Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
What would be the "best" OSR system? Why? Thinking about moving away from DCC to something else.
You can give my Basic Rules for the Majestic Fantasy RPG a try. I don't if it the best system but if you about players "trashing" the setting, I got you covered.What would be the "best" OSR system? Why? Thinking about moving away from DCC to something else.
I think S&W is one of the more challenging systems to convert to and from with other OSR stuff because of the single saving throw and the ascending AC/to-hit. I think a lot of the strength of the OSR is not in its core systems but its supplements, so the richer the selection for a particular system, the more reason to choose it over another.I agree with you lumping BX together. I am the same.
Re: S and W and suplements. Does that matter? I use this stuff in particular with everything interchangeably
This! Like almost all of the new monsters at the back of Barrowmaze Complete are just Fiend Folio monsters reprinted with permission of Necromancer Games by way of their "Tome of Horrors Complete". Do I seriously have to append a New Monster list as long as my module because we're all pretending we don't own MM2 or FF?! booooooOSE is pretty good, but the lack of spells and whatnot irritate me. I don't want to write up a "new" spell for Grease or Stinking Cloud for OSE, when its not new and people should know what it is, but then I feel I have to explain it anyways for the OSE system if publishing something. Feels like a ripoff...here are some new spells!! psyche, they all look familiar and you have seen them before...
I have heard LL is different from B/X --- more so than OSE. Malrex just did the multi-system conversion for PoUR. Get his impressions.but yeah. LL has been the easiest system to port in whatever direction you see fit and it is well supported at this point.
Sure but we all have preferences. And AD&D is but one take on the original D&D chassis. An important one to be sure written by one of original edition authors Gygax, but not the definitive word on the subject because of the issue of preference.Are we not men?
It been my experience throughout Western PA, Western NY, and Eastern Ohio, that what most did is use AD&D stuff with the rules of B/X or BECMI D&D. Now folks didn't have copies of either at their table. But instead used what they remembered and referred to AD&D for specialized rules like how to handle ultravison or infravision.Evard's desire for "something simple" is a red herring---none of these games are terribly complex once you make the small initial effort to learn them properly.
So back circa 2008, I was looking to publish my own stuff after doing a handful of freelance work for other publishers. My interest then and today is mostly settings and adventures. Because I dragged my setting, the Majestic Wilderlands, through several RPGs starting with AD&D. I had a good sense of what in it and what not. Now it will still mostly grounded in D&D style medieval fantasy. But I had dozens of tweaks across the board.However, the point made over at K&KA when assessing OD&D-like system was --- by the time you've gotten to S&W Complete, and house-ruled all the situations that come up in a game...then you might as well just be playing AD&D.
Many folks, including myself, has walked that same path. Evard's desire for "something simple" is a red herring---none of these games are terribly complex once you make the small initial effort to learn them properly. Are we not men?
Just keep in mind that no more than 10% of your work can be quoted from OSRIC. Any more than that, then you can not cite compatibility with OSRIC.I sometimes think, like Malrex, it would be great to write an OSRIC Reader --- and condensed version of the rules as a supplement (not stand alone). I think it would be very short if you focused on the rules (only), and left out the Spell Descriptions, Monsters, Treasure, and Random Tables---just reference their page numbers in the complete text. I would also like to add some nice flowcharts and bullet-summaries/tables to it.