OSR This tells me OSR is alive and well.

[Jack Daniel]

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[overgeeked]

"The OSR is just nostalgia" is an old chestnut, and roundly discredited. (There were lots of blog posts on the subject back in 2009–2010, but I happen to regard Trent Smith's little essay, "Five Things That Needed Saying," as the best summary out there.)

The whole point of the OSR is to take the TSR D&D mechanics seriously, operate under the assumption that Gygax, Arneson, &al. knew what they were doing, and then see where those specific game mechanics lead. Turns out, they lead to a very fun and cool way to play that was nearly lost (because gamers with different priorities happened to be more numerous and in charge), until it was thankfully found again.

I had read that ages ago but lost track of it. Thank you for the reminder.

 

[Reynard]

"The OSR is just nostalgia" is an old chestnut, and roundly discredited.

I wasn't trying to be dismissive and I apologize to everyone if I came off that way when I said I was "baffled." As someone who grew up with BECMI and 2E, I do understand the appeal of TSR era D&D. But I also know its limitations and frustrations, and I am legitimately surprised that folks who did not grow up with those games are willing to endure those frustrations when there are lots of options that find a balance between the old school style and new school playability (things like Shadowdark, FTD and others).

I wonder how many people here on EN World consider themselves OSR gamers, and what that actually means to them, personally.

 

[Alzrius]

I am legitimately surprised that folks who did not grow up with those games are willing to endure those frustrations

Because one person's frustration is another person's source of enjoyment.

I know a lot of people who hate the old-school limitations on wizards (e.g. spells which take "segments" to cast and are easily disrupted, limits on the number of spells known per level, failing a "chance to learn" check and needing to wait an entire level before trying again, etc.), but I also know a lot of people who swear by them. That's true of almost every "frustrating" aspect of old school play.

 

[TwoSix]

I wasn't trying to be dismissive and I apologize to everyone if I came off that way when I said I was "baffled." As someone who grew up with BECMI and 2E, I do understand the appeal of TSR era D&D. But I also know its limitations and frustrations, and I am legitimately surprised that folks who did not grow up with those games are willing to endure those frustrations when there are lots of options that find a balance between the old school style and new school playability (things like Shadowdark, FTD and others).

Or "Why would I go camping, when I have a nice air-conditioned house with Wi-Fi and running water?"

A lack of convenience and polish can provide its own texture.

For an example from other media, look at how popular Elden Ring and the two most recent Zelda games became by stripping out a lot of the conveniences from modern open-world games, precisely in a bid to increase immersion. Having a quest tracker and a navigation arrow wouldn't have improved Elden Ring, it would have actively damaged the experience.

 

[Reynard]

Or "Why would I go camping, when I have a nice air-conditioned house with Wi-Fi and running water?"

A lack of convenience and polish can provide its own texture.

For an example from other media, look at how popular Elden Ring and the two most recent Zelda games became by stripping out a lot of the conveniences from modern open-world games, precisely in a bid to increase immersion. Having a quest tracker and a navigation arrow wouldn't have improved Elden Ring, it would have actively damaged the experience.

Now I am wondering if I should try and re-experience these games. I am not sure how to do so without bringing the extra 30 years of "advances" with me, though.

I guess if I wanted to go back to personal first principles, that would be BE(CMI) and The Isle of Dread...

 

[Ath-kethin]

I'm not arguing with you about stats or feats or any of that. But all that book keeping has always been and remains a fun killer for a lot of folks. People that liked that stuff then? Whatever, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. But I find it hard to believe that people that discovered the game with 5e are like,"No, I absolutely want to count every tenth of a pound!"

I run Dungeon Crawl Classics at my FLGS, and I have three regular players. All four of us are mid-40s and grew up playing TSR era D&D, as one might expect. All of us except my spouse, who hadn't played a TTRPG in something like 10 years, have been active gamers throughout that period. And all four of us love DCC and how it merges the style we all grew up with an loved through newer, streamlined mechanics (though my spouse legitimately gripes about missing THAC0, true story).

But yesterday we added a fourth player, who is literally young enough to be my kid and who had only ever previously played 5e. It was a joy to watch his eyes boggle at the concept of rolling for stats - he'd literally never heard of the idea - and to watch him embrace the idea of keeping track of a bunch of random crap and finding a use for it in play. He clearly loved the session/game and came on board 100%.

That story is anecdotal, obviously, but I can assure you that the OSR approach to games holds appeal even for gamers who came into the hobby long after its roots were fossilized.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

At the club I go to it’s really rare to find somebody who wants to play anything other than 5E. Every new person who comes along is only interested in 5E, too.

Same. As an example, at a FLGS rpg event near me, the 5e table had 6 players and the indie game table had 2. No one was interested in switching tables.

 

[darjr]

I thought he meant the no one says “5e” cause it is just assumed D&D is it.

It is also my experience that there are quite a few OSR players available. But 5e demands the largest share by a lot a lot.

 

[Mannahnin]

My experience is that the most recent edition is always the most popular, but I encountered a surprising number of younger players on the Discord servers where I played a lot during the pandemic. The folks digging into OD&D skewed older, but the folks playing OSE and nuSR games were mostly younger than me; a lot of millennials but a surprising number of zoomers.