Welcome to the Old School Renaissance General, the thread dedicated to first-decade, Gygaxian D&D, its faithful modern clones, and content created for use with them. Later editions (2e and newer) should be discussed elsewhere.Broadly, OSR games encourage a tonal and mechanical fidelity to Dungeons & Dragons played as intended by its creators from 1974 to 1983 — less emphasis on linear adventures and overarching metaplots and a greater emphasis on player agency.If you are new to the OSR, welcome! Ask us whatever you're curious about: we'll be happy to help you get started. We also have two excellent beginner guides created by Anons with feedback from the thread that you can check for help:>n00b DM's Guidehttps://pastebin.com/EVvt6P0B>n00b Player's Handbookhttps://pastebin.com/XALkXkV0>Troves, Resources, Blogs, etc:http://pastebin.com/9fzM6128>Need a starter dungeon? Here's a curated collection:https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/94994969/#95006768>Previous Thread:>>97832804>Thread Question:Tell us about your current campaign and share a pic of the game table if you have one.
>>97887059The GM canceled a few hours before start time and I am still mad about it. We could have started earlier too because I had the day off.
>>97887059>Tell us about your current campaign and share a pic of the game table if you have one.Sorry, I will never give details of my game on 4chan. I'm enjoying it a lot, though.>>97887318Eat shit, nigger.
>>97887059After a game which was light on much to do at home, I added a lot of detail to my new home-base city, with the intention of the players having a bunch of adventure there in addition to hexcrawling about.After going over the City-State material, I decided to run with a bunch of Melan Fomalhaut stuff instead, mashing a bunch of his urban dungeon stuff together and filling the undercity with it. So far, so good. Wednesday night games are short, but overall the group is good and we've been having a good time.
>>97887691>I decided to run with a bunch of Melan Fomalhaut stuff instead, mashing a bunch of his urban dungeon stuff together and filling the undercity with it.Are you using the City of Vultures stuff? It's really good shit. I'm a bit doubtful about Mirvander Khan and all the Deston stuff, it feels a little bit too "you are not allowed to fuck with the status quo" for me, but everything else is peak.
>>97887746Only bits and pieces. I have the Gallery of Rising Tombs in there, and some of the flavour bits, but the overall political situation and base city infrastructure stuff I've largely passed on for other material. Oom the Many is a great idea that I was happy to use, though.
>>97887873I really like the whole Rat God complex myself, I don't know if you're considering that part of Rising Tombs or not, but the whole idea of being able to contract the priests to get the rats to do stuff is classic S&S IMO.
>>97887691Have you had a look at the Nocturnal Table? Great citycrawling content.
I have read the mechanics for exploration with random generation but things aren't quite clicking.Is there a good example of play (video preferred) that covers the mechanics starting from leaving the town and ending at entering the dungeon? Preferably covering mechanics like travel time, random encounters, surprise checks, encounter distance, etc.
it took a decade but you can now buy ASSH in Canada from retailers.Anyway its pretty good.
>>97890278>human only ADnDWhats the fucking point
>>97890294having a much a game in line with most actual fiction? There isn't nearly as many fantasy stories featuring parties of elves and orcs as D&D would have you believe.
>>97890294Sword & sorcery, presumably.
>>97890278i find it immensely amusing the zoomers have more or less popularized the nazi elements from the 1960s so now when you google hyperborea is just nazi shit
>>97890199Depending on what type of campaign you mean, this might be a misapprehension on your part. In a megadungeon campaign that's "strictly orthodox" in the sense of adhering to Gygax's initial instructions, these should be no meaningful travel between the town and the dungeon; they are adjacent, so that the wilderness exploration mechanics do not come into play while trekking between town and dungeon. Putting wilderness between the town and dungeon is a common rookie error, and is not good because first level characters are not up to coping with wilderness travel and exploration.
>>97890328everything is nazi shit. physical fitness is nazi, having kids with someone who has a similar skin tone is nazi, wanting laws to be enforced is nazi, thinking theft is bad, rape is bad, etc etc etc is nazi.
