Saturday, January 11, 2020

New Year, Old School System!

Just a brief update, with hopefully much more to come.  This post may sound funny given my last post had such a heavy sci fi love fest to it.  However, thanks to some great friends, I was led to take a renewed look at Old School Essentials (OSE)! By the highly talented Gavin Norman.

     I didn't back the kickstarter on this one back when it was going on, I figured, well I already have my original B/X books and I have Labyrinth Lord. Also, I had already backed a ton of Kickstarters at the time and my group was heavily into 5E. But things are different now, as I have mentioned, 5E while fun, isn't the game I want to run or really play that much these days. I'm an old school gamer at heart and the OSR is home to me. My group interestingly enough after playing a lot of 5E have said they want to play something else. That's where OSE comes in! I mentioned it to them as an option and they jumped at it!  I was surprised at their interest! 
     I went to buy the books in print, and found they were Out of Stock! Wow, that's a good sign!  Luckily I now have them in PDF, while eagerly awaiting for the print books to be back in stock.  I have the B/X originals but love the look, layout and ease of use of OSE. 
     What's so great about OSE you ask? Gavin has done a fantastic job of taking the B/X rules and putting them in a much easier to follow, player friendly format.  He even has the option of Ascending AC built into the game while also retaining THACO for those who prefer it. Me? sorry, I hate math, and yeah I know THACO is "easy", but I think Ascending AC is easier at the table.  Also OSE is super easy to be house-rule! With OSE, I feel I have a solid, proven B/X foundation to build the kind of game that I and my players want to play. I never felt comfortable tweaking 5E, wasn't sure how "x" fitted with "y" behind the scenes. but Old School D&D like B/X? I cut my teeth on that game! I can stat up a monster or encounter in my head on the fly.  Last night my group met, and had a very special sort of Session Zero, more to come on that. But you can expect to be hearing more from me about OSE and our new Campaign! 
Long Live the OSR!!
Good Gaming -B.B.
    

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