2011-01-18 Old School vs. Old Age

Fight On! Today I asked on Twitter: “What do you think: Is Dragon Age RPG an Old School RPG?”

Most people agreed that the Dragon Age RPG is “old school inspired”. And I wondered: What does that mean? This goes back to the various definitions of traditional role-playing games out there.

Dragon Age RPG

the various definitions of traditional role-playing games out there

I think when people think of one of the following ideas whenever they hear *old school* role-playing games:

**old***: the game was published in the seventies and early eighties (such as B/X D&D)

**retro clone***: the game was published recently using modern layout and structure but basically striving for compatibility to games published in the seventies and early eighties (such as Labyrinth Lord)

**OSR***: the Old School Renaissance are the self-selected publishers and bloggers that write new material for either old games and retro clones, or they publish games and material for games inspired by the games published in the seventies and early eighties

Personally, I think that the Dragon Age RPG is a recent game inspired by the old games and clearly not a clone of an existing game. Thus it basically belongs to the Old School Renaissance.

I think this also has two other consequences:

1. “old school” is a *fashion*, a style, a mind-set and not an indication of age in the context of role-playing games

2. the words “inspired by old school” is usually *equivalent* to “old school” unless you’re only referring to a very small number of features

I think this is supported by my favorite Rob Conley quote: “It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently.” I think Chris Pramas and Green Ronin are doing just that with the Dragon Age RPG.

Rob Conley

Chris Pramas

Green Ronin

I also liked Daniel M. Perez’ blog post Wait, There’s A Video Game As Well? where he explains that he never played the video game and he still enjoys the game. That’s a big plus in my book!

Wait, There’s A Video Game As Well?

I’d love to get into a campaign. 😄

#RPG #Old School #fashion #terminology #Dragon Age

Comments

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Here is an interesting interview with Chris Pramas (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/6727-Designing-the-Dragon-Age-Tabletop-RPG)

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/6727-Designing-the-Dragon-Age-Tabletop-RPG

In the interview he explains that he looks at Dragon Age as “Neo-Retro.” The article is very good and I recommend it as a read, but here is a awesome clip of it:

“To be clear, however, Dragon Age is not a retro clone of BECMI D&D. I designed a new game to capture the feel of the Dragon Age world, but I did so very much mindful of the history of tabletop RPGs. There is a tendency these days to look back on the games of the 70s and early 80s and pat ourselves on the back about how far we’ve come from such primitive beginnings. I felt like there were still important things we could learn from those games, lessons perhaps forgotten over the years to the detriment of the hobby. With Dragon Age I was trying to take inspiration from the old school while still creating a modern design. I guess you might call it a neo-retro approach.”

– wrathofzombie 2011-01-18 17:08 UTC

wrathofzombie

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Thank you for that link!

– Alex Schroeder 2011-01-18 17:19 UTC

Alex Schroeder