Incline OSR Games - Official thread

[Morblot]

Yeah because wotc the one currently paying her bills.

She was among the crowd calling for Mearls to be fired, so either her contract had ended before that or she's dumb enough to bite the hand that feeds her for like the third time. I dunno.

 

[Bara]

Okay wow I feel stupid I just paid attention to what the OSE Advance fantasy stuff actually is. I thought it was their take on the 1e rules instead it's a conversion of 1e content into the B/X style.

After some one showed me their copy of it I like what I'm seeing except for the bit of Barbarians not getting over their distrust of magic items as 1e's Unearthed Arcana just had that limited to low levels of experience. I'll just probably house rule that back in.

I suppose I lucked out on not getting the modular books along with the Basic ones as now I can justify picking up the rule tome versions once the kick starter happens.

For those who have played with OSE Advance fantasy how is it? Fits in well and is fun to play or could have been better balanced and such?

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Does anyone know where you can download OSR stuff?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Does anyone know where you can download OSR stuff?

https://thetrove.net/Books/index.html

 

[Bara]

Well exalted funeral says the boat with the OSE books should make landfall on the 23rd.

From there they're hoping to recive the books and send them all out in under a week.

 

[Sacibengala]

Does anyone know where you can download OSR stuff?

drivethru rpg has a lot of free stuff. lotfp rules, better than any man sandbox campaign, swords and wizardry core rules, deep carbon observatory and etc. Only to say a few.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I would like to read Blue Meduza book.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Does anyone know where you can download OSR stuff?

https://thetrove.net/Books/index.html

Or you could start a search for the real OSR Trove, because that website isn't it. The search begins in 4chan's Traditional Games board and with Da Archive. You'll have to put in some effort because nobody's going to answer if you just straight up ask, but the rabbit hole goes deep and makes the linked website look tiny.

 

[nikolokolus]

Does anyone know where you can download OSR stuff?

https://thetrove.net/Books/index.html

Finally found a PDF copy of Corum after all these years. Thanks!

 

[Bara]

Or you could start a search for the real OSR Trove, because that website isn't it.

I've seen the website he's talking about if you need a citation but can't really help you get there anymore as I think ever so often they chance how to access it.

It was indeed a vast collection and where I got my OSE pdf while I wait for Exalted Funeral to send me what I bought. Still don't get why they didn't just send out the PDFs while everyone waits for the physical packages.

 

[Sacibengala]

Or you could start a search for the real OSR Trove, because that website isn't it.

I've seen the website he's talking about if you need a citation but can't really help you get there anymore as I think ever so often they chance how to access it.

It was indeed a vast collection and where I got my OSE pdf while I wait for Exalted Funeral to send me what I bought. Still don't get why they didn't just send out the PDFs while everyone waits for the physical packages.

Send the order to Gavin, I did that and got one pdf from drivethrurpg. But you need to talk with him. I don’t know why, but the person that works there don’t give the pdf if you ask, only him. At least this was what happened to me.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Does anyone know where you can download OSR stuff?

https://thetrove.net/Books/index.html

Or you could start a search for the real OSR Trove, because that website isn't it. The search begins in 4chan's Traditional Games board and with Da Archive. You'll have to put in some effort because nobody's going to answer if you just straight up ask, but the rabbit hole goes deep and makes the linked website look tiny.

Yeah, I've found the true trove, now I possess every OSR publication ever released to this world.

 

[Morblot]

B/X Companion

(stuff)

Maybe I'll get back to this

I read some of it and flipped through the rest. I'd say it's strengths are that that it has quite a lot of new & new-ish monsters, many (most?) of which are suitable for expert level play, and loads more magic items, including a completely new category, magical books.

Other than that, it has rules for mass combat (including sieges) that I couldn't be bothered to read and some other optional combat rules, both good and bad. Oh, and the new spells don't seem very original; you can steal them from AD&D yourself equally well.

Also, there is a new bard class in the appendix that only goes to level 8 and gets some magical songs that replicate spells. I'd rather use the OSE Advanced Fantasy one that goes to level 14 and gets all sorts of cool shit but YMMV.

Speaking of OSE and its strengths, B/X Companion is a lot more verbose and its layout varies from hard to decipher to passable. It's not as horrible as the BECMI Basic Player's Guide (is anything?) but at times it takes a bit of going back and forth to understand what's going on.

Would I buy it knowing all that I know now? Yes, but I bought it to also support the guy's blog that I happen to like, despite his weird astrology fixation. The book alone isn't worth the full asking price IMO. However, for the current 50% off price, I'd say it's a decent deal.

(Note: I have never read through the CMI part of BECMI nor the Rules Cyclopedia, so I can offer no meaningful comparison to them.)

 

[Bara]

Well I don't know if these are really OSR or not but Bundling of Hold has a bundle up for "Old School Gold"

• Class Compendium
• Golgotha
• Cinderheim
• Lorn Song of the Bachelor
• Mothership: Dead Planet + A Pound of Flesh
• Trilemma Adventures Compendium
• For Coin & Blood
• Three Golgotha supplements

Still new to OSR so I can't say anything about any of these in terms of quality or content

 

[Bara]

Will trying to fit the new OSE books into your old black box trigger your OCD?

Find out now!

 

[Bara]

So I'm very satisfied with the OSE books but now it's making me wonder does anything exist like it for 1e D&D?

Just the core books with no balance changes but great formatting like base OSE.

I see OSRIC but I've been told it does have balance changes?

 

[Sacibengala]

So I'm very satisfied with the OSE books but now it's making me wonder does anything exist like it for 1e D&D?

Just the core books with no balance changes but great formatting like base OSE.

I see OSRIC but I've been told it does have balance changes?

