Incline OSR Games - Official thread

[Alex]

Well, there is enough stuff in AD&D 1e and 2e to last even more...

But the issue is that I would like to see more games follow a similar design philosophy. Whenever I look at Shadowrun 1e sourcebooks at least, I see a lot of effort being put to make sure that the GM has whatever information about the world would be likely to matter in a sandbox game. One sourcebook has several ready-made different locations such as a downtown bank, a bar, a shopping mall, etc. Another book I was looking at begun describing lone star equipment and vehicles. The vehicle actually had the data for the internal matrix of the vehicle that connects via satellite with a central computer and information about procedures the company would take if the vehicle was perceived as missing. This kind of stuff is awesome for a sandbox campaign because with this level of detail, the players have a lot more stuff with what to work to come up with ideas, plans and schemes. The level of detail of what each character archetype is like is also something I like a lot.

So, I would love to see this done in other setting types, or seeing the actual system used in shadowrun (the dicepool thing) being refined. I think Burning Wheel of all things actually had some pretty good ideas, but it throws away a lot of what makes Shadowrun great because of its narrativist agenda thing.

Anyway, as far as systems go, I liked ACKS, and like people were saying, Kevin Crawford's stuff is pretty great, although I think he keeps things pretty simple system-wise. But you can easily use his stuff without using his systems. But my favourite system related to OSR has been the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

 

[Sacibengala]

So what are you guys playing ? OSR retroclones or TSR era D&D ?

OSE with blue medusa. But my players are a bunch of bitches that only knows to complain about difficulty instead of man the fuck up and try to learn with their own mistakes.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

So what are you guys playing ? OSR retroclones or TSR era D&D ?

OSE with blue medusa. But my players are a bunch of bitches that only knows to complain about difficulty instead of man the fuck up and try to learn with their own mistakes.

That's sad. My players are 5th addict and bitched about the system in the beginning, but now they love it and since we have been playing for a long time (since AD&D2nd + various other things like LARP), they enjoyed it and even if they die they are good to go with it (except one guy that's newer to the group and straight up never came back lol).

 

[Morblot]

Currently Old-School Essentials, although we've had only one session so far. I'm running, or at least trying to run, The Keep on the Borderlands. I made my own outdoors map to replace the one in the module

Session 2 just ended and it was fun! The PCs + their dwarf hireling hexcrawled around the small 5x5 map I had prepared and ran into the hermit from the module (a 3rd level thief with attack bonuses). His mountain lion immediately eviscerated the party's fighter (who was the only character with more than 2 HP :D), but the 1 HP magic-user managed to charm the hermit and he is now following the PCs around for at least a week. They also happened to run into a new fighter who agreed to join their party; this was naturally the dead fighter's player's new character, which I think took all of five minutes to create from scratch.

They also managed to defeat two random bugbears due to some excellent dice rolls + me stupidly declaring their 2d4 weapons to be large swords needing two hands -- and then having the fighter's player remind me that all twohanders are slow, so the bugbears automatically lost all iniative rolls. Fuck! :D

It's really fun and LIBERATING to play something so rules-light after years of 3X and Pathfinder. Oftentimes I didn't know what to do, so I just made some shit up and ran with it and it worked out in the end... at least so far. I also roll monsters' combat rolls in the open, which I think adds to the excitement. There are no rails on this road!

Anyways, I have a question. How would you handle wilderness traps and snares as a DM? The orcs & goblins have set up some vietcong style traps in the forest; should I just roll if any of the characters notice them beforehand or should I instead try to describe them somehow, thus alerting my players that something's up... Any tips?

 

[pakoito]

Currently Old-School Essentials, although we've had only one session so far. I'm running, or at least trying to run, The Keep on the Borderlands. I made my own outdoors map to replace the one in the module

Anyways, I have a question. How would you handle wilderness traps and snares as a DM? The orcs & goblins have set up some vietcong style traps in the forest; should I just roll if any of the characters notice them beforehand or should I instead try to describe them somehow, thus alerting my players that something's up... Any tips?

Rule-less traps may work best here. When describing the environment, place a hint of something wrong. If they catch then yeah, avoid or disable. If they don't catch it, yell "CLICK" (or "WOOSH" or whatever's relevant) and ask for an action in the next 5 seconds.

Or don't describe it, fuck the players.

 

[Bara]

Currently Old-School Essentials, although we've had only one session so far.

So I've only played BECMI D&D and later editions and I haven't really delved into OSR / retro-clones before. Does Old School essentials differ in some ways from BX / BE portion of BECMI?

Or is it a faithful clone and really convenient compilation of the Basic & Expert rules in one set?

Also, if you have the print copy hows the overall quality of the print & art? I might pick it up for myself.

 

[Morblot]

Does Old School essentials differ in some ways from BX / BE portion of BECMI?

Not much, from what I recall of BECMI. It doesn't include the solo adventure BECMI had, of course, but the rules are mostly the same, except thief skills suck less in B/X and OSE than they do in BECMI.

Or is it a faithful clone and really convenient compilation of the Basic & Expert rules in one set?

That is exactly what OSE is. But note, OSE is a clone of the 1981 B/X rules, not the 1983 BECMI, although, as said earlier, there are very few differences between those two editions.

Also, if you have the print copy hows the overall quality of the print & art? I might pick it up for myself.

I do indeed have almost everything OSE-related in print and they're great! The A5 hardcovers are beautiful to look at and, thanks to the excellent layout and concise wording, also easy to refer to at the table. They're expensive, yes, but worth it in my opinion. I only wish there was more monster art but I also realize that art is not cheap, so it is what it is.

And since the OSE kickstarter did so well, Necrotic Gnome also blessed us with the excellent OSE SRD and OSE Generators. You can take a look at the former to see if OSE would be to your liking, the text & tables are lifted straight from the book I think.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

I wrote my own entire tabletop rpg. its dcc compatible and theres some fun bits. i wont be sharing. my players like it enough to keep coming back. no followup questions, thanks.

Edit: One player called it "gay" because he died twice, both times from attempting to facetank large groups of enemies.

 

[Bara]

So as I was looking into shipping of the OSE physical books I saw that Necrotic Gnome doesn't ship to those of you State Side.

However they've sent a shipment of books to their partners at Exalted Funeral for pre-order.

It's "expected to ship some time in June baring any unforeseen circumstances."

 

[Morblot]

The Exalted Funeral books were stuck in the UK yet a week ago according to the Old-School Essentials page on Facebook I don't think there's anything either EF or NG can do about it but wait.

 

[Melan]

International shipping is a quagmire right now. Mail which used to take 8-14 days to reach the US can take 20-30, and larger packages more than that (Australia and New Zealand cannot even be shipped to, at least from my place). Since passenger air traffic has fallen like a rock, the mail which used to be carried by the same planes is clogging up the pipeline. The result is not just delays, but unpredictability - sometimes, the delays are minor, and sometimes, they are unreasonably long.

The only exception that I know of is EMS shipments, which still go through on a sane schedule (they are kind of expensive for anything except bulk). I have recently sent four boxes of stuff to Exalted Funeral, and these shipments are all on time.

 

[Bara]

The Exalted Funeral books were stuck in the UK yet a week ago according to the Old-School Essentials page on Facebook I don't think there's anything either EF or NG can do about it but wait.

One thing I'm surprised about that situation is that Exalted Funeral will only email the pdf versions of the books you bought once they've shipped out the package. In this situation they really ought to just send the PDFs in the mean time.

Ah well still the viruses fault more than anything.

 

[Bara]

Well friend got an email for Old School Esentials whatever was going on with the UK shipment has cleared up still going to be a while to deliver though.

We have a confirmed shipping date from the UK warehouse that has housed the books. The container (yes container!) of books is set to ship on July 1st with a 3-5 week travel time to our warehouse. After that it should only be roughly 1-2 business days on our end to quality check and start shipping.

So we should expect a late July/early August delivery on all the pre-ordered products!

