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Old 08-04-2014, 05:27 PM   #1
Agemegos
 
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Default Old School RPG — what is it?

I'm doing the "#RPGaday" exercise (on my FaceBook page), which means that I am asked to write about "Most Old School game owned". The problem is that I don't know what Old School Gaming and the Old School Revival are.
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Old 08-04-2014, 05:48 PM   #2
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

My understanding is that there are people who are trying to run and play rpgs in the style of the first generation, roughly from Chainmail up to around when Basic Dungeons & Dragons came out. They aren't using the actual original rules, which are often incoherent or poorly thought out, but they are trying to achieve clearly stated rules that basically do the same things and enable the same type of play.

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Old 08-04-2014, 06:25 PM   #3
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

That being the case, I don't own any Old School RPGs, and probably wouldn't recognise one as such when I played it.
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Old 08-04-2014, 06:32 PM   #4
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

The closest I have that would qualify would probably be Classic Traveller and Holmes/Moldvay/Mentzer D&D.

Somewhere, I've got the purpose built OSR game Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but I've barely looked at it.
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Old 08-04-2014, 06:45 PM   #5
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
That being the case, I don't own any Old School RPGs, and probably wouldn't recognise one as such when I played it.
Of course, it's always possible that they also want to know about those original games. I own Chainmail, D&D, Traveller, Superhero 2044, and Villains and Vigilantes, for example.

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Old 08-04-2014, 07:20 PM   #6
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

I swapped my Classic Traveller reprints for a mint 1st edition ForeSight. That leaves The Fantasy Trip (1980–81), Bushido (1981), DragonQuest (2nd ed., 1982), and James Bond 007 (1982) as the oldest RPGs I still own.
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Old 08-04-2014, 07:31 PM   #7
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

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I swapped my Classic Traveller reprints for a mint 1st edition ForeSight. That leaves The Fantasy Trip (1980–81), Bushido (1981), DragonQuest (2nd ed., 1982), and James Bond 007 (1982) as the oldest RPGs I still own.
My copies of En Garde!, Superhero 2044, and Traveller are all dated 1977. My Chainmail and D&D are later reprints.

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Old 08-06-2014, 10:16 AM   #8
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by sjard View Post
The closest I have that would qualify would probably be Classic Traveller and Holmes/Moldvay/Mentzer D&D.

Somewhere, I've got the purpose built OSR game Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but I've barely looked at it.
Those are all "old school" for OSR purposes, except Mentzer, but it and Alston D&D get a pass as Old School by many, since the mechanics are still Moldvay.

The key is "Rulings, not Rules" and, usually, Class & Level.

Traveller gets a pass because of age, but often RuneQuest (same age as CT) does not.

Starships and Spacemen is Old School, but newer than Traveller.
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Old 08-06-2014, 11:07 AM   #9
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The key is "Rulings, not Rules" and, usually, Class & Level.
I don't think class and level are essential. I've played with a re-creation of Superhero 2044; I think if I ran it it would be old school, even though S44 didn't have class and level and in fact was the first game ever to use character points.

I agree about excluding RuneQuest, though. RuneQuest strikes me as the first game to have what I think of as the full paradigm of "new school" games: sharp distinction between stats and skills, skill rolls being as important as stats and levels, a wide variety of skills, the attack/defend/damage sequence of combat rolls, advanced fighting ability being represented by a higher probability of parrying or dodging rather than by massively increased hit points. All that has become the default model of rpg rules construction now; those "old school" games are marked by that pattern not having been worked out fully.

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Old 08-06-2014, 11:33 AM   #10
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Default Re: Old School RPG — what is it?

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I don't think class and level are essential. I've played with a re-creation of Superhero 2044; I think if I ran it it would be old school, even though S44 didn't have class and level and in fact was the first game ever to use character points.

I agree about excluding RuneQuest, though. RuneQuest strikes me as the first game to have what I think of as the full paradigm of "new school" games: sharp distinction between stats and skills, skill rolls being as important as stats and levels, a wide variety of skills, the attack/defend/damage sequence of combat rolls, advanced fighting ability being represented by a higher probability of parrying or dodging rather than by massively increased hit points. All that has become the default model of rpg rules construction now; those "old school" games are marked by that pattern not having been worked out fully.

Bill Stoddard
Another characteristic of old-school games is embracing randomness (eg. random character creation, random encounters, random treasure tables). Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay feels old-school for that reason.

Of course, the key feature is "how I remember playing as a teenager" (or think an older generation played) so people can understand "old school" in different ways.
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