/osrg/ - Old School Revival

Noted, thanks!

Congratulations! Will you release a print version? I'll buy that, but I don't want to read long stuff on screen.

>The number of sales required is low.
Well, hell, as long as you're outselling Operation Unfathomable, who cares?

>I'm a bit concerned that coin hoards may feel artificial if they're always in neat round numbers
Tbh, any referee who can't figure out on his own that he can roll d100-50 to add noise to a given total... I was going to say probably isn't ready, but that's not true, you learn by doing. Still, that guy has at least one thing left to learn.

Here's a conversion of the B/X equipment prices I made a ways back in order to put more space between things and extend the time before which money is no obstacle. It's set to a silver standard, but putting it back on the gold standard is as easy as renaming "silvers" "gp" (and "copper pieces" "sp"). I just took the prices down one coin size from baseline and squared that value. (So if you're retaining the gold standard, that means turning something that's 10 gp into 10 sp, and squaring the sp value = 100 sp = 10 gp, which is the tipping point where shit costs exactly the same. Above that, shit gets significantly more expensive. If something costs 100 gp, that becomes 100 sp = 10,000 sp = 1000 gp.) It's actually pretty impressive how well this system works out.

>Anyway, on topic... are there any good Encounters at Sea tables or modules out there? Odyssey-style.
Judges Guild's Island Book 1?

There's also a Master module that's pretty much the Odyssey but IN SPAAACE - M1 Into the Maelstrom.

Alright, so. Let's say that you keep the standard 3d6*10 starting coins - SP, in this case. Average dude has 100SP burning in their pocket.
The only armor they can afford is leather. If they're a Thief, taking Thieves' Tools puts them at 90SP - they might need to go unarmored. Holy Symbols being 50sp is similar, and Holy Water being 50sp means that it just won't ever be used. Shortbows are prohibitively expensive, and won't show up on starting characters. Melee weapons in general are weirdly cheap in comparison.

Of course, this doesn't really affect much in the long term - by the time the characters are level 2 they'll have ~1500SP each to their name, and by the time stuff like catapults become relevant they'll have hundreds of thousands of silvers.

Also, your prices are kind of weird in how you rounded them.

If you actually want to make your players strapped for cash, just enforce training costs or a general "to get XP from treasure, you need to spend it frivolously" rule.

I'm okay with starting characters not being able to afford shit. The first Wizardry computer game was like that. You'd pool your gold and still only get people maybe halfway to where you'd want them to be, only to come back in whenever you got a bit more gold and upgrade somebody's armor, then go back to the dungeon to earn enough gold to upgrade somebody else. With that said, I'd be open to having starting money be 4d6*10 and to having there be cheap items on the market -- battered or low-quality weapons, worn or ill-fitting armor, etc. -- for half the normal price, though they'd come with a penalty (-1 to hit for weapons, 1 AC worse for armor, -5% to rolls for thief tools), but otherwise would function fine.

>Melee weapons in general are weirdly cheap in comparison.
I'm okay with this. Melee weapons are more durable, which means they're more likely to get resold, which means there are more on the market, which drives down prices.

>If you actually want to make your players strapped for cash, just enforce training costs or a general "to get XP from treasure, you need to spend it frivolously" rule.
I'm okay with these too, but I do like more differentiation in equipment prices, if for no other reason than it makes it worth the trouble of keeping track of prices.

The Mazes & Minotaurs Maze Masters Guide has a Mysterious Island Generator.

Close?

Does anyone have the map like this which shows what each Wilderlands culture is derived from?

I saw it years ago but i can't find it, it looked a bit like this and it had titles like "Romans but Purple" over different regions.

It would be really useful to explain to my players what each region is like.

Do you prefer the more modern conception of classes where each class has a role or a few options in combat or the more oldschool conception where each class has a role in the dungeon itself, instead of in any given combat encounter?

The problem with copypasting a bunch of tables is you're unfamilar with them and will tend not.to use them lest the tonal or mechanical incongruities bring your session to a screetching halt.

Personally I advocate adding one table to your stash per session, while prepping of course. DIY or reading through someone else's, doesn't matter, the important part is to do it gradually and to familiarise yourself with your tables.

>gameswithothers.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/we-starve-elves-for-d-that-are-not.html
Guys, I think I found something more obtuse than False Patrick.

