Which retroclone/OSR game would you wanna be adapted into a CRPG?

[Cryomancer]

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Retroclone

• Adventurer Conquerer King: Based on the 1981 B/X set, with a few changes, such as using a d20 for most rolls, adding a proficiency system, and doing 'race-and-class-as-class'(...)
• Blueholme: Blueholme is a knock-off of the 1977 Holmes basic edition of D&D (aka the weird one),
• Old School Essentials: It's B/X, sticking as close as possible to the original rules, but with modern editing for easy reading.
• Dark Dungeons: The knock-off of the Rules Cyclopedia with a few differences. Published by Gratis Games.
• Labyrinth Lord: The knock-off of the 1981 B/X or orange/blue books of D&D (levels 1-14).
• OSRIC: Old School Reference & Index Companion is a /tg/-made attempt to better 1e AD&D. Published by Knights-N-Knaves
• Swords & Wizardry: A streamlining of the White Box, including all supplements. Published by Frog God Games.
• White Star: Swords & Wizardry IN SPAAAAAAACE. Uses race-as-class. Leans heavily on Star Wars, with Star Knights and Void Knights, Aristocrats, Hotshots, et cetera.
• Basic Fantasy RPG: A knock-off of the 1981 B/X set but adds a few modern touches (races separate from classes, ascending AC, several rules clarifications). (...)
• Beyond the Wall: An OSR game with a focus on being able to play with little to no prep, (...)
• Lamentations of the Flame Princess - A B/X clone with ascending armor class and gore porn. Uses race-as-class, a d6 system for skill rolls, and replaces the thief with the Specialist,(...)

• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea: AS&SH is an AD&D 1e OSR game which is, as the name suggests, inspired by the works of Robert E Howard and co. Its big twist is the large amounts of subclasses to the usual Fighter/Magic-User/Cleric/Rogue array, meaning parties can quickly differentiate themselves... which is necessary, because there are no demi-humans. The "races" are all based on races of men from old Conan stories: Kimmerians, Picts, Vikings, Stygians, et cetera. Published by North Wind Adventures
• The Black Hack: First edition retroclone that use roll-under mechanics for everything. Add some unique ideas like the Usage Die to the mix.
• Castles & Crusades: An AD&D 1e by way of D20. Its big change is the addition of "Prime" attributes, which give a base chance of 12 versus non prime attributes base chance of 18, meaning characters are more specialized. Published by Troll Lord Games
• Dark Places & Demogorgons: A retroclone ripping off the Netflix series Stranger Things, based on older D&D (which was featured in the show as a sort of meta-commentary). Set in modern times in a small 1980's Kentucky town, you play as high school students who must get to the bottom of the nefarious goings-on in their community(...)
• Dungeon Crawl Classics: An OGL based work which uses Race-As-Class mechanics and high lethality to give the feeling of OSR play without sacrificing modern conveniences...
• Esoteric Enterprises: LotFP-style B/X, but as modern day Cthulhu Mythos/World of Darkness. Play as a member of the criminal underworld dipping their toes into the supernatural. Uses WP&WS's Flesh-&-Grit system, and tables for playing as a vampire, werewolf, ghost or other creature of the night if the usual classes aren't your style. Written by Emmy Allen and Published by Dying Stylishly Games.
• Exemplars & Eidolans: The test run for Godbound. Play as an epic Fighter, Rogue, or Sorcerer.
• Five Torches Deep: A mashup of OD&D and 5e. Character race only effects stat distribution, with elves, dwarves, and halflings starting with 13 in their prime requisite.
• Godbound: D&D meets Exalted. Comes with rules for converting OSR or D&D adventures so your godling can fight a hoard of orcs barehanded,
• Knave: A toolkit from Questing Beast, featuring a leveless magic system that uses gear for spell knowledge. Publishing by Questing Beast.
• Machinations of the Space Princess is LotFP but IN SPAAAAAAACE, c
• The Nightmares Underneath - An eclectic mix of AD&D 2e with mechanics borrowed from every other edition OD&D to 5e from the writer of the Metamorphica.
• Silent Legions: 80's synthwave Call of Cthulhu-esque Lovecraftian Horror.
• Stars Without Number: D&D IN SPAAAAAAAACE. Uses 2d6s for skill tests. Brags that you can take any module from OD&D to AD&D and with 20 minutes work convert it, which you will need to do because the game doesn't expect you to stay in one place for too long.
• Wolf-Packs & Winter Snow: This is LotFP adapted for a stone-age setting. Less grimdark grindcore stuff, more wilderness survival. Magicians record their spells in cave-paintings instead of spellbooks, (...)

My vote? Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, because it offers :

• More cohesive fictional world and very conanesque
• More unique subclasses. You can play as really unique classes, like a cataphract, cryomancer or a runegraver.
• A lot of cool adventures to play
• Amazing artstyle. Just imagine playing a CRPG with graphics like

source of the images(drivethrurpg). The second game which I would wanna to see is LotFP. Among retroclones, I only played S&W, but really wanna to play others. And wish that someone will adapt then into a CRPG. TBH I prefer any game in this list over 5E mainly in a CRPG.

 

[agris]

Hackmaster 4e, which you don’t have a poll option for.

 

[Cryomancer]

Hackmaster 4e, which you don’t have a poll option for.

Added to the poll.

 

[Snorkack]

A gridbased dungeon crawler with 5 Torches Deep ruleset.
Apart from that, I don't think OSR games with their 'rulings over rules' shtick would be very suitable for computer games.

 

[Humbaba]

What advantages do these systems have over the usual ones?

 

[Sacibengala]

Helvéczia. That would be a very original crpg, for sure.

 

[Cryomancer]

What advantages do these systems have over the usual ones?

Depends on the system. I mentioned some cool stuff from AS&SH and LotFP

Helvéczia. That would be a very original crpg, for sure.

Added to the poll.

 

[Humbaba]

What advantages do these systems have over the usual ones?

Depends on the system. I mentioned some cool stuff from AS&SH and LotFP

But I mean like as a whole, why are these old systems worth emulating and using over the others? Those unique classes aren't really a characteristic feature of OSR's as far as I can tell, "true" OSRs only have very basic classes or races as classes. You could just as easily run a conanesque adventure in 5e as far as we know.

 

[Sacibengala]

What advantages do these systems have over the usual ones?

Depends on the system. I mentioned some cool stuff from AS&SH and LotFP

But I mean like as a whole, why are these old systems worth emulating and using over the others? Those unique classes aren't really a characteristic feature of OSR's as far as I can tell, "true" OSRs only have very basic classes or races as classes. You could just as easily run a conanesque adventure in 5e as far as we know.

I can see your point. For me it is the play style, not the rules, that make OSR. In videogames it is all about the gameplay. OSR is like Ultima Underworld while 5e and etc is Skyrim.

 

[Humbaba]

I can see your point. For me it is the play style, not the rules, that make OSR. In videogames it is all about the gameplay. OSR is like Ultima Underworld while 5e and etc is Skyrim.

So they have more of a simulationist (that's not a word) feel you would say?

 

[Sacibengala]

I can see your point. For me it is the play style, not the rules, that make OSR. In videogames it is all about the gameplay. OSR is like Ultima Underworld while 5e and etc is Skyrim.

So they have more of a simulationist (that's not a word) feel you would say?

Something like that, yes. But in the sense that you use use more of your surroundings and not your prescribed character sheet abilities to do the job. I see, at least in my experience playing osr dungeoncrawls, that it resembles more like pointclick adventures games than action or tactical rpgs. I believe that interactive blobbers like dungeon master and grimrock looks more like OSR games than baldurs gate does, as a crude example. If a game get this kind of exploration right, with good social interaction possibilities, it would be an ace of a game.

 

[Melan]

A gridbased dungeon crawler with 5 Torches Deep ruleset.
Apart from that, I don't think OSR games with their 'rulings over rules' shtick would be very suitable for computer games.

The Gold Box games beg to differ.

I would choose AS&SH for the same reasons as outlined in the OP. Swords, sorcery and super-science in is something that has not been tried yet in CRPGs. The great, underrated Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empires kinda goes there, but the tone is quite different. Maybe Dark Sun? Most CRPGs are set in either fairly milquetoast high fantasy settings ("an ancient evil has awoken! the kingdom is in peril!", intones an asthmatic old man), or some kind of bizarro land like steampunk or the outer planes. S&S is gravely underrepresented.

 

[Snorkack]

A gridbased dungeon crawler with 5 Torches Deep ruleset.
Apart from that, I don't think OSR games with their 'rulings over rules' shtick would be very suitable for computer games.

The Gold Box games beg to differ.

Thanks for bringing them up. Gold Box games actually prove my point because they suck ass. There, I said it.
AD&D ruleset worked great for me at the table where RAW combat is some kind of last resort and quickly resolved due to its simplicity. But it is a boring slog when raw combat is pretty much all you do in a videogame.
If I want to play a tacticool combat simulator based on tabletop rules these days, I'd go for something like Blackguards or KotC.

 

[Saerain]

With this selection, I'm saying LotFP largely because I really like Jim despite how much we've hated each other's politics in Facebook banter.

Off-list however, I'd really like to nominate Symbaroum. I imagine a nordjank CRPG in that setting whilst I lay with my wife. Pretty sure it was my recommendation to George Ziets when he was last fishing for dark fantasy properties.

 

[Cryomancer]

Off-list however, I'd really like to nominate Symbaroum. I imagine a nordjank CRPG in that setting whilst I lay with my wife.

Added to the (long) list

 

[felipepepe]

Wouldn't it be more relevant to ask which OSR adventure or setting to adapt?

Not like it would be radically different to play an adventure using Labyrinth Lord, Old School Essentials or LotFP... part of the charm is precisely how many OSR adventures are "system agnostic".