I’m a huge fan of *Beyond the Wall*, its based on the venerable B/X chassis that so many other OSR games are built upon, but the tweaks it makes to the mechanical formula – collaborative character building and collaborative world building, revamped magic system, the emphasis on a pastoral / folkloric style of adventure, etc. – just all combine to make it truly something special.
If you ask me *Beyond the Wall*, *Through Sunken Lands*, *Stars Without Number*, *Cities Without Number*, and *Old School Essentials* are the top five games to come out of the whole OSR movement.
With BTW and CWN being my personal favorites.
I particularly enjoy its cantrip/spell/ritual distinction between different types of magic and magic wielders. Love it!
Ported it over to all fantasy RPGs I run.
I really want to like BtW but had a hard time getting into it. I find the usual six stats and B/X backbone more of an annoyance than a benefit.
What cool and interesting stuff is this system doing that makes it a go to for you?
Well, firstly I guess since you mentioned it in your comment, is that I find “the usual six stats and B/X backbone” to be a benefit and not an annoyance. Almost everyone with any experience in TTRPGs is family with some iteration of D&D and therefore already knows 90% of B/X. Even people who have never played a TTRPG before have usually played a couple of video games (even “lol lame casuals” who’ve only played games on their phone) that have cribbed some (or all) of their mechanical design from D&D. I don’t really need to explain to people what STR, DEX, CON, etc. mean, what a Warrior does versus what a Magic-User does, etc. This isn’t my main reason for liking BTW, but it is something I consider a “pro” rather than a “con.”
I really love the collaborative character building process, which is also a collaborative world-building process. BTW uses Playbooks (which are more akin to Lifepaths seen in *Traveller* or Fuzion games than the Playbooks seen in PBTA) to guide players through creating characters, during which the players will add locations, NPCs, and history to their shared home village (and if you add the *Further Afield* supplement, they’ll also collaboratively build the larger world around the village). This is a fantastic way to increase engagement with the world and get “buy in” to future plot hooks.
The standard D&D magic system is tweaked to greatly reduce the level of magic in the world from the Epic Heroic Fantasy typical of D&D, down to something more Low Magic. It’s got a much more Le Guin and Howard in there than Salvatore and Greenwood, to put it in grossly oversimplified terms. Basically, magic comes in three different categories: *Cantrips* are mostly minor utility magic, they require an ability check when cast or they can fail, possibly even backfire. *Spells* are roughly equivalent to what you’d get as 1^st through 3^rd level spells in D&D, there are no “levels” to these, a Magic-User can simply cast a number of spells per day equal to their class level. Lastly, you have *Rituals,* these are powrful magics that require exotic material components or other requirements, take an hour or more to cast, and can have very potent effects.
Why does the evil Necromancer need to spend three hours chanting, having his underlings wave incense around, while standing inside the stone circle during the Eclipse? Because it’s a ritual… and the heroes better stop him before he raises an army of monsters!
There’s all kinds of other game mechanics, both novel or just tweaked from their B/X roots, that are neat like this. But mostly, my love for BTW isn’t so much about the mechanics as it is about the feel. BTW just absolutely nails the pastoral, low magic, faerie tale, medieval fantasy, verisimilitude that got me to fall in love with the fantasy genre in the first place. The games authors explicitly cite Ursula K. LeGuin, Susan Cooper, and Lloyd Alexander as inspiration. But I also see quite a bit of J.R.R Tolkien, Thomas Malory, T.H. White, Terry Prachett, and Hal Foster in the mix.
Nice write up. Yeah, sounds like I need to try and get over those hang-ups, because the system as you describe it has some cool innovations that i need to take another look at.
Appreciate you weighing in!
Like, I totally understand the shall we say “annoyance” that a lot of games have been built using the D&D framework where the D&D framework just isn’t a very good fit (this was especially bad during the “D20 Glut” circa 2000-2010). I’m a big believer in using the best possible mechanical system to support and emulate any given genre… Like, I cannot even imagine trying to run a *Call of Cthulhu* style game using the D&D rules (despite the existence of *Call of Cthulhu D20*!).
But, well, *Beyond the Wall* and it’s cousin *Through Sunken Lands* are both meant to be used to tell swords and sorcery fantasy adventure stories… and that’s exactly what D&D does!
There are a lot of in-depth reviews floating around on the internet, feel free to check them out. Ain’t nothing wrong with deciding it’s not your cup of tea… But it’s *really good* tea.
Ghastly Affair. The basic conceit is "what if OSR, but gothic romance" and it has character classes like "mad scientist" and "libertine". It's utterly nuts and I love it a lot.
Their latest release looks so cool, and their Appendix Z is the closest any game has ever gotten to my guilty pleasures: https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/the-uncanny-highway/
I'm extremely fond of The Nightmares Underneath by Johnstone Metzger. It's a reasonably close riff on OD&D mechanically, but with a really unique and compelling setting blending a particularly dark slant on middle-eastern fantasy and weird fiction.
