Welcome to /osrg/, the Old School Renaissance General! Here we discuss editions of Dungeons and Dragons from the TSR era, as well as retro-clones of those editions and other games and material compatible with them.
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TOPIC: Dig through the oddities in the 1st reply and come back with a complaint.
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>Bracers of Defenselessness
>Odd how these reduce armor class to "12".
>Bracers of Defenselessness: These wrist guards exactly resemble the above, but when an enemy attacks in anger they immediately lower their wearer's armor class to 12.
Why is this odd?
The AC is being lowered but the number is being raised. It's not odd but it's the sort of phrasing that would new readers do a double take.
Do your players say that race-as-class is bad because they can't make dwarf clerics and elf thieves? Well with this new mini-supplement, no one can be a cleric or thief!
I'm having trouble with players not understanding LL's imitative system, they can't understand that they need to declare their actions then roll for initiative and everything is acted out in one continuous specific sequence, instead they attempt combat like they're playing 3e. Is this normal?
Just use the optional individual initiative then.
Never.
Top right of page 27:
>Page B3 promised a D&D Companion Set which
>would provide information for levels 15 to 36. This did
>not appear and those in the know at TSR have said
>there were barely any notes. Instead, Frank Mentzer
>took the reigns and compiled a revised version of
>Dungeons & Dragons that was published in 1983
Unless you are usurping multiple kings, you don't "take the reigns"; you "take the reins".
Force of habit, I assume. I wouldn't know because I try to streamline and simplify combat, generally favoring group initiative.
>file deleted
Just delete this thread and start again
What was it?
Off-topic shitposting instead of one of the useful thread-starting images.
>Just delete this thread and start again
Seconded. And yes, I'm aware that means I'm calling on OP to not be a faggot.
,,
There's a limited time period during which you can delete shit. I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's too late for the OP to eighty-six the thread.
You don't restart a general because a shitty "joke" image got deleted. And OP was retarded for even using that image in the first place.
>You don't restart a general because a shitty "joke" image got deleted.
Says who?
My dad has better taste in music, nerd.
Entirely appropriate given the last week of worthless shitposting with little in the way of content. Actually just let /osrg/ die for a week and give everyone a rest.
Is Isle of the Ape worth running?
Also, what are some good classic adventures that either see a lot of character interaction or team-building among players?
I've got a new group, and this is my first time running OSR.
You could just close the thread, user. If you had done so instead of posting, we'd have two fewer shitposts right now.
Why would you be running Isle of the Ape for a new group if it's your first time running OSR?
>character interaction
Intra-PC or NPC-PC?
Both, Intra-PC to get the group situated with each other, and Pc-NPC for my fun. And I want to work towards Isle of the Apes or another "big" module.
But you would continue /pol/posting here, user.
I think you have me confused with someone who's not actually posting in the thread, friendo.
Not describing it was the whole point, t bh
I liked that choice, you can decide if you want it to be a citycrawl, an eerie, empty city, or the more-civilized-than-the-rest home base of the PCs (or something else, by every means).
>Pc-NPC for my fun
B4 The Lost City
>And I want to work towards Isle of the Apes or another "big" module.
That's pretty ambitious. Like, I'm pretty sure that even if you played every week for 3 hours your PCs still wouldn't be at level 18 after a year of play. Why not aim for something like G1 instead?
Ah, well, I'm using a Retroclone, ACKS specifically, to run it, wasn't sure what level Isle of the Apes was at. Maybe something Level 5-10 would be Better to work towards.
>author half-asses setting
>"well you see it's MEANT to be half-assed"
Did I wander into /wodg/ by accident?
Isle of the Ape is 18+
G1 is like 8-12
The only module I can think of where you can't just scale numbers down to make things work is The Throne of Bloodstone. Even there, you might be able to.
I'm not your friendo, pally.
Is there an OSR version of GURPS?
Carcosa fanboys work like that. You'll never get through to them.
What are they not understanding about it, it's much simpler.
If it's that much of a problem use individual initiative, most groups I knew back in the day used it anyways
Yes, BRP, it runs Heroscape, RuneQuest, and CoC back in the day.
Have your players actually ever made it to a higher level (15+?)
The True OSR answer is Player's Option: Skills & Powers
The False OSR answer is The Fantasy Trip or Heroes & Other Worlds
No. I consider level 10 to be the practical limit for a game starting at 1.
My players? No. But I used to know folks in the 80s who had gotten to high levels in local games.
Whats the upper limit of how many players you could run for in a B/X game? I have like 11 people who want to play with me, could I run for all of them at once?
The question is not whether you can, it's whether you should.
You should. The game is balanced for large groups and use of a caller.
I feel like I could do it ok if I used a grid, I kind of want to try but I dont want it to blow up in my face.
It's doable with a caller. Though I wouldn't sweat it too much, knowing modern players I'd expect maybe half that to actually show up.
Does anyone have a way to get the final result from the 2nd Hexcrawl Veeky Forums made, maybe around last weekend? 1st PDF was lots of fun to read
Have you looked on 4plebs?
Ok I'm going to be running B/X for my group. They're into it, but were all coming off of 5e but I think theyre all still a bit lukewarm on it. Should I use Anomalous Subsurface Environment to try and hook them with gonzo shit or a more classic borderlands town start with 3 adventure hooks to 3 osr starting modules and just build out from there?
>knowing modern players I'd expect maybe half that to actually show up.
This hurts too much. I guess that B/X being suited for one off dungeon crawls helps mitigate that.
It's doable if you use a caller, but though Frankly though, half of those player are gonna flake out for each session, so just run a west marches game, and you'll have around 6 for each session and be fine.
You could also get a co DM, though I feel lots of OSRfags would be against that
>B/X
You better be using labyrinth lord
No I got the old books at a used book store. I think the players actually seeing "dungeons and dragons" helps them feel excited about playing it, rather than someone that one of them described "chinese knock off d&d"
>author half-asses setting
It's not half-assing, it's a deliberate creative decision. It's a "fruitful void" thing.
>people who like things are like that, you'll never be able to convince them that the thing they like is actually shit
Shocking, I know.
Why cant fighting men cast spells?
>I feel lots of OSRfags would be against that
Why? Gygax had one.
They didn't get invited to the naked dancing under the moon on Hallow's Eve.
Because magic takes study and effort. Anyone can whack with a sword.
>muh special fighting techniques
Low level fighters don't have them. Even a level 1 magic user has to have studied for the better part of the life to cast one spell. That's the price of remaking reality. If the fighter wanted that power, they should've been a MU in the first place.
>read Carcosa
>look at magic section
>almost every ritual requires rape and murder
>close book
>Gygax had one
Gygax also houseruled not dying at 0 HP
youtu.be/xECUrlnXCqk
Because the game puts different players in different "roles" to facilitate a team based games. You can easily hack the game to allow everyone to do everything, just making it classless or making each class a specialist in one thing. Personally I allow every class to cast spells, but you have to gather all the ingredients and speak the magic words in just the right way, and magic users are the best at it.
>This entire post
Ugh.
FOE GYGAX
I know what you mean, dude.
Get Ye Gone And Xylophone?
If you want your fighter to be a snowflake anime warrior that casts lightning bolts out of their ass then there's a D&D for you, it's 4E, and it's not OSR. This argument has already been settled.
Is OSR the dark souls of RPGs
>It's not half-assing, it's a deliberate creative decision. It's a "fruitful void" thing.
I mean, you really have to believe this to keep from feeling you got ripped off after buying it. But it's fair to warn others that Carcosa actually has nothing on Carcosa and expects GMs to work it out on their own (which, frankly, can be done without purchasing it)
What version of the "dark souls of X" of the meme are you using?
Only when you’re recruiting normies
It's the Wizardry IV of RPGs.
Are either Wizardry 2 or 3 worth playing if I played Wizardry 1 and only mostly enjoyed it?
Just play the Dark Spire.
youtu.be
>If you want your fighter to be a snowflake anime warrior that casts lightning bolts out of their ass
Strawman.
>there's a D&D for you, it's 4E, and it's not OSR
Implying you can't hack OSR any way you want.
>This argument has already been settled.
I'm right, because I say I am.
You're pathetic. Fuck off.
Wizardry 2 and 3 are the exact same as the first game, just with map changes and minor gameplay changes (armor pieces in 2, alignment exclusive floors in 3). If you like the first one, you'll like the second and third one, though personally I just recommend skipping to 6
THanks for that, did not know of 4plebs... looks like I'm waiting on HexOP and they have not yet posted a PDF of the 2nd hexcrawl map
I would if the DS hadn't died horribly. Emulation feels cheating, somehow.
Memes aside, what is good about ACKS? Why should I play it over BFRPG?
Have any of you read / tried AD&D 3e?
How about Microlite 74 / 81?
How are they?
>read Carcosa
>look at magic section
>almost every ritual requires rape and murder
>eyes begin to water as once the shock passes it becomes a tedious laundry list that makes Rifts look exciting
>close PDF
>It's not half-assing, it's a deliberate creative decision.
So it's deliberately half-assing, got it.
>It's a "fruitful void" thing
The maybe it shouldn't be named after the city not appearing in the book. This is the same logic OPPcucks use to defend nWoD's shitty lore.
>Anyone can whack with a sword.
The combat matrices disagree with you.
Twenty per DM
It's great for running Birthright style campaigns with its domains and mass combat rules. It has all sorts of gooey rules for doing everything from calculating how much it would cost to buy every single horse in a town to cross breeding sharks and wizards. At the base level it has what your standard B/X clone has but with *gasp* skills and more classes. You shouldn't really ditch BFRPG if none of that interests you.
What did they mean by this?
Domains rules and maybe mass combat. It also does race-as-class-and-class
>Microlite 74 / 81
It's really just the same as regular Microlite and closer to stripped-down 3e than OSR. BX Advanced by the same author is more of a proper OSR game.
Nice layout, race-as-class done well, good rules for building your own classes, tons of support for high-level domain stuff.
Emulation is fine if you own the cartridge.
I also brought it up because it's a lot like OSR.
>Created by fans of old school dungeon crawl
>Gives fresh coat of paint to classic formula
>Compatible with older stuff (Wireframe mode in Dark Spire)
This is /osrg/. Dad Rock is the standard by which all music should be judged.
Really? It just gives you the option to be a sneaky elf or a dwarf with spells, that's...not that great in my opinion. Though, as much as I like the idea of race-as-class, I've never really been satisfied with any of its implementations.
Why do you guys like race as class?
I really like the wireframe mode, but the music of modern mode is just amazing. I wish you could keep the BGM of one mode while using the graphics of the other. (And modern graphics look neat in a comic book way, too.)
Honestly? This isn't exactly the majority opinion, but I mostly because I don't like how other rpgs implement race-and-class. Using race-and-class makes race choice that much more meaningful.
I like them for things too weird or abnormal to pick regular classes.
I can easily see a human or an elf or a dogman playing as any basic class, but an actual dragon class or tiny little shoemaker gnome style class fits better under a race-as-class definition.
I don't. I just like class.
It creates strong archetypes and makes non-humans feel non-human. I even made so that humans can get in on the race-as-class fun.
What's the best OSR game for a group of newbies? I'm considering Basic Fantasy RPG
Yeah, but why would you ever play as that? It's more boring than regular race-classes and human-classes combined.
What's the Smash Bros. Melee of RPGs?
Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry. They also have a good module support structure.
I found Wizardry 3 annoying and quit before long. It's been a loooong time since I played (something like three and a half decades), so I'd have trouble telling you what exactly the problem was, but I seem to remember that it tried too hard to be tricky and just ended up being obnoxious.
There are Wizardry editors out there that let you redesign the first Wizardry, though they are pretty limited in some ways, with certain things hardwired into the game. I remade the game in a big way sometime around the turn of the century, but I never could get anybody to play test it for me (something it definitely needed), so it just sort of fell by the wayside. A few things I remember doing:
--completely remade the monsters
--each level was thematic
--each type of monster was weak to the weapons of a particular class (their true name had a symbol to indicate which)
--fighters got expendable ranged weapons (javelins which basically refluffed wands)
--thieves got reusable ranged weapons
>Tiny one page pdf
>An entire fucking page of legalese
Why?