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What Would You Like In A Fantasy OSR Product?

Started by jeff37923, October 02, 2019, 02:51:25 AM

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Aglondir

Quote from: Nellisir;1107311As someone who grew up on fairy tales, folklore, and Arthurian - and no TV (thanks mom & dad?) - I'd be VERY interested.

I'd have to dig to find names, but White Wolf did a d20 supplement called Excalibur that I really like, and there's some similar-era RPGNow material that's very well done, with a little more "mundane world" flavor (Legends of Excalibur/Legends of the Dark Ages. I felt guilty not knowing the names and looked them up. 15 seconds well spent.)

This one?

Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Campaign Guide
Digital Price:$7.00
Writer: Charles Rice

http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?page=pro&product_id=37

Charles also does Darwin's World, an excellent post-apoc setting.

And he did a True20 version:

New Character Options
Pierce the veil of the future with the hedge mage and hermit; draw your sword and make your stand against the heathen with the knight; bond with the land and lead your people to victory with the noble; serve the One God and wield power both temporal and divine with the priest; live for no honor greater than a full belt pouch with the robber baron; or master the ways of archery with the yeoman.

    6 Character Backgrounds
    14 New Archetypes
    Virtues and Vices
    5 New Feats
    Supernatural Powers

Guide to the Arthurian Age
An overview of Arthurian legend for the GM, with campaign tips for each of the three main eras of play: Rise of Arthur, One Brief Shining Moment, and Dream's End.

Guide to Arthurian Campaigns
From numerous short quests, designed to take as little as an evening of play, to campaigns that could be the focus for months of game play, this guide provides plot hooks, and numerous NPCs drawn straight from Arthurian legend to enhance the campaign and take away much of the grunt work.

GM Hints
This supplement deals with all the big issues with running a game set in the world of Arthurian legend: evoking the right atmosphere, new rewards for players, and a guide to converting published adventures.

Supernatural Items
Statistics and descriptions of the items Arthurian legends are famous for: Excalibur, the Round Table, the Holy Grail, and many more.

Spinachcat

I need our very own AOS to publish his B/X Mars RPG! I didn't know I really wanted a OSR Martian Fantasy, but after seeing his preliminary work, I'm all hot damn, I gotta throw money at that! That's something I will take to the table.

Hopefully DTRPG will be selling it this month!

AKA, for me the best OSR (or any RPG) product is a personal labor of love. The more "I was driven by voices in my head to make this" a product may be, the more I'm interested.

AKA, I'm drawn to "authentic creative energy", products made by creators not to fill a market niche, but because the concept burns in their heart and they need to share it.

Almost_Useless

Quote from: Spinachcat;1107326The more "I was driven by voices in my head to make this" a product may be, the more I'm interested.

I really can't think of a better way to put that.

I also like something I haven't really seen before.  I don't need another not-LotR, not-Greyhawk, or not-Forgotten Realms.  That's probably not a "safe" marketing plan, though.

Mistwell

Quote from: jeff37923;1107174Exactly what it says on the tin. I'm curious about what everyone's fantasy OSR wish list is.

I really want more short, good, adventures which take place on other planes. For all levels of play.

SavageSchemer

Quote from: Spinachcat;1107326I need our very own AOS to publish his B/X Mars RPG! I didn't know I really wanted a OSR Martian Fantasy, but after seeing his preliminary work, I'm all hot damn, I gotta throw money at that! That's something I will take to the table.

I must know about this! You just don't know how cruel a tease like this can be.
The more clichéd my group plays their characters, the better. I don't want Deep Drama™ and Real Acting™ in the precious few hours away from my family and job. I want cheap thrills, constant action, involved-but-not-super-complex plots, and cheesy but lovable characters.
From "Play worlds, not rules"

S'mon

Quote from: estar;1107229Appreciate the shout out.  So you know the project I am working is adapting my Wild North from Fight On #3 to adjoin Blackmarsh (which adjoins Southlands from PoL I) Then releasing it along with poster maps.

For those who are not familiar with the Wild North it was originally written for the Wilderlands and released as part of Fight On #3. I believe the map for it is still up on Cafepress.

The problem is that there is some kind of right dispute over the Wilderlands boxed set text and the Fight On version relies on that. So I revamped it to fit the loose setting depicted in Points of Light and Blackmarsh.

Both versions are heavily based on Russian myth and folklore using GURPS Russia as a summary and guide to finding source material. The new Wild North has more text to bring it up to the standard of Blackmarsh and the Points of Light maps. There a brief background, each named terrain gets an entry followed by the hex locations. The map is 22" by 17" instead of letter sized. Still five mile hexes.

Cool - I seem to have lost my Fight On #3 and I think your Wild North fits better in your own setting than in my version of Wilderlands (which is more gonzo), so this seems a great idea.

Teodrik

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1107216A toolkit for Paladins & Princesses-style, fairy tale/medieval romance, Romanticized Christendom adventures. I'm inclined to write it myself, if only as a blog, but I'm not sure what tools to start with.

Also a JRPG-influenced variant of same (think Dragon Quest), with the same statement and caveats.
Sounds pretty much what I've been hoping for. Would buy a copy for sure if released as PoD.

GameDaddy

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1107216A toolkit for Paladins & Princesses-style, fairy tale/medieval romance, Romanticized Christendom adventures. I'm inclined to write it myself, if only as a blog, but I'm not sure what tools to start with.

Eh? Doesn't Charlemagne fit this request? You know ...the one launched on Kickstarter?
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

~ Dave Arneson

Armchair Gamer

Quote from: GameDaddy;1107963Eh? Doesn't Charlemagne fit this request? You know ...the one launched on Kickstarter?

   The one I backed to the extent of both books in hardcover, plus dice? :) It's close, but like its father Pendragon, it may be almost too deeply rooted in the era and its chosen playstyle. Sometimes you want something a bit less dynastic and a bit more open.

lordmalachdrim

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1107967The one I backed to the extent of both books in hardcover, plus dice? :) It's close, but like its father Pendragon, it may be almost too deeply rooted in the era and its chosen playstyle. Sometimes you want something a bit less dynastic and a bit more open.

Agreed.
Which is why I was originally so excited by Chivalry & Sorcery.

Iron Cross

Dark supernatural horror, witchcraft, devils, an authentic medieval theme, and a detailed campaign setting.

Iron Cross

Chivalry & Sorcery turned out to be an SJW Trojan horse of political correctness.

Philotomy Jurament

#27
I like site-based adventures that are easily integrated into existing TSR D&D campaigns (i.e., "modules"). I like products with reusable bits (e.g., a tavern that can be dropped down anywhere, a temple, a ogre clan's cave lair, etc). I like a swords-n-sorcery tone (more Leiber/Howard/Moorcock than Eddings/Brooks/Jordan). I like new monsters and new spells and such that are TSR D&D compatible. I'm not in the market for big, plotted, "adventure paths." I'm not in the market for new "OSR" game systems. I'm not in the market for new "OSR" campaign worlds (although a treatment of a smaller area that can be placed in an existing campaign is welcome). I'm not in the market for "OSR" rules that make big changes to TSR D&D (e.g., skill or feat systems, spell points, critical hit or hit location systems, classes for commoners, etc). I probably would like new rules or details that naturally fit with the existing TSR rules (something like the expanded treatment of magic circles in S4, for example), but recognize there's a lot of subjectivity in that "naturally fit" part.

Basically, I like products that are compatible with TSR D&D rules and that can be easily used in existing campaigns. And I have a preferential bias towards a "sword-n-sorcery" tone/feel and an "early TSR" approach (i.e., original D&D/early-1e, rather than later 1e/2e/BECMI). And I like a product that I can use without a lot of extra work, or without a ton of reading to grok it well enough to run it. If I have to put in a bunch of work before I can use it, I'm usually better off just creating something myself.

I also tend to like pseudo-historical products (supplements that cover stuff like "vikings," or crusades-era Levant, or mid-Republican Roman, or ancient Egypt, or whatever, but add a dash of myth and magic). That's probably more niche, but I'm a sucker for those, and I think they offer the author more leeway for rules system additions/changes that fit the setting (or at least, I'm more accepting of such things in this kind of product).
The problem is not that power corrupts, but that the corruptible are irresistibly drawn to the pursuit of power. Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.

VengerSatanis

Quote from: S'mon;1107175By far the most useful thing to me is a collection of mostly-short site based adventures I can use to flesh out a sandbox. Eg Dyson's Delves I & II, or Basic Fantasy Adventure Anthology.

I am a sucker for well done actual sandboxes, eg Gary Gygax's Yggsburgh, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, or Rob's Points of Light I & II, but I can only run a few different campaigns at any one time.

I don't find weird 'edgy' stuff much use, and I'm not currently in the market for Venger-style sleaze or Pundit's historicism; fairly meat & potatoes stuff with a typical OD&D/Greyhawk vibe rather than B/X - so more demons & snake cults, fewer BX standard monsters like giants, probably preferable. The heavy OSR emphasis on BX type material leaves a bit of a gap for the former.

Haaahahahaahaaaaaaa!

GameDaddy

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;1122788I also tend to like pseudo-historical products (supplements that cover stuff like "vikings," or crusades-era Levant, or mid-Republican Roman, or ancient Egypt, or whatever, but add a dash of myth and magic). That's probably more niche, but I'm a sucker for those, and I think they offer the author more leeway for rules system additions/changes that fit the setting (or at least, I'm more accepting of such things in this kind of product).


I like this type of supplement as well, so I can give areas in my campaign world some interesting flavor, and like to mix and match them some.
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

~ Dave Arneson