Incline OSR Games - Official thread

[pakoito]

Samesies. I don't expect to ever use it tho

 

[Bara]

Son of a gun already fully funded.

 

[pakoito]

Son of a gun already fully funded.

*More than doubled the funding

 

[Morblot]

I'm glad the shipping costs aren't prohibitive despite them (apparently?) sending all the books from the US this time around.

 

[pakoito]

It's on the way to hit all stretch goals by the time the US West Coast goes home after work.

 

[Bara]

I wonder what they'll do for additional goals if they go for it.

They already said they were no longer considering doing another black box set run with this Kickstarter as supplies have dwindled down to only a few copies but had to drop that idea due to cost. I'm so glad I grabbed when I could.

 

[Dedup]

Missed the black box set myself. I figured that I'll wait to see if it would be in the new Kickstarter which proved to be a mistake. I ended up backing for the modular books and ordered the modular OSE classic rule books from Exalted Funeral. I'll probably grab the compiled tomes as add-ons once they become available.

 

[Bara]

Well the next set of stretch goals are revealed and teased for OSE

Spoiler

Free PDF: Spell Trackers [Locked — $110,000]
We’ll produce a PDF with four spell trackers — one for each type of spells (cleric, druid, illusionist, magic-user) — allowing players to easily keep track of the spells their character has memorized. The trackers will also serve as a quick reference for the range and duration of spells. This PDF will be made available as a free download.

Free PDF: Dungeon Time Tracker [Locked — $115,000]
We’ll produce a PDF with a dungeon time tracker as an aid for referees in keeping track of dungeon turns: light sources, wandering monsters, resting, and so on. This PDF will be made available as a free download.

Generators Website Upgrade: Advanced Random Encounter Rollers [Unlocked at $120,000]
We’ll enhance the Old-School Essentials generators website with the ability to roll random encounters including the full spread of Classic Fantasy + Advanced Fantasy monsters! The enhanced generators will be available for the whole world to use.

Generators Website Upgrade: Advanced Treasure and Magic Item Rollers [Locked — $125,000]
We’ll enhance the Old-School Essentials generators website with the ability to roll random treasure hoards including the full spread of Classic Fantasy + Advanced Fantasy magic items! The enhanced generators will be available for the whole world to use.

Generators Website Upgrade: Advanced Memorized Spells Rollers [Locked — $130,000]
We’ll enhance the Old-School Essentials generators website with the ability to roll random memorized spell lists for all spell casting classes introduced in the Advanced Fantasy books! The enhanced generators will be available for the whole world to use.

Generators Website Upgrade: Advanced NPC Rollers [Locked — $135,000]
We’ll enhance the Old-School Essentials generators website with the ability to roll random NPCs including the full spread of Classic Fantasy + Advanced Fantasy character classes! The enhanced generators will be available for the whole world to use.

More...
We have some more physical, Kickstarter exclusive stretch goals in the works... To be revealed soon!

They mention those next set of physical rewards will be free to backers once reached and unlocked.

Spoiler

the next stretch goals will unlock a set of Kickstarter exclusive physical items free of cost to all backers (except digital-only and retail pledges). More news on that once our accountant gnomes have signed off on it.

So if I'm reading that right these next set of digital rewards they've shown will also include as yet unrevealed physcical rewards once and if they're sure the numbers will support it?

 

[Bara]

Well all those previous goals have been hit and here's the next set for those who aren't following closely.

Spoiler

Adventure Scenarios Pricing
Didn't the title of this update say it's about stretch goals? Well, yes, it did. Well spotted. But before we get into the stretch goals, we wanted to quickly announce the pricing for the adventure scenarios, as some people have asked about it. Here's how you'll be able to purchase the adventures and how much they'll cost:

• Following the Kickstarter, we'll be using a pledge manager where you'll be able to select add-ons.
• The three new adventures will be available in the add-ons store (in print + PDF or PDF only form).
• Backers can grab the adventures for $10 each (in print + PDF). That's a 33% backer's discount off the eventual retail price of $15! (Backers will be able to get the adventures in PDF for a discounted price of $5 each.)

We'll have more information coming soon about other products that will be available as add-ons.