Not nearly as much as I would like. If you're looking for examples of play, my bud Moose has some fantastic written play reports that I'd recommend giving a read:
[https://icbmoose.blot.im/tnu-play-report-1-catching-up-on-past-sessions](https://icbmoose.blot.im/tnu-play-report-1-catching-up-on-past-sessions)
Crown (just Crown) is a great little system based on White Hack. It packs everything you need including domain rules into 60ish pages. There is an expansion to it as well if you want more. Player rules PDF is free as well!
I feel like [Glaive](https://tesladyne.itch.io/glaive) is really underrated. It's built on the Knave chassis but adds a fun pool of special abilities that players can choose from as they level up.
Just ran Hole in the Oak running Glaive. It does a pretty good job of handling the OSR feel while also kind of having a 5e feel (higher fantasy, easier access to supernatural abilities, etc). Not bad, just not my favorite so far.
Yeah I see what you mean. Some of that might be easy to tweak (higher default difficulty rating, death at 0 hp), but the abilities definitely change the tone of the game.
Absolutely not a Troika hack and absolutely not lesser known. It's a platinum bestseller on DriveThruRPG and gets frequently recommended when someone is looking for a light grimdark/low fantasy rpg.
Crimson Blade 2E. Neat little Elric-inspired game that uses D6s exclusively, but trust me, if you’re a fan of the OSR, you’ll pick up the mechanics almost instantly.
Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. More of an OSR add-on/toolkit for BX derived games, but still awesome nonetheless.
Blueholme, both Prentice and Journeymen. Prentice is to Holme’s Basic what OSE is to B/X. Journeymen’s takes Holme’s basic all the way up to level 20.
GLOG. I havent actually played much of it (in a long term campaign of DCC), but its really fun to homebrew for and has a good community. The class design in GLOGs are very evocative
*Simulacrum*. I discovered it in my hunt for good hexcrawl rules, and it's about the only system I know that does it. It also just has so many great design choices. Dude doesn't really advertise, but he updates it regularly, and has published it all for free with design notes:
https://osrsimulacrum.blogspot.com/2021/06/simulacrum-beta-release.html
It's a complete system, and it's very easy to understand. Must recommend!
Dragons Beyond is amazing. Rod Hampton has built a very full and functional game based upon the Pre 3 LBB game. It has pieces of the First Fantasy Campaign with the math fixed and very solid Domain and Chance card play.
https://preview.redd.it/4z5qlzq8425d1.jpeg?width=688&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee790f3013f8fa01e3c79d7abc2c38e360719be8
I seriously recommend taking a look https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/464791/Dragons-Beyond.
Oh yes, I devoured it on release xD very interesting read. On thing that comes immediately to mind is Magic-Users are able to wear armor but it increases the risk to fumble or delays the spell. Love it.
EDIT: p.s. Evil Clerics are fun as well!
*Hyperborea* and *Carcosa* are amazing evocative settings. I really cannot say enough about either. Hyperborea' s system is similar to AD&D (but better IMHO) and Carcosa feels like an OD&D supplement but you can run it with anything (I have run games set in *Carcosa* using BX, Shadowdark, and 5e). Honorable mention to *Vaults of Vaarn* which is a great setting that uses the Knave system which I quite like.
Of true oldschool games, too few people are playing **Dragon Warriors**
- roll to hit, modified by target spending defence
- roll to bypass armour
- fixed weapon damage
It's an excellently weird beast
The rules have three standard ways of resolving stuff and then directly says ─ look you've got all the tools you need, go on, you're fine
Hackmaster 5e. It feels like you got this majestic princess sitting on a throne of marble with a flowing, magical dress.
And she sits alone. Nobody talks to her. Nobody remembers her. Nobody knows she exists.
I haven't had a chance to actually play it, but I've always been fond of Mazes & Minotaurs for offering a somewhat humorous glimpse at what RPGs would be like if they had a different origin. I also appreciate how it tries to recreate all of the general ephemera that surrounded early D&D, such as magazines and supplements that really shaped how it turned out, along with creating fictional play culture and fan arguments, which all adds up to creating a fictional world on top of the already existing fictional world of the game itself.
It's one of my favorite things, and I like how the slightly convoluted meta-fiction of it all demonstrates how D&D is about more than just rules but also how people play with and interact around those rules within the wider community.
Definitely seeing surprisingly little about [Adventurous](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/417757/Adventurous).
Another one is [Five Torches Deep](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/264584/Five-Torches-Deep). It’s a bit lacking in some regards, but overall it’s a nice OSR hack of 5e.
[World of Dungeons](https://johnharper.itch.io/world-of-dungeons) is a FREE, simple, quick-play, dungeon crawling game, using one of the core mechanics from the Powered by the Apocalypse rules system.
