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Four hundred posts - it was fast! Luckily, there will be much more :-) To celebrate it, for limited time all my prints on Lulu are 25% cheaper - now you can buy Towers of Krshal and Terminal Space at big discount. Hurry up because it won't last forever! :D
Second thing - yesterday two interesting posts appeared, both about the nature of OSR. In first one, Beedo presented interesting view of the old school games in general (and I agree with him). Most interesting thing about it is fact ignored by many OSR people - it's not about the D&D and its clones (and nothing more) - it's more about the way we play it.
But why I'm mentioning it? The reason is the second OSR-related post. It was published by the mighty Catacomb Librarian on his Mesmerized by Sirens blog. He noticed the very interesting thing - the republishing of old and almost forgotten games that almost disappeared in the shadow cast by TSR's flagship. Heroes, Starships & Spacemen, Wizard's World and now maybe Vikings & Valkyrs - the games that were almost dead and now are returning. Cool, but it's not enough for me!
We need that "OSR 2.0", but we need something more. We need more retro-clones and simulacra trying to emulate that kind of games - sometimes crude, sometimes overcomplicated but not based on D&D. It already started with a Runebearer but still we need more. Probably many of you will not agree with me ("it's pointless to create unplayable games or incompatible with most of OSR stuff") but let me to explain my point of view.
Reason One: stagnation and reduced creativity. We have FUCKLOADS of D&D retroclones. Even I am very close to release my clone (to close Terminal Space chapter of my life). It's cool and I like them alot. In most cases, they are a very good games and each of them adds something more. But you must admit if the process for d6+2 more years it may become a little weird. But still, it's not the point! As I mentioned, it's cool. But repeating the same methods over and over may result with significant quality drop. Games may simply stop to provide anything new and may become just boring and repetitive. But of course I may be wrong and honestly I hope that it will not become a truth
Reason Two: DIY gene pool. It's not my thought but it's 100% true. Lee Reynoldson wrote it in a comment for this post of mine: "I also think all these different simulacra, clones, and rules add to the DIY DNA. Even the most obscure and uplayed of DIY games will leave some sort of impact, or inspiration that spins off into another project and adds to the community's Rules gene pool." I think that there's no need to say anything more about it.
By the way, there's one more game (beside of abovementioned Runebearer) not directly based on D&D but definitely "Old School enough". It's Tsojcanth's Adventure Fantasy Game. Buy it now or your genitals will rot and fall off.
Heroes, Wizards' world, Vikings & Valkyrs, and also this
ReplyDeletehttp://grognardia.blogspot.it/2011/05/beasts-men-gods.html
interesting view about the need of other simulacra..i'm trying to do something of that knd in writing "Perils Eternal", but unfortunately i think no one could write a clone of C&S for instance, due to legal issues..but for other games that is possible. I am thinking about Bifrost, What Price glory?!, etc..
At the same time i hold the same view that there are already too D&D clones out there...but D&D is a plague and will always be, it is a kind of fixation, except if you started with a different fantasy game, in that case you have the mind, say- free.
thanks for letting me know about AFG! i'll read it through when i have time.
It is most certainly true that there are too many D&D clones and variants; nevertheless, I don't find having non-D&D old school games encouraging news, either.
ReplyDeleteModules, settings, useful tools - those are the real stuff.
Oh, for sure. But probably all authors from "non-D&D OSR" are well aware of it :-)
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