/osrg/ OSR General

I'd say that letting people go into negative hit points is common enough even in editions that don't mention it that it's not really nonstandard, but I'm wondering whether it's actually more common than having people die at 0. Here's a poll...

strawpoll.me/15150217

Yes but OSR material is usually the freshest, most interesting stuff going on.
I mean all the modules and shit. Stuff like Qelong, AR&PL, WP&WS, Vornheim, Better Than Any Man, DCC stuff, etc.
Yeah I'm constantly gathering shit (and working on my own module).

No.

So don't dungeon crawl?

Check out Wormskin/Dolmenwood.

Ok!
So... how much research have you done? Because this is not exactly a violently revolutionary position.

Vornheim is what got me into gaming. I used it in junction with Pathfinder back in 2011 and something felt a little off.

I do it by the book, and let people die at -3.

>Topic for Discussion: What unusual / nonstandard thing do you do with Hit Dice or Hit Points in your game?
Oh boy let me tell you about flesh and grit

Stolen

I've heard many people repeat the rumour "Zak doesn't dogfood" to explain the lack of usability of Vornheim.

Multiple attacks against weaker opponents, improved damage, weapon specialization and the ability to perform combat maneuvers and attack in the same action.

don't you mean wounds and vitality

For my part, I'm a fan of Hit Dice being all d6s, mostly because it means that Constitution bonuses add a consistent percentage to hit points, rather than being a much bigger deal for magic-users than fighters.

I'm toying around with using some version of Flesh and Grit, if only so a 10th level character isn't 100% sure he's in no immediate danger from a single sword blow. I'm only hesitant because it feels clumsy to keep track of 2 sets of hit points, while negative hit points somehow seem more natural.

The person I stole it from called it flesh and grit, so that's what I call it.
Now to institute a bashing/lethal/agg distinction in osr!

>"Zak doesn't dogfood"

That ain't a bad idea, I'd probably combine it with a "rerolling all your HD on level until you get a higher HP" rule.

>not rerolling your HP at the start of each adventure

On a side note, have you considered capping HP at 20? It makes a lot of scaling problems go away. Some classes progress faster, some heal faster, some get temporary HP, but 20 is the general cap. Makes a 1d6 dagger dangerous at all levels. Doesn't double-penalize wizards (bad at fighting and bad at not dying) and lets you use HP to fuel spells.

Doesn't work for heroic games, but for most games it seems like a sensible plan.

I've been seriously considering
>you get 1 hit dice, when you level up re-roll it and take the new result if it's better. No other advancement.
Because I really, really hate HP bloat.
I've also been considering capping HD at 3 dice, so then it fits the same 1-20 scale as attributes and saves and AC, and making skills be on d20 too.

Massive damage rules maybe? When you take a whole bunch of damage at once (maybe base it off of the lower of a percentage of your max hp and con) you have to sav or shoot down to zero or something.

>I'd probably combine it with a "rerolling all your HD on level until you get a higher HP" rule.
I'd say: reroll hit points from scratch, but use old total if it's higher. If you reroll until you get something higher, there are situations where you could have to reroll half a dozen times (if you rolled really well on your level 8 hit points, for instance), which is obnoxious.

I'm trying to keep things roughly compatible with modules and such, and that would require reworking spells too. If I were inventing the game from scratch, I'd be more inclined to limit hit points.

>Because I really, really hate HP bloat.
Me too. But I do feel like one of the big advantages of making an OSR game is cross-compatibility, and once I do something as radical as limiting folks to 3 HD, I'm not going to be able to stop myself from making other big changes, and the end product will lose the advantage of being "familiar and accessible" too.

Buddy, you should look into the stuff that Judge's Guild did for OD&D. Wilderlands of High Fantasy is a great place to start for a Hexcrawl. City-State of the Invincible Overlord is the gold standard for urban adventures as well.

You can find just about everything Judge's Guild did (as well as the attempts at converting it to 3.x) in the trove.

Pic Related: The Entirety of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

>and that would require reworking spells too.
Would it though? I'm not so sure.
Also, don't worry about making huge changes to the mechanics side. As long as you can roughly get a sense of challenge and intent, there will be people who can adapt on the fly.

No, illustrated by a woman named Cookie Corey. She did the Amazon and the Beautiful Witch

How would you feel about a pseudoclone of Complete Psionics Handbook that used 3d6 roll-under to manifest instead of 1d20 roll under?

Does anyone have Guns of War for ACKS. All the Medieval Gun Shitposting has got me at least considering whether they should be an option in my new campaign.

If you cleaned up and simplified the text, sure. The book could be significantly optimized.

