the roots of the rpg hobby

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/HypatiasAngst on 2023-09-21 06:36:35.

A paranoid, conspiracy laden, 400 page adventure for Levels 1-6+ for Dungeon Crawl Classics. A Town with Problems, a trek through the Woods, a crawl across The Capitol, and an endless dive into a Mega-Dungeon—chasing a man who dared to touch a God. All tied together with a [Conspiracy Die] that shrinks and grows as the world becomes more and less rational; unable to explain itself.

It’s a 400 page, 8.5x11, monstrosity of a hard cover book. It is in fact a mega-dungeon.

• Mercy of Angels, the starting town that once housed a god.
• The Shattered Woods, a point crawl investigating what’s really going on in the woods.
• Washington, a city crawl searching for “the facility”: A mega-dungeon with 360 rooms, spanning 12 levels, with 13 factions vying for power, 6 layers of history, and at least 2 dragons.
• 270+ encounters — a lot of things are wandering about, eating people, firing lasers, the usual.
• 210+ NPCS — from healers, card game players, town mayors, bounty hunters, to a walking brain.
• 100+ Bestiary Entries — people-in-black, black helicopters, black cars, mutant shock troopers, holographic alien ghosts... the usual
• 90+ new pieces of gear — from Trinidadian food to shock rifles to all matter of reverse engineered alien technology.
• 40+ Vehicles — tanks, catamarans, hang gliders.
• 24 Mercenaries — including a strange man in a mask and a were-jackalope.
• 30 adventure hooks — there’s UFOs in Washington you know.
• 30 occupations and new character Desires to go with them. — you can be a noise musician!
• 1 new playable species.
• not including the Metal-Faced Giantess, the Giant Robot, or the SpellOS Drives scattered all about; as well as procedures for Oracle Cards, Trading Cards, and Collectible Card Games.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/anotherstupidangel on 2023-09-21 02:47:44.

does anyone have advice or house rules on how to GM environmental puzzles in wilderness travels. ie. climbing mountains, scaling a river, crossing a rope bridge. tht isnt just "everyone rolls"

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Substantial-Pound-62 on 2023-09-21 02:28:30.

I think I can safely say we all love retro clones like OSE and S&W for cleaning up the old systems and presenting them in efficient, modern ways.

That said, I’m often told the old manuals have a certain “charm” to their sometimes idiosyncratic presentations that just can’t be replicated.

I’m thinking of printing out and binding one of these, perhaps the Ad&D 1st edition, or the old Odnd white books, or maybe even the B/X manuals.

What’s your go-to old school game manual that you find a joy to read? Doesn’t have to be DnD.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Gameogre50 on 2023-09-21 01:20:26.

A long time ago, I read somewhere about house rules or some BX variant that used the higher level spells not normally seen in BX as Ritual type spells cast by powerful groups of Magic Users. In my memory this was not without cost and a good deal of possible danger but had a very kewl Sword and Sorcery feel to it.

I have been trying to remember where/what it was for the last few days but I have had no luck. Does this strike a cord with anyone else? Heck, I read tons of blogs around that time so it could have even been from that. Hope one of you guys remembers more than I.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Gundobad_Games on 2023-09-20 23:45:27.

Hi folks! My newest blog post considers three design choices from the video game Middle Earth: Shadow of War -- and how those choices might help make DOMAIN PLAY more fun in your tabletop D&D-like game!

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/alucardarkness on 2023-09-20 20:42:28.

Pretty much app other classes are a variation of the 4, warlock is a Wizard, druid is a cleric, barbarian is a warrior and so on.

But I can't see How would the bard fit into the 4 core classes of OSR. Does It even fits at all?

Like, It's a thief with spellcasting, but you can't Just roleplay that out.

If It helps anything, I'm playing DCC (I know there are tons and tons of homebrewed bards for the system but I don't like any of them).

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/TheThulr on 2023-09-20 19:25:58.

