⢀⢀⢰⠈⢘⠂⢀⠚⠙⠋⠭⠭⠥⠄⢐⡉⠐⡹⠖⠁⠈⠢
>⢀⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⢀⢀⢸⢀⢸⢀⠄⢨⢀⠈⠁⢀⠈⠁⠐⠒⠒⠒⠲⢀⢀⢀⢱⢀⠤
>⣶⣶⣶⣶⣾⣶⣶⡆⣼⢀⢸⠰⢀⠸⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⡆⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⡇⢀⢀⢀⡄⢀⢰
>⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⢀⢸⡃⢀⡀⢀⢀⢀⢀⢀⡇⢀⢀⢀⠈⠍⠋⢀⢀⢀⡇⢀⢸

Is PDF uploading also down?

Most 'OSR' games with hack in the name.

c

Everything is down. These are the end times. Abandon all hope, ye who blogpost here.

The Snakewood Staff is one of those things that's a curse in the hands of a responsible, sensible PC... and an apocalypse in the hands of a suicidal, power-hungry, or short-sighted PC.

Also, what does "XP Debt" even mean? What does it feel like? Level drain, I get, but what are the negative effects of XP debt? Because... what's to stop someone becoming Emperor of the World with a zombie horde and living a happy, satisfied life in an Imperial palace built and maintained by the obedient dead?

It doesn't feel like anything. You reach the point where you ought to level up, and the DM shrugs at you. If you got overeager, you very well may never level up again.

If you die without paying a sage to ID your item (or die before getting the chance), the group will figure it out pretty quick when whoever nicked your stuff stops leveling.
At any rate, 'cannot be gotten rid of' is the tell-tale sign of a cursed item.

Does anyone have that one blog post that brought up replacing level drain with levels in a class which mostly penalized the character, but had really niche benefits? And when you leveled up, you could choose to discard one of your levels in the class or level up in your normal one?

>what's to stop someone becoming Emperor of the World
They keep within 50 miles of you
>built and maintained by the obedient dead?
can barely do more than wait or follow you around
and if you're like level 3 forever, you would be a pretty easy assassination target.

Sounds neat, but what's wrong with traditional level drain?

>not painstakingly arranging your skeletons into a mobile palace/war machine

You thinking about the lovecraft crazy boys?
>basicredrpg.blogspot.com/2017/08/crazy-boys-lovecraft-level-drain.html

I'm not actually sure, but I suspect that it's because it's Name Level+5 with the name level being normalized around the Fighter.

I thought it might have to do with spell acquisition, but OD&D Wizards get 7th-level spells at level 14 and Patriarchs get 6th-level at level 12. It might be because the OD&D Master Thief gets 100% in all skills at level 14, but that's a weird thing to focus on.

In any case, remember that
>Several character classes (cleric, fighter, magic-user and thief) are allowed to advance to 36th level.
The D&D Companion(R) was planned from the start, it's just that before that got done they decided to remake Basic and Expert and also split Companion into two books and add a fifth one about gods.

Basic goes to level 3 because it was intended as an introductory product and THAC0 and saves don't change until level 4, but I'm honestly not sure why Expert went an extra eleven levels to level 14. Maybe it's just a nicer number than 13 (which might have issues selling in the US).

Drunk thoughts with user:
How to make a DnD setting inspired by WW1 ?

You mean Lord of the Rings?

The feel of catastrophic warfare destroying portions of civilization. Technology outpacing tactics. A race around the globe. Desolation.

When I was running games at my FLGS, he would occasionally pop in to observe while waiting for his anime club to start. He would sometimes take over an NPC, and I liked his earnest yet awkward style. The next year, he and my wife had the same class in college, and we invited him to join our gaming group full-time.

Now he's the player I go to when I need someone who will react with believable humanity, or delightful snark, depending on the character.

Here's to you, Stranger.

Gary wanted to merge AD&D and Tractics. Might be a good place to look.
Also all the post-war fantasy literature.

>The feel of catastrophic warfare destroying portions of civilization.
Isengard and the Scouring of the Shire

>Technology outpacing tactics.
Sieges of Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith

>A race around the globe.
Journey of the Fellowship

>Desolation.
Isengard and Mordor

fuck, where did that image come from?

Did anyone actually play at level 20+ ?

>The D&D Companion(R) was planned from the start
Are sure?

Spirit Circle

It's about a necromancer cannibalizing his future reincarnations to fuel a really big spell.

>Are sure?
Don't thr Moldvay and Cook books both refer to it in their text?

Out of curiosity, which specific OSR system did you use ? Maybe i'll give it a try as my first OSR game, sounds fun.

Plz /t/g, recommend me the best OD&D clone (LBB + Chainmail only, although some Greyhawk might be permissible). I'd use the original books if referencing them wouldn't be such a bother and they're almost impossible to come by.

B4 The Lost City

Adventures Dark & Deep or Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox

What is my best bet for a straightforward beginner module? I kind of wanted to run Deep Carbon Observatory, but I feel like I should ease my group who is new to RPGs into OSR in general.

I haven't played or run it but Tomb of the Serpent Kings is recommended a bit here, and the standard entry point tends to be B2: Keep on the Borderlands.

I would recommend White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game, its Swords & Wizardry White Box, but written better.

I jumped right into running DCO with Lamentations with no real OSR experience and it went swimmingly.

Thanks for the recommendations anons. I will see if I can shoehorn a bit of diplomacy into some of these as well, as my players seem to want that.

>Tomb of the Serpent Kings is recommended a bit here
Only by the guy who wrote it.

I've run it and am not the Skerples. It wasn't "THE BEST THANG EVAR" like skerps hypes it up to be, but it was pretty good.

The basic set was already established by Holmes as going up to 3rd. When they were planning the Moldvay/Cook edition, they arbitrarily decided that the game would cap out at 36th (the Cook/Marsh expert set is the first ever mention of this level limit in D&D), so they had 33 more levels to detail.

They must have simply decided to break it up into 11 more levels in the Expert Set and 22 more levels in the B/X Companion set that never materialized.

When Mentzer and the Blumes took over, they split the higher level sets into three, each detailing 11 levels (4–14, 15–25, 26–36), even though there was no real justification for this.

At any rate, the level 14 cap in the original Expert Set is probably the reason for the demi-human level limits being what they are. They were originally 4th for halfling, 6th for dwarf, and ftr4/mag8 for elves, operating under the assumption that humans would go up to level 10 or so. If humans go up to level 14 in a basic/expert game that doesn't use higher sets, the halfling, elf, and dwarf limits of 8, 10, and 12 really do make sense.

It's actually now recommended in other places like the rpg subreddit and such. Skerples has said that very little of his traffic comes from this thread even with all his shilling, and while he may sound like an asshole while doing so, it's probably true

>Are sure?
Cook/Marsh Expert set, page X8, Levels Beyond Those Listed, last paragraph.
>It is important to note that these are only suggestions. Those players and DMs who wish to wait for the D&D(R) Companion supplement will be provided with exact information concerning these higher levels. This information may not always agree with the suggestions presented here and players may discover changes in their characters if they create their own rules for advancement.

>If humans go up to level 14 in a basic/expert game that doesn't use higher sets, the halfling, elf, and dwarf limits of 8, 10, and 12 really do make sense.
Although do note that Greyhawk (and later AD&D) heightened the level limits a bit for individuals with high attributes:
>Dwarves: F6- > F8 -> F9
>Elves: F4/MU8 -> F6/M9 ->F7/M11
>Hobbit: F4 -> fuck you, still F4 -> F6

So, very roughly, B/X gave them +2 max levels across the board. (Not really, but it's close enough.)

>see if I can shoehorn a bit of diplomacy
I'd recommend B4 The Lost City. Still a straight forward dungeon, lots of factions to wheel and deal with if they're inclined.

Tomb of the Iron God is neat too. Undead focus, but lots of things to interact with and was easy for me to work with.

And like 4 other people who dont look at it critically.

Take the basic points of light hex crawl idea, make the points of light friendly bunkers and strongpoints instead of hamlets and villages. Make at least 3 factions, fill the random encounter table with them fighting each other, random magical gas warfare weather table, reaction rolls can lead to getting conscripted, snipers, undead coming out at night to feast on the wounded (there's some fucked up stuff about corpses rising and falling out of the mud at night due to freezing and thawing ground), one page dungeons as blown out land-leviathans (dungeon of signs has a bunch of good shit for this), dungeons are labyrinthine trenchworks. Codes over well enough. I'd check out Hubris for the encounter tables, there's a bunch of stuff that seems helpful there.

