Tenkar's Tavern: Amazing Thing About the OSR

Friday, April 2, 2010

Amazing Thing About the OSR

Is that there are always new products hitting the Virtual Shelves. Or old products that gets rediscovered.

Course, if you are like me and want just about every new product that is Old School in presentation price, and space becomes an issue. PDFs tend to cost less then print and consume no space... tastes great AND less filling.

So I say thank God for access to PDF publishing software. And PDF distributors. And PDF publishers, writers, artists and fans. Without all of them I doubt much of the OSR would have taken hold.

PDF publishing lowered the cost to enter the market. Yet with little overhead for PDF distributors the D20 Implosion won't be an issue.

Oh, and Lulu isnt all that bad... except when the US Post Office loses your stuff... but that's a rant for later.

Enjoy the Holidays / Holy Days all!

2 comments:

Brutorz BillApril 2, 2010 at 5:44 PM
Tenkar,
You are so right, I find myself amazed about all of the cool new stuff coming out on what seems to be an often daily basis.
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Tim ShortsApril 4, 2010 at 3:54 PM
I never thought I would like PDFs and now they are the main thing I buy. And sometimes it is hard to keep up with all the great stuff being released.
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Friday, April 2, 2010

Amazing Thing About the OSR

2 comments:

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