What does the OSR mean to you?

 

When the open gaming license was made public back in 2000 by the Overlords at WoTC, the intent was to open up content to be published by 3rd party publishers, thus expanding the options for the consumer and driving the sale of those officially published books into more homes across this great land of ours. But, there was an unforeseen consequence of this. The OGL also opened the doors to the previous editions of the game, sparking would would become the present day OSR or Old-School Renaissance (Revival by some).

Since this time we've seen a number of retroclone rule sets published for the B/X, AD&D, Basic, Holmes and AD&D 2nd edition rule sets. Some of these really pushing the boundaries of rules-light content and revamping those official published rules into clean and much more usable versions. There is an ice cream flavor for all here...from the crunchiness of Dungeon Crawl Classics with tons of tables and random effect rolls, to Blackhack and Into the Odd which simplify rules down to almost pure narrative play.

With all the diversity of rule preference, there starts to form this question as to what is the OSR really? I can't speak for others and I certainly don't intend to, this is just my personal opinion. For me, the OSR is a feeling. It is not a ruleset, though some rules are more conducive to this feeling than other. It is not even a genre or setting, even though there is a vast array of these now available to the OSR consumer. It is that first D&D basic character, rolling it up at my friend's house one summer day...a Neutral alignment Fighter, Lance Warlend; if he lives long enough he can be titled a knight....I like this, this is the character I want to play. We venture into the dungeon, this abandoned castle on a lost island, dinosaurs wonder the wilderness, those seem dangerous, best to stay in this castle. Rooms explored, goblins slain, the last room has this large creature I've never heard of...a bugbear....three of my companions are dead, it is me and the bugbear, my hit points are getting low.....somehow the dice finally break my way, a hit, it goes down. In the chest is a flaming sword, holy shit, I'm so pumped, my heart is racing! I'm twelve and I've just had my first experience with Dungeons and Dragons, I'm now hooked for life.

The above is the OSR for me, well, getting back to that experience...it was the art in the D&D Cyclopedia that I was flipping through trying to grasp the rules, it was the grid map of the island and then the castle with all of the goblins that my friend had drawn up by hand, it was the high risk my character was under exploring for a way out and eventually overcoming by the skin of my teeth. Trying to recapture that feeling of wonder and adventure I experienced those many years ago, that is what defines the OSR to me. I love many of the published works, adventures and settings to come out of the community, but there is no one definition for what the OSR is, it is different for all us. By my definition it is not limited to a ruleset, the famous black and white art that defined the era. OSR could be at any table played with any rules if one wanted to be so.

So what does the OSR mean to you? 

Rappan Athuk: Review and Thoughts

 

Rappan Athuk: The dungeon of graves. Published by Frog God Games and formerly Necromancer games in its original incarnation. I'm currently running my play group through this big beast of a module...err....megadungeon using the 5E ruleset. Rappan Athuk was originally released for the 3.5 ruleset as three separate volumes detailing the multiple levels of this expansive dungeon and surrounding area. It has since seen compilation volumes with the newer editions of the game: Pathfinder, 5E, along with a Swords & Wizardry (Basic) version. Much of this review will be in regards to the 5E version of the module, but much there is little difference in the different releases outside of the mechanical elements presented within.

For starters lets touch on some legend surrounding this module, it is deadly and it is big. Deadly in 5E is not something typically associated, and for the most part I would agree, the 5E version of Rappan Athuk is not nearly as deadly as the other iterations, but there are some definite "oh shit" moments throughout, I'll touch on this a bit more later. And yes it is big, like, there is so much in here from the wilderness region and small town, to the different bandit groups plaguing the region, and that is all before you get to the literal 50+ dungeon levels presented within. This is a pricey book, but you are getting years worth of content and I imagine no two campaigns run would be the same given the very sandbox area to play in.

The setting centers around a small hamlet deep in what is apparently BFE (very remote) of the Frog Gods Lost Land setting. The backstory presents that several hundred years ago the fleeing army of an evil city named Tsar, known worshippers of the demon god Orcus, had been driven to the area around Rappan Athuk called the Forest of Hope. The alliance of good had defeated them at the city and were in pursuit to drive out the last vestiges of evil, though neither army was ever heard from or seen again. Now hundreds of year later, rumors have begun to abound of the lost levels of Rappan Athuk deep under this region, only the hamlet of Zelkor's Ferry providing any bit of civilization in the region persists, but adventurers and treasure seekers flock to the area for riches or more likely...a quick death.

The dungeon levels themselves are not thematically connected....there is a goblin city, a vampire level, a lava level, a forgotten chamber of the elder beast level....there is a lot going on here, but it kind of works. The inter-connectivity to this place is insane, there are a number of entrances to various levels throughout the wilderness region and each level has multiple means of egress which lead to varied levels. Take the underground river to this level, drop down this random hole to another, really awesome and not linear at all for multi-level dungeon. If your players aren't careful they could easily stumble into something well beyond their level, but I really love it. In my home game, my players virtually terrified to venture into the dungeon levels, let alone get lost in there. The tricks, traps and puzzles are really great and varied, you can tell the FGG staff are big fans of the Grimtooth series as some of these are pretty diabolical...oh you want an example...ok, how about the sloping passage that fills with water and pushes the party into a massive spinning fan! There is also a TPK trap located close the main entrance of the dungeon itself, the players could vary well die before they even set foot in.

The over-arching theme of Rappan Athuk is dealing with the coming and goings of Orcus and his minions. If your players are lucky enough to survive, there is enough content to push them to max level and possible encounter with the big guy himself. Many of the set piece encounters are epic and extremely challenging, character should be expected at any given time, but that sense of danger and escalation should really push your players into engagement. There is also an included full bestiary of all of the named and custom monster encounters, really glad to see this included and stated out.