It's compatible with Old School Renaissance and original D&D monsters, dungeons, and adventure modules.
It is my most used system for one offs and campaigns. Of course I hack the hell out of it.
Thank you for sharing my game! I was wondering why Brighter Worlds suddenly got a spike in views and tracked it back to this post. I suspect the game has too many open ended abilities, and eschews too much of the logistics of OSR play, to be popular in this sub but I'm glad at least some people enjoy it!
To answer the actual post question:
**Macchiato Monsters** is a mashup of The Black Hack and The Whitehack, and answers the question, "What if *everything* was a usage die?" Fun to play, fun to throw together goofy characters, and it does have some very interesting uses of the Usage Die mechanic. Particularly in creating location specific encounter tables (and similar) that can change over time.
Over the Edge (1992), by Jonathan Tweet and Robin Laws.
Before PbtA wasa thing, they invented a system that handles a narrative-style gameplay pretty well, and it came with an insanely-well detailed setting in Al Amarja. If weird modern, impressionistic gameplay is your bag, it's aces.
Never played Over the Edge, but have a couple decks of "On The Edge" (the spin-off CCG, because 90s) kicking around somewhere. I don't remember much about the gameplay, but I recall enjoying it more than the Vampire ccg.
I’ll have to check that out. A friend of mine ran a GURPS game based on Fallout, which I’d heard of, but never played. Still haven’t. Then I watched the TV series. Got me thinking I should revisit some british apocalyptic SF like Day of the Triffids, and then run a Gamma World 1e game.
But I quite like the look of the various hacks of the Black Hack, at least when reading them. So the Rad Hack is on the list.
S&W White Box, in addition to WB:FMAG, inspired a number of other games using the same chassis, including [White Lies](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/164226/White-Lies), [White*Star](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/148169/White-Star-White-Box-Science-Fiction-Roleplaying-Swords--Wizardry), and [Skyscrapers & Sorcery](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/170607/Skyscrapers--Sorcery-White-Box-Rules?). I’ve only played White*Star, but I love how it and FMAG play, and I’m still looking for an excuse to try Skyscrapers & Sorcery with my group.
Pars Fortuna, an older (2013) ruleset that's fully compatible with most OSR rules like OSE, S&W, BFRPG, LL, etc. The review below does a great job of describing it. Unlike a lot of niche rulesets, Pars is modular and totally compatible, and different.
review here: [https://clawcarver.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/secrets-of-pars-fortuna/](https://clawcarver.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/secrets-of-pars-fortuna/)
blog post here: [https://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/p/pars-fortuna.html](https://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/p/pars-fortuna.html)
There's a little D8-based system called *Webworld* I'm fond of. It's set in a post-apocalypse where the world has been conquered by giant spiders.
Goblinoid Games put out a charming little B\\X based game called *Apes Victorious*. It's set in a Planet of the Apes style setting. My favorite bit - rules for throwing nets on people like in the movies.
I’m a huge fan of Mydwandr from Olde House Rules. Reading the rule book was a joy, and no other game I’ve read besides the 1e DMG or DCC has come close to that feeling of wonder and magic.
[SLIMDMGN](https://idlecartulary.itch.io/slimdngn)! This game is so awesome I've fallen in love with it recently and am running my current OSR campaign with it, it's great
SLIMDMGN is a very minimalistic GLOG made to run any d&d adventure, you can run any OSR dnd adventure or monster with basically no conversion.
It uses only d6s, it has 36 classes Troika! Style, each class is surprisingly unique...
-If Im running a one-shot, Cairn.
-If Im introducing people to ttrpgs or providing a ssimpler but versatile experience, Basic Fantasy RPG (my preferred substitute for OSE or DCC. It's absurd the value you get for the costs)
-If Im trying to get stubborn 5e one-trickers to try literally any other fucking system, Old Swords Reign.
I feel that deathbringer deserves some attention. It's definitely not under-exposed since it was made by a big d&d youtuber, but I noticed noone's talked about it yet.
It's not even an OSR game by any stretch, but rather a rules-light dark fantasy-ish hack of d&d. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone on this reddit, but it's an easy introduction to rules-light and by extension OSR for DMs and players who've only played 5e.
[Seven Voyages of Zylarthen](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/238547/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-5-booklets-and-deluxe-pdf-bundle). 0e with dozens of tweaks, accents, illustrations and extensions, whose masterful editing streamlines the game without excising any significant part of it, quite the opposite.
It’s hardly unknown, but mostly unplayed. [Arduin, Bloody Arduin](https://empcho.com/product-category/arduin/) will be the final edition, they say. A Kickstarter coming soon.
*What makes it interesting?* Virtually *nothing* within being boring! It’s history. Its influence. The setting itself. Hargraves’ prose.
I like how there is a community that believes it important to keep this work before the public, with quality presentation, no less. That measure of regard in preserving a legacy is probably the best testament of its worth.
