Quote from: Premier;644274This is sort of off topic, but I'm a bit surprised by that statement as I've never really considered Fomalhaut to be Weird Fantasy. S&S, Dying Earth, sci-fi, sure. Laced with modern-day social commentary and satire, yes. But I don't see the Weird element. At least, to me, that phrase conjures up something like Planet Algol, friendly extra-dimensional lobster-ghouls, long-lost ruins and items that are clearly 21st century rather than far future, goofy oversized bubble-space helmet,s and pop-culture asides without actual socio-political snarkiness. I'd be curious to learn what you personally consider W.F..

That's more like "gonzo". Weird fantasy to me simply means Dunsany, Merritt, Catherine L. Moore, CAS and some aspects of Vance: otherworldly, slightly surreal fantasy with odd juxtapositions, lots of vivid colour, and a combination of beauty and meance.

These elements have played a role in both Fomalhaut campaigns; sometimes more, sometimes less. The adventures in hostile otherworlds - from the dream-dimension of Yong, the half-man enchanter to the lands ruled by the Lords of Dzahn or the tower of Riamos - are the purest examples, but a lot more in-game situations have a hint of oddity which comes from my love of this style of fantasy.

Of course, I just want to run a good game. Which is why the campaigns (and modules) have been about a diverse set of ideas, and why I don't really try to conform to strict definitions. Although I have ideas about what defines my world, I have always seen it as a fluid setting, drawing from a broad variety of influences.

Looks like no Orcs of Thar for me.

$247   on Amazon.


So sad.

Quote from: JimLotFP;643748Responding to this without reading the rest of the thread:

I said that three years ago after receiving dozens of OSR releases from various publishers to sell at my vendor table at the local Finnish conventions. I was struck by how different and enthusiastic (in some ways at odds with being professional) it all was.

The decentralization (and resulting lack of conformity or consistency) combined with the scope of material being released now serves the audience and "the game" better than what TSR did.

So much awesome stuff already out there, and room for any amount of additional stuff as long as it's good.

Thank you for that clarification!  I certainly agree with the level of enthusiasm visible in more recent OSR works; I think that once we got past "clonemania" the level of creativity that the OSR shows is really astounding.

RPGPundit

Quote from: VectorSigma;643889It's easy to see these things trumpeted, but I think they're less common on a larger scale.  I'm sure plenty of people are using retroclones or the original games to play "high fantasy", "classic fantasy", "paladins & princesses", whatever the hell you want to call it, or just cranking through classic modules and having a great time of it.

I'm sure there are. After all, people used OD&D and 1e to run all sorts of campaigns back in the 1970s and 1980s. I ran a Middle Earth War of the Ring mini-campaign using OD&D back in 1976. It worked just fine.

Why aren't OSR people publishing a lot of stuff like this today? The "secret" is that OSR writers aren't professionals being paid a monthly wage with benefits to produce what other people like. For the most part they are writing what they are interested in and making it available to others, often for free or for what amounts to beer and movie money. If someone wants a high fantasy version of Swords & Wizards or Labyrinth Lord, they are welcome to write one or try to find someone interested enough in doing so to write one for them.

There's some stuff out there already, of course. You just have to find it. For example, there is a variant of S&W designed for play in The Land (of the Thomas Covenant books). I don't remember where I found it, but it's free on the Net somewhere and a copy sits on my hard drive.

Quote from: Bill;644354I sooooo want to run a humanoid game now!

Use Orcs of Thar for the main setting, lead into the Giant, Depths, Drow modules.   Orcish warband steals the glory from those puny humans!

That would be quite awesome since the giants have orcs as slaves in the steading.

FREE THE PEOPLE!!!  

Quote from: Exploderwizard;645260That would be quite awesome since the giants have orcs as slaves in the steading.

FREE THE PEOPLE!!!  

"The age of Men is over. The time of the Orc has come!"
—Gothmog

This is what I consider to be the "OSR":

* Pre-3e D&D
* Traveller
* Gamma World (not the d20, 4e, or Alternity versions)
* Boot Hill
* Star Frontiers
* Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and other BRP games
* various retro-clones

I think you get the picture. The OSR is not pure D&D, no matter what some people might claim. TSR is actually part of the OSR (unintentionally so). That's how I see it, anyway...

Quote from: RPGPundit;624431James Raggi has been quoted as saying that the OSR is now better than "TSR", which I take to mean he's saying that the stuff the OSR does now is better than the games and modules TSR put out in the real old-school days.

Do you agree?

RPGPundit

And no, I don't agree with him.

Quote from: Melan;644028I started running weird fantasy / S&S / Dying Earth-influenced sandbox hexcrawls with SF elements before they were everywhere. Should I give up because some bitter pundits somewhere on the Internet think it is now too much? Stop right there, kiddo: I don't game for you. And that's all.

Dude, stop writing my bloody posts before I do :hatsoff:

Quote from: Sacrificial Lamb;645563This is what I consider to be the "OSR":

* Pre-3e D&D
* Traveller
* Gamma World (not the d20, 4e, or Alternity versions)
* Boot Hill
* Star Frontiers
* Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and other BRP games
* various retro-clones

I think you get the picture. The OSR is not pure D&D, no matter what some people might claim. TSR is actually part of the OSR (unintentionally so). That's how I see it, anyway...

I agree. RQ (even RQ II) is as old-school as any retro-clone, or CoC or MongTrav.

Quote from: Sacrificial Lamb;645563This is what I consider to be the "OSR":

* Pre-3e D&D
* Traveller
* Gamma World (not the d20, 4e, or Alternity versions)
* Boot Hill
* Star Frontiers
* Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and other BRP games
* various retro-clones

Its curious that Trav and BRP stuff gets included on the list, but not other early non-TSR games?

RPGPundit

Yeah, where's Bunnies and Burrows?

For that matter, where's the Bunnies and Burrows retro-clone?

Nah.. OSR stands for "Old D&D Renaissance". Saying otherwise is delusional at best.

Quote from: RPGPundit;645846Its curious that Trav and BRP stuff gets included on the list, but not other early non-TSR games?

RPGPundit

I never got to play Boot Hill, but both Gamma World and Gangbusters were both a lot of fun.

Quote from: RPGPundit;645846Its curious that Trav and BRP stuff gets included on the list, but not other early non-TSR games?

RPGPundit

It's not an all-inclusive list, and only intended to provide examples.

Quote from: silva;645905Nah.. OSR stands for "Old D&D Renaissance". Saying otherwise is delusional at best.

Something actually labeled "OSR" yeah is really DDR - "D&D Revival".  It's symptomatic of the arrogance of jackasses like JMal to come up with such a term.

However, there has also been a resurgence of BRP stuff and Traveller stuff mainly due to Mongoose licensing them and Pete, Loz and Gareth doing such a good job with them.

We're kind of in a "OSR 2.0" wave now, with lots of Old School games coming out that are compatible, but aren't clones, and keep more to the general style of the older games rather then the rules.

In other words, OSR is outgrowing it's focus on D&D clones.

Hmm.. this OSR 2.0 thing actually makes sense, Krueger.