>>97890333well I mean, the nazis did support all of those things and hate all of those things. come to think of it hitler liked drinking water
>>97890343thats why i only drink coke. you know what hitler didn't have? Diabetes.and thats why I'm morally superior to anyone who isnt in danger oif having their foot rot off.
>>97890278>it took a decade but you can now buy ASSH in Canada from retailersDo you live in the ass end of nowhere? I saw that 2e book in my LGS before covid. The big fuckoff thick 600 pager. Wasn't prepared to drop the 89+tx on it though.You can't mean 3e. It's only been in print for four years.
>>97890418I live in Nunavut, yes.
>>97890436KEK
>>97890445You laugh but I have a 6-man group sith a waitlist i wish alcohol wasnt banned
>>97890329Interesting. Well do you know one that covers general wilderness travel anyway?Random dungeons I understand (encounter and parlay reactions is a tad confusing but I get the gist)
>>97890496Videos, no. I'm not much for instructional videos.This post:>https://rancourt.substack.com/p/a-survey-of-overland-travelis full of examples of play from different systems, some of which aren't OSR at all; it's an autistically detailed comparative analysis of the different operations, but if you just pick the system you want to read about instead of reading the whole thing, you should get a decent overview of running wilderness travel in that system.
>>97890328>>97890278
>>97889185Yeah, that one is part of my standard citycrawl package, along with S&W City Encounters and Chaosium's Cities.
>>97890436OhMy condolences
>>97890573So to make sure I have the right idea1) Move period of time, with navigation roll if necessary2) Check for random encounter3?) Roll for surprise4?) Roll for Encounter distance5) Roll for disposition or encounter6) Either Parlay, combat, or fleeI am not sure if 3 and 4 should be swapped in order. Also if disposition/attitude is always rolled, or if it is supposed to be only on certain triggers.Am I missing anything else?
>>97890741Pretty much.The important thing though is to remember that while these are random encounters mechanically, they're not in-setting.They're world building.Players encounter a herd of bison? There's likely to be villages/hunters/travellers nearby who can be traded and negotiated with, or recruited as hirelings.Group of orcs? Maybe a raiding party. If they're caught unawares they might track them back to their lair. If they have a friendly encounter then the orcs might offer them some way to mark themselves so that other orcs of their tribe don't jump them on sight.They spot a dragon at a distance?They can likely ask around and learn about the local dragon..And if no one knows what they're on about that means it's new to the area and that's a real fucking concern.Bottom up world development. Or you can go the other direction, create the map first and then populate a random encounter table from it, making things top down. Either way, what's out there should feed into what they encounter.4d6 Gnoll dickheads with a 3rd level Shamaness isn't a good random encounter. 4d6 members of the Scarlet Maw, led by slavemaster, leading enslaved humanoids from their trading fortress to the nearby drow trading cavern is.Hexcrawling is effectively a subtle, ongoing way of creating plothooks outside of anything you have planned in the dungeons.Not every encounter has to be important of course, sometimes 2d8 wild horses are just 2d8 wild horses, but it does help fill out the world if there's some meaning behind things.
>>97887059>Tell us about your current campaign and share a pic of the game table if you have one.You first, fag!
>>97890741https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Wilderness_Adventuring>Also if disposition/attitude is always rolledunless you have a good reason why not, roll it.
>>97890810in my FAG the party is about to get a spelljammer and then they are gonna fight godzilla and then blast off into space
>>97890815What if Godzilla doesn't want to fight?
>>97890827he has been rampaging for a few months. wrecks an island, the goes undersea, rinse repeat. slowly heading towards the party's stronghold(s).he will want to fight until he starts losing at least
>>97890294>Whats the fucking pointBased setting
>>97890741Yeah, you've pretty much got it (depending on game to some extent). Notably surprise has to be rolled before encounter distance because successful surprise modifies the distance, so in spite of your doubts, you've got that in the correct order.>Also if disposition/attitude is always rolled, or if it is supposed to be only on certain triggers.Gygax had unintelligent monsters always attack. Some editions will advise you only to roll for disposition if the unsure as a referee how it ought to go; e.g. if your party, deeply-laden with treasure, encounters a band of orc marauders, you probably don't need to check to see whether they'll try to slay and loot the PCs.
