Color me confused.
TOXICITY - I Am Zombie RPG is a Mark Rein•Hagen (Vampire and such) production YET he claims it is OSR BUT it does not have mechanics that most any would consider OSR BUT it's a dungeon crawl AND it's in 3 booklets made to make you think about the Little Brown Books. And breathe...
Oh, and like a few other games, it's building it's own (obviously) false history of originally being released in 1975, yadda yadda, look at me! I'm the other classic RPG!
Even better, you can't copy and paste from the Kickstarter page as all the text is actually graphics. Sigh.
One would certainly NOT describe this as OSR. Old School Games are built off of Old School Rules. Dungeon Crawling does not make a game OSR. It is interesting that the OSR is being used to pitch a game that isn't very much OSR - I guess there is money to be made off of us.
Now, this MIGHT be a decent game. No idea. Probably not going to find out either.
Wait. Mark Rein-Hagen squirted out a game under false pretenses using terms he doesn't understand?
ReplyDeleteNo way!
Meh, the definition of "what is OSR" will be debated for years. Is it a "feel"? Is it the system? Is it the way the product is presented/produced? It appears he's going for a 1970 grindpunk aesthetic as his OSR selling-point. If it steers clear of "narrative" trappings and has things run by Ye Olde Fashioned GM, then I'd give it the nod as being OSR-ish. But the token mechanic is a trapping of New School play, so that's a strike. I dunno, honestly, what's going on here...
ReplyDelete"dice mechanics have a real board game feel to them" WTF does that actually mean?
Delete"mixes cutting edge rules, mechanics and narrative techniques with traditional horror roleplaying concepts" how is that Old School?
I know - because it's Mark ;)
Gah! I missed the term "narrative" right there in the first line! I withdraw my original "Meh" and replace it with "Ugh."
Delete"dice mechanics have a real board game feel to them"
Deleteworst-case scenario: roll to see how many squares you move this combat round
best case: Pop-o-matic!
The system sounds like it could be really great, actually. I'm intrigued. It'd just be cool if it fit what I think of as OSR.
ReplyDeleteIs Dungeonesque, the 5E red boxed set, OSR?
ReplyDelete5e is damn closer to OSR than it's recent incarnations. I'd say the new "red box" will be OSR in nature.
DeleteFor certain definitions of OSR, yes it is. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm actively building a list of elements to explain the OSR <---> Storygame continuum, partly for OSRToday/OSQ, but also because of a game I'm putting out soon.
It backfires both ways.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard about this game I thought it sounded pretty cool. Then came word of it being OSR (like what? What old school Horror RPG besides Call of Cthulhu actually worked?), and a dungeon crawl (what?), and I got turned off. At the sane time it says narrative, and like a retro-game from the 70's - huh?!
Mark needs to decide what this game is, who it's aimed at, and what is the use of such confusing marketing.
He's trying to aim it at everybody... and shooting himself in the foot.
DeleteChill by Pacesetter.
DeleteAnd now Cryptworld by Pacesetter. ;)
DeleteThat bug/feature was a major reason for Vampire's success. V:tM purported to be all things to all people. Can he do it again without it being a confused mess? Time will tell...
DeleteMark needs to decide what this game is, who it's aimed at, and what is the use of such confusing marketing.
ReplyDeleteShrug. The project went above and beyond the funding goal on its very first day, so clearly the hype is working on Those At Which Its Aimed.
(Full disclosure: I am one of Those.)
Back in the 90s, I and my fellow Vampire addicts used to joke that White Wolf's next game would be Zombie: the Shambling, Zombie: the Gibbering or a bunch of other names I can't remember. Well, here it is.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's OSR other than to use that term to justify black and white art and a cheaper print run, but the game sounds weirdly intriguing....but I tend to grab any RPG with a zombie genre focus so I guess we'll see what it looks like in September. Assuming it isn't delayed.
ReplyDeleteActually some helpful soul donated $1 to post a warning that Rein*Hagen is known for not finishing Kickstarters (specifically one called Diplomacy) so I took that as my sign and bailed rapidly.
DeleteHe finished the last one, the lovely I Am Zombie boxed set.
ReplyDeleteAnd the first book in this project is already done and in PDF for reviewers, as I understand it.