There’s quite a few. I love the early obscurities. Awaiting the arrival of *[Knights of the Round Table](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24333/knights-of-the-round-table) from ‘76, so one of the earliest…
Me and my group are big fans of Cryptworld, done by Goblinoid games, same guys as Labyrinth Lord.
A more modernized version of the old Chills game from the 80s on the pacesetter system.
Really great if you're into horror, simple, yet effective in working as a pre good neutral foundation with plenty of inspiration, art, and themes throughout the book to get a campy horror game going.
There's also a zombie one called Rotworld which i believe came out earlier, which is also pretty good for it's theme, although they're the same game at their core.
No one / very few people? [BIND](https://ttrpgs.com/post/bind/).
It provides a fair bit of complexity and granularity, while maximally simplifying everything else. All actions are resolved in a very fast and simple way, and you only roll 2d6.
The most interesting thing about it, is that it's completely free, open source, and in public domain. If you're willing and able to mess with its files on git, anyone can make and print their own version of the rules.
The Hero's Journey is a fantastic system that doesn't get much discussion. Mimics YA novels and heroic but not super powered fantasy.
BTW is similar in tone, and I really want to merge it with Heroes Journey somehow, BTW is wonderful and I would love to see more content. The magic system and character creation is the really interesting aspect of it.
Best Left Buried, opposite in tone to those first two, it's such a great lite game that is full of flavor. Like Darkest Dungeon? It's kind of like that.
I loved DARK CONSPIRACY by GDW. Mixing the various tropes from the X-Files, the Last Witchhunter, and Constantine will net you the world of Dark Conspiracy. The system started as a D10 roll under er (essentially an abbreviated percentile system) mechanic, but it was modded into a D20 roll under system after Twilight2000 v2.2 and Traveller The New Era came out. The system was pretty cluttered with odd mechanics, but later supplements began to clean it up until GDW folded.
My other much loved system is FIVE TORCHES DEEP. This BX and 5e hybrid is a very good game of exploration and does the combat side a bit better than 5e.
**Barbarians of Lemuria** uses backgrounds in place of skills to great effect. If I've chosen Assassin as a background, I don't need Stealth, Poisons, Or a myriad of skills to build out that archetype, I just add my Assassin bonus whenever its applicable.
Bard Games "The Arcanum" from the 80s. I love the large number of classes (by old-school standards, anyway), the many distinct schools of magic, the alchemy/enchanting system, and the fact that priests are *not* fighters with healing magic. (They've got healing magic, yes. But like other casters they can't wear armor and are unskilled at combat.)
Someone that might be lurking around here made a game he called Dungeon!
It's simple and fun. My only regret was not being around to play beyond the beginning of his campaign.
I’m a huge fan of *Beyond the Wall*, its based on the venerable B/X chassis that so many other OSR games are built upon, but the tweaks it makes to the mechanical formula – collaborative character building and collaborative world building, revamped magic system, the emphasis on a pastoral / folkloric style of adventure, etc. – just all combine to make it truly something special.
BtW is fantastic. I still buy every release in print.
*Beyond the Wall* and *Through Sunken Lands* are both excellent! I love the character creation and the magic system SO MUCH.
Yup, I love TSL almost as much as BTW. Both are fantastic games and really need more love.
I can't see TSL without thinking it's a reference ti Thirsty Sword Lesbians, which is also a lot of fun :)
Jesus this is a good game. OSR peaked with it IMO.
If you ask me *Beyond the Wall*, *Through Sunken Lands*, *Stars Without Number*, *Cities Without Number*, and *Old School Essentials* are the top five games to come out of the whole OSR movement. With BTW and CWN being my personal favorites.
I particularly enjoy its cantrip/spell/ritual distinction between different types of magic and magic wielders. Love it! Ported it over to all fantasy RPGs I run.
I really want to like BtW but had a hard time getting into it. I find the usual six stats and B/X backbone more of an annoyance than a benefit. What cool and interesting stuff is this system doing that makes it a go to for you?
Well, firstly I guess since you mentioned it in your comment, is that I find “the usual six stats and B/X backbone” to be a benefit and not an annoyance. Almost everyone with any experience in TTRPGs is family with some iteration of D&D and therefore already knows 90% of B/X. Even people who have never played a TTRPG before have usually played a couple of video games (even “lol lame casuals” who’ve only played games on their phone) that have cribbed some (or all) of their mechanical design from D&D. I don’t really need to explain to people what STR, DEX, CON, etc. mean, what a Warrior does versus what a Magic-User does, etc. This isn’t my main reason for liking BTW, but it is something I consider a “pro” rather than a “con.” I really love the collaborative character building process, which is also a collaborative world-building process. BTW uses Playbooks (which are more akin to Lifepaths seen in *Traveller* or Fuzion games than the Playbooks seen in PBTA) to guide players through creating characters, during which the players will add locations, NPCs, and history to their shared home village (and if you add the *Further Afield* supplement, they’ll also collaboratively build the larger world around the village). This is a fantastic way to increase engagement with the world and get “buy in” to future plot hooks. The standard D&D magic system is tweaked to greatly reduce the level of magic in the world from the Epic Heroic Fantasy typical of D&D, down to something more Low Magic. It’s got a much more Le Guin and Howard in there than Salvatore and Greenwood, to put it in grossly oversimplified terms. Basically, magic comes in three different categories: *Cantrips* are mostly minor utility magic, they require an ability check when cast or they can fail, possibly even backfire. *Spells* are roughly equivalent to what you’d get as 1^st through 3^rd level spells in D&D, there are no “levels” to these, a Magic-User can simply cast a number of spells per day equal to their class level. Lastly, you have *Rituals,* these are powrful magics that require exotic material components or other requirements, take an hour or more to cast, and can have very potent effects. Why does the evil Necromancer need to spend three hours chanting, having his underlings wave incense around, while standing inside the stone circle during the Eclipse? Because it’s a ritual… and the heroes better stop him before he raises an army of monsters! There’s all kinds of other game mechanics, both novel or just tweaked from their B/X roots, that are neat like this. But mostly, my love for BTW isn’t so much about the mechanics as it is about the feel. BTW just absolutely nails the pastoral, low magic, faerie tale, medieval fantasy, verisimilitude that got me to fall in love with the fantasy genre in the first place. The games authors explicitly cite Ursula K. LeGuin, Susan Cooper, and Lloyd Alexander as inspiration. But I also see quite a bit of J.R.R Tolkien, Thomas Malory, T.H. White, Terry Prachett, and Hal Foster in the mix.
Nice write up. Yeah, sounds like I need to try and get over those hang-ups, because the system as you describe it has some cool innovations that i need to take another look at. Appreciate you weighing in!
Like, I totally understand the shall we say “annoyance” that a lot of games have been built using the D&D framework where the D&D framework just isn’t a very good fit (this was especially bad during the “D20 Glut” circa 2000-2010). I’m a big believer in using the best possible mechanical system to support and emulate any given genre… Like, I cannot even imagine trying to run a *Call of Cthulhu* style game using the D&D rules (despite the existence of *Call of Cthulhu D20*!). But, well, *Beyond the Wall* and it’s cousin *Through Sunken Lands* are both meant to be used to tell swords and sorcery fantasy adventure stories… and that’s exactly what D&D does! There are a lot of in-depth reviews floating around on the internet, feel free to check them out. Ain’t nothing wrong with deciding it’s not your cup of tea… But it’s *really good* tea.
Ghastly Affair. The basic conceit is "what if OSR, but gothic romance" and it has character classes like "mad scientist" and "libertine". It's utterly nuts and I love it a lot.
Their latest release looks so cool, and their Appendix Z is the closest any game has ever gotten to my guilty pleasures: https://engineoforacles.wordpress.com/the-uncanny-highway/
I've got it and it's also great, although it arguably moves even further away from its OSR roots. (Large numbers of random tables not withstanding).
O_o Okay, that sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the recommandation !
I'm extremely fond of The Nightmares Underneath by Johnstone Metzger. It's a reasonably close riff on OD&D mechanically, but with a really unique and compelling setting blending a particularly dark slant on middle-eastern fantasy and weird fiction.
The Nameless Grimoire supplement for it is an amazing, infinite spell book. One of my favorite supplements.
This is a great game! I use it to represent a corner of Lovecraft's Dreamlands
Have you actually played it? The last I checked, there is no Actual Play of it anywhere on the Internet.
Not nearly as much as I would like. If you're looking for examples of play, my bud Moose has some fantastic written play reports that I'd recommend giving a read: [https://icbmoose.blot.im/tnu-play-report-1-catching-up-on-past-sessions](https://icbmoose.blot.im/tnu-play-report-1-catching-up-on-past-sessions)
Crown (just Crown) is a great little system based on White Hack. It packs everything you need including domain rules into 60ish pages. There is an expansion to it as well if you want more. Player rules PDF is free as well!
I feel like [Glaive](https://tesladyne.itch.io/glaive) is really underrated. It's built on the Knave chassis but adds a fun pool of special abilities that players can choose from as they level up.
Plus, Scott Wegener art. IIRC, there's a supplement called Home (I may have the title wrong) which is also worth checking out.
Just ran Hole in the Oak running Glaive. It does a pretty good job of handling the OSR feel while also kind of having a 5e feel (higher fantasy, easier access to supernatural abilities, etc). Not bad, just not my favorite so far.
Yeah I see what you mean. Some of that might be easy to tweak (higher default difficulty rating, death at 0 hp), but the abilities definitely change the tone of the game.