Working on my OSR Pokémon game. A pOSRkémon game, if you will.

OSR games usually have experience be exclusively or primarily determined by acquiring money. However, Pokémon games have experience primarily determined by battling, with money as almost an afterthought since the primary sources of "treasure" are useful, often single-use "magic" items. Given that each trainer has between 1 and 6 pokémon, not all of which will be active at a time... Should the experience system be:
>get experience from battling as normal.
>get experience from acquiring money (from trainer battles, for example), and be given only to participating pokémon
>get experience from acquiring money, split equally among all owned pokémon
>get experience from acquiring money, split among pokémon such that participating pokémon are given a double share
>get experience from acquiring money and "magic" items with some sort of conversion table for "magic" items to pokéyen in one of the above ways
>a combination

the latter because it gives class choice more meaning and improves role play beyond combat (which shouldn't be the entire focus of the game)

Individual Pokemon receive experience equal to XP+HP of enemies defeated.

That allows for Pokemon to gain the benefit of defeating, plus a random number related to how dangerous the enemy is, like Hoard sizes.

Items can cause XP sharing.

>modern conception of classes where each class has a role or a few options in combat or the more oldschool conception where each class has a role in the dungeon itself, instead of in any given combat encounter
We are on the Old School Rules General, you should know the answer

I happen to like my death and dismemberment table (Courtney Campbell's plus Tenfootpolemic's addon) as well as my 200 failed medieval careers (also Tenfootpolemic). It's also nice to have as a backup some stuff to randomly generate a dungeon (Lungfungus'). And of course my weather tables and such.

Now you can say your module is a bestselling module!

>good Encounters at Sea tables
MMII tables are mostly better than Judges Guild Island Book 1

I made a thing because I don't like goblins and kobolds as cannon fodder enemies.
>pastebin.com/zg6FbEdr

tl;dr

2 tables and some looses guidelines to make some mutated little gobliny fuckers to murder in droves.

Really neat user, thanks for sharing. I'll probably stock a few hexes with these guys

Vancian psionics

I am now angry

What's the best version of an OSR Paladin

>implying TroveGuy obeys the Law
>implying Pirates don't explicitly align with Chaos
>spelling Popuku wrong
>listing gonzo blogsters twice
>listing me twice (?)
Good concept though.

He can only make you angry so many times in a day.

Vancian martials

The "OSR-inspired" meme needs to die. It's obviously a cheap branding trick to latch onto the OSR's success as a niche product. In the OSR G+ group, there's an ad for playing cards that are "OSR-inspired."

GO AWAY. I am not even an OSR gamer (nobody but me in the group likes the OSR) but I'm sick of it. Dungeon World is not OSR. It has D&D trappings like elves and dragons. That's it. Torchbearer is not OSR. It has the same trappings as D&D, and it has an extremely high (artificial) difficulty. That's it. IT'S NOT OSR, STOP CALLING THIS SHIT OSR OR OSR-ADJACENT.

OSR-adjacent is the Black Hack or Castles and Crusades, and even then, that stuff is like next-door-neighbor-in-rural-America adjacent.

>OSR's success

>OSR G+ group
That's your first mistake

>He can only make you angry so many times in a day.
You underestimate my power

The design goal of DW was to run old modules.
Torchbearer > DW, but it belongs here even less.
I'd rather we associate with DW than Black Hack.
Adjacency to C&C I'll give you.

Hypocrisy is sin.

>Working on my OSR Pokémon
Thats it. Im done.... these threads are pointless anymore. Have fun
At least im not as autistic as but ffs, this shit really has gone too far

...What's the problem here exactly? I like OSR and I want to play more games in OSR systems rather than the nonsense that non-OSR games have.

nayrt
The main reason I like OSR is that it knows what it's about. You don't seem to get that.

um excuse me sweetie but osr is all about style and feel not circlejerking over rules
d&d is dead bury it and embrace the osr

I blame Skerples.

