So I told you awhile ago that I am running an OSE game online.  Would rather run it in person but that was all I could get at the time.

So one of my players started an local OSE discord group so that all OSE players in our state could gather and find local OSE games.

My player who started the discord server finally got enough people for a game and we played this past Saturday.

My player was the DM and myself and another player got to take place in the stat of a pretty cool campaign.  There is a third player but he couldn't make it due to a previous event but will be there for the next game.  The DM is also going to work on trying try recruit more players.  For now the game will be once a month but hopeful it will happen more often.

So I am a fighter and the other player is a magic user.  We had to use the rules for getting retainers to go into a tavern to bulk up our group.  After some tough negotiation we were able to hire a cleric and a thief.

We were hired to investigate a cavern and map it out.   After our cleric accidently falls into a trap pit we meet some halflings who lost some people who were killed by wolves.  The groups split up to investigate the caverns and kill the wolves located somewhere in the caverns.

All and all I had a great time and cant wait to play again.  And I have decided to use the server to get together an in person game of OSE (which if I do I may kill my online game which I love, but nothing beats playing in person).

We used miniatures (15mm) that the DM printed on his 3d printer and used a map that he printed out with a plate of metal under it and each miniature having a magnet on the bottom to keep it in place.  Napkins were used for the fog of war. 

Below are some pictures from the game.





OSE has really made me love the OSR and I am never going back to crappy WOTC D&D.

OSE is a great onramp to OSR games.

That's awesome and looks like a lot of fun!

I'm about to be a player for a pbp for WB:FMAG.

Quote from: Zenoguy3 on June 03, 2024, 12:07:53 PMOSE is a great onramp to OSR games.

Well it's a great OSR game for fantasy.   I am all set for fantasy but I will look at other OSR games for other Genres.  There is a kickstarter for an OSE based WW2 game that I saw and thought looked very interesting.

Quote from: Nakana on June 03, 2024, 12:53:33 PMThat's awesome and looks like a lot of fun!

It  was a lot of fun.

Quote from: Nakana on June 03, 2024, 12:53:33 PMI'm about to be a player for a pbp for WB:FMAG.

I am sorry I do not know what WB:FMAG means.  What is this game?

Quote from: GhostNinja on June 03, 2024, 01:56:08 PMI am sorry I do not know what WB:FMAG means.  What is this game?

White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game
It's based off of the Swords & Wizardry game, which is based off of OD&D rules (hence the white box).

The pdf is free here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/190631/white-box-fantastic-medieval-adventure-game
and the softcover is only $5 on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981331395?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Quote from: Nakana on June 03, 2024, 03:24:46 PMWhite Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game
It's based off of the Swords & Wizardry game, which is based off of OD&D rules (hence the white box).

The pdf is free here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/190631/white-box-fantastic-medieval-adventure-game
and the softcover is only $5 on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981331395?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Interesting.  I will check it out.

Glad you liked OSE.  It's what we use now.  Like you, I have to play online when I'd rather play in person, but it's a lot better than not playing at all.  We still manage to have lots of fun, and it sounds like you did too.  Thanks for the pictures as well.

Cool report.

Quote from: I on June 03, 2024, 07:30:23 PMGlad you liked OSE.  It's what we use now.  Like you, I have to play online when I'd rather play in person, but it's a lot better than not playing at all.  We still manage to have lots of fun, and it sounds like you did too.  Thanks for the pictures as well.

Yeah, it is better than nothing and even my online game is pretty fun.  Although I prefer in person play.

I will add more pictures or do an update post next month when we play again.  The only thing about the in person game I am not a fan of is it is a westmarches game where in game time is the same as out of game time.  So a month will have passed in game the next time we play.

Quote from: Man at Arms on June 03, 2024, 09:34:51 PMCool report.

Thank You

The reason I like OSE is because I've been playing B/X since 1981 so I hardly ever need to look stuff up at the table.  But if I do, those compact, well-organized books make it super easy to find stuff.  My more casual players prefer its straightforward simplicity, like race as class, over various other OSR games or clones.  And it's easy to bolt on stuff. 

So I recently got the reworked expansion of Dark Tower for DCC and we were planning on running the whole thing.  But after a couple preliminary adventures using the DCC rules, my players found them way too cumbersome.  So we switched back to OSE with a few DCC elements bolted on and it's working great so far.

Quote from: Persimmon on June 06, 2024, 10:18:07 AMThe reason I like OSE is because I've been playing B/X since 1981 so I hardly ever need to look stuff up at the table.  But if I do, those compact, well-organized books make it super easy to find stuff.  My more casual players prefer its straightforward simplicity, like race as class, over various other OSR games or clones.  And it's easy to bolt on stuff.

While OSE was the first time I have run/played using the B/X system but I have the .pdfs of the original basic and expert rules and I see how much clearer OSE is over the original rules.  You are right about bolting things onto the OSE rules.

Quote from: Persimmon on June 06, 2024, 10:18:07 AMSo I recently got the reworked expansion of Dark Tower for DCC and we were planning on running the whole thing.  But after a couple preliminary adventures using the DCC rules, my players found them way too cumbersome.  So we switched back to OSE with a few DCC elements bolted on and it's working great so far.

Yes, I played DCC for awhile and I did not like the system at all.  They are too cumbersome so when the game failed I was OK with it.   Plus I thought the 0 level funnel rule was just stupid.

Quote from: GhostNinja on June 06, 2024, 12:39:07 PMWhile OSE was the first time I have run/played using the B/X system but I have the .pdfs of the original basic and expert rules and I see how much clearer OSE is over the original rules.  You are right about bolting things onto the OSE rules.

OSE is great as a translation of B/X to English from High Gygaxian. That's what makes it such a good baseline for OSR games, since it is the very essence of OSR, with no filler.
I think anybody that wants to get into OSR should start by playing at least a few games of OSE, and move on from there.

Quote from: GhostNinja on June 06, 2024, 12:39:07 PMYes, I played DCC for awhile and I did not like the system at all.  They are too cumbersome so when the game failed I was OK with it.   Plus I thought the 0 level funnel rule was just stupid.

DCC definitely has a fair number of rules that can bog the game down, and I think the whole dice chain concept is too cute by half. I personally like the funnel rule, but I can see people preferring it to be an optional rule as opposed to the baseline.

Quote from: Zenoguy3 on June 06, 2024, 02:12:31 PM

Quote from: GhostNinja on June 06, 2024, 12:39:07 PMWhile OSE was the first time I have run/played using the B/X system but I have the .pdfs of the original basic and expert rules and I see how much clearer OSE is over the original rules.  You are right about bolting things onto the OSE rules.

OSE is great as a translation of B/X to English from High Gygaxian. That's what makes it such a good baseline for OSR games, since it is the very essence of OSR, with no filler.
I think anybody that wants to get into OSR should start by playing at least a few games of OSE, and move on from there.

Quote from: GhostNinja on June 06, 2024, 12:39:07 PMYes, I played DCC for awhile and I did not like the system at all.  They are too cumbersome so when the game failed I was OK with it.   Plus I thought the 0 level funnel rule was just stupid.

DCC definitely has a fair number of rules that can bog the game down, and I think the whole dice chain concept is too cute by half. I personally like the funnel rule, but I can see people preferring it to be an optional rule as opposed to the baseline.

Don't want to derail this into a DCC thread, but I'm ambivalent about the funnel, but love the dice chain and use it in other games, in part because I just like funky dice.  As for the funnel, it's a decent way to learn basic mechanics, but at the end of the day the players are just swinging at things and trying not to die, which most of them do anyhow.  Regarding the dice chain, I think it's an easy way to incorporate other things, like two-weapon fighting, into the game.  You want to fight with two weapons?  Fine, depending on your Dex score, you'll potentially be using different dice to hit, perhaps a d14 or d16.  And martial classes might get an extra attack earlier, say at 5th level, but they're using a d14 on that second attack.  It's also fun to use those dice for other attacks, like big weapons.  The ogre's mattock might do d16 damage, for example.

But all those charts & tables really slow the game down and while they're fun at first, after a few sessions, they just get samey.  I have a hit location die that players roll when they do a crit and then they describe what they do (or have me describe it), which allows for more variety.