💾 Archived View for ttrpgs.com › osr_alternate.gmi captured on 2024-05-10 at 11:22:58. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

An Alternative OSR Style

I feel like the Old School Renaissance ('OSR') games could achieve their goals easier.

The exact goals vary, but it's something along the lines of:

like old D&D
don't fill the character sheet with 1,000 special skills
simple rules
lethal game-play, forcing players to be clever

Rather than ditching feats and clinging to classes, I think we can achieve these goals easier by using Feats to do what classes once did.

Imagine a level 1 person. They are nothing but a race.

Now let's make a quick list of Feats, derived from class abilities.

Sneak
+2 attack with favoured weapon
+2 sneak attack
Magic sphere
Pick-pockets
Magical items
Rousing Song
Second attack
Tracking
Turn undead

Finally, everyone gains 1 Feat per level.

A 3rd level fighter might look like this:

1. +1 Strength

2. +2 attack with axe

3. +4 HP

Now a paladin:

1. +2 attack with sword

2. Magic sphere (healing)

3. +2 Constitution

4. Turn undead

And a thief:

1. +2 sneak attack

2. Pick-pockets

3. +2 attack with sword

4. +2 Dexterity

But of course if that thief wants to 'become a bard', we could add:

5. Rousing Song

6. Use magical items

Now the thief can sing inspirational songs, and use magical items.

The Rest of the System

Of course, this system requires a lot more before anyone can use it, and we could flesh it out in any number of ways:

Magical spheres need added
Purchasing Feats more than once may allow someone to do more, like higher-level magic.
We could add Attribute-gain to the system, allowing fighters to gain Strength, and wizards to gain Intelligence.
We could add some meta-currency to the system which stops characters receiving damage; perhaps 3 per level.
Instead of gaining +1 to attack, we could add a great variety of situations which give +2 to attack, such as fighting in open territory, or fighting a giant creature. Fighters would manage to gain a +6 to attack by using all their feats at once.
Maybe some racial abilities, such as a first Feat?
Obviously, some encounter tables

Derived Stats

We'll also need standard ways of computing Initiative, Armour Class, and the rest, based off Attributes and items.

In total, a character sheet would consist of:

Race
6 Attributes
Gold pieces
Equipment (armour, weapons, et c.)
Feats

More Simplification

Old School rules could have given us results in far less time than they did. We have a lot to remove:

Damage could be a margin on the to-hit roll, rather than a new die.
Instead of giving weapons damage scores, we could just give them feats. This lets them give a plus to attack, but only in the right circumstances.
Instead of 'downtime', we can assume each break from a dungeon represents a time to level-up, buy items, and heal, centring each game within a given dungeon.

Back to Objectives

With the old classes fairly represented by some Feats, and no more special skills than A,D&D proposed, we have a simple system to perform some old-school dungeon crawling.

If people want a 'rock up and play' game with OSR values, they could achieve all those values far better with modern rules.