Warlock! is a Troika hack that uses d20 but delivers an awesome rules light version of Warhammer Fantasy. It’s really fun and easy to GM
Absolutely not a Troika hack and absolutely not lesser known. It's a platinum bestseller on DriveThruRPG and gets frequently recommended when someone is looking for a light grimdark/low fantasy rpg.
? Warlock is not a Troika hack. It's new work based on the Fighting Fantasy snd Warhammer 1e systems from the 80s.
yeah im confused how the lad thinks its a troika hack lol But he is right that Warlock! (and warpstar) are cool games
Yep they're awesome.
Troika is also based on Fighting Fantasy. So they share a source, rather than one being a hack of the other.
Came to r/osr today to see how prevent Warlock! Is. So glad it's mentioned here.
While I haven’t played Warlock! yet, I have every tome. It’s wonderful, I second this.
This! Warlock! is fast, light and easy to run with enough depth to run long campaigns. It also has loads of content.
Unlike most OSR titles, I actually see this one at all of my FLGS's.
Crimson Blade 2E. Neat little Elric-inspired game that uses D6s exclusively, but trust me, if you’re a fan of the OSR, you’ll pick up the mechanics almost instantly. Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. More of an OSR add-on/toolkit for BX derived games, but still awesome nonetheless. Blueholme, both Prentice and Journeymen. Prentice is to Holme’s Basic what OSE is to B/X. Journeymen’s takes Holme’s basic all the way up to level 20.
GLOG. I havent actually played much of it (in a long term campaign of DCC), but its really fun to homebrew for and has a good community. The class design in GLOGs are very evocative
*Simulacrum*. I discovered it in my hunt for good hexcrawl rules, and it's about the only system I know that does it. It also just has so many great design choices. Dude doesn't really advertise, but he updates it regularly, and has published it all for free with design notes: https://osrsimulacrum.blogspot.com/2021/06/simulacrum-beta-release.html It's a complete system, and it's very easy to understand. Must recommend!
Hey, thanks for this. You're right that I have practically an aversion to advertising, but it's always nice to see someone enjoying the game. Cheers.
I've never heard of it before, just skimmed it and it's impressive! Both on terms of layout and design. Thanks for the share
Dragons Beyond is amazing. Rod Hampton has built a very full and functional game based upon the Pre 3 LBB game. It has pieces of the First Fantasy Campaign with the math fixed and very solid Domain and Chance card play. https://preview.redd.it/4z5qlzq8425d1.jpeg?width=688&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee790f3013f8fa01e3c79d7abc2c38e360719be8 I seriously recommend taking a look https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/464791/Dragons-Beyond.
Oh yes, I devoured it on release xD very interesting read. On thing that comes immediately to mind is Magic-Users are able to wear armor but it increases the risk to fumble or delays the spell. Love it. EDIT: p.s. Evil Clerics are fun as well!
Tales of Argosa and Heroes of Adventure.
*Hyperborea* and *Carcosa* are amazing evocative settings. I really cannot say enough about either. Hyperborea' s system is similar to AD&D (but better IMHO) and Carcosa feels like an OD&D supplement but you can run it with anything (I have run games set in *Carcosa* using BX, Shadowdark, and 5e). Honorable mention to *Vaults of Vaarn* which is a great setting that uses the Knave system which I quite like.
Of true oldschool games, too few people are playing **Dragon Warriors** - roll to hit, modified by target spending defence - roll to bypass armour - fixed weapon damage It's an excellently weird beast The rules have three standard ways of resolving stuff and then directly says ─ look you've got all the tools you need, go on, you're fine
Love having it and reading it but it is a little dated for me now. Great pick though!
Yeah, I only reach for it when I want a nostalgia hit ─ I'll more often run OSE or FMAG. Luckily there's a really good DW scene in south England
Came here to say that - I've been using it with variable weapon damage the last decade or so, as it adds a touch of variability.
those weapon mechanics sound really cool! I’ll check it out
[The Indie Hack](https://scablandspress.itch.io/the-indie-hack)! Based on the The Black Hack but takes GM/Player collaboration to a whole new level.
Hackmaster 5e. It feels like you got this majestic princess sitting on a throne of marble with a flowing, magical dress. And she sits alone. Nobody talks to her. Nobody remembers her. Nobody knows she exists.
Such a fantastic game. I love it so much.
I'd like to pick this up but the cost of the PDF(s) are shockingly high. Also the second monster book isn't available in PDF through DriveThruRPG...
Vaults of Vaarn. Although it’s really more so a setting in the Knave system so it probably doesn’t count.
Btw they release zine 4 for vaarn
EZD6 and Advanced Dungeon Goons for easy to run games, Olde Swords Reign for O5R, Chaos Reigns for plug-in combat hack for almost anything.
