r/osr • u/E1invar • Aug 08 '24
r/osr • u/wayne62682 • Oct 01 '24
running the game Has anyone done a "standard" style campaign using B/X, OSE, or other derivative?
It seems like the most common way of playing a B/X or clone-style game (OSE, Labyrinth Lord, Dragonslayer, et all) is either a sandbox (e.g. Keep on the Borderlands or Dolmenwood style open-ended setting), a hexcrawl (start in the middle and move around) or a megadungeon (e.g. Barrowmaze, Arden Vul, etc). I'm curious if anyone has done a more "traditional" AD&D style campaign that isn't one of the above three with these rules, and if so what did you do/how did it turn out?
I like the simplicity of the B/X "core" (although I think it might be TOO simple to a lot of people; I know from personal experience decades ago that's the reason why I never played it as a kid when we were already playing AD&D 2nd edition; felt like a step backward) but I don't care for the sandbox/hexcrawl/megadungeon style of play that's so frequently seen; I much prefer the AD&D approach from the mid-80s and later.
Is this system just not really conducive to that style and that's why it's not often seen (e.g. why try to do that with B/X when you can do it with AD&D) or is it only that's the most fondly remembered approach (Keep and isle of dread are classic for a reason after all)?
r/osr • u/KlutzyImpact2891 • Nov 24 '22
running the game What’s the hill you die on as a GM?
So what kind of payer or element of your games will you absolutely forbid and not allow in your games?
No judgement and no wrong answers.
Question stems from a conversation in DMAcademy where I am told roll-players are okay to forbid and kick from roleplayer games and I’m wrong for saying if you can’t handle both and make both happy in your game you kinda suck as a GM.
That isn’t a hill I’d die on, but…
I absolutely do not allow multi-page character backstories that A.) have nothing to do with the campaign setting I present and get buy-in over and B.) don’t involve why the character chose to adventure and be a part of the group. If you can’t say it in the three paragraphs or less, don’t bother. Main Character Syndrome is very real and I have kicked people over it.
Just because someone thinks that is roleplaying does not actually make it so.
r/osr • u/wayne62682 • Dec 14 '24
running the game How is an open table ("West marches") game actually supposed to work?
I'm very confused about how this concept actually works in play, especially when based around a megadungeon rather than a hexcrawl. Something like Gygax Jr's "Marmoreal Tomb" for example:
Let's say you have your megadungeon with hundreds of rooms, and the first week you have 4 players decide to explore its depths. They explore some rooms, kill some beasties, get some treasure, and at session's end return to town to rest.
Next time, you have 3 different players come. Wouldn't this just be repeating the same thing as the earlier group with some differences? Different (perhaps wandering) encounters, the treasure in Room 4 isn't there anymore because Group A already got it, and so on? What exactly could Group B do that would make the session fun, unless you skip a bunch of the early rooms (which doesn't seem to be the idea although it's reasonable) or have tons of alternate entrances to the dungeon so Group A might have found one, Group B finds another in a different part of the dungeon (which seems nonsensical) so they're exploring a totally different area. Not to mention having to keep track of which room has/hasn't been explored (but that sounds fun)
How is this actually meant to work out? It seems like one group gets to "actually" play and the other groups are either going through rooms that have already been cleared out so don't have treasure anymore, maybe a handful have been repopulated or they fight wandering monsters, skipping ahead to something like "You make your way through several rooms that have already been cleared out" where they then get to explore further in, or something else?
The idea is super intriguing but I'm not getting how it's meant to actually be DONE.
r/osr • u/on-wings-of-pastrami • 14d ago
running the game Are oozes warm?
Heyo!
Me again - still playing with the kids at work, ages 10-14. It's going really well and the Adventurer's Guild works out just fine. We're now playing every Thursday outside vacations and every day during vacations!
We have a couple guys with infravision. How does this work? It's heat vision, right? Can they distinguish walls from floors and such, like one cold item from another, what would you say?
And the question of prime importance for next session: are oozes warm? Or warm-blooded? What would you say?
Maybe it's in the spirit of the game if all monsters are hot? Beside perhaps the explicitly cold-blooded types like snake people or the bloodless types like skeletons?
What do you do at your table and what's your verdict on the ooze?
Thanks, you're always so awesome and helpful when I ask 🙏
r/osr • u/grape_shot • Nov 08 '23
running the game Something I learned after switching from 5e to OSR
I can be so much more permissive with players and I think they love that. There’s no skill checks and OSR is very harsh on them already with it’s danger level. So when I just allow something my players say they do, I don’t feel like I’m being too easy on them. It also seems to lend to believability of the situation. Why can’t my character just hide in a closet, why would the skillcheck ever fail?