How so? There are sci-fi OSR games, post-apoc OSR games, OSR games where you play as deities, stone age OSR games, modern day horror OSR games, low fantasy OSR games, high fantasy OSR games, OSR games set during the Renaissance, OSR games based at least in part on Asian mythology, and probably others, and that's not including various odd settings people have invented like that one person who made a vaguely post-apoc game set on Mars. Sure, most games people play are traditional low fantasy games. I typically run low fantasy OSR too. But the only successful definition of OSR is mechanical compatibility. Assuming mechanical compatibility, what's the problem that makes OSR "not about" capturing monsters but allows it to be "about" starships and stone age adventuring?

'Pokemon' osr would deviate from the core gameplay loop.

Sorry, Revolutionary era, not Renaissance. I think.

In what way?

Sure, if you wanted it to. But I'm not planning any particular "storyline" for the game, just making the rules. You could play normal OSR and have it be set in a Colosseum if you wanted.

And the Pokémon setting is OSR as heck. Everyone living in villages/cities, and if you step outside of the safety of town without protection you might get eaten by dangerous wild animals?

If you apply any sort of real-world logic to the world of Pokemon, the entire concept quickly falls apart.
And that is not the kind of discussion this thread needs.

Well... maybe not. How do you plan on tying exploration into it?
It also seems like trap interaction would get too loose, but that's not a grounded complaint.

As opposed to dungeon crawling, which is perfectly logical and realistic?

If you say so. I'm probably the only one who would try to play it, anyway.

I mean, it's basically a points-of-light setting. There's towns and cities around everywhere and plenty of dungeons. I was thinking a combination hexcrawl with dungeons.

Combat may or may not be more common than normal (thus my original question), but if you are that concerned about it then it's not really significantly different from whether you die at 0 HP or just get knocked out. If you want a darker grittier game where combat is dangerous and to be avoided, play using the former. If you want something more lighthearted or higher fantasy, play using the latter. Likewise if you want stereotypical Pokémon, play like it, if you want harsher, play like a Nuzlocke game where they die at 0 HP.

In the context of its own setting, it makes perfect sense.

Pokemon is a world where 10-year-olds are able to travel the length and breadth of the nation, unattended, with bizarrely self-aware animals everywhere who patiently await you to summon your own animals to battle in highly-regimented and entirely non-fatal combats. Despite the fact that these animals can spit poison and gouts of fire in some cases, neither the trainer or the trainer's animal are ever seen as being in any danger whatsoever of death or even scarring.

At least when a wizard casts a fireball, you know you may very well die if you're hit.

sounds like the "pokemon" concept is dragging the whole idea down. Something like SMT would work great (demons instead of hirelings, customisation via demon fusion etc.). You could even just have one class and just roll stats+starting demon.
Actually sounds like a good idea

>I mean, it's basically a points-of-light setting. There's towns and cities around everywhere and plenty of dungeons. I was thinking a combination hexcrawl with dungeons.
>mfw pokemon was a D&D adventure in disguise all along

honestly I prefer the former, but then I've never been in a single group where anyone, Player or DM could roleplay worth a damn, so combat was where 99% of the enjoyment came from

most of that guy's other posts are nowhere near as obtuse

some of us see the TSR D&D system as more of an engine than something that has to be used specifically for fantasy

There is a free roguelike called "Demon" which could serve as inspiration fodder for this idea
demon.ferretdev.org

on the topic of Pokemon inspired OSR, one of the classes for Games With Others's Trollworld setting is basically a Pokemon Trainer class, might be worth taking a look at that;

>Trollworld;
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2013/12/troll-world.html
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/trollworld-city-encounters-d-wandering.html
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/trollomancer.html
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/it-is-hard-to-find-cool-pictures-of.html
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/things-you-find-in-trollworld-magic.html
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/randomized-fighters-for-hacked-bx.html
>gameswithothers.blogspot.ca/2014/02/hime-bx-character-class-mostlysort-of.html

I'd rather have a digimon/Tron crossover game than a pokemon one.

Based biomeat poster.

Are there any interesting podcasts? I looked at the episode list for Hobbs & Friends and none of the guests popped out as interesting.

How do you guys feel about rust monsters / monsters that degrade armor and weapons?

I'd foreshadow them and let the players know what they're up against, same as any level draining undead. That said, they're not that bad, they just want your metals.

How do you guys feel about hit location and piecemeal armor rules?