 

[Morblot]

Necrotic Gnome released a blog post about the shipping issues on Monday: https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/shipping-update

Today they announced the upcoming Advanced Fantasy Kickstarter: https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/old-school-essentials-advanced-fantasy -- looks like the chunky tomes will contain both the basic and advanced fantasy stuff. I only lack the two modular books but will probably end up getting absolutely everything again

 

[Sacibengala]

Necrotic Gnome released a blog post about the shipping issues on Monday: https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/shipping-update

Today they announced the upcoming Advanced Fantasy Kickstarter: https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/old-school-essentials-advanced-fantasy -- looks like the chunky tomes will contain both the basic and advanced fantasy stuff. I only lack the two modular books but will probably end up getting absolutely everything again

I have the rules tome and will get those.

 

[Sacibengala]

Lamentations of the Flame Princess are getting new great releases too. And they are in need of all the help they can get, because the Cancel Culture and hate mobs are all over them.

 

[pakoito]

Is the single book OSE compilation worth it?

 

[Sacibengala]

Is the single book OSE compilation worth it?

Yes. it have all the b/x stuff. Now with the new ones I dont know, because it will have some overlap. Or all of it plus the Advanced stuff.

 

[Morblot]

Is the single book OSE compilation worth it?

^ of these, I have everything on the left-hand side, meaning the box and the two tomes. I mostly use the Rules Tome and the online SRD as a DM, while my players seem to prefer the Player's Rules Tome over the little booklets. So I'd say yes, the Tome is worth getting; both of them are.

 

[Sacibengala]

New stuff for lotfp been released today!!!Some stuff in here will become rare very fast. Do you guys are excited for any of it? It is sad that I would not be able to get some of these in time. I already bought some stuff this month. Now I have to wait. https://lotfp.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-releases-tomorrow-monday-july-13.html

 

[nikolokolus]

New stuff for lotfp been released today!!!Some stuff in here will become rare very fast. Do you guys are excited for any of it? It is sad that I would not be able to get some of these in time. I already bought some stuff this month. Now I have to wait. https://lotfp.blogspot.com/2020/07/new-releases-tomorrow-monday-july-13.html

I picked up the "Blood Compilation" mostly so I could have a physical copy of a quite a few out-of-print adventures that are on the good end (i.e. early Raggi stuff when he was at the height of his creativity) and the Deck of Weird is something I'll probably find useful, but I can't justify that price tag, even with free shipping. All that being said, I found most of the recent LotFP releases to be kind of flat and uninspired, but it's a shame the imprint is probably going to collapse. Raggi has a reputation for being generous with his artists and collaborators, and the physical product he put out is unparalleled for quality.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Isn't that the one made by a guy about his girlfriend who then promptly left him?

 

[nikolokolus]

Isn't that the one made by a guy about his girlfriend who then promptly left him?

Lamentations of the Flame Princess? If that's what you mean, then no; IIRC it has something to do with the death metal fanzine that Raggi published back in the day. Maybe that was named after an ex-girlfriend?

 

[Bara]

No I remember hearing about that too. Like the flame princess was based on his ex-wife I think?

At least the Author's note from the Death Love Doom adventure talks about how he put the misery of his divorce into his work.

It’s lonelier than actually being alone. Then someone catches your eye, and you stay away from them to keep out of trouble, but an imagination so used to creating entire new worlds then starts working to manufacturing personalities, possibilities, and dare I say mythologies about someone you dare not even talk to... and then one day the person you’re supposed to be spending the rest of your life with says or does that one last thing that makes you realize that there is no fixing this

 

[Bara]

Minor news but the Old School Essentials now has their character sheet up on roll20.

Good news for Roll20 users: there is now an official Old-School Essentials character sheet for Roll20 games! The official sheet (which is based on an older, unofficial one) is being actively developed and has gained a lot of new features recently.

How to Use The Official Sheet?

1. Log in to Roll20.
2. Start a new game or click on an existing game.
3. Go to Settings / Game Settings.
4. Under Character Sheet Template, select "Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome".

(The sheet simply named "Old School Essentials" is the older, unofficial sheet, which has a lot less features.)

What Features Does it Have?

• Supports all Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Advanced Fantasy character classes.
• Automatically calculates saving throws, Hit Dice, and attack probabilities for supported classes.
• Descending or ascending AC. (This can be switched at any time in the settings.)
• Click to roll saving throws, attacks, ability checks, etc.
• Attack rolls indicate natural 1s and 20s.

Just played around with it. It's a pretty clean character sheet and pretty well built should consider using it if your running OSR stuff on roll20.