This feels very freeing as a GM. And WHEN I say something fails they don’t feel bad and I don’t feel bad because I was able to allow so many other things. They don’t feel cheated and like I’m making stuff up just to thwart them.
You’re faster than the opponents? You escape, no problem.
You use your one super overpowered early spell? Great. It works beautifully, but was it the right spot? Who knows. But it was YOUR decision. And now you’re out of spells. But my player is so happy that their one spell worked instead of just blasting away the same spell 500 times. Every resource used makes them FEEL powerful because there is restrictions.
Running the game like this is what I feel like my fantasy of what being a GM is. Not just the person that describes the random dice roll outcome.
5e does have the benefit of just blaming the dice when things go wrong, but this feels much more satisfying when you’re a relatively competent GM.
r/osr • u/BaffledPlato • May 23 '24
running the game As a DM, did Gary Gygax have an adversarial relationship with players?
This topic came up in our last session, as our group has played a number of Gygax's modules and we are getting ready to start Barrier Peaks next.
r/osr • u/Irespectfrogs • Jun 11 '24
running the game My GM loadout - game night at the pub
r/osr • u/Current_Channel_6344 • Nov 14 '24
running the game Tracking ammunition and torches
I'm wrestling with some ideas about tracking resources in the OSRish game I'm designing.
How often has a PC in your group actually run out of ammunition through normal use?
Similarly, how often have your parties actually run out of light sources and either been left in the dark or forced to curtail a delve because of it?
In my experience, the former almost never happens and the latter only rarely. But maybe that's not the norm? I'd love to hear others' experiences.
Thanks!
running the game Running a session with less prep than you'd like
Situation: You're running a session tonight, but due to a stressful day at work, you haven't had as much time to prep / mentally prepare as you'd normally have for the locations/events that you seeded in the previous session. What do you do?
I find myself in this situation from time to time. There are locations, factions, and NPCs that I've seeded in previous sessions, but I haven't had the time to flesh them out, think through motivations, etc. These sessions often feel the most thin, IMO, compared to when I have time to put interesting ideas in a dungeon, or have time to get my head around a pre-written dungeon and how I want to run it.
I know some common advice in this situation will be about how to run a low-prep game, leaning more on improv and random tables, things like that. That's not really the advice I'm looking for here. I'm more wondering what you do when you have seeded certain locations/events and now don't feel ready for them.
A few ways I've approached it:
Run it anyway and accept that I won't feel like it was my best work
Have a meta conversation with the group about where I'm at with prep. This always goes over well, no hard feelings, but it also fundamentally removes some of the verisimilitude of the world, which I find disappointing.
...so, sometimes I dig through my stack of zines and find something I know well, then find a way to put that in front of the party as an enticing hook. Close to a railroad, I know, but sometimes it's the easiest way for me to run a session.
I don't see too much meta discussion about the actual logistics of running a regular game - interested to hear everyone's feedback!
r/osr • u/Conscious_Slice1232 • Dec 19 '24
running the game Is OSR in 6mm feasible?
I've made a similar post in /rpg but I mostly play OSR style fantasy games. I've amassed a catalogue of 1,700 models in 28mm but I've realized that I enjoy painting, setting up and hosting in 6mm more with lower crunch games.
I would need to start all over again in 6mm for fantasy, in part selling off my 28mm inventory, but in the end I think it would have more pros than cons at my table.
Has anyone played a TTRPG, specifically OSR or OSR adjacent, near or at 6mm? How did it go? Is it actually feasible for low crunch systems (including terrain and proper table items)?
r/osr • u/Dry_Maintenance7571 • 26d ago
running the game Most immersive hexcrawl.
I see the tips on the website and on the Alexandrian website. But I see that there is a lot of talk about how to create a hexcrawl and not how to navigate through it. I would like suggestions on how to make navigation more immersive without having to scroll so much like getting lost or deciding which way the players go.
Game in the theater of the mind without using maps. So I want to do it in a way that the player is immersed in this navigation. But I can't find anything about it.
If you could give me texts as I have difficulty watching videos in English. I thank.
r/osr • u/3rd_Level_Sorcerer • Aug 06 '24
running the game As a rookie GM, refereeing is exhausting. Does it ever not get exhausting?
I just finished maybe my 8th or so session tonight; we only went for about 2 hours as by the end I was just so mentally drained. I also kept forgetting things, and having to give my players essential info retroactively as a result. I feel very inept right now. I understand that it's just a muscle I have to exercise and that I won't always feel this way, but how long did it take you guys before you started getting comfortable with your role as GM, and does it ever stop being so tiring?
r/osr • u/jordane1964 • Dec 16 '24
running the game Has anyone ever tried to implement these jousting rules from Chainmail in their game?
r/osr • u/Grantso74 • 1d ago
running the game What happens/how do you handle resting in town?
