Alright, I'm going to say something I've said before. Something that is maybe a little unfair and little unpopular in certain quarters. And I'm going to preface it by saying this is not me judging the people involved, just pointing out a pitfall that I don't think most of them see.

OSR gaming is a trap.

Trying to recreate the magic of your first days of gaming is toxic nostalgia for most of us. Because for most of us, it is trying to evoke an era that was, by and large, a pretty crappy time and a pretty crappy experience unless you were a straight, white, cisgendered and middle-class or rich man or boy.

The baseline assumptions of early D&D, AD&D and clones/supporting products were vile. Harlot tables, homosexuality as a mental disorder, gender dysphoria as a joke and curse, women characters with lower stats than men because 'that's the way it is', etc. And let's not even get into the crazy racial subtext.

I think I may have seen that earlier than most because I am gay and the guy who taught me to play was black and I watched him try to figure out where that fit in the D&D game worlds where everybody was white by default or later when the only people of color were bad guys or savages. (By the way, Reggie, wherever you are, I owe you for a lifetime of gaming love. Thanks, dude.)

Nostalgia in small doses is not a bad thing. Making it your focus, without critical commentary, artistic expression or attempt to bring the best of those ideas into the modern world and a more inclusive ethos, is very much a bad thing.

If I saw more attempts to transform those old games, rather than venerate them, I'd be a lot less skeptical, and frankly worried, about OSR gaming and the culture it creates. But as it stands now, seeing that culture birth and sustain monsters isn't exactly a surprise. It's all about recreating a time when those guys weren't seen as monsters.

#tabletop #rpg #DND #OSR