OSR This tells me OSR is alive and well.

[Mannahnin]

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...

For me the biggest "advances" I like to take are a house rule or two for Thieves, the "flip/mirror" option for rolled stats so you never have to re-roll a hopeless set*, and a Death & Dismemberment table to mitigate straight-up death at 0HP.

Most of the advances I need are in my own head and how I run and conceptualize the game. When I was a kid I didn't grok the importance of morale and reaction rolls, for example. Or how mechanics like xp for treasure and random encounters are fun and make for compelling play, both of the press-your-luck and intermittent reward cycle forms which make for excitement akin to gambling.

*(EDIT: I also once saw someone post a Goblin class for B/X whose ability requirements were that you had NO stats over a 9; but it has cool abilities. I'd like to dig that up and look at it again for possible inclusion in my next game).

 

[DarkCrisis]

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...

Some might say all those advances added unneeded bloat. Hence why BX etc is popular.

Do we really need 100s more HP and 300 special powers and feats among 200 classes and subclasses and races etc?

I can only speak for my group but in 5E they forget to use powers etc because there are just so much to keep track of. BX has simply been have sword will travel.

 

[TwoSix]

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...

I’m really excited for Dolmenwood. It’s a B/X core, but with several new classes and additional magic systems.

“Dark Age fairy tales” is the kind of setting where the weirdness caused by restrictions tends to shine.

 

[Reynard]

Some might say all those advances added unneeded bloat. Hence why BX etc is popular.

Do we really need 100s more HP and 300 special powers and feats among 200 classes and subclasses and races etc?

I can only speak for my group but in 5E they forget to use powers etc because there are just so much to keep track of. BX has simply been have sword will travel.

Those aren't the advances I am talking about. I am talking about things like slot or bulk based encumbrance, ascending AC and attack bonuses, and various fixes to the dart throwing wizard problem.

 

[TwoSix]

Those aren't the advances I am talking about. I am talking about things like slot or bulk based encumbrance, ascending AC and attack bonuses, and various fixes to the dart throwing wizard problem.

For the record, OSE has ascending AC/attack bonuses (they're side by side with the old presentation), and Dolmenwood drops descending AC entirely.

 

[Reynard]

I just looked and it seems I own OSE on Fantasy grounds. I think I was planning to give it a try at some point and maybe could not find players. I will have to investigate the possibility of running a short (4-6 session) game and see how I feel.

 

[Jay Murphy1]

Everyone kind of sucks at 1st level. At least a 1st level thief is an effective archer, which is more than you can say for a 1st level magic-user once they've used their spell. (And that goes doubly for a magic-user who didn't think to bring any oil or holy water to toss around.)

Their climb ability is 88% (I think) at first level. Climbing sheer surfaces is pretty bad ass. You can come up with some sweet moves if you are a clever, clever... thief.

 

[Jay Murphy1]

Some might say all those advances added unneeded bloat. Hence why BX etc is popular.

Do we really need 100s more HP and 300 special powers and feats among 200 classes and subclasses and races etc?

I can only speak for my group but in 5E they forget to use powers etc because there are just so much to keep track of. BX has simply been have sword will travel.

my thoughts have always been published options are a substitute for actually playing into a unique character. In all my B/X games there is no high-level character who does not have something bolted on to them which reflects the adventures and encounters they have been on. Games built like 5E deliver a character with all this already baked into the character. Any of those feats listed in 5E are nothing but examples of house rules which came about as PCs survived more and more adventures. Except you can just have them instead of playing for them. It is two very different approaches to player-play, but I embrace the first, loathe the second.

 

[Jack Daniel]

▯

 

[DarkCrisis]

Speaking of nostalgia, I have none for Basic/BX.

I started near the end of 2E.

What appeals to me is the simplicity.