However, as should surprise absolutely no one, I’m still of the opinion that we need to call a spade a spade. It’s also worth noting that anyone currently playing Fifth Edition should at least look at where D&D came from, especially when we have what is arguably the best presented retroclone out there, Old-School Essentials, easily available. ![]() And what do I think? Well, there is definitely a lot going on in the OSR, “just D&D” isn’t really fair to a game like Macchiato Monsters. I’ve been practicing social distancing, and all of a sudden have plenty of time. Then, well, you’ve seen the news recently. When Joe tweeted this a month ago, I put it on the backburner, figuring I would slowly read these games. The whole OSR in five games? OK, this sounds doable. Joe would like money please February 21, 2020 I think you can cover the entire spread of the OSR in those five, and a good piece could put so much shit to rest. Okay so someone needs to write a comparatively longread of Black Hack, White Hack, Old-School Essentials, Neoclassical Geek Revival, and Macchiato Monsters. Luckily, an old friend came to the rescue in the form of a tweet: I theoretically got why most OSR games traced back to D&D, but didn’t really understand either a) what the OSR was actually doing with D&D, game design wise or b) where I could even start to figure this out. I was still stuck on the whole D&D thing, though. When I ran Torchbearer for the first time, a lot of the elements clicked for me. I started to understand the OSR a little bit better when I began reading about the intents and goals of old-school play. Every time I’ve tried to look into the OSR and OSR games, I’ve come away asking the same question: “why are there so many hacks of Basic D&D and why exactly should I care?” ![]() The real problem with the OSR is a marketing problem in the past it has been hard to distinguish those genuinely interested in the play philosophies of older D&D from those who were merely retreating to older games. The OSR, or “Old-School Renaissance”, are gamers who appreciate both the mechanics and implied playstyle of older editions of D&D, any of the TSR versions but usually Basic D&D and usually the versions of it (B/X, BECMI, or Rules Cyclopedia) that existed roughly from 1981 to 1991. At least, that’s what they keep saying on Twitter. Few segments of the RPG fandom are as misunderstood as the OSR.
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