While we are all staying in our houses, maybe it is time to either catch up...or begin... seeing the inspiration that ended up bringing us all here:
https://archive.org/details/appendix-n?tab=collection
Maybe if you have some spare cash a donation to the Internet Archive is warranted as a thank you:
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.
I am shortly (like within the next 2 weeks) going to be starting a play be email game of trading in 17th century Europe.
It’s like the Han Solo game in Traveller but just before The 30 Years War.
It is a test of rules I’ve been writing. They’re for LotFP but also work as a stand-alone trading and traveling game - by horse, cart, ship and letter of credit.
The year is 1599. You play a junior member of a rich European family. You have been loaned 1000sp with which to make your fortune in the next 2 years - whoever comes back with the most profit gets to be part of the East India Company and sail to the Spice Islands where money literally grows on trees.
Play will start in 1-week turns, (one week of game time = 1 week of real time) but hopefully speed up to 1 month per week. It will be conducted over email and/or discord, so it survives the demise of G+. There’s a map and info available about ports, wars etc. You decide what you’re going to do, how you’re using your money, where you’re going, and I DM it all, using bespoke rules for trade and sea fights. There is potential to get into trouble with pirates, capture each other, spread rumours, run blockades etc along the way.
Comment here if you’re interested - you’ll need to give me an email address. Maps, details forthcoming. Everyone is welcome.
#rpg #osr #traveller #pbem
Hey everyone, I’m #newhere. I’m interested in #diydnd, #dnd, #osr, and #rpg. I guess we're all being thrown out of G+ where I am also +Richard G, the guy who runs http://lurkerablog.wordpress.com/ and Counter-colonial Heistcrawl and Tartary.
I guess that's #countercolonialheistcrawl and #tartary now.
