It was a Renaissance

Thomas M, who writes one of my favourite RPG newsletters, asked for suggestions about people producing games in “the NSR, post-OSR, and generally the experimental side of the OSR” for what I assume will become an article for Rascal or his newsletter.

I reject the premise of his query: the OSR is and always has been experimental! That’s the whole point. The “R” stands for Renaissance. Of course I complained, like a maniac, and Thomas followed up his thinking on the matter:

The term OSR has a kind of nostalgic or backwards-looking bent to it. While that never applied to all individuals, it applied to some/enough. I think it’s natural for folks who break from that orientation to use different terms.

I reject that premise even more! To quote myself: ”The OSR is a gaming movement focused on player agency, problem solving, and simple open-ended rule sets inspired by old editions of D&D and games from that period of time.”

I agree that the OSR began with retroclones and people trying to reproduce the original D&D games, but that’s certainly the least interesting part of the OSR at this point.¹ People quickly moved on from Retroclones. LotFP is 15 years old. DCC RPG is over a decade old. Troika is going to celebrate its 10th birthday this year. All games directly inspired by something older, pushed in new directions.

Old School Hack came out at the same time as LotFP. If it came out today people would call it “Post-OSR”, but it was released into the maelstrom because the OSR has always been more than just retroclones. Many of the replies to Thomas’s inquiry pointed him to Into the Odd, an important and influential game. Also one that’s a decade old and came out of the OSR scene on G+. Maze Rats is another example of an old influential OSR game that moves well past the world of 3D6 down the line. These games would go on to inspire games like the superlative Mausritter.

OSR modules have almost always been fresh and interesting, where a lot of the excitement in the scene has lived. Deep Carbon Observatory is over a decade old now. Brilliant writing, art, and fun to play! LotFP’s modules (boo, hiss, I know) didn’t attempt to ape TSR trade dress or vibes: they charted their own unique course. Think about how good Scenic Dunnsmouth is! On the flipside, DCC RPG modules prove you can do what TSR was doing, but better in every single way. In the Woods is ten years old now and remains one of the most beautiful games/adventures to come out of the OSR. Another example of something people would call Post-OSR if it came out today.

Reynaldo and Grey Wizard worked on Break!! for what must be a decade. A game that came out of the OSR scene, and certainly has OSR sensibilities, but feels innovative and fresh. Luke Gearing’s Swyvers is another game in this same vein. Its system feels decidedly retro, but somehow the whole game feels new—I guess because it is.

This is a lot of words to not actually answer Thomas’s question about “what’s new” and I have to apologize for that. I feel irrationally compelled to correct people when I see them parrot a definition of the OSR that I could imagine coming from the lips of the most reprobate members of this scene. Probably because it erases me, my friends, and our experience. The OSR didn’t begin and end with AD&D.