Welcome to /osrg/, the Old School Renaissance General! Here we discuss editions of Dungeons and Dragons from the TSR era, etc.
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Topic for Discussion:
At what number of orcs would you rather have run into a rust monster?
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Posting again from last thread, need answers
>Roll20 Old School Adventures
>Nobody levels up at all in 15 sessions
Why would I ever play OSR
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Any number. Rust monsters are just doofy dogs that like to munch on gear. Feed them well, pat them lots, and sic them on enemies.
Sounds like you got a bad DM.
>At what number of orcs would you rather have run into a rust monster?
Hey, rust monsters are nice. They just want delicious ferrous metals. They evolved licking iron from ore; forged metal is a lovely concentrated snack. They're surly like porcupines, but they're not really vicious unless you get between them and iron.
They don't need much either. A handful of old nails will keep a rust monster happy and occupied.
>I realize that, but there surely has to be a way to communicate enough about the hex (via notably large/interesting topos, landmarks, paths, stream courses) to minimize abstraction and give players options.
Probably going to work better with smaller hexes than 6 miles then. Most of the time, people can't see farther than 3. With that you could do a quick 'to the north is X, the east is Y' based on nearby other landmarks. You'll just need to jot down where that stuff is in your hex keying.
Someone tried what you're talking about with 6s. It looks like a lot of work, but basically you just have to map more.
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I just read through DCC nearly entirely.
While I like the writing and tone, there are a lot of tables. Too many tables. Doesn't having to flip through pages to find the right table really slow the game down? Especially with spellcasting.
I can memorize spell effects but having to memorizes all those permutations of spell effects and what roll you need for them seems impossible.
Let's see. That looks like... about a quarter sheet of A4. So that's just... 25 pages of mapping to do.
Eeeeeech.
they play really badly, and it really depends on how much treasure the GM throws at you.
This is your current player pool, /osrg/. How do you feel?
inr? I guess you could just play at a more microscale and have a lot going on in a smaller space. Going for actual walks in the woods gives you a good idea of how much STUFF there is, even before you start adding magical weirdness. Not sure how I'd run it though, my players like the epic journey sort of feel. Maybe Beyond the Wall comfy adventure.
I just ran a session of DCC the other night. I only bring a copy of this PDF and the Crawlers Companion app on my Kindle when I run it. The app is great and makes 95% of all table references take seconds.
At best the spell 'slowdowns' are moments of anticipation for the player (and table), who are excited to see the extent of their spell's effect. Same goes for the critical hits/fumbles/corruptions.
Thank you so much for the suggestion. I think that these are pretty manageable slices to work off of for the kind of game I'd like to run.
lol that guy doesn't play
Not quite.
>dude just use an app lmao
Any pen-and-paper game that requires electronic peripherals to run is a bad game.
>Old Sam Raimi
Why are you acknowledging those cucks?
No worries, I think it would work, you just end up changing the scale a bit. You might want to look into more fiddly stuff for overland travel and weather.
Apparently I have a few of these maps.
I don't think you understand the word "requires".
[citation needed]
It would be preferable to run with a small degree of abstraction vs this pic.
god the elder scrolls games are awful
Morrowind actually reminds me of D&D in that once you understand how the game works, you rob it of all of its magic.
Morrowind and Daggerfall were fun
If anyone's interested in an old-school game, I am hosting one online. My discord is KBlast#7976
>Not quite
Skyrim's descriptions give no information of how to get to places, you are obliged to use the pointer
Morrowind's descriptions could be better though
>Physically bookmark pg. 127/128.
>Entire spell list with page reference number.
>Flip over to that page.
What a struggle.
>10 mile scale
Yeah, fuck that. I use 3ish mile hexes. Lets me describe some of, but not all of, the surrounding areas.
For my game we have a largeish scale map (about the size of Greece) for general reference that we don't use and I wouldn't do again, and smaller scale much more useful maps for whatever region we're in that get used and made more frequently.
He sure kept bitching a lot for someone that doesn't play. Funny to see nuschool babies dash themselves against OSR, though.
>flipping through rulebooks during play
I thought this was /osrg/ not /3eg/
>/3eg/
user...
You, of course, have memorized all 23 pages of the Labyrinth Lord "Spells" chapter. All 29 of the RC? All 60 of AD&D's?