In the shadow of the mountain of a half-forgotten god, a new horror is stirring: blood-feud has come to the land.

The Kickstarter is running for 3 weeks. This dark-age inspired adventure puts you in the role of ordinary people struggling to survive the outbreak of blood-feud.

This is a 60-page system neutral adventure, illustrated with original lino-cut art (available in the campaign add-ons) and professionally edited by Mathew K throughout.

Someone has I am trying to do some work on creating "conversion guides" for some systems after it was suggested by a backer. First one for CAIRN will go up this week!

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/dbstandsfor on 2023-09-20 18:17:19.

I have run OSE, Cairn, and Mouseritter before, but never really paid attention to things like encumbrance or movement speed. I’m now interested in running a dungeon crawl with more meticulous time records etc.

I’m thinking about how to judge what happens in situations like:

• who gets hit by that fireball trap that just went off?
• deciding where they are in a room that is too big to see all at once with torchlight

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Ok_Garbage_7236 on 2023-09-20 17:36:51.

I'm currently running a DCC campaign, my players are on a quest to kill a chaos lord that would claim their souls, to reach the BBEG they need to enter through the underdark and circumvent another dangerous área heavilly controled by the BBEG.

But i don't have much idea how to roll the underdark since this is my first campaign,been watching videos about they resource management, the use of ligth ando darkeness and that sort of thing, but i'd really help to have a suplementos that explains all of that(enviorement, creatures, random tables, inhabitants, cultures etc..) to really populate the underdark and not just a Big cave system.

So do you have any suggestions? Any help it's appreciated!!!!

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/ObjectLess3847 on 2023-09-20 16:30:36.

Reading through the OSE advanced rules and...poisons seem sort of useless. at least type 1 poisons. A +6 adjustment? Normal human saves against that every time. Am i getting something wrong?

edit, i should clarify: type 1 bloodstream poison.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Zarvox1234321 on 2023-09-20 22:46:02.

Within the past 6 months I've become aware of OSR and have found it to solve most of my issues with 5e. Because of my own limited time and the inconsistent schedules of those who would play at my table, I've decided to run an open table(in-person only), wherein I schedule based on my availability and whoever wants to can show up to play.

I've recently run my first session under OSE(Winter's Daughter) and am looking to sink my teeth into something bigger, so I plan to run Tomb of the Serpent Kings. In the interest in maintaining some degree of verisimilitude, I plan to run it as a traveling guild of adventurers looking for treasure in dangerous places. Wherever the game takes place, the camp is not far so the rationale is that for each session different PC's might show up from that nearby camp and the PC's that aren't present are simply resting there.

All that being said, the advice I'm looking for is:

What's a good in world "reason" for why the PC's need to leave the middle of a dungeon when our real world time is out? Or is there a better way to handle this?

I was thinking of having some sort of "message board" where players who have been to an unfinished dungeon can leave a few notes or warnings to new players that show up.

I'm considering having a direct correlation between real world and game time. A consequence of this is players can explain what their characters are working on in that time and dungeon areas that may have been cleared may be repopulated in rational ways(e.g. the corpses of the goblins you killed have attracted ghouls to eat them). What are the benefits and pitfalls of this and are there any recommendations on how to run a game with this time mechanic under the open table style I mentioned above?

Are there any other explanations or gameplay mechanics to help this open table style make sense in world?

Thanks in advance, everyone. This subreddit has been a fantastic source of information and inspiration!

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Maz437 on 2023-09-20 19:27:08.

So basically the title. I'm playing a mix of B/X (or OSE) and AD&D (1E & 2E) currently with my group. We've taken what we like about each edition and dropped what we didn't like. For Example - Side Initiative from B/X instead of Segment Initiative from AD&D, AD&D Spells instead of OSE, Class abilities are a mix from both.

Currently I'm playing on Roll20 using the OSE Advanced Character Sheet Template. It's .... OK. To be honest, it's pretty clunky but it's the best I've found so far for the money.