All Stretch Goals up to $135,000 Unlocked!
Ok, now onto the stretch goals. Over the last few days, we've been scrabbling to finalise details on the next wave of stretch goals, as the second wave goals (from $110,000 to $135,000) were unlocked so quickly! Here's a quick summary of what we've unlocked so far:

• The Player's Tome, Referee's Tome, and all modular supplements have been upgraded to feature fancy printed end-papers, featuring the most commonly used tables.
• The Player's Tome and the Referee's Tome will each be enhanced with two ribbon markers.
• We'll be producing three new adventure scenarios in softcover format — The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman, Holy Mountain Shaker, by Luka Rejec, and Isle of the Plangent Mage, by Donn Stroud. Following the Kickstarter, backers will be able to select these adventures as add-ons in the pledge manager at a special reduced price of $10 each.
• We'll be producing a pair of free PDFs: one for tracking a PC's spells and one for tracking time during dungeon exploration.
• The Old-School Essentials generators website will be enhanced with the ability to roll encounters, treasure, spell books, and NPCs including the Advanced Fantasy material.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for... even more stretch goals!

Stretch Goals up to $200,000 Added!

• $150,000: Character Options Booklet: We'll produce a Kickstarter exclusive zine-style booklet containing 4 brand new Old-School Essentials classes (the beast master, the changeling, the mycelian, and the warden) designed by Gavin Norman! Further stretch goals will unlock additional content in the booklet. All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the booklet! (Digital backers will receive the booklet in PDF form.) (The content featured in the booklet may also appear in future Old-School Essentials products.)
• $160,000: Reference Booklet: We'll produce a zine-style booklet containing the most commonly used tables and rules for Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy games. All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the booklet! (Digital backers will receive the booklet in PDF form.)
• $170,000: Free Adventure!: All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the first of the three new adventures we'll be producing — The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman. (Digital backers will receive the adventure in PDF form.)
• $180,000: Character Options Booklet Expansion 1: We'll expand the character options booklet with two more brand new classes designed by Gavin Norman (classes to be announced later)!
• $190,000: Character Options Booklet Expansion 1: We'll expand the character options booklet with two more brand new classes designed by Gavin Norman (classes to be announced later)!
• $200,000: Adventures Hardcover Upgrade: The three new adventure scenarios (see above) will be printed in hardcover format at no extra cost! All non-retail backers will receive a free copy of the first of the three new adventures we'll be producing — The Incandescent Grottoes, by Gavin Norman (see $170,000 stretch goal). Once the Kickstarter is over, backers will have the option of selecting the other adventures as add-ons in the pledge manager at a special, reduced price of $10 (MSRP $15).

Note: "non-retail backers" means all backers who are not at the retailer pledge level, Dungeon Dealer.

All For Now
I'll leave you with a layout preview from Advanced Fantasy: Treasures, featuring an absolutely classic magic item.

Illustration by Chris Malec

 

[Morblot]

I'm happy about the generators thing. None of the stretch goals past that mean anything to me, but naturally I wish them all the best.

 

[Bara]

The generators are definitely the most useful across the board of additions but I'm always a sucker for more class options.

 

[pakoito]

The generators need to be opensource and extended. They lack configuration for most encounters.

 

[Bara]

So has anyone tried out Mork Borg? From this video the art looks great but I feel like I'm buying a art book rather than a gamebook.



Like the page at 4:49 in the video where a entire page is taking up to explain using a Femur as a weapon does d4 damage. Readability just feels like it suffers in a few parts of the books as they chose form over function.

I've heard a lot of people talking about it since it won some awards but nothing on if it's actually fun to play. The way the book's done doesn't make me to keen on trying it out but I'm wondering if I should just look past that and there is some fun to be had here.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

So has anyone tried out Mork Borg? From this video the art looks great but I feel like I'm buying a art book rather than a gamebook.

That's also my understand of it, even after reading Grognardia. I feel this is a certain "group" of OSR creators that focus on that aspect. No problem with that myself, but I'm 0% interested in this.

 

[Morblot]

I saw it described as a coffee table book on theRPGsite. Pass.

 

[Curratum]

When the OSR produces gloss paper, hardbound, full-color books full of absolute FLUFF and tries to sell them at exorbitant prices, that's where I give the OSR the middle finger in turn, having given it to WotC years ago, and where I just play and exclusively deal with my homebrew.

QuestingBeast is a nice person, he has also produced one of the very best OSR micro rulesets around, but at this point he's just getting free copies of stuff to shill for because he has accumulated some nice cloud and that can fuck right off.

