Something that’s cropped up a bit in recent times and had some discussion is the use of the Cleric’s ‘Turning Table” found in D&D B/X (Moldvay) and OSE, and obviously in BECMI (Mentzer) & Rules Cyclopedia as well, as a general improvisational skills/challenge/difficulty system. There’s been more talk about it of late (although reportedly its […]
I’m not a huge fan of having lots of ‘house rules’ (although I was once); and I think the beauty of D&D B/X (and similar editions of that era, and the newer OSE, etc) is the malleability of the rules and play (vs. the heavily structured and detailed approach of 5E with very rigid processes) […]
Continuing the old school character class post theme (with a particular emphasis on the Moldvay era of D&D B/X) is the Elf. There is a large divergence of views on Elves in Old School D&D including what they are and how common they should be, and a common perception of the Elf Class in B/X […]
Continuing on the old school character class theme (with a particular emphasis on the Moldvay era of D&D B/X and the likes of OSE) is the Cleric. There is a common perception of clerics just being played as ersatz fighters with some healing skills – but this needn’t and shouldn’t be the case. Even the […]
Two of the classic ‘Old School‘ character classes that often get maligned these days are the Magic-User and the Thief. This is partly because the style of more modern D&D versions (primarily from 3e onwards, but more specifically the current 5e D&D rules) provide a completely different type of game and place a lot more […]
Two of the classic ‘Old School‘ character classes that often get maligned these days are the Magic-User and the Thief. This is partly because the style