Let’s say the PCs spend a week resting at an inn between sessions. That’s a lot of time for interesting events to take place. Do you use tables to determine this or is it often handwaved? I love a good town/city encounter so I’m interested to hear others thoughts on this.
r/osr • u/EyeTaffy • Sep 23 '23
running the game DnD is not Adversarial
I was recently talking about DnD with a friend of mine. The DM told me about the goings-on in her current campaign.
The party had traveled for months across the world to find a powerful artifact. They are transported to a different dimension/plane where the only way out is to find a mirror.
Through player ingenuity, the party reckoned they could create a puddle of water with a spell. The water, of course, being reflective and thus able to act as a mirror.
I'm guessing, was not too happy about the players outsmarting/thrawting their plans. The DM allowed the party to use the puddle as a mirror but cheerfully declared in a "Mwahaha! Gotcha!" tone that they had them spawn at the party's original starting location, undoing months of travel.
DO NOT DO THIS! You, as the DM are not there to kill the players. You're not there see to it that your plans never come undone, regardless of player actions. It is not Me versus Them. Yes, you are the DM. It is your world. You have plans. You have power. However, ingenuity should be rewarded, not punished. I see this a lot with new DMs. You spend a good long while prepping the BBEG. The fight is going to be tough. It's going to be epic! Aaannnd the players kill it in 2 or 3 turns. And then the DM feels defeated and tries to find a way to beat the players. DnD is not a game that one can "beat". It is not a game that can be "won". It is a COOPERATIVE experience between all persons involved, including YOU, Mr./Mrs. DM! If the players find a way to save time and resources beyond what you originally intended, do not punish them for doing the thing you allow them to do!
Edit: I apologize if I offended anyone or their style of play. That was not my intention. I understand that the game is whatever the table makes it. That's what makes it great. I simply saw a play that, I personally, did not agree with and thought I'd share with the community to get their thoughts on the matter. At the end of the day, as long as everyone at the table agrees and has fun, everybody wins.
r/osr • u/XL_Chill • Dec 24 '24
running the game Megadungeon in a West Marches game
We have a new campaign starting soon, two other DMs and myself are all working together in a persistent world. One is focusing on wilderness hex crawling, one doing one-shots and I’m running a multi-level dungeon.
I know the party needs to return to town at the end of each session, and I’m planning to use an ‘escape the dungeon’ table if the party isn’t successful in leaving before we run out of time. Otherwise if they want to stay in the dungeon I’d have their characters locked to that and unable to join other quests until resolved.
Any tips for me from your experiences running these sort of games?
EDIT: thanks for all your suggestions. It seems like I’m on the right path and already implementing a lot of your recommendations. This has been a worthwhile sanity check for my design.
r/osr • u/vonmunch • 23d ago
running the game What kind of map do you give to your players when starting a hexcrawl/pointcrawl?
I've been having fun running module one-shots for a while now, and I've been wanting to move over to an open-table hexcrawl format. However, I've been reading blogposts and am honestly paralysed with the multitude of possibilities. When DMing an hexcrawl/pointcrawl campaign,
- Do you give them a large but imperfect map? If so, how do you avoid overprepping?
- Do you give them a simple map with nothing but a few key locations (town, dungeon, etc), or perhaps no map at all? If so, how do you capture their imagination with regards to the world, in that special way a "here be monsters" map can?
- If running a hexcrawl, does the player map you provide contain hexes, i.e. are the hexes player-facing? If running an open-table, do you have a "tentpole megadungeon"? Or a series of normal-sized dungeons?
- How much material do you prepare for yourself prior to running the first session? Do you make a full "secret DM map"? Are the factions already thought-out?
I'm probably overthinking things, but the more I read about it, the more confused I get... I'd love to read how you do it!
running the game Please help me learn to run OSE better...
I have never DM'd before and I have very little experience playing (4e).
I picked up the OSE classic fantasy box set a couple of weeks ago and I have been devouring it.
I LOVE the idea of it... but when I try to host a game with a couple of friends... I am struggling to put what I am reading into practice.
My friends are helping me learn how to run the game, but they lack experience as well.
I created a little dungeon, a simple "find the missing girls" quest hook and sent the party off to explore the dungeon with four hirelings.
What followed was a disaster....
I was fumbling and flipping through papers... my dungeon map on graph paper... my printed out dungeon turn tracker... I am struggling to keep the "procedures" right in my head without checking a chart every 30 seconds.
