When choosing an OSR system does the amount of available material play a factor in your choice?

Like when I chose OSE, I have OSE adventures and supplements as well as new and old B/X material.

Does the support play a part in your choice or do you simply chose a system because you feel its a match for you?

Nope. I mix and match freely from DCC, LotFP, B/X and other OSR games.

I don't need much support TBH, first because I create my own systems, but mostly because I'm of the Gygax "why should we do your imagining for you?" school.

Even when I was playing 5e I would often disagree with the rules or whatever Mearls said and make my own rulings.

No, I'll run BFRPG stuff with White Box. That's really the point.

I write my own campaign settings and adventures, so that kind of content doesn't matter much to me. But I am attracted to games that are evolving and have active communities. Support, particularly in the form of third party products, tend to be indicators of those attributes.

Quote from: Festus on April 04, 2023, 12:30:40 PM
I write my own campaign settings and adventures, so that kind of content doesn't matter much to me. But I am attracted to games that are evolving and have active communities. Support, particularly in the form of third party products, tend to be indicators of those attributes.

That's the theme I am seeing so far.  The system (or version) is important, the support not so much

Not particularly for three reasons:

1. They are all close enough that using something for OSE with ACKS, for example, is pretty straight forward. Using something for OSE with Starships & Spaceman or Apes Victorious is pretty straight forward even.

2. I tend to write my own stuff using everything that crosses my desk as grist for the mill. I'm probably not as hard core a homebrewer as others around here, but I'm a great Dr. Frankenstein of RPG materials.

3. 45 years in the hobby has left me with lots of materials, some published, some not.

Quote from: PulpHerb on April 04, 2023, 02:13:26 PM
Not particularly for three reasons:

1. They are all close enough that using something for OSE with ACKS, for example, is pretty straight forward. Using something for OSE with Starships & Spaceman or Apes Victorious is pretty straight forward even.

2. I tend to write my own stuff using everything that crosses my desk as grist for the mill. I'm probably not as hard core a homebrewer as others around here, but I'm a great Dr. Frankenstein of RPG materials.

3. 45 years in the hobby has left me with lots of materials, some published, some not.

Makes perfect sense.  You have something for whatever system that you use.

The only support a game needs is to ask clarification questions on forums like this one.  Even old games are viable in that context. 

I personally like old vs new about 50/50%. 

I've never needed supplements, but I do think they're nice when they add more classes, gear, and places.  Missions are not needed.  I'm the GM.  I'll make those myself.

I guess I'll be the lone one to come out and say that I appreciate post launch support for games. Yeah, you can homebrew everything yourself, but it's nice not to have to. Encounter tables, bestiaries, modules, whatever. It's all something that if I don't feel like cooking myself, I can just pull off the shelf and use.

However, a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that I don't purchase most of the more typical OSR games, which as others have said, are highly cross-compatible. If I'm buying an OSR game, it's usually something with a more unique setting or mechanics, such as Helveczia or the Black Hack. Games like that, you can adapt stuff from more typical OSR games, but its a not insignificant amount of work. If I was going to run one of the more mainstream OSR games I own, I doubt I'd care so much. I bought both ASSH & FH&W, neither of which has much support, since I knew I could just use material from other games if I needed to.

It's nice but not necessary.  I'd prefer there be a GM book if the core doesn't have a robust GM section.  A bestiary of some sort would be nice, but I can convert things easy enough.  If anything, I like setting books.  Something that describes places and people that I can drop in anywhere.  I will use that stuff across systems and even genres to a degree.

Adventures are probably the only thing I have next to no interest in.  I can write my own and unless your setting is so off the beaten trail that I'm left scratching my head "what do the PCs do in this setting?" I will usually just pass on them altogether.

No, I don't need additional support. I may come back for an adventure or something if I'm getting a lot of use out of the game though. But mostly I'm writing myself, or adapting things I already have.

It very much does.

So does being able to engage with the creator for clarification, etc.

For example, I absolutely love Lion & Dragon, and have asked a couple of questions about it on this forum, seeking the input of the man himself, but am disappointed when he doesn't respond.

The amount of the material has zero influence on me.  The quality of whatever material there is, and the relevance to my interest, has some influence. I'm not all that interested, for example, in most gonzo or edgy materials.  So if a game has a ton of support in that vein, even stuff that everyone says is great, it might as well be nothing as far as I'm concerned.  That's not a commentary on the author.  Just an acknowledgement that "amount of support" is rather vague. 

Besides, I think it rather runs the other way for me, most of the time.  If I like a game well enough, I'll get some of the supporting materials, even if they aren't exactly what I want.  I find that a supplement or two goes a long way towards telling you where the game is headed, in a way that the game doesn't always do.  Mainly, though, I'm going to write my own settings and adventures most of the time, and that seems to be more true the older I get. 

Not really.  As others have noted, most of the D&D-derived OSR stuff is compatible anyhow and I still have a ton of adventures from the 80s-90s I can plug into nearly any system.  I buy a few new things to play or mine for ideas or even just to read for fun, but that doesn't drive my system choice.

Quote from: Persimmon on April 05, 2023, 12:18:38 PM
Not really.  As others have noted, most of the D&D-derived OSR stuff is compatible anyhow and I still have a ton of adventures from the 80s-90s I can plug into nearly any system.  I buy a few new things to play or mine for ideas or even just to read for fun, but that doesn't drive my system choice.

This.