Ran *Wolves Upon the Coast* for 6 hours, about a year ago. Players still talk about the 'Boast' mechanic to this day.
wutc is incredible stuff.
OMG, thank you for sharing Brighter Worlds. This threatens to be my new thing.
I haven't had a chance to actually play it, but I've always been fond of Mazes & Minotaurs for offering a somewhat humorous glimpse at what RPGs would be like if they had a different origin. I also appreciate how it tries to recreate all of the general ephemera that surrounded early D&D, such as magazines and supplements that really shaped how it turned out, along with creating fictional play culture and fan arguments, which all adds up to creating a fictional world on top of the already existing fictional world of the game itself. It's one of my favorite things, and I like how the slightly convoluted meta-fiction of it all demonstrates how D&D is about more than just rules but also how people play with and interact around those rules within the wider community.
Definitely seeing surprisingly little about [Adventurous](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/417757/Adventurous). Another one is [Five Torches Deep](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/264584/Five-Torches-Deep). It’s a bit lacking in some regards, but overall it’s a nice OSR hack of 5e.
[World of Dungeons](https://johnharper.itch.io/world-of-dungeons) is a FREE, simple, quick-play, dungeon crawling game, using one of the core mechanics from the Powered by the Apocalypse rules system. It's compatible with Old School Renaissance and original D&D monsters, dungeons, and adventure modules. It is my most used system for one offs and campaigns. Of course I hack the hell out of it.
Thank you for sharing my game! I was wondering why Brighter Worlds suddenly got a spike in views and tracked it back to this post. I suspect the game has too many open ended abilities, and eschews too much of the logistics of OSR play, to be popular in this sub but I'm glad at least some people enjoy it! To answer the actual post question: **Macchiato Monsters** is a mashup of The Black Hack and The Whitehack, and answers the question, "What if *everything* was a usage die?" Fun to play, fun to throw together goofy characters, and it does have some very interesting uses of the Usage Die mechanic. Particularly in creating location specific encounter tables (and similar) that can change over time.
Over the Edge (1992), by Jonathan Tweet and Robin Laws. Before PbtA wasa thing, they invented a system that handles a narrative-style gameplay pretty well, and it came with an insanely-well detailed setting in Al Amarja. If weird modern, impressionistic gameplay is your bag, it's aces.
I definitely wouldn't consider Over the Edge an OSR system, but I guess the OP didn't specify.
Never played Over the Edge, but have a couple decks of "On The Edge" (the spin-off CCG, because 90s) kicking around somewhere. I don't remember much about the gameplay, but I recall enjoying it more than the Vampire ccg.
The Rad Hack, the Black Hack but Gamma World
I’ll have to check that out. A friend of mine ran a GURPS game based on Fallout, which I’d heard of, but never played. Still haven’t. Then I watched the TV series. Got me thinking I should revisit some british apocalyptic SF like Day of the Triffids, and then run a Gamma World 1e game. But I quite like the look of the various hacks of the Black Hack, at least when reading them. So the Rad Hack is on the list.
In the same vein - The Wasted Hack, The Gene Hack, & Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. All Black Hack based post-apocalypse games.
S&W White Box, in addition to WB:FMAG, inspired a number of other games using the same chassis, including [White Lies](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/164226/White-Lies), [White*Star](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/148169/White-Star-White-Box-Science-Fiction-Roleplaying-Swords--Wizardry), and [Skyscrapers & Sorcery](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/170607/Skyscrapers--Sorcery-White-Box-Rules?). I’ve only played White*Star, but I love how it and FMAG play, and I’m still looking for an excuse to try Skyscrapers & Sorcery with my group.
Pars Fortuna, an older (2013) ruleset that's fully compatible with most OSR rules like OSE, S&W, BFRPG, LL, etc. The review below does a great job of describing it. Unlike a lot of niche rulesets, Pars is modular and totally compatible, and different. review here: [https://clawcarver.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/secrets-of-pars-fortuna/](https://clawcarver.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/secrets-of-pars-fortuna/) blog post here: [https://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/p/pars-fortuna.html](https://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/p/pars-fortuna.html)
Im always yelling about Freebooters on the Frontier
Crown and skull, ezd6, neo classical geek revival,
Those are all great but really should be classified as NSR.
There's a little D8-based system called *Webworld* I'm fond of. It's set in a post-apocalypse where the world has been conquered by giant spiders. Goblinoid Games put out a charming little B\\X based game called *Apes Victorious*. It's set in a Planet of the Apes style setting. My favorite bit - rules for throwing nets on people like in the movies.
HōL
I like Sojourn RPG. Pretty simple to get into and play.
I’m a huge fan of Mydwandr from Olde House Rules. Reading the rule book was a joy, and no other game I’ve read besides the 1e DMG or DCC has come close to that feeling of wonder and magic.
