OK, my take on the OSR Guide For The Perplexed Questionnaire. Since all the cool kids are doing it. Trying to come up with some personal favorites, a few points not already mentioned, and some general relevant irreverence...
1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:
All Hail Max. Re-reading it still warms this stony heart. We all need to be more child-like.
2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:
Don't make me choose!
Although Courtney Campbell's Hack&Slash Compendiums are dense with game theory, content, and advice. Let's go with that.
3. Best OSR module/supplement:
Midderlands is green and dark and beautiful.
Slumbering Ursine Dunes. Because
Warbears.
4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):
Random Headgear.
5. How I found out about the OSR:
I suppose the simplest explanation is from my
inaugural blog entry in 2014:
"About a year
ago, I wandered back into a game store, after a brief (30-year) hiatus
from RPGs. I came out with a Pathfinder Beginner Box, tore it apart,
and said, "Hmm, this is what gaming is now..."
About that time, a friend mentioned that they still played 1st-gen
D&D, and I found the thing that is the OSR. So I've been
reading the blogs of the community, studying, and filling a couple of
notebooks with a few of my own crackpot ideas. "
6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:
Not exclusively OSR, but
https://donjon.bin.sh/
Random inns, pickpocket loot, treasure, and demographics, among other goodies.
7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:
G+, for the time being. I'll probably eventually walk my luddite ass over to MeWe...
8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:
Just this blog, I suppose. I'm not much of one for forums or chat apps.
Or just mentioning gaming in passing to a coworker, friend, climbing partner, random person at bar. And being surprised at the number of folks who say, "Yeah, I played..."
9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:
Ok, here goes. The newer editions focus on 'heroic' play. PCs are upgunned from the start.
OSR PCs are average Joes/Janes, occasionally a bit above average. But even a high level PC can still be nearly one-shotted in the right situation. You aren't 'heroes.' So you play cautious, creative, sneaky, figure out how to get around in a scary world. What's the phrase - 'You are not your character sheet'?
One of the great tenets of fiction is taking an ordinary character, putting them into an extraordinary situation, and seeing what happens.
Do that.
10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:
Crap, I dunno - haven't gamed much outside of our silly elf-game. Twilight 2000? "You're on your own..."
11. Why I like OSR stuff:
The low entry fee - ha. There is so much free or reasonably priced content out there, particularly rulesets. One doesn't need to drop $50-100 in rulebooks, just to find out that they don't like the system... Everyone can take a look, mix and match, homebrew. This has led to a vigorous DIY ethic, with increased production volume and quality in the few years that I've been aware of the movement.
12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:
Matt Finch's
Jordoba campaign. Two groups,
one OD&D,
one 5e, exploring and affecting the same world (I include the 5e group because chargen was 3d6, in order. And because the 5e group has had more character deaths than the OD&D group... [See #9]). And pack-centipedes.
The indomitable Jeff Rients'
Miscellaneum of Cinder. Especially since it includes his carousing house-rules, and 'What are the Goblins Up To?'.
13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/ Not sure now Chris can consistently come up with his gonzo d100 lists, but I want some of it, whatever it is...
And I wish Jim Garrison was still posting his
Bujilli campaign, but he's gone dark ...
14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:
Getting to take part in various crowdsource projects - Expanded Petty Gods, Tenkar's Island, From the Vats, a few random hexcrawls and other prompts on G+, etc.
In-blog, I suppose my '
4 scenarios' writing exercises, with four separate adventures built off a single map. Although people seemed to quite like my
Technoviking.
15. I'm currently running/playing:
Taking part in a monthly B/X game, but need to roll more! Had an inordinate amount of fun in a couple of con drop-in 5e games, so open to going down that dark path, as well...
And I need to get past social anxiety and just say, "Hey, I'm running a game. Wanna play?"
16. I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:
I'm bi-AC-ual. I write most of my game content stuff for S&W, and Delta's
Target 20 math works.
17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:
Just do an image search for
Henry Justice Ford:
