18 August 2012

Bingeing on OSR

The OSR in the title is the Old School Renaissance (or Revival, if you prefer) seems to be an internet driven 'thing' all about returning to the (possibly mythical or at least 'rose-tinted' nostalgic) roots of when roleplaying was done properly, as presided over by the Sainted Gygax himself. In practice, this has led to the creation of several 'retroclones' such as Labyrinth Lord and (my chosen iteration) Swords and Wizardry which are very careful rewordings of 'the original game' to avoid problems with copyright etc.

As with any 'ooh, shiny' moment, I've been spending a lot of time scouring the internet to find resources and (if I'm being honest) validate my choice of ruleset! So far, so good. I've also dragged at least one other into a dungeoneering party. So, a handful of the better links:

On avoiding the 'kill em all' approach fostered by video games:
http://ramblingsofagentlemangamer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/unsavory-tendencies-of-vagabond.html

Brilliant dungeon/city/everything map generator:
http://www.wizardawn.com/rpg/tool_dmap.php

All round top blog with LOADS of idea:
http://ancientvaults.wordpress.com/

The hilariously titled random hireling generator:
http://www.barrowmaze.com/meatshields

The S&W blog from the creators/publishers, Frog God Games:
http://tsathogga.blogspot.co.uk/

An almost daily updated blog of spells, magic items, curses and the like:
http://ancientvaults.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!
Rab



4 comments:

  1. Thought you'd gone a bit quiet, chum! Some very useful links provided which I haven't come across before, thanks. Have you run into Oubliette magazine (http://oubliettemagazine.blogspot.co.uk/) yet? It's written with LL in mind, but can naturally be used with other OGL systems, like S&W. Anyway, let us know how your delving fares.

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  2. So nice you listed me twice!

    Thanks for the mention, linking back on my blog page in 3...2...1!

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  3. Gareth - I'll head across to oubliette next. Cheers!

    ancientvaults - d'oh, that's what comes of posting while entertaining a poorly two year old (top tip - jousting videos on youtube, seriously!). I _am_ working my way through your entire blog, though, and chuckling evilly from time to time as I spot items that will cause all sorts of trouble :)

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  4. I am truly glad that you are enjoying the blog! There is no law that says you cannot complicate the character's lives.

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