The OSR And why I chose Basic Fantasy

In a world of old-school style role-playing games, why did I choose the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game? The answer might surprise you. Also, what the heck is the OSR anyway? All this and a little movie trivia await in this episode of the Doomed Wizard.

[Merlinstergandaldore]

So many retroclones, so little time! Welcome to the world of D&D on Youtube! 😁

[silvertheelf]

“I named my channel after the poor doomed wizard” - Doomed Wizard making a point about the fact his was in fact doomed and a wizard.

[toddrlyons]

I've tentatively subscribed, hoping you'll go further down the Basic Fantasy rabbit hole than most YouTubers that just dip their toe in. I, too, began in 1981 with Moldvay Basic before graduating (?) to 1e, but as I've gotten older I've started to crave BX again. But my books were long gone and when I got the PDFs I realized that there were things about it I didn't like. And then I found this game: simple, free, open source, modular, expandable, but already excellent as-is with the tweaks I wanted already made in the core rulebook. Of course you can still house-rule it (even the author does, in 'The Glain Companion'), but what an excellent starting point it gives you. And then there's the community behind it. The collaborative development and support on the forums is inspiring. And the at-cost printed books! So... please go down the rabbit hole.

[MarkHyde]

80s BECMI kid here (52 now) - turned first to Labyrinth Lord way back when WOTC abandoned the D20 trademark and dropped the 3.5ed ruleset - then discovered BFRPG and OSRIC and all the rest of the retro-clone/OSR titles games, settings and contents. Love this video so much!!! :)

[kevinbirge]

Basic Fantasy is a very respectable choice. It’s a great system, it is highly affordable, and accurately duplicates the strengths of B/X. Not truly a retrogame, but worth looking at is the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. It was designed around the Appendix N literature. Biggest difference is magic, DCC makes it extremely dangerous, but wizards are powerful early.

[heroeshomebrew]

Welcome to the OSR YouTube community. Great video. Hope to see more from you.

[BobCain]

Thank you for starting with that commercial. Classic!

[ozymandrokles]

Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry are also nice rulesets 👌 lots of good choices out there.

[nerdyride]

That commercial in the intro is awesome! Love it

[sharpmountaingames]

Thanks for a nice review! I did a few covers for BFRPG, so it was great to see them. Happy gaming (Ooooh, loved the Star Frontiers image too!)

[charlessmith]

Legend has it he never did get around to saying why he chose basic fantasy...

[zakesters]

I definitely did not expect to come across Ken Nordine going down this rabbit hole--what a delight!

[nonya]

Geezer here...
Just that intro is worth a like and Oh the memories....
Had an auntie see that commercial....
Had to sit her down and try to explain... Ohh those days of satanic panic....
All things good to you and yours.
Gaming on.

[AtariTomX]

I'm new to the OSR myself and I have both Basic Fantasy and White Box. I love the build quality of the Basic Fantasy book, but I find I get a little overwhelmed by it. Because of that, I enjoy the White Box book more. It's smaller, decently organized, and for me, easier to understand. Plus, the artwork in White Box just kicks serious ass.

As someone coming from 5e, I especially enjoy how affordable a good chunk of OSR books are, and the fact that they're more or less cross-compatible with each other means a pretty much unlimited supply of settings and tools that I don't have to translate much between sources.

[cb]

Basic Fantasy is truly my favorite also

[brandonm]

I just ran my second session of BFRPG over the weekend and am having a lot of fun. I'm bringing in 5e players so I felt okay bringing in some of the class and combat supplements without overwhelming them while adding in a little bit of that customization that people like. I really enjoy the initiative system and the speed of combat. I also like how much more grounded characters are and don't feel like superheroes. The game really embraces that classic fantasy feel.

[Eron_the_Relentless]

Welcome to the OSR.

My only correction/clarification I would make is the OSR was originally merely a means to produce support for older games legally. The reasons mainly seem to be a reaction to D&D 3E and even moreover D&D 3.5 because WotC pushed the playerbase to buy corebooks again in quick succession due to their own lack of playtesting. The OSR was a "take our ball and go home" response to these shenanigans, and there are not a few thinly veiled put-downs to 3E-style play in the original Old School Primer.

OSRIC was one of the first OSR products and is an acronym that stands for "old school reference and index compilation". What is it referencing and indexing? AD&D1E. Saying something was "compatible with OSRIC" was a dogwhistle to say "this is an AD&D1E product". Initially, OSRIC was never intended to be played itself. The OSR very quickly evolved into first generation retroclones for all old editions of D&D. Early games (including Basic Fantasy) were also influenced by what creators thought WotC was going to let people get away with using the OGL (a fear of CNDs/lawyers). So early clones (Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry) were never exact duplicates (unlike OSE or Full Metal Plate Mail). As such most were presented in the spirit of a given edition rather than the exact rules of an edition Basic Fantasy is a modified 3E to look like B/X rather than a strict copy of B/X, Labyrinth Lord plays with a lot of the numbers, Swords & Wizardry has one save, etc. Eventually the tides changes and several relatively exact clones came out (some more popular than others). Then the seasons changed again and with the exception of "classic" OSE, most OSRs now follow their own evolutionary paths and trajectories. Someone who plays Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Dungeon Crawl Classics the same is playing at least one of them wrong, in spite of them both having the same ancestry of B/X D&D.

When I say OSRIC was "one of the first", I meant intentionally. Hackmaster 4E and Castles & Crusades have been sort of retro-actively added to the OSR as time has gone on and OSR games have evolved more in the direction these two games went and away from strict adherence to the spirit or letter of dead D&D games. In this way, C&C and Hackmaster were ahead of their time at the time of publication.


Again, welcome.

[TheShadowKarl]

My OSR game of choice these days is Whitehack. Great ruleset all-around. I have spent a lot of time looking at a lot of different ideas but this one just stands out for me.

[knghtbrd]

Basic Fantasy literally being free and done purely for the fun of the game makes for a LOT to recommend that particular OSR variant. The other one that looks worthwhile is OSE because it's just so well put together. It costs a little more…honestly it costs almost as much as those 5E books…but it's really hard to argue with those A5 format books if you need them at the table for some reason. Of course the proper response to that is that you SHOULDN'T need them at the table, and if you do your GM is doing it wrong. If you're the GM, learn to make a decision and play through! You can always make an adjustment later if you need to undo something that turns out to have been a bad call.

[toddirvine]

Just discovered your channel and you must be new with only 252 subscribers because your videos are awesome! You've got an easy voice to listen to and your experiences and views with D&D sound very similar to my own. Best of luck with your channel!