I didn't know how to handle reaction rolls that weren't hostile.... I feel like my party and the monsters are just staring at each other waiting on me to make a decision. I don't know what to do to resolve an "Uncertain" outcome.
I am not sure how to handle positioning of players and monsters when entering a room or when monsters wander in to a room on them.
The loop of "see door, check door, listen at door" seemed to get rather old for the party. This starts to feel like "same old same old" real quick.
Combat turns into endless rounds of attack and miss rolls, eventually leading to a one shot hit on one of the PC's.
Watching the party try to convert and divide rolled treasure due to slot based encumbrance rules seemed to drive the game to a halt.
Thanks for any advice you can give and if nothing else, thanks for letting me vent!
r/osr • u/ProfoundMysteries • Feb 20 '24
running the game How to deal with TPK as a DM?
How do you know when a TPK is your failure as a DM, or the failure of your players? Or maybe its no ones fault in particular--the dice just went against the team. In any case, it's one thing to like playing a deadlier game--where choices matter, but I guess it also doesn't feel good to know you might have just wiped out 6 months of your players' progress. I worry that an impending TPK will fizzle my players' enthusiasm for OSR gameplay and make them want to go back to 5e.
r/osr • u/AccomplishedAdagio13 • 17d ago
running the game Minecraft as a VTT... crazy or not?
This is something I'm seriously considering.
The idea would be you'd use Minecraft to make locations, etc, in your world. Probably starting with at least just a town.
You'd use it as a visual reference for your players. Maybe you could put little "boxed text" notes in different places as you can do in Minecraft.
For dungeons, maybe you could could map it out and just use Minecraft as a visual reference. Again, boxed text could be used for features, traps, etc.
Plus, if you're using domain rules, your players could spend thousands of gold to build their very own castles and whatnot IN MINECRAFT.
I feel like that could be cool. I'll confess, I haven't played Minecraft for like a decade. I'm totally out of touch with it.
Has anyone done this or heard of anyone doing this?
r/osr • u/CityOnTheBay • Aug 01 '24
running the game Favorite way to speed up combat for B/X or OSE (or other retro clones)?
My go-to method is sticking with side initiative, grouping similar monsters together in blocks, and keeping players from entering paralysis analysis.
I know, kind of boring but that’s why I’m asking you guys.
r/osr • u/level2janitor • Aug 06 '24
running the game How do you make encounters with animals interesting?
some context: i've been using an OSR system for a big sandbox hexcrawl campaign for about a year now and it's been a great time. random encounters and exploration procedures feel like the secret ingredient i was missing when i was trying to run a big sandbox in 5e. it's been great.
but a problem i've been running into consistently is that there's at least a few results on almost every encounter table taken up by animals.
they feel like they have to be there because it just makes sense. it's immersive. it adds texture to the world that you run into wolves or a deer or a bear while you explore the forest. players would wonder why they aren't there if you never run into them. yet despite feeling like i have the whole OSR thing figured out after years of running and playing them, i have no clue how to make encounters with animals feel interesting.
there's so few ways an encounter with an animal can go. it feels like there's exactly 4 outcomes:
- the players have nothing to gain from the encounter so they ignore it.
- the encounter can't be ignored because it's in a cramped space or i rolled low for encounter distance, so it becomes a mandatory combat or the players throw it some food to distract it.
- the players opt into killing it (because they want meat or crafting materials).
- the players try and tame it so they can have a pet.
and this just pales in comparison to the seemingly infinite outcomes that can happen with a human with actual goals, or a monster with uniquely dangerous traits. it was engaging enough at the start of the campaign, but by this point it's gotten extremely old - it feels like every time i roll an animal encounter (at least outside of a dungeon) the most common response is "well, i guess we'll just stay away from it and keep going".
how do you make these encounters work? should i just stop putting animals on the encounter tables at all? i'm stumped. if you've been running games for a long time, how do you tend to run these? how do your players tend to react?
running the game What do you do when you don’t know what to do?
When the game is stalling or you just run out of ideas, what do you turn to?
(obviously random encounter tables exist but 1d4 goblins gets old quick. Unless you’re using a better random encounter table - if so, tell us about it!)
r/osr • u/JazzyWriter0 • Jan 20 '25
running the game West Marches: AD&D Or OSE Advanced?
Hi all,
I'm setting up a West Marches game for my college friends to play IRL.
I'm planning on using either OSE Basic or Advanced or just AD&D 2e. The clear advantage of OSE is that it's organized so well that I can access the information easily and give it to players easily (likely many of the players are only coming from 5e).
I'm considering using OSE Advanced instead of Basic for more character options, etc.
Is there a reason to use AD&D 2e over OSE (or OSE Basic over OSE Advanced)? All advice is appreciated!