Everyone flips through rulebooks at the table. That's why they all look so shitty.
Both of those fuckers are pathetic
Just play the game you want guys, no point in shoving it in each other's faces and trying to prove one side was "Whining"
The other fuckwad should just go play 5e though
>Just play the game you want guys
As long as it's not 2E.
Show me your one page dungeons, /osrg/!
The inspiration for this one should be pretty obvious
That's what I got. Now you go
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What if I want to play gamma world
Fuck, that's the post-apoc 4E game, isn't it?
You are retarded.
is joek, user
Don't take the bait, you sillies.
Why do you have to be so mean user
Why doesn't your gear have levels, /osrg/?
Cause DCC made me
Because it's bad enough that my characters do
If you don't have player skill, you don't deserve better gesr
Figures. You need that skill to use a, uh "tactical autobeam rifle."
I genuinely want to know. If, somehow, a lv 1 starfinder PC finds a lv 18 lazorsword and picks it up to stab people with, what happens?
As I understand things, this literally can't happen. They're not going to find a sword over their level, lazor or otherwise. But once they hit level 18, enemies will automagically start packing level 18 lazorswords, and merchants will have them in ready stock across the galaxy. But not earlier than that.
I thought it was a mumorpuger type deal where they couldn't try to use it.
Wait, it's like playing Oblivion?
>nuschool babies
They're trolls, they don't play anything except you.
"You don't have enough badges to wield me, interloper!"
Did Oblivion bar you from buying tactical knives until level 7? If so, sure.
>As I understand things, this literally can't happen
OK, so then if my level 18 PC gives the lazorsword to her level 1 daughter, can that NPC use it?
If my GM misreads the level guidelines on a module and the treasure includes treasure overlevelled for my PC... what then?
Iunno. This is like looking at some weird alien culture where they all wear shoes on their hands and the mice eat the cats.
Had to go to fucking burgerville for a business trip. Glad to be back what did I miss /osrg/?
I'm mad so few people gave me magic system ideas last thread.
Forget it Jake, it's Pathfinder.
Have you tried trawling the archives? Tons of good ideas. People are getting tired of answering.
Eeeeh. How long ago?
-Cavegirl posted her system and some other cool stuff.
-Threads got split for a bit, back together now.
-One user posted a ton of hilarious but also shitpost-inspired OP images.
-The Robotech kickstarter imploded, as is right and proper -This happened for some reason
>All armor, equipment, and weapons (whether magic, technological, or hybrid) are assigned an item level. While characters can utilize items of any level, Game Masters should keep in mind that allowing characters access to items far above their current level may imbalance the game.
>An object’s item level represents the scarcity and value of the technology and/or magic employed in its construction—higher-level items generally incorporate more advanced technology or mystical forces. An object’s item level also determines its hardness and Hit Points (see Breaking Objects) and is an indicator of the level at which a character should typically expect to both have access to the item and be able to craft it (see Crafting Equipment and Magic Items).
>Item level also helps convey the fact that buying equipment is more involved than just placing an order. Even finding the items you desire isn’t always easy, and those who have access to things such as powerful weapons and armor tend to deal only with people they trust. Legitimate vendors don’t want to get reputations for selling hardware to pirates or criminals, and even criminal networks must be careful with whom they do business.
>Rather than meticulously track every arms dealer, contact, guild, and license a character has access to, the game assumes that in typical settlements you can find and purchase anything with an item level no greater than your character level + 1, and at major settlements items up to your character level + 2. The GM can restrict access to some items (even those of an appropriate level) or make items of a higher level available for purchase (possibly at a greatly increased price or in return for a favor done for the seller).
So I guess you're twinking your little girl out by giving her gear way above her level, filthy munchkin.
It's hard to do genuinely innovative magic systems.
If I were to implement a scratch built system, I'd probably focus on omen reading and attempts to gain divine favor. The former potentially allowing you to ask questions of the GM, the latter serving a function similar to fate points, allow bonuses, rerolls or scene declarations, both with the possibility of fucking up (in the former, the GM can lie to you, in the latter the gods might take offense and fuck you up in some way).
>/v/
WTF, and I thought our spooky scary skeletons were over the top? Also, I've never seen that many replies to a deleted post before, sheesh.
