Old School Gaming Thoughts

I’ve had a growing hankering for old school games, specifically for games where answers are to be found in the game and not on your character sheet, where play is driven more by actions taken then by dice rolls made, and where a callous world causes even the most innocuous encounters to engage players problem solving skills.

I long for moments of deciding to drop your pack so you can squeeze the the crevasse or holding onto it because your grimoires are inside. I long for fragile characters who can, and will, fall from a single blow. I love for a world that we discover together through random encounter tables and procedurally generated content. I longed to play some OSR.

So I did.

• A Grim Outlook on the Outpost (5/24/2024)
• A Crack in the Temple of Secrets (5/25/2024)
• Another Bug Hunt (5/24/2025)
• Five days up a river (5/25/2025)
• Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur (5/25/2025)

And I liked all of them for different reasons. I also did a lot of reading about Black Hack and the usage die, Into the Odd starting gear based on stats and HP, and many of the OSR games that make damage automatic, strip out skills, and make very, very fragile characters. I also harkened back to all the games of Torchbearer I ran 10 years ago and the bites I loved about it.

There is a part of my brain that goes immediately toward hacking (and of course, I’ve done a bit of that to) but instead of starting by immediately cobbling together multiple systems, I’ve decided to try out a few systems on their own, starting with Shadowdark, with plans to also play Into the Odd, Black Hack, Knave, and possibly more.

So far, here’s what I love (and don’t love so much) about the games I’ve played and/or being reading about:

• Mothership: character sheet, three stats, three saves,  character creation, skill list, trinkets, patches, and stress/panic rules. All amazing for horror in space.
• Errant: grimoires, failed professions, damage, fortune and miracles, ancestry, player roles, weapon rules, armor rules, gear quality rules, initiative/actions, damage by class, unstable spells, deviate proficiencies, lockpicking, travel turns/rules, eating monsters. Struggled with determining DV, time it takes to create Zealots and Occultists and encumbrance rules.
• Shadowdark: torch timers, advancement, death rules, spellcasting (roll to cast), crits on spells, low hp, single action
• Torchbearer: inventory, duel of wits, conditions, each monster has one ability
• Mörk Borg: vibes, single special ability, armor die, recovery.
• Black Hack: random encounters every 15 min real time, creature reactions, usage dice. [Haven’t played yet]
• Kala Mandala: premise (professional meddlers), career advancement, rival guilds, damage to stats, skills (like fighting words and manuscript monster), art and vibes, heirlooms and burdens, names list, legacy [Haven’t played yet]
• Into the Odd – Gear based on starting stats and HP, damage rules (d4 and d12 rules for disadvantage/advantage), arcanum rules.[Haven’t played yet]

Will I land on one of these system, or cobble several of them together to make the game that is just right for me? Let’s play to find out.