Pretty cool, if you ask me. I'm sort of old school and am liking the idea of see some new stuff.

http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/

It's pretty neat.  I think that there have already been some commercial releases using OSRIC.  Dragonsfoot.org has a lot of discussion of these rules.

I never understood the amount of nostalgia that's been happening in the last few years...

Yeah, I thought it was cool, so I teamed up with Ronin Arts to port some of our adventures to it. The first one is available - Smuggler's Bane. Despite high sales numbers, only people who don't like dungeon crawls seem to be leaving comments. I mean, what do they expect from an old school module? And the Iron Gauntlets version of the module got high ratings. Another go figure moment :pundit:

Quote from: SosthenesI never understood the amount of nostalgia that's been happening in the last few years...

The early eighties was a time of great expansion in the hobby, much of which came from teens and tweens playing D&D.  Twenty years later they want to revisit the glory days of orc-smashing.  What's not to understand?  If the rest of the hobby were growing at a healthy rate the nolstalgia market would be a tiny little niche.

Quote from: KenHRIt's pretty neat.  I think that there have already been some commercial releases using OSRIC.  Dragonsfoot.org has a lot of discussion of these rules.

yup, as Ronin Arts has two adventures and Expeditious Retreat has a e-zine and some other stuff.

I'm not just talking about gaming. From bad 80s cartoons to even worse TV shows, everything is getting warmed up again. The internet makes remebering that stuff to easy, probably. Or the fact that lot of what's coming out now, whether it be movies, music or games is not really that fascinating.

But we're talking about a purely mechanical level. I can orc-smash with nWoD, if I feel the desire to. But nostalgia for old mechanics? Feh.
(And don't compare it to cars. Going back to AD&D is like restoring a steam-engine train, not a '58 T'Bird...)

Quote from: SosthenesBut we're talking about a purely mechanical level. I can orc-smash with nWoD, if I feel the desire to. But nostalgia for old mechanics? Feh.

If I tried to get my old high school group back to together I'd sure as hell look at OSRIC as the game of choice.  None of the rest of the group went on to spend 2 decades dicking around with a million different games.

Quote(And don't compare it to cars. Going back to AD&D is like restoring a steam-engine train, not a '58 T'Bird...)

*shrug* Personally, I'd be more interested in the steam engine.

Sosthenes, nostalgia has always been around. Wait 20 years, and you'll see nostalgia for the early 2000s. The 70s saw a wave of nostalgia for the 1950s here in the States - you saw movies like "The Lords of Flatbush" and "American Graffiti" and TV shows like "Happy Days." The 90s saw a resurgence of interest in the 1970s, with disco music making a big comeback in popularity (you saw groups like the Bee Gees drawing huge numbers on their tours onec again), and movies set in the 70s becoming common. Even "That 70s Show" began in 1999. So nostalgia certainly isn't something that's just recently come to the fore. It seems like a normal, cyclical thing.

Anyway, I like the idea of OSRIC. I'm not all that interested in playing 1e again, but I think it's cool for a segment of the gaming community to receive attention they haven't been receiving for a while. I was hopeful at first that OSRIC would help get more HackMaster product made, but Kenzer has made it clear they have no interest in that. But, since OSRIC is essentially 1e, and HackMaster uses 1e (and some of 2e), the conversion of OSRIC material to HM shouldn't be much of a problem (less than adapting 3e material to HM).

Quote from: SosthenesI'm not just talking about gaming. From bad 80s cartoons to even worse TV shows, everything is getting warmed up again. The internet makes remebering that stuff to easy, probably. Or the fact that lot of what's coming out now, whether it be movies, music or games is not really that fascinating.

Uh, that happens every decade. In the 80's, all the ex-hippies wanted to relive the 60's. Then there was the whole 70's revival in the 90's. Now it's the Reagan-era kids turn to feel nostalgic.

Edit: Damn, the Colonel beat me to the punch!

I hope for the best for OSRIC.  It is a 'grass roots' movement in the purest sense.

Quote from: AkrasiaI hope for the best for OSRIC.  It is a 'grass roots' movement in the purest sense.

I think that it is an interesting.

If they can do this to the older version of D&D that are not open content, it would pretty much be pointless for wizards to have an closed system in 4th ed.

Quote from: McrowI think that it is an interesting.

If they can do this to the older version of D&D that are not open content, it would pretty much be pointless for wizards to have an closed system in 4th ed.

This is one thing that's puzzled me...is OSRIC even legal?  There were discussions about this at dragonsfoot, but they turned into flamefests.  I'm still unclear on the issue.

I hope it is, 'cuz it'd be fun to pick up some new old school product...

Quote from: KenHRThis is one thing that's puzzled me...is OSRIC even legal?  There were discussions about this at dragonsfoot, but they turned into flamefests.  I'm still unclear on the issue.

I hope it is, 'cuz it'd be fun to pick up some new old school product...

I'm sure it is legal. You cant copyright game mechanics, so as long as you don't use names, places, exact text ,and other trademarks, there isn't a whole lot they could do to you. It's a lot of work to go through and weed out all of the trademark stuff from any game, but it can be done.

Apparently you can't copyright rules. Still, lawyers could probably spend ages to discuss what's a rule and what isn't. So if there's actual sue-age, OSRIC might go the way of the dodo.