>piecemeal armor
It's a cool idea but I've never seen it done well
>hit location
Feels inconsistent if it's implemented for certain mechanics only, and implementing it properly takes too much abstraction away

>rust monster
I DMed an encounter with a rust monster vs a group in a dungeon. There was an immediate AH HA! moment when the wizard used polymorph other and made it the size of a rat and captured it in a sack.
They then took the now tiny thing back upstairs to the portculis they couldnt open and used it as a DnD cutting torch.
I never saw it coming and thought it was a very ingeneous way to overcome a problem.

Honestly? I like the OD&D version. (You can find it in Greyhawk's entry for Charisma, because OD&D's supplements have some weird-ass editing.)

Pros:
>Lay on Hands to heal 2hp/level or cure one disease/level, each 1/day
>Immunity to disease
>+2 to all saving throws
>At level 8+, at-will Dispel Evil and 6" Detect Evil
>If you find a Holy Sword, you are immune to magic
>Can get a sick-ass horse with all the above in addition to having good stats

Cons:
>17+ CHA
>Must be Lawful, Chaotic acts permanently revoke paladinhood
>You can't get a second horse within ten years of the first
>Can only have four magic items in addition to magic armor, shield, and four regularly used weapons
>Must donate all treasure that's not neccessary to maintain themselves, their men, and a "modest castle" (max 200k GP, with 200 men)
>Cannot associate with non-Lawful characters

Note how there's no magic, no alternate XP progression, or anything of the sort: it's just a bunch of optional bonuses you can get if you lucked out on attribute generation and are willing to take a fuckton of restrictions.

I still wouldn't use it in a game for various reasons that wouldn't fit in this post, but of all the TSR Paladins it's the one I prefer.

That is pretty awesome. Your players are OSR as fuck, man.

Of all the "destroy or remove player equipment" monsters, I think Rust Monsters are the only ones that really make sense as random wandering monster. Disenchanter beasts and ethereal filchers are too tryhard.

>hit location
False OSR

>piecemeal armor rules
Eh

Just say no.

>strangemagic.robertsongames.com/2012/03/paladins-and-anti-paladins-for-basic-d.html
Pros:
>Saves as Dwarf
>Immune to diseases
>Can cast Remove fear, Bless, Striking, Cure serious wounds at 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th level.
>Gain twice xp from chaotic enemies

Cons:
>9+ CHA
>Must be lawful
>Get 1/2 xp from treasure and none from lawful enemies
>Can't use ranged weapons.

I was considering using alkalions from VoTE, but I'm scared my players would get pissed at me for dissolving their armor. Should I get rid of them? I mean, I'll make it obvious that they shouldn't let the lions touch them, the akaline dripping from their claws will be visible, and be making dissolving stone footprints where they walk

Give their armor a save to not be totally destroyed, but every hit lowers the AC it gives. Over the course of the fight, even if their armor wasn't immediately melted on contact, it'll be torn to ribbons down to AC 9.

>specifically for fantasy
I was referring to dungeon crawling, not to fantasy. You could be prohibition era cops busting extensive speakeasys for all I care. And how is Pokemon not fantasy?

My main problem with the alkalion is that it generates fucking alkahest from its claws. To me that has the same setting implication as having a monster which poops philosopher's stones

If you get two Holy Swords you can give one to your sick-ass horse?

they will Learn to bring Spare armor.

>a monster which poops philosopher stones

1. I love my friends, but frankly they won't think of anything creative to do with it

2. I know, isnt that great!

Do you guys use monsters with experience drain?

Too cumbersome. Stick to level drain.

>having a monster which poops philosopher's stones

Difference is you can pick up a philosophers stone. How do you obtain and transport the alkaline if it's such a great acid it would most likely melt through any material you have

Take the claws.

It's not that easy, they drip continually.

>How do you obtain and transport the alkaline if it's such a great acid it would most likely melt through any material you have
Traditionally you use a container composed of a pure element - lead, for instance.

The logic was that if alkahest reduced everything to its purest components, the only thing it couldn't reduce would be those components.

It's a bit academical, though, since it's just old alchemist spitballing and alkahest never really turned out to be a real thing. Make up whatever you need for game purposes, I guess.

Dilute it with water?

Having read his dungeon post, this barely feels arcane.

Discounting saves and shit is too cumbersome. Stick to HP drain, it’s the most important part anyway.

