Forum: Public Forum

Oh yes! I especially like Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord. I have the PDF of OSRIC but I need to wait until the Boss goes on holiday before I print it out (JOKE! just in case he is snooping...). Mind you I still have the core 1e AD&D rulebooks (DMG, PHB, MM, FF). I am a big fan of simple systems but I never thought that I would be calling B/X D&D "simple" when I first got into it back in the late 70s/early 80s.

Swords & Wizardry:Whitebox is the one I've been enjoying most as I never got to play OD&D. In fact I never even saw any OD&D sets back when I started, only Basic and Advanced stuff. I also like Whitebox because it's good for tinkering with and it's like starting blank slate almost.

I haven't done much with Labyrinth Lord, mainly because B/X is my favourite version so I've played the hell out of it. Although, coming to it again with fresh eyes and an adult perspective I realise that there is a hell of lot we ignored, fudged, or plain got wrong out of ignorance when we played as kids.

OSRIC I prolly won't bother with that much. Our group had all the 1e AD&D Hardbacks, but we never played AD&D we just stripmined it for cool stuff to add to our Basic games along with all the freaky AD&D stuff that used to turn up in White Dwarf. I might use the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition if I want that same Hybrid AD&D and B/X vibe.

No.
Have a few but on reading they feel ugly and old

would play some of the older style adventures, if given a face lift to a more modern system.

not sure what all the fascination is really.

I loved BECMI in the day, but not now

John R Davis said . . .
"Not sure what all the fascination is really."

Well personally first there was an element of nostalgia. When Gygax died I took another look at B/X D&D. At that point I wasn't playing D&D. I'd come back into the hobby when 3e was transitioning to 3.5e and I didn't really like the look of that version, but I hadn't played D&D since the 1st ed AD&D and the B/X era anyway, GURPS was the last thing I'd played regularly before that some time around '93-'94.

However, after that initial spell of nostalgia I found that Basic D&D was a very elegant stystem and easy to run in the freewheelin style I prefer. As I said above, I also approached it in a different way second time around.

Really, for me, the fascination with older systems is about that play style. The older games are more in line with the type of game I enjoy. I mean, I run Savage Worlds without minis. I never got into 3e, probably because it's based on of AD&D which I never really loved. When 4th launched I really liked what I read about it, the simplicicty, skill challenges, page 42, and the like. I read the core books, liked them but when I ran a game it didn't gel for me so when I do want to play D&D, as opposed to the other systems I like, the Retro-clones are what I look to. Plus there's a really vibrant onliine community built around the Retro-clones that is good to be part of.

4e just never grabbed me. A friend of mine recommended Swords & Wizardry, and I haven't looked back. I haven't enjoyed running games like this in years.

I've still got all my basic, 1st ed and 2nd ed originals on my back room shelves (much to my wifes dismay) and I still use them for inspiration in my current 4e campaign. Along with a load of old tournament adventures from my visits to European GenCon in the early 90's.

I'm also proud to say I recently received a package with the mini "pocket" sized reproductions of the Basic and Expert boxes

On a side note, here is the website that inspired me to try out S&W. Great stuff, and he updates it constantly.

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/?

These clones seem to be a great way to access the rules of older systems but they lack the nostalgia I experienced when I dug out the old red box books recently. I'm tempted to run some basic D&D/Labyrinth Lords games at home, would there be any interest at the meets?

Bruce

The big meet in March is crying out for at least one more game Bruce.

Len

Sadly I'm working a long (60 odd hours) week so won't have time to prep anything but I'll give it some thought for next time.

Bruce

Hey, Wee_Alex I've been reading Grognardia for a few years now, and a few other OSR Blogs.

My own OSR blog is here . . .

Redwald RPG

Thanks! I've added this to my lunchtime blog reading list.

I have to say this OSR/Retro thing is appealing to me more the more I read. I came across the following document which I think makes some great points:

A quick primer for Old School Gaming

I've planning on running a 'Red Box'/Labyrinth Lord game at the April meet in Derby if anyone is interested.

Back to Basics?

Cheers,

Bruce

Just a note to say I've updated the game page, I'm going to run the classic DnD module 'Keep On The Borderlands'. I've put it up for the April meet but if there's not enough interest I'll look at running it at some other time.