>>97887059DO you guys allow combat fudging? Something I have always enjoyed, but I know there are mixed feelings about, is doing some bargaining with attack rolls. things like>Can I go for an easier target like an arm but deal less damage, get a +2 to hit if I deal -2 damage>Can I recklessly charge at an opponent doing +2 damage If I make it easier to hit my by 2 point?>Can I try to disrupt his stance when I attack, giving him a -2 to hit next attack, but lowering my to hit by 2?It can slow things down surely, But I have found it has made combat, especially low level combat a little more personalized and interesting. I ran Light of lost souls once at the local library, and it was very popular when I did that. OFC it was for three people, if it was like 8, that could be a lot to keep track of.
>>97894469I allow players to describe context of their melee attacks, technique, stance, etc. but generally don't negotiate about mechanical effects. Determining if their approach is notably different than whatever else is happening in a 10 second combat round is important, but sometimes its not significant enough to have mechanical changes and just invites fucking about for bonuses.
>>97894469Generally I don't permit this kind of thing, I feel the combat is too abstract for it to make sense. Some games do have built-in "attack postures" or similar which do something of the sort, though. LotFP has them, IIRC.
>>97890278I like Hyperborea. A lot of great ideas on classes, spells, and equipment. The tone is great and the "human-only" fits the setting (and its inspirations).
>>97894610True, but without an effect, even if slight, I dont find that players tend to describe or are inclined to think about there attack much. +/-2 is minor in the grand scheme of things, but I find its just enough crunch to get people invested.But yah, on the con it can devolve into lawyering.>>97894715>too abstract idk, just describing your general approach seems appropriate over a period of time, are you being agressive, cagy, primarily trying to occupy them rather than dealing excessive damage etc. Not speicficly "Im attacking their head/hand/foot" kind of thing.
>>97894469>DO you guys allow combat fudging?I don't. I've lost count of how many times I've had to say no to players who think combat is between their character and a sack of potatoes. It’s always the same: the enemy attacks and they go, 'Okay, I see his move and I do some HEMA crap to counter-attack,' while flailing around with nonsensical gestures. The only thing I can tolerate is an attempt to disarm, following the same principle as striking the head (I run 3LBB) but with even lower odds: a 5% chance to hit the hand, which must be unarmored anyway. Or, switching from melee weapons to brawling. Either way, these are rare situations that deserve very little attention and usually have to be handled by winging it.
>>97894469Looks like the best option is always obvious with those. So there's no tactical depth to your hours rules. Meaning you're slowing the game down for no benefit, so I wouldn't use those rules.>>97894788>without an effect, even if slight, I dont find that players tend to describeExcellent. Extra reason not to use those rules, then. Why would you encourage players to faggot your game up that way?>are you being agressive, cagy, primarily trying to occupy them rather than dealing excessive damage etcEw. Gay.
>>97894995>>97895011Sorry for the double post. I got an error, so I reposted, and it looks like both went through. Now it won't let me delete either one of them. Annoying.
>>97894788>True, but without an effect, even if slight, I dont find that players tend to describe or are inclined to think about there attack much. Skill issue. If they aren't effectively doing anything different, tell them. They have to have accurate game world information. If you're just making shit up so they keep making noise you're actually lying to them and they'll keep doing the pointless shit. This is a bad approach and why >fudging is fundamentally flawed. Encourage notable difference, if there isn't a notable difference tell them. They don't have to have rich descriptions every attack roll, once per combat or if their changing tactics is fine.
>>97895176NAYRT but I agree with this and it's why I think abstract tactical stances are a better fit for D&D combat. Like, everyone can understand the concept of "fighting defensively" and it's nonspecific enough that it doesn't matter whether the player grasps the situation in detail.