I'd say to-hit and attacks/round are more important.

>Traditionally you use a container composed of a pure element

What about.a container made of true love___

The Philosobear
Armor: As Plate
Hit Dice: 9
Save as: Fighter 9
Damage: None (see below).
Movement: 40'
Morale: 12

The perfect, living epitome of all bearkind. It lives in the tallest mountain of the world. The Philosobear is ageless, does not need to breathe, does not need nourishment (although it can eat) and is immune to poison, disease and spells of less than 6th level. If its body is destroyed, it will regrow from solid rock on its native mountain in 1d4 days. It cannot be permanently killed in any way that wouldn't also kill a god. It is largely unconcerned with the world at large, and has trascended the concept of violence in particular. Nothing can stir it into attacking

Anyone touching the Philosobear with bare skin must Save vs. Petrification or turn into solid gold.

When reduced to half its HP, it will turn into solid gold in self-defense. In this state it cannot be damaged by non-magical weaponry and weights 10 tons.

Creatures with less than 4 hit dice must Save vs. Magic upon first looking at it, or go mad with passion due to its unimaginable beauty. Bears in its presence recognize it as their natural king and master, and will fight to the death to defend it.

If fed until satiation with ambrosia and the nectar of the gods, an immaculate philosopher's stone will magically be teleported next to its rear 1d8 hours afterwards. The Philosobear then needs 100 years of uninterrupted hibernation to generate the surplus perfection to perform this deed again. Multiple gods, devils and wizards covet this chance and guard it with incredible zeal.

Not OSR.

That's how my new combat system works. Everything about it is descriptive, with a few extra rules to keep it spicy and flowing well.

You only "kill" a target when you actually kill them. You have to describe all of your attacks; instead of combat as warfare its all blow for blow, and slightly abstracted so we can keep a more high fantasy/mythic vibe for really high level characters. You have to say how you want to attack the orc. Are you slashing its throat? Stabbing it through the throat? Bashing in the skull? You have to have the right weapon to do that.

Then, you consider how protected that area is. The torso is AC 10, arms and legs are AC 12, head, hands, and feet at AC 14. Things like the throat and groin are AC 16, and something extremely specific like the eyes or individual fingers (to cut off a magic ring) would be AC 18.

But- you also have to add the armor they are wearing on those hit locations. All AC values are doubled here. Leather cuirass? To hit the chest takes a roll of 14 or higher now. Chainmail coif? The head now has AC 26, go look decapitating someone unless you're very high level. Plate gauntlets? Don't even try to cut off their fingers.

Strength as attack bonus therefore makes much more thematic sense; along with that and magic bonuses from weapons, having a high attack roll lets you actually penetrate armor, either by hitting a weak point or actually physically cutting through it. Sharp weapons can cause instant death and sever limbs; but blunt weapons are a little more reliable. Monsters can absorb up to their HD in blunt weapon damage per round, and the rest that is rolled through deals actual damage to their HP pool. Getting something cut or mangled in some way, like your arm or stomach split deals 1 or more hits against their HD, and can lower their AC further to make it easier to finish them off.

Player characters don't use any of these rules, instead keeping traditional HP so they don't feel cheated.

You do you, but at this point I wonder why you're not using Riddle of Steel.

How do I play a game where true love and friendship prevails

add attribute which influences reaction rolls

I know that "Not OSR" is a pretty useless and generic post that doesn't actually help, but have you considered using a system that builds stuff like that into the rules? More storygame whatsits, I guess, where such genre emulation is desired.

OSR rules are a bit ill-suited for that, I think, since they're generally pretty lethal and thus True Love and Friendship can be abruptly ended by the dice. Not to mention the mechanical focus on being greedy murderhobos, and lack of support for more plot-focused games (which you'd need for True Love to matter).

I'd love to recommend a game to you, but I don't know if I'm aware of any that fit the bill. I've heard that Golden Sky Stories is pretty feelgood, that Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine has lots of genre-specific rulesets, that Fellowship is decent for heroic Fight the Bad Guy to Save the World games, and MAID is all about those character relationships, but I'm not familiar enough with any of them to know whether they're what you're after.

>mechanical focus on being greedy murderhobos

Greedy grave robbers, not murderhobos. The emphasis is on stealing, not killing everything like later editions