Old School RPG — what is it?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

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.

Would "most old school game owned" just be "oldest game"? So if the oldest game you own is...Maid the RPG then that would be the answer.

That being said, the feature that most typifies the oldest games is "not being design-driven".

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by whswhs

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.

Accurate except there is also substantial use of the original. What happened was that the first OSR game, OSRIC, was written as a publisher resource. The expectation was that you use OSRIC when writing a module or supplement. But use the original books during actual play.

As it turned out people wanted to use OSRIC directly because like you said the original lacked clarity or were poorly presented. People found OSRIC useful at the table.

As the OSR spread this mix of old original, and new presentation was used for other editions, and other older system.

Then a wave of near clones which took things into new genre or presented older mechanics in new ways. My Majestic Wilderlands supplement being one of the first in this wave.

Flash forward to today, the OSR is hugely diverse with the classic editions of D&D at the core. Anything that could be done with classic editions and mechanics somebody in the OSR is likely doing it. Mostly this is a result of the widespread use of the Open Gaming License.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Would "most old school game owned" just be "oldest game"? So if the oldest game you own is...Maid the RPG then that would be the answer.

I don't think so, because I think that most gamers would agree that oughties-vintage Aces and Eights or Hackmaster is more “old school” than 80s-vintage GURPS 3rd Edition.

[Parody]

Perhaps Professor Foxworthy's determination methods could help here:

Do you roll your stats? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Do you roll your stats In Order? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Can you die during character creation? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Can rolling your stats result in an unplayable character? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Are there more pages dedicated to critical hit charts than skills? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Do you get more experience for taking their stuff than for killing things? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Do you get no experience for talking your way around something instead of killing it? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

You get the idea. :)

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Parody

Perhaps Professor Foxworthy's determination methods could help here:

Do you roll your stats? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Do you roll your stats In Order? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Can you die during character creation? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Can rolling your stats result in an unplayable character? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Are there more pages dedicated to critical hit charts than skills? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Do you get more experience for taking their stuff than for killing things? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

Do you get no experience for talking your way around something instead of killing it? You might be playing an Old School RPG.

You get the idea. :)

Not only does this capture exactly the tenor of my own thoughts, but I caught myself reading it in a "redneck" accent. ;)

[Anders]

Are Old School RPGs more lethal? Certainly D&D 4th edition seemed to go out of its way to ensure no PCs ever kicked the bucket. Compare that to the mentality of Tomb of Horrors, where life as a PC was nasty, brutish and short.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anders

Are Old School RPGs more lethal? Certainly D&D 4th edition seemed to go out of its way to ensure no PCs ever kicked the bucket. Compare that to the mentality of Tomb of Horrors, where life as a PC was nasty, brutish and short.

Just today, I was in a semi-pickup session of GURPS, run by one of my regular players. And one of the other players, who's been gaming with me since the 1980s and who was an old D&Der before we met, was surprised and disturbed when it emerged that it's possible in GURPS for an injury to result in permanent crippling of a limb. His model of gaming was that it should not lead to permanent consequences for the PCs, or at least I so understood him.

Bill Stoddard

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by whswhs

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.

Would GURPS Dungeon Fantasy qualify?

[Anders]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Just today, I was in a semi-pickup session of GURPS, run by one of my regular players. And one of the other players, who's been gaming with me since the 1980s and who was an old D&Der before we met, was surprised and disturbed when it emerged that it's possible in GURPS for an injury to result in permanent crippling of a limb. His model of gaming was that it should not lead to permanent consequences for the PCs, or at least I so understood him.

Bill Stoddard

Yes, it was difficult to be maimed because there were no rules for it. But an average 1st-level fighter in Basic D&D had 5 hp. Once he reached 0 he was dead. That could be a single sword cut away! On average two sword cuts. And people say GURPS is lethal!

All poison is lethal. And if you're unlucky enough to be bitten by a venomous snake, you have about 20-25% chance to survive (I don't have exact numbers)!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anders

Yes, it was difficult to be maimed because there were no rules for it. But an average 1st-level fighter in Basic D&D had 5 hp. Once he reached 0 he was dead. That could be a single sword cut away! On average two sword cuts. And people say GURPS is lethal!

Well, yes, but lots of people played D&D for years and got their characters up to tenth or twentieth level, where they were all but indestructible. And of course they didn't have much investment in the first level characters, any more than they did in the guys they were rolling up in Traveller who died in the Scouts. And there were people whose custom was to start everyone off at third or fourth level, or who carefully levelled the challenges so that a first level wasn't going to face anything that was likely to kill them. Or even who just had the dramatic death convention, if not as a rule than as a social contract.

In any case, my friend was surprised and dismayed to learn that GURPS has real and lethal consequences. I promptly warned him that in the campaign of mine that he's playing in, the ammo is definitely live. Don't want him getting a nasty surprise if he finds out the hard way.

Bill Stoddard