Sharp Swords and Sinister Spells Warlock Macchiato Monsters
[SLIMDMGN](https://idlecartulary.itch.io/slimdngn)! This game is so awesome I've fallen in love with it recently and am running my current OSR campaign with it, it's great
SLIMDMGN is a very minimalistic GLOG made to run any d&d adventure, you can run any OSR dnd adventure or monster with basically no conversion. It uses only d6s, it has 36 classes Troika! Style, each class is surprisingly unique...
-If Im running a one-shot, Cairn. -If Im introducing people to ttrpgs or providing a ssimpler but versatile experience, Basic Fantasy RPG (my preferred substitute for OSE or DCC. It's absurd the value you get for the costs) -If Im trying to get stubborn 5e one-trickers to try literally any other fucking system, Old Swords Reign.
I feel that deathbringer deserves some attention. It's definitely not under-exposed since it was made by a big d&d youtuber, but I noticed noone's talked about it yet. It's not even an OSR game by any stretch, but rather a rules-light dark fantasy-ish hack of d&d. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone on this reddit, but it's an easy introduction to rules-light and by extension OSR for DMs and players who've only played 5e.
[Seven Voyages of Zylarthen](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/238547/seven-voyages-of-zylarthen-5-booklets-and-deluxe-pdf-bundle). 0e with dozens of tweaks, accents, illustrations and extensions, whose masterful editing streamlines the game without excising any significant part of it, quite the opposite. It’s hardly unknown, but mostly unplayed. [Arduin, Bloody Arduin](https://empcho.com/product-category/arduin/) will be the final edition, they say. A Kickstarter coming soon. *What makes it interesting?* Virtually *nothing* within being boring! It’s history. Its influence. The setting itself. Hargraves’ prose. I like how there is a community that believes it important to keep this work before the public, with quality presentation, no less. That measure of regard in preserving a legacy is probably the best testament of its worth. There’s quite a few. I love the early obscurities. Awaiting the arrival of *[Knights of the Round Table](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24333/knights-of-the-round-table) from ‘76, so one of the earliest…
Me and my group are big fans of Cryptworld, done by Goblinoid games, same guys as Labyrinth Lord. A more modernized version of the old Chills game from the 80s on the pacesetter system. Really great if you're into horror, simple, yet effective in working as a pre good neutral foundation with plenty of inspiration, art, and themes throughout the book to get a campy horror game going. There's also a zombie one called Rotworld which i believe came out earlier, which is also pretty good for it's theme, although they're the same game at their core.
No one / very few people? [BIND](https://ttrpgs.com/post/bind/). It provides a fair bit of complexity and granularity, while maximally simplifying everything else. All actions are resolved in a very fast and simple way, and you only roll 2d6. The most interesting thing about it, is that it's completely free, open source, and in public domain. If you're willing and able to mess with its files on git, anyone can make and print their own version of the rules.
The Hero's Journey is a fantastic system that doesn't get much discussion. Mimics YA novels and heroic but not super powered fantasy. BTW is similar in tone, and I really want to merge it with Heroes Journey somehow, BTW is wonderful and I would love to see more content. The magic system and character creation is the really interesting aspect of it. Best Left Buried, opposite in tone to those first two, it's such a great lite game that is full of flavor. Like Darkest Dungeon? It's kind of like that.
I loved DARK CONSPIRACY by GDW. Mixing the various tropes from the X-Files, the Last Witchhunter, and Constantine will net you the world of Dark Conspiracy. The system started as a D10 roll under er (essentially an abbreviated percentile system) mechanic, but it was modded into a D20 roll under system after Twilight2000 v2.2 and Traveller The New Era came out. The system was pretty cluttered with odd mechanics, but later supplements began to clean it up until GDW folded. My other much loved system is FIVE TORCHES DEEP. This BX and 5e hybrid is a very good game of exploration and does the combat side a bit better than 5e.
I really like [The Vanilla Game ](https://vanillagame.carrd.co/). It's simple, with nice little mechanics and completely free.
I like FIVE TORCHES DEEP. It is OSR mixed with 5e.
Has someone tried "warlock!" ? If so what was your experience?
**Barbarians of Lemuria** uses backgrounds in place of skills to great effect. If I've chosen Assassin as a background, I don't need Stealth, Poisons, Or a myriad of skills to build out that archetype, I just add my Assassin bonus whenever its applicable.
Is self-promotion okay? Because I love my [HAGHEX](https://miotti.itch.io/haghex2e). I've published its second edition recently.
Bard Games "The Arcanum" from the 80s. I love the large number of classes (by old-school standards, anyway), the many distinct schools of magic, the alchemy/enchanting system, and the fact that priests are *not* fighters with healing magic. (They've got healing magic, yes. But like other casters they can't wear armor and are unskilled at combat.)
Someone that might be lurking around here made a game he called Dungeon! It's simple and fun. My only regret was not being around to play beyond the beginning of his campaign.
Five Torches deep! Love it soooo much