Any recommendations of VTT's for OSR? Especially ones that are friendly for Homebrew?

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/diviner_speaks on 2023-09-20 19:53:57.

Is there an ideal number of rooms for a dungeon? If so, what is that number?

I've seen the "5 Room Dungeon" template, but is 5 all you need?

I shouldn't have to ask, but if you have an answer, divulge your thought process.

View Poll

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/SecretsofBlackmoor on 2023-09-20 18:45:47.

Arnecon may end up being the most OSR convention ever run.

Our goal is to keep it small and also feature the old games of all kinds.

You can see the schedule here:

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/HOLY_MOTHER_games on 2023-09-20 18:13:56.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Rook723 on 2023-09-20 16:26:17.

Our normal 5e game got canceled and I'm looking for recommendations for a 2-3 hour 1 shot for OSE.

Looking for something with minimal prep time and can be a good first experience for players who've only ever played 5e. For clarity I've run/ played OSE games before.

Thanks!

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/CarcosaCitizen on 2023-09-19 20:21:34.

I lack the time and skill to do so and I remember someone saying they were going to post one at some point.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/doctor_violet on 2023-09-19 17:29:32.

Issue #2 of The AGP is now live! This week I talk to Steve Cochron, a friend and fellow Fresno, California game designer, about his upcoming Morticians RPG and what it’s like to work with your spouse. Morticians is an interesting game because it cites the GURPS lineage as its inspiration rather than D&D while still using OSR style art. I also provide some updates about the Crowd Sale for The Progeny our The Brood inspired solo and Wardenless Mothership Microgame.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Dollface_Killah on 2023-09-20 03:57:36.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Old_Dirty_Grognard on 2023-09-20 05:53:53.

I have asked this before and didn't really get a good answer, so I ask again. In OSE on the encounter sequence surprise is checked before checking distance. Where as in B/X distance is checked first and then surprise. What would be the advantage of doing it the OSE way and how would it play out if let's say you rolled for surprise and the monsters where surprised and the PC's were not, and then you roll for distance and got two one's and the monsters are 20 feet away?

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/BrilliantCash6327 on 2023-09-20 05:13:51.

I’m a big fan of megadungeons like Stonehell and Barrowmaze. Is there anything similar for a sci-fi game? Maybe Stars Without Number?

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Gavriel_Q on 2023-09-20 04:10:47.

Roleplaying games offer an activity that is, in itself, an act of resistance against the seductive trends of our times. Adults coming together to write on paper, roll dice, read books, and interpret characters solely through their imagination while engaged in a powerful creative exercise that involves self-expression and socialization. What a kick in the ass to everything our modern society has to offer! These nerd-rebels, who shun the temptations of the system with fanatical discipline, may indeed be nurturing something worth remembering, worth caring for, and worth protecting: that which makes us human.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Sylathar on 2023-09-19 23:39:29.

Been listening a lot to Ahab(the German metal band) and reading Mobi Dick and now an obsession with nautical themes emerges. I’m gonna write my own but I’m interested in adventures already written to learn from them. Any recommendations? Cheers

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/plaugedoctorforhire on 2023-09-19 23:34:52.

What it says on the tin. One of the early level encounters I'm making is a Giant Badger den located in the ruins of an old garrison house. Which, afaik, Giant Badgers don't have a statblock in the OSE books that i can refernce.

How do you decide which treasure table to use for a monster or monster lair? I know that the referees tome has a general guideline, but this is still a very new thing to me, so I'm struggling to figure out how much would be appropriate for the given location or the challenge at hand.

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The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/Astralbadger on 2023-09-19 19:33:36.

Has anyone come across any good dice rolling mechanics for doing this? Last time out I used clocks and successes and failures on skill challenges that simulated whether players succeeded or failed on some long term projects, but I wondered if anyone had come across a better system?

Basically I am trying to go for the scope of microscope but without the anything goes mentality. And for failure to have consequence.

Cheers in advance!