OSR I never should have picked up Old School Essentials…

[deganawida]

The later 2E stuff will be the most trouble. Especially from the Player Options era. PCs get a pretty big boost so most things compensate.

Speaking only for myself, I don't count PO 2nd edition as 2nd edition That's just my opinion, though.

 

[Mannahnin]

Speaking only for myself, I don't count PO 2nd edition as 2nd edition That's just my opinion, though.

2.5!

 

[deganawida]

2.5!

Yeah, I bought the first two books when it came out, then noped right on out, because if I wanted that level of complexity in a game, there were better games for it.

 

[TwoSix]

2.5!

The superior AD&D edition.

 

[Weiley31]

The main idea was that I wanted to get OSE and just using their classes and rules. I'll have a much better Thief skill system via the first zine that offers it. Plus I'll probably add its stuff to Lamentations of the Flame Princess/use "some" of its adventures for OSE playthroughs.

 

[Yora]

I think LotFP has some really great rules changes. Letting all classes use all weapons and armor, and restricting spellcasting for wizards and elves based on Encumbrance instead of armor is great.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, I bought the first two books when it came out, then noped right on out, because if I wanted that level of complexity in a game, there were better games for it.

Yeah, I didn't even buy them. Stuff like the ability score splits seemed terribly dumb as well as unnecessarily complex, and the point based character building system for abilities seemed ripe for abuse. My group had already experimented a lot with the build your own class rules in the DMG and knew how messed up they were. Our usual DM had started a years-long path of customizing those for each new campaign setting that he ran, so we got into a bit of a house rules tangent.

 

[Mannahnin]

I think LotFP has some really great rules changes. Letting all classes use all weapons and armor, and restricting spellcasting for wizards and elves based on Encumbrance instead of armor is great.

TBF, those changes are also in context of really important changes to the classes and other rules.

Letting everyone use the same weapons is less of a big deal when only Fighters have an increasing attack progression, and direct damage spells are completely removed. Letting everyone use the same armor is less of a big deal when the setting generally limits armor in the first place, and if the revised encumbrance system means MUs and Elves are armor-limited if they want to cast anyway.

I do like the rules for LotFP quite a bit, but they do constitute a pretty substantial set of changes to B/X.

 

[AverageMojito]

Yeah, have already informed my players it will be an option and jotted down a reasonable metric for it. Almost everyone has made a magic user of one of their stable of 3 characters, and at least 2 players are leaning to starting with the MU. Should be an interesting one.

Following the AD&D model as well, I'm giving starting MUs Read Magic as a default plus their one starting spell.

OSE/AF does have an AD&D-like rule for MU starting spells (based on INT score) and copying spells from scrolls and spellbooks (with % chance of success).

 

[Mannahnin]

OSE/AF does have an AD&D-like rule for MU starting spells (based on INT score) and copying spells from scrolls and spellbooks (with % chance of success).

Right. This discussion was in the context of him saying that he was starting with just Basic OSE, and that he'd consider including Advanced elements once he had a chance to peruse them. I was suggesting that additional spell acquisition is worth including from the start.