Mythbusters: OSR Edition Ch. 3

So, this series of post started with my Darkness of the Drow, Thief Redux, Regarding Character Death, Mythbusters: OSR Edition Ch. 1, and Mythbusters: OSR Edition Ch. 2 posts. To be honest, I did not plant to expand my Mythbuster: OSR Edition series into multiple chapters but due to various feedback and comments I received I felt like I needed to expand it and clarify somethings. Once again, I find myself with a need to expand this series. In my Mythbusters: OSR Edition Ch. 1, I gave honorable mention to how there are a lot of people and by proxy games out there that put forward the attitude that for something to be OSR it must confirm to a degree of deadliness, certain methods for determining attributes, and a Peasants and Pitchforks approach. I also talked about attribute generation in length and about the whole 3d6 in order rule. I want to expand on these two points slightly because it was pointed out that I maybe left out certain things or I did not give other things a fair shake.

In regards to the first point, there are a lot of people out there in the OSR movement and by proxy games that focus on the OSR being a style of gaming and not something you can find in rules. In a lot of games such as White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game, Delving Deeper, Old School Essentials, and Swords and Wizardry (plus many others) that provide optional rules in sidebars or alter some of the original rules for various reasons. There are also a great deal of awesome people who are part of the movement that are very supportive and I think understand that the OSR is a spirit and has nothing to do with raw. I see on a lot of forums and social media that people are directed to reading the "Ten Commandments of the OSR" in regards to game design or just to answer the age old question of, What is the OSR?. 

I first came across these commandments on the False Machine Blog in 2018 and that said blog post was written from a long and famous Scrap Princess Google + post (I can not longer link the Google + post as Google + is no longer around). Patrick Stuart said: “I broke it the thread down to my top ten aphorisms, with bits stolen from Gregory Blair, Brian Harbron, FM Geist, Zedeck Siew, Brian Murphy, Dirk Detweiler Leichty and Daniel Davis”. These ten commandments are;

1. This is a game about interacting with this world as if it were a place that exists
2. Killing things is not the goal
3. There is nothing that is “supposed” to happen
4. Unknowability and consequence make everything interesting
5. You play as your character, not as the screenwriter writing your character
6. It’s your job to make your character interesting and to make the game interesting for you
7. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck
8. The answer is not on your character sheet
9. Things are swingy
10. You will become more strange

Number Ten was originally "You will Die" but I think that goes against the spirit because it almost forces the idea into a certain style of play, You will become more strange (this idea was thrown around in different comment sections as well) is a lot more in line with the OSR as a whole and lets be honest, there are some things worse then death.

On the opposite side of this coin, there are a lot of people that are also very adamant that for something to be considered OSR it needs to be deadly or be a peasants and pitchforks style and hope your character makes to any sort of heroics. I have seen this and experienced it first hand. There are multiple times I have suggested various house rules (usually along the lines of adding some HP padding, skill system, etc) and I have been told that maybe this game is not right for me and I should go find a different game. That type of gate keeping attitude is sad and does a disservice to the entire hobby, not just the OSR.

Speaking of Ten Commandments, there is another set of Ten Commandments regarding the OSR that I came across. These ones more have to do with the entire movement then the actual style of the games. I found them on the Pits Perilous Blog in 2019 thought I will repost them here because I think these are just important if not more so:

1. The OSR is an attempt to preserve, promote, and/or revive old-school games. 
2. Its aims can be met by playing these early games, but also by publishing content under the Open Gaming License or developing original systems in this style. 
3. There's nothing about seeking to preserve, promote, and/or revive old-school games that suggests (much less requires) any particular political, religious, or social agenda. 
4. The fact that some people in the OSR behave badly says nothing about the OSR as a whole. Some are good, others bad; but all of them can like older games. 
5. If you want a positive, welcoming OSR, be a positive, welcoming person. Splitting off into ideologically pure communities just might be the worst possible way to achieve this.
6. We desperately need values, but we'll have to look beyond the OSR to find them; and when we do, shouldn't they apply to everything and not just our gaming?
7. As long as people remain fascinated by older games, the OSR will never die.
8. Things like Sword Dream and The Inglorious OSR are at best subsets of the OSR; and far from signalling the death of the movement, they speak to its diversity. 
9. The OSR has no leaders. Some are louder and more vocal, but they can only speak for themselves (and that includes yours truly). Feel free to add your voice to the mix. 
10. If you've fled the OSR only to run your weekly OD&D game, you haven't escaped the movement at all. Indeed, you've aided it's sole purpose. Long live the OSR!

 

I have gone back and taken a look through the prints of OD&D and as I was discussing various aspects of the game in preparation for this post, this section was pointed out to me in regards to the attributes. In the first little brown book it states, 

"Prior to the character selection by the players it is necessary for the referee to roll three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and this aid them in selecting a role."

So, "the in order to" in this context (and probably should) be read as this must be done to determine, not this must be done in down the line. Ignoring everything Gygax and Arneson said about characters and attributes, it looks like the whole 3d6 in order stick was mistranslated or misunderstood. We must remember to look at what the symbol means and not the symbol itself. 

I have watched the OSR as a movement explode from a niche within a niche that was only a handful of retro clones to a whole spirit of gaming with a serious DIY ans rebel attitude. I feel like there are so many games that are OSR that may not be so obvious like Tiny Dungeons: 2e, Eldritch Tales, Forbidden Lands, Pits and Perils, Blood of Pangea, 17th Century Minimalist, Jaws of the Six Serpents, Beyond the Wall, Index Card RPG, Ryuutama, Electric Bastionland, Renaissance, and so many more. The list could go on and on and on. I am proud of what it has become and hopeful for its future.