So, what could be better? Like many of the other FGG volumes it is verbose, like holy hell there is a lot in here to read and dig through. Certainly not an easy tome to run. It is not just the backstory and narrative add-ons for the levels, but just the exposition within rooms themselves is a lot to dig through in the heat of running the game. The editing, dear god the editing, I really didn't realize how bad it was until I began to manually load my game into Roll20 for my players, but references to connecting levels are wrong throughout, whole panels are missing on certain levels, room descriptions are crossed up or mislabeled. There were times I had to put the book down and just draw out the connections or room descriptions myself, this shouldn't occur in a $100 book.

Many of the generic and random encounters are just hordes of enemies of lower CR value, I guess the intent was to overwhelm the PC's, but this doesn't work as great in 5E as it did in earlier editions, plus it tends to bog down the game a bit with unnecessary combat that is not advancing the plot or player agenda. I still have not figured out why they placed the hub location, Zelkor's Ferry, so freaking far away from the main entrance to the dungeon also. It really discourages the typical adventure jaunt, as written, it is over 20 miles away and across a river....there is a lot to do in the wilderness areas, but the heart and soul of this module is set within the dungeon proper, it should have been situated a bit better in my opinion. One of the key aspect of any megadungeon are factions, you won't really find these here unfortunately. Another minor gripe is getting going with the module from level 1. This somewhat fixed with a satellite dungeon located near Zelkor's Ferry, but this turned the first several sessions of my campaign into a more homebrew wilderness adventure. It has been fun, but I'm running off the cuff more than I would like as I really want my players to cut their teeth in the dungeon levels...just DM problems here, ignore me.

Lastly, let me quickly touch on the art. The 5th edition conversion for this book upgraded all of the art to full-color with several new full page art pieces. It's good, but there are some odd choices like using random map snippets to conclude chapter levels. I mean, it serves no purpose unless they were trying to drive up the page count. I much prefer the black and white art found in the previous editions (Pathfinder and S&W) it was really fantastic and set the mood for this module perfectly. 

Allright, so is it really worth it? I mean, this is a pricey tome...yes, gripes aside which are somewhat common with many 3rd party publishers, there is some really amazing stuff presented here. If your group is open to running games using a non-5th edition system, find a copy of the S&W version and run it using B/X or the fabulous Old-school essentials version of the game. Some of the encounters, creatures and levels to be explored are really incredible, looking at you poop monster. Is it the best megadungeon, no, but it is really good and follows the lineage of the 3rd edition tough as nails era of the game. My group has been having a really good time with it so far, with the added elements I introduced for my game, but there have already been several notable memories had and I'm looking forward to many more!

Barrowmaze: My favorite module...ever.

Barrowmaze is a self-published megadungeon from Greg Gillespie, originally published in 2012 for the Labyrinth Lord B/X retroclone rule set. It has since seen a revision with Barrowmaze Complete from a successful Kickstarter along with a conversion to the 5E ruleset. I first became aware of this adventure after I returned to the hobby in 2013. Back then I had no concept of the OSR jumping back into playing Pathfinder at the time, but boy oh boy when I got my copy of Barrowmaze Complete not soon after, my world was changed.

Barrowmaze centers around the rustic backwater town of Helix located in a far flung duchy. South of Helix are the Barrowmoors, multiple burial mounds nestled in a swamp a few hours from town. Somewhere within these mounds rests Barrowmaze, a forgotten and ancient labyrinth that houses multiple catacombs and crypts, the engine of this adventure is that something is driving the dead to rise from the crypts, something of power which has brought numerous rival adventuring group, along with competing factions into play. There is a lot to work with here for a DM.

I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but there are numerous factions at work, along with the grand undead theme (a favorite D&D enemy of mine), all posted in a familiar and believable setting. It just feels so real, the atmosphere that is conveyed by Greg Gillespie is just outstanding: I love the mood of the darkened-quiet halls full of treasure, surprise and danger. What really bowled me over was the art....my god, this takes me back to my childhood growing up reading and playing the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (BECMI) version of the game. It is just so fantastic and really brings this module to life, along with illustrations to show your players, just the chef's kiss of amazing. Really you have to see for yourself, my words as a DM will never do justice for what I can show my players with the fantastic art included here.

There is also a lot to work with in the regional setting. Two smaller towns and larger city are detailed along with important NPC's, particularly those located in Helix, again art is included here. Some of the references and names are a bit tongue-in-cheek with some notable pop culture references, but I am buying all of this. My players tend to do this on their own with anything I've created and it will only help to make the NPC's more memorable and bring personality in play. Unique treasures abound as well once the players start to plunder the crypts, including runic tablets which serve as a deck of many things type of occurrence should your players stumble across those. Gillespie also included unique spells, magical items along with a full bestiary with each creature getting art, take note literally every other D&D publisher, this is how it is done. Art is all top notch and in theme throughout the book, this was clearly a work of love and passion and it pays in spades. I should note that some of the general monsters included can be found with use of the free Labyrinth Lord companion available through Drive-thru RPG.

I've had this book on my shelf for several years now, having read and reread it on multiple occasions. My greatest crime as a DM is not running this for my group yet, but....there is still time....talking my players into running this using Labyrinth Lord or Old-School Essentials is a different matter, but I suppose that gives me a reason to pick up the 5E conversion of this really outstanding book. Greg Gillespie has followed produced a couple of other modules along the same line as well: Forbidden Caverns of Archaia (a Keep on the Borderlands homage) and Highfell: The Drifting Dungeon. Both are equally great and follow a different theme unique to the respective book. For now, though, I'll continue to secretly load Barrowmaze into Roll20, sooner or later my players are going to find it.