I believe that no other core rule book is this concise and useful as the OSE. To me, at least. I’ve never seen this kind of quality in present the rules of a system. Maybe lotfp comes close, but OSE simply nails it.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

I would like to read Blue Meduza book.

PDF's like 5 bucks, but I think it is generally overpraised - good production values, but something of a mess and an absolute bore to either map as a player or GM. Many, many, many of the traps are non dangerous, out of the way, and only bite you if you come close. Most of BM has a ton of really dumb ideas, like "triggering this trap means you have to pretend you're very impatient and waiting in line for a bank or your arm will fall off, this plays out over 10 IRL minutes" kind of nonsense. (I'm paraphrasing, as I only have a physical I got from a FLGS and cant get to it atm). In fact, most of the traps that I remember usually did something stupid like that where you failed a save and then lost control of your character to do something stupid and whimsical (which isn't really Zak's fault, he's outright stated he had to put shit in the book to make it more usable because Patrick Stuart, the primary author, puts out a ton of content and lots of it isn't very game-able, see Veins of the Earth)

But it's really not that good of a megadungeon, I'd say that Stonehell is the fuckin' Gold Standard for OSR dungeon crawling, or Barrowmaze, or the other ones by Mr. Barrowmaze.

Again, the production values are genuinely impressive, with good art and binding and paper quality and such - I just don't think it's even in the top 5 for megadungeons meant to be used by the Old School Role Playing Games.

 

[felipepepe]

Patrick Stuart, the primary author, puts out a ton of content and lots of it isn't very game-able, see Veins of the Earth.

Honestly, this Stuart guy might be the most interesting tabletop RPG writer I've seen... even if half of his ideas aren't very game-able, they are so fascinating and well-written that his books are extremely enjoyable to read.

Would love to see him in charge of a CRPG... it's the kind of person that could make something in the veins of Planescape: Torment or Morrowind. Hell, just a CRPG adaptation of Deep Carbon Observatory would already be mind-blowing.

 

[Sacibengala]

I disagree. I ran it more than once , the players died all the time by a lot of traps. The monsters, descriptions and most of the encounters were pretty cool. I’m actually still running it for a couple of friends at the moment. I would say that the dungeon is not for everyone and it is not your typical megadungeon. But for me it is the best that I’ve seem so far. It is strange, original and very creative. I like stonehell as well, it is gigantic and pretty simple to run, but you need to address the limitations. I hate barrowmaze, too verborragic. I agree about what you said about Patrick Stuart, though. His writing is very good, very creative, but he is not a great game designer, some of his rules from Veins is very bad imho.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Patrick Stuart, the primary author, puts out a ton of content and lots of it isn't very game-able, see Veins of the Earth.

Honestly, this Stuart guy might be the most interesting tabletop RPG writer I've seen... even if half of his ideas aren't very game-able, they are so fascinating and well-written that his books are extremely enjoyable to read.

Would love to see him in charge of a CRPG... it's the kind of person that could make something in the veins of Planescape: Torment or Morrowind. Hell, just a CRPG adaptation of Deep Carbon Observatory would already be mind-blowing.

I don't think a DCO whatever would be very good, since there's no way to do the By-Frosens justice with current game design. Veins, again, has so many good ideas, but how the fuck do you even make something like the Hand guy gameable?

I disagree. I ran it more than once , the players died all the time by a lot of traps. The monsters, descriptions and most of the encounters were pretty cool. I’m actually still running it for a couple of friends at the moment. I would say that the dungeon is not for everyone and it is not your typical megadungeon. But for me it is the best that I’ve seem so far. It is strange, original and very creative. I like stonehell as well, it is gigantic and pretty simple to run, but you need to address the limitations. I hate barrowmaze, too verborragic. I agree about what you said about Patrick Stuart, though. His writing is very good, very creative, but he is not a great game designer, some of his rules from Veins is very bad imho.

okie dokie, glad you had fun

 

[felipepepe]

I don't think a DCO whatever would be very good, since there's no way to do the By-Frosens justice with current game design. Veins, again, has so many good ideas, but how the fuck do you even make something like the Hand guy gameable?

Well, that's the fun part. Games like PS:T and Disco Elysium expanded what you can expect from an RPG, I would hope such a game would do the same. one thing is trying to shoe-horn the By-Frosens into Skyrim, the other is to develop a game where they play an important role.

I mean, we had rival adventurers in Wizardry VII, 28 years ago...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and Disco Elysium expanded what you can expect from an RPG,

Yeah, like an RPG without actually being an RPG.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

I don't think a DCO whatever would be very good, since there's no way to do the By-Frosens justice with current game design. Veins, again, has so many good ideas, but how the fuck do you even make something like the Hand guy gameable?

Well, that's the fun part. Games like PS:T and Disco Elysium expanded what you can expect from an RPG, I would hope such a game would do the same. one thing is trying to shoe-horn the By-Frosens into Skyrim, the other is to develop a game where they play an important role.

I mean, we had rival adventurers in Wizardry VII, 28 years ago...

the by-frosens:
- attempt to outthink the players
- use undead to spy on you, ambush you in inventive ways, etc
- use this spying to figure out how to specifically counter you

This isn't really something a game has done before, at best I can imagine the Shadow of Mordor nemesis system on crack.

 

[Sacibengala]

I don't think a DCO whatever would be very good, since there's no way to do the By-Frosens justice with current game design. Veins, again, has so many good ideas, but how the fuck do you even make something like the Hand guy gameable?

Well, that's the fun part. Games like PS:T and Disco Elysium expanded what you can expect from an RPG, I would hope such a game would do the same. one thing is trying to shoe-horn the By-Frosens into Skyrim, the other is to develop a game where they play an important role.

I mean, we had rival adventurers in Wizardry VII, 28 years ago...

Someone will mod that into KotC2 for us, right?