On a positive note

Tim Brannan over at the Other Side Blog has a pretty good post about what is right about the OSR. It’s a good take after some of the negative floating around for the last few days. At any rate, what really appeals to me about the things going on with the whole hobbyist gaming thing is the energy. The DIY nature of it all appeals to me. It really reminds me a lot of my youth when I was really into the punk rock scene. There is a very vital and raw sense of energy, of anything goes, that is very reminiscent of that time for me. I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but I like the various takes, I like the raw and unpolished clip art and photocopy stuff all the way to the polished professional stuff. That’s not to say all of it is GOOD in the sense that it is something I’d dump my current game for; but in most cases, I’ll find at least one good idea or piece of art or something there that I can take away. I’m easily amused I suppose. Yeah, there’s a lot of wild stuff out there. Sometimes I want something just short, gritty and sweet like the Minutemen or say Swords of Arathnor. Other times I want edgy and in your face like Fear or Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Or light but hard hitting like the Ramones or Labyrinth Lord. Sometimes just great straight ahead rocking out like Social Distortion or OSRIC. Well, you get the idea. I know we all have our own takes, likes and dislikes, etc. I know people get passionate about this stuff and that’s why there is some really great stuff out there. It really reminds me of the energy and passion that I felt when I was a kid gaming and hanging out in the punk scene. Anyone could create their own band and either disappear into obscurity or take on the world. Keep it comin!

Comments

  1. HiggipediaJanuary 9, 2011 at 2:24 PM

    Swords of Arathnor is the Minutemen of OSR? That might be what gets me to buy the game ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. TreyJanuary 9, 2011 at 3:24 PM

    There's enough room for everything to be sure. While I apparently missed most of the static (which generally happens--I don't tend to frequent the places where that level of discussion takes place) I can imagine how it came down.

    I write the stuff I think is interesting. I'm gratified when other people find it of interest, and I'm pleased when I find stuff interesting that other people do while doing what they want.

    ReplyDelete
  3. XyanthonJanuary 10, 2011 at 2:56 AM

    @Higgipedia - for $8, Savage Swords of Athanor is definitely worth it. I know LotfP and Carcosa get all the spot light, but Arathnor is definitely worth a look. If nothing else, the class and skill ideas are well worth the price of admission. Like a Minutemen song, a lot is packed into a small package. We go econo!

    @Trey - I think there is quite a bit of room for everything. I should keep away from the drama and not participate. I think the City is an incredibly compelling setting and I can't wait to see it in its completed form.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Neurodiversity and Dragons - the adventure begins!

Image
  Tl;dr: Kia ora all! I don’t often post much about my personal life, but as a parent of two neurodiverse teens, I reckoned that I’d post some of my experience in gaming here on our journey. My daughter was diagnosed with autism almost a year ago and my son is dyslexic/dysgraphia with ADHD like presentation. Both are incredibly bright and very different from each other (my son has lots of friends and is very bright and gregarious if also very lazy while my daughter is very retreating and shy but incredibly driven and motivated). They both love fantasy and fantasy literature, movies and gaming has been a way for us all to connect. Though often what works for one, doesn’t necessarily work for the other. This brings me to my point, I am working on trying to best accommodate the needs of my neurodiverse daughter and include her in an experience that she very much wants to participate in, but often feels frustrated and overwhelmed by. This is an introduction to our journey so far.   For s
Read more

More Thoughts on my Campaign System

So, I’ve been thinking of my campaign world again and my magic system a lot lately. I’ve been reading a lot of Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga and the Hobbit (what a strange dichotomy!) and they have both influencing my thoughts on magic systems. I’m becoming more and more intrigued of having only a single “class” and everything else being a trapping of that. For my campaign world, I’m steering towards an everyman approach were you purchase “disciplines” as you advance to create different character types. I’m not really interested in creating a whole new retro-clone system per se, but building on top of either the Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry White box. For what I have in mind, the S&W Whitebox might make even more sense. So I’m thinking that the normal adventuring type guy would have a base d6 hit die. You’d have some starting amount of experience to spend on disciplines to start down the road of customizing your character. So for instance, if you wanted brawny fig
Read more

I like pie!

Cyclopeatron made an interesting blog post which I tend to agree with. Most conent posts don't get responses but opinion posts do. I've noticed the trend in my own blogging as well. There is some incredibly interesting content being generated out there in OSR blog land. I think folks tend to react more to opinion pieces because no one really wants to 1) either say your stuff sucks on a blog post or 2) only say "that's cool man". I tell you what, I cherish the "that's cool man posts", it at tleast let's me know folks are paying attention. As to the your stuff sucks, well those are OK too as long as they tell me why they think my stuff sucks so I know how to try and improve it. At any rate, I like pie. It even tastes better when I had to kill an orc to get it ;).
Read more