Sooo...what do you see through your critical lens?

Just stopping by to tell skerples to kill himself.
Your material is shit, you self serving samefagging douche

Keep on the Borderlands can work for what you're looking for, since it's often advantageous to not fight through an occupied cave, and instead turn the inhabitants against each other. That way you can clean up the scraps and reap the rewards.

>everyone who agrees with someone I hate is samefagging.

It promotes weird dungeon design (statues statues statues, etc.), trades good layout for "easing in", is bloated with comments that don't influencr play, and, from Skerples' own anecdotes, failed to deliver on its teaching promises.

Alright, for people who plan on using Skerples' mutation table, I suggest you Ctrl + F "save", "movement" and "inventory slot" first to change the GLOG rules to your system's equivalents.

I don't know how stuff like climbing works in the GLOG, but some of the bonuses to specific checks will probably need fine-tuning, like Monkey Tail and Climber's Eye. I couldn't find any keyword all or even most of these had in common, but they're not that many.

Lamarckian evolution assumes you have a profession table, Frenzy assumes you have barbarians, and a couple more assume you use a death & dismemberment table (Ctrl + F "fatal wound").

You may also want to search "genital", "milk", "breast", "pheromone" (at least for the 2 which apply to the same race as the character) and maybe "egg laying" to erase all the iterations of those, depending on your group.

>GLOG
what the fuck is this even

Arnold K.'s fantasy heartbreaker. It's not OSR, and Arnold never claimed it was, but one of our resident oldfags stabbed it through his own shoulder and has by now stitched half the rules to his face.
His writhing was funny at first, but he's been grabbing at legs and managed to pull a few spectators down with him.

Hey Skerples, that beholder in your latest session write-up was crazy anticlimactic.

Correct. All-time views from Veeky Forums are about 1% of the total.
It's not the best thing ever, but it does what it says on the tin, and that's enough.
Statues are the theme of /this one dungeon/. Why do I keep having to mention this? Not all dungeons are going to have them but in this particular one it's a motif.
> failed to deliver on its teaching promises.
Some new players learned. Some learned and decided it was more fun to die in humorous ways than to survive and level.
Wasn't a beholder. Was a senile aboleth. The players got lucky in their initial encounter and they killed it with a cunning plan and not a fight, so I'd count that as a win. It was fairly tense around the table. Sorry if the writeup didn't convey that; writeups are hard.

All good suggestions. I considered posting a completely rules-less one but couldn't be bothered. d500 tables are exhausting enough as it is.
>You may also want to search "genital", "milk", "breast", "pheromone" (at least for the 2 which apply to the same race as the character) and maybe "egg laying" to erase all the iterations of those, depending on your group.
But... why?
Genuinely curious. Who here plays with people who would object to mutating and gaining a boob or four? And the "genital" mutations (all 4 of them, I think) are about as tasteful and discreet as it's possible to phrase them.

Anybody run BF1 Morgansfort? Or any of the other BFRPG modules?

WW1 user here, I like it

Did you just roll on the closest fiod tables, or... ?

>But... why?
Some places aren't worth going.

I just went through the whole table and reworded it for my system. And removed a couple I thought were too similar. Bird and bat wings etc. Just say "wings" and roll on a different table for what kind.

I want to know about your sentient monsters.

How are your kobolds different from your goblins, besides appearance? What is a hobgoblin in your world? A gnoll?

What monsters like to fight, which ones lie in wait to ambush, and which are primarily scavengers?

Tell me about your troglodytes.

Basically, I need inspiration for making the monsters that live in/around dungeons feel like they really have lives there and motivations besides "wait in a room and try to kill the players when they walk in."

see

15 hours ago.

Delving Deeper

I've heard someone say that isn't a straight reference document. What's different?

Probably minor house rules. Compared to Sword & Wizardry White Box it's much closer to the original.

Is v5 being discontinued? From what I've seen it was pretty awesome