 

[Melan]

It is very much style over substance, although it does style very good. As a metal-themed RPG ruleset, it looks workable, and it has some neat genre emulation aspects. However, it is also a very thin book that would be about 24-28 pages as a typewritten format if it was not for the magic of modern layout. It is lightweight even where old-school games are concerned. This would not be much of a problem in the case of the central mechanics, but the monster roster, for instance, is very thin at sixteen critters. Yes, the pages are very pretty. It is printed on thick glossy paper with metal foil and stuff. The binding looks great. There is even a bookmark!

But before it became a fucking acronym, old-school gaming used to be about function and actual play around your actual table, not muh production values and graphic design. In 2008, Carcosa was made on some guy's office printer, and it was packed. City Encounters was a bare-bones PDF, and it was packed. Fight On! magazine was rough, with Winword-tier two-column layout and it was packed. You get the idea. This feels flimsy. The same pages could carry twice the material, and still stay breezy.

 

[Bara]

QuestingBeast is a nice person, he has also produced one of the very best OSR micro rulesets around, but at this point he's just getting free copies of stuff to shill for because he has accumulated some nice cloud and that can fuck right off.

Yeah I definitely feel that after going through a few of his videos. He's doesn't really offer much critique in his reviews just a couple lines here or there but mostly talks about the positives.

Still like his stuff overall and I can at least pause the video through his flip through to make my own judgements.

 

[Sacibengala]

So has anyone tried out Mork Borg? From this video the art looks great but I feel like I'm buying a art book rather than a gamebook.



Like the page at 4:49 in the video where a entire page is taking up to explain using a Femur as a weapon does d4 damage. Readability just feels like it suffers in a few parts of the books as they chose form over function.

I've heard a lot of people talking about it since it won some awards but nothing on if it's actually fun to play. The way the book's done doesn't make me to keen on trying it out but I'm wondering if I should just look past that and there is some fun to be had here.

Honestly I think Mork Borg is BS. But I’m an OSE guy with the corrupted taste of lotfp kind of uselfuness and weirdness.

 

[Bara]

Good news for the UK/Euro-folks who were interested or already pledged to the new Old School essentials kickstarter.

Spoiler

EU- and UK-Friendly Shipping!
Hey everyone,

Just a very quick update today with some great news for those of you in Europe...

We Now Have EU- and UK-Friendly Shipping!

• UK backers' rewards will be shipped from within the UK.
• EU backers' rewards will be shipped from within the EU (from Germany).
• (We're also including Norway and Switzerland in the EU fulfillment group.)

Shipping Rates
Here are the complete updated shipping rates tables, encompassing Europe and the whole world!

Estimated shipping rates: Shipping is not included in the pledge tiers. It will be charged in the pledge manager later on, and will be calculated depending on your location and pledge. See below for shipping cost estimates for each pledge level based on current shipping rates.

All rates are listed in USD

• Group A: Austria, Belgium, Germany.
• Group B: France, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands.
• Group C: Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland.
• Group D: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain.
• Group E: Finland, Norway.
• Group F: Greece, Lithuania.

Note that the rates in the European table are just a rough guideline. In reality, every country has its own unique table of shipping rates. For convenience, we've grouped together countries that have similar rates, but actual shipping fees may be somewhat lower or higher than what you see above.

All For Now
Spread the word among your European friends!

Gavin / Moss Master at Necrotic Gnome

p.s. We unlocked another stretch goal since the last update! I'll talk about that next time.

 

[Morblot]

I think the shipping cost to where I live might've actually increased because of this. Oh well, no need to worry about customs now, at least...

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

OSE is solid because it's one of the only OSR out there that tries to be "playable from the box". Most (not all, no absolute here) tries to be just "rules-light" and stylish, but you need to use your other books to fix their system (or worst, if you are a new player, good luck).

Personally I play OD&D but I do use some of the stuff from the OSE, especially free stuff available online such as the generators, list of monsters, etc. I highly respect what they do.

 

[catfood]

Most OSR titles work out of the box already, what are you on?

 

[Sacibengala]

Most OSR titles work out of the box already, what are you on?

I disagree, because a lot of minimalist systems tends to ignore the new DMs and players. The OSE guy needed to write new stuff for new DMs get on board of the system, because his B/X Essentials was not made for new people. As another example, The Black Hack 1e was the same. Very minimalist approach, but that lacked a lot of basic stuff for newcomers.

 

[Alex]

I wished the OSR wasn't so focused on being minimalist, to be honest.