>-The Robotech kickstarter imploded, as is right and proper →
From here, I feel /m/'s blackened heart rejoice.
Use GURPS if you want new magic systems
In OSR, you get vancian or nothing (SP if you count psionics as magic)
user who was inspired by La Mulana, how's your game/planning going? I'd love to bear about it, that game is just such a perfect setting for a OSR megadungeon
Not even pathfinder's gear progression system was THIS braindead.
Why do people here have a hateboner for Carcosa?
It just seems like a weird fantasy gamma world to me
Speaking of Gamma World, are there any good retroclones for it?
Manacles are level 4. Manacles.
Same reason LotFP isn't super-popular here: low tolerace for seemingly pointless grimdark.
LotFP is pretty damn popular. Art and modules aside, people like the actual rules.
>all cops are level 4
>LotFP
>Not Popular
wut haha
Simple "binders" are level 1, though.
What the hell are you talking about. For a while LotFP was one of the three games this place talked about.
I feel like a broken record, but checks all the boxes.
I can see how it might not appeal to
>And dropped. I don't know why anyone uses this fluff. Reducing Wizards to shamans, cucking them without having any magic of their own is pretty lame tbqh.
types, but it's thematic, it's versatile, it ties into an existing subsystem, and there's a soft limit on casting that you can go past at your peril.
Um, yeah?
If an user has DCC RPG and Umerican Survival Guide what should his next purchase be?
$nip[dot]li /v1wn
Killer of Giants
Carcosa has a really stupid system for HP where it's randomized every day. I would never use that kind of system in a million years. And that's just the first thing.
Everything in the game is either designed to kill you with almost no conceivable way of understanding why or how, or is useless to you. As a stupid barbarian who would be lucky to have a bent iron longsword in his possession, you will never even come close to understanding how alien technology works because the knowledge base for you to possibly learn such a thing does not exist and cannot be built. On that planet, humanity never had any civilization to speak of, and probably will never have one, given the circumstance.
You're thrust into a world that hates you, where your race is genetically engineered to be sacrificed to unknowable outer space alien gods, and worse, apparently everyone else not in your party and not completely insane is too jaded by their eternal drudgery to even care.
If you were a character in this setting, what would even be worth fighting for?
What sort of game do you want to run?
What sort of media do you enjoy?
Physical or PDF?
Excuse me, user, the latest version of Starfinder calls them "personacles", thank you very much.
>If you were a character in this setting, what would even be worth fighting for?
Same as today: sex, drugs, and fancy hats?
It's very popular in general, but here when it gets brought up nowadays all people really do is rag on the art.
Meme answer: A proper OSR game
Non-meme answer: Another DCC splat
>Excuse me, user, the latest version of Starfinder calls them "personacles", thank you very much.
You're cute, I'll kill you last.
But they leveled up, though?
Running a S&W White Box game...first time DM. What's a good module that will not confuse the fuck out of my players and I?
The Sanctuary Ruin or Challenge of the Frog Idol.
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca
It works, it's free, and it's as not-confusing as I could make it.
Thanks...I'll look at all of them. Should I rule out 'official' modules from TSR? Would the conversions be crazy?
Nah dude, that's the whole point of the osr (though you might have more work to do with TotSK) and S&W isn't that crunchy of a game to start with. You should be fine. These are just good beginner modules, as the official ones are old and...let's just say they don't have the best writing.
No? S&W is OD&D, the only major change is the single save category.
Nah, the conversions should be fairly quick. Treasure: work out a good conversion rate and convert as needed.
Monsters: look up the stats beforehand and have them handy.
There's... a lot of old chaff to sort through though. Some truly excellent modules, but a loooot of.... tenfootpole.org
nonsense.
Fun tip: you can use music to help motivate you while writing. It's a good idea to pick tracks that are about the length of the work you still need to do.
For example, I've just started Wagner's Ring Cycle. No, not the Anna Russel version. The long one.
:(
How well do you or your characters roleplay in OSR, lads? What circumstances or stories have you woven in your campaign? I understand that this is often associated with story games and stuff, but surely you can still do it in OSR, right?
>inb4 GYG
Odd question, I know.
How do I get a real life group?