>Would it though?
I mean, your 9th level magic-user casts a fireball at some giants. Does the fireball no longer do 9d6 damage? Do the giants have fewer hit dice? If neither of those things changes, what happens when some of your hit dice-limited party gets caught in the blast? Or what happens when an enemy wizard casts a fireball at you? Or a dragon uses its breath weapon?

>guns
*shills your path*

It would use the powers from the SRD

Oh, sorry, I meant "cap HP at 20 for PCs". Other stuff has HP as normal.

A 9d6 fireball will blow up a 20 HP PC... but that's right and proper. It's a 9th level spell. Ouch. You should not get hit by that.
(you could also cap rolled spell damage at 5d6 if that helps).
Sure, but again... simplify. Modernize. Optimize.

>and that would require reworking spells too.
a fireball that does 8d6 damage still does 8d6 damage even when a fighter has a max if 11 HP. Lethality is the point, and fireballs are a finite resource.

What are the best Old School modules?

The Lost City.

>What unusual / nonstandard thing do you do with Hit Dice or Hit Points in your game?

I do them Carcosa style (Reroll them every fight, different die sizes randomly etc.)

Tegel Manor

B4 The Lost City
The Awakening
ZH-01 An Overwhelming Sense of Loss
Beacon at Enon Tor
Keep for Sale
Plundering Poppof
G$ Sanctum of The Stone Giant Lord
Hyqueous Vaults

Hey, I'M supposed to be the B4 shill around here!

Castle gargantua

why? I don't see the appeal.

>Hey, I'M supposed to be the B4 shill around here!
>inb4 b4

If you bought a cave-based hexcrawl, is there anything you'd be disappointed if it /didn't/ include? Any mandatory tropes for you?

Just want to make sure I haven't missed anything obvious.

cave-based navigation issues. Tight squeezes, 3d rooms, deep chasms, that sort of thing.
Also volcanic bits are a massive plus. All caves need lava at the bottom.

Multiple pathways to the surface
Cities/necropolises that just sank into the earth
Underwater lakes, preferably poisonous

Are B/X modules compatible with Swords and Wizardry?

>58174285
All of them.

You'll run into extremely minor issues like OD&D not having trap detection or light sources rules.

paperspencils.com/2017/07/09/flux-space-in-dungeons/

Yes, and?

>not having trap detection rules.
Role-play, throw a Find Traps, or play a Dwarf.
>not having light sources rules.
Torches clearly illuminating 15 feet was omitted from the final draft.
Monsters being dimly noticeable from 20-80 feet was left in.

A couple weeks ago, someone reminded me of a class I half-remember and when I talked about it a bit they asked where it was from. I didn't remember.

It was the Psychonaut from Misty Isles of the Eld

combat maneuvers are bad when you're playing with minute-long rounds.
At every moment your character (or at least your fighter) should be attacking, defending, parrying, pressing, dodging, all at his very best. No one remains in an aggressive or defensive stance for an entire minute during a fight. That's just stupidity.

>Often this book will instruct the Referee to roll dice, but will not specify what sort of dice to roll. the Referee should roll on the following table to determine which dice to use:
>Roll Type of Dice
>1–4 4-sided
>5–8 6-sided
>9–12 8-sided
>13–16 10-sided
>17–20 12-sided
???
What's the fucking point in this.

It was the bad old days, when d# terminology hadn't settled down yet. Don't worry about it.

Ever thought that maybe he isn't using one minute rounds? Also, a single combat taking multiple minutes to resolve is just as stupid as remaining in an aggressive or defensive stance for an entire minute during a fight.

hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/01/planescapes-missing-megadungeon.html

>planescape
>megadungeon
Absolutely disgusting

So far, people seem to prefer negative hit points to dying at 0 by a significant proportion ( youtu.be/oOzpncIHCLs ).

I believe it's on the PDF share thread, in nergal's underworld (ask for that there)

I'm on mobile ATM, if you still can't find it reply to this and I'll get to uploading it somewhere.

For real though planescape is unplayable as-written and that would help. You could even tie the "multi-setting" thing in by having whatever supplements you like be inside the mega-dungeon.

Then that definitely limits cross-compatibility with modules. I mean, you could still use all the stats and everything, but the balance would be out of whack and not even predictably so.

Bah, balance. It's a myth, mostly. Cunning level 1 PCs with a few good tools and a sensible plan should be able to solve nearly anything. Leveling up just gives you more tools.

Of course, some older modules are all about the /specific/ tool use. You must be able to [slaughter] [600] [kobolds]. You must be able to [cast fly] to cross this chasm. Etc.

I'm starting to suspect I may be retarded, I had to read multiple reviews before realizing your supposed to roll a d20 and use that to determine what dice you roll on that table.

Oh.
Oh dear user. Sorry.

It's an abstraction from Chainmail, it gives you a nice simple ten rounds per turn.

I've updated my Midnight Monsters with the full 12. You can convert this to AC by multiplying armor by x1.5 and treating as AC + 10.

I'm really proud of these monsters, so I hope somebody likes them.

anydice.com/program/ee73

Rules for earthquakes/plate shifting that draw a section through the hexes and slide/rearrange them.

Are there any good OSR actual-play videos or are they all just Google hangouts with middle-aged men mumbling into low-quality microphones?

What system are these for anyway? Also, does +1 armor become 11.5 AC? Otherwise, they seem pretty neat.
Pretty much the latter.

>What system are these for anyway?
The system is for my homebrew, which is why "armor" and "evasion from bullets" and the mention of firearms and psychic combat are everywhere. Thankfully conversion is pretty simple.

>Also, does +1 armor become 11.5 AC?
Yes, so round up or down depending on whatever you want.

>Otherwise, they seem pretty neat.
Thanks!

Room-labyrinths.

>Fantastic Heroes and Wizardry

FOE GYG

>why? I don't see the appeal.
It makes the game more exciting

Yes. Every OSR game is compatible with every OSR module. No exceptions. If it isn't, it is not OSR

>or are they all just Google hangouts with middle-aged men mumbling into low-quality microphones?

Yes

There's the Roll20 Old School actual play, but then you have to deal with colored hair and drinking milk out of hermetically sealed bottles.

There's also a couple of podcasts scattered here and there, The Delvers for Labyrinth Lord, GG NO RE did some OSR stuff (tower of the stargazer, deep carbon observatory).

Hey guys
I like planescape

I just bought DCC on a whim after attending a Con where I had been playing D&D all day.
I've been reading through it straight and it has me wondering: why the fuck are people playing modern D&D? DCC has a lot of fun mechanics ( Deeds, Spell Duels, No spell slots, the way Clerics and their deity determining how they can act/what they can turn ). D&D is incredibly boring in comparison, and the relatively fun mechanics ( for D&D ) are locked behind XP treadmills.

Now that I have got that out of the way, is DCC OSR compatible? If it isn't, why is it not? If it is, what are some modules I can print off and run in 3~4 hours increments for a public group?

You're no guy of mine.

DCC has a fun feel, but can be pretty clumsy. Some people just enjoy the more stripped-down feeling of earlier, simpler D&D like B/X. I like plundering the modules because the writing for them is often first-rate, but I can't see myself ever running the game itself.

>why the fuck are people playing modern D&D?
DCC is modern D&D, It's basically a 3e homebrew.

>why the fuck are people playing modern D&D?

Because they get introduced through critical role, and refuse to try any other system

>Is DCC OSR compatible?
Not off the bat, no. If you want to run a OSR module in DCC, you're going to need to do a bit of converting, specifically for saves and monsters, though it really doesn't take too long

>What are some modules I can print off and run in 3~4 hours increments for a public group?

Sailors on the starless sea is a personal favorite, and many people will vouch for it

Does anyone have a copy of Swords and Wizardry Continual Light? I know it's super cheap, but even a dollar is a bit much in my current situation and I'd love to read through it

>refuse to try
Have no pressing need to try.

Okay so I know there's a bunch of -hack games (Whitehack, Redhack, Blackhack, Oldschool hack, I'm pretty sure there's a Bluehack somewhere).

Are these OSR? What's the difference between them? Even if they are/aren't OSR are they any good?

Is there an audience for OSR actual plays? Are there specific rulesets/modules people would want to see. My group is full of non-tumblr hair mid to late 20's dudes with decent to good mics. It's something I might be able to run by them, though with scheduling it might be tight.

>Have no pressing need to try
You'd think that, but trust me, I've tried. I have a group that even refuses to leave D&D for out of genre games (Sci fi, modern) just because "It does everything they want it to, just homebrew it in!"

>Is there an audience for OSR actual plays?
A very small one, but yes

>Are there specific rulesets/modules people would want to see

I love me some labyrinth lord, doesn't matter if it's the AEC version, Mutant future or whatever

Not OSR, the lot of them. Bluehack... miiiiiight be OSR. It's been a while since I skimmed it and I'm possibly conflating it with Blueholme. Whitehack is an awful enough game that you would gain nothing from running it, but not so awful that you would gain nothing from reading it. Avoid the rest.

Hey, that's why I never branch out from OSR!

...

>Are these OSR?
They really aren't, they resemble microlite20 more than anything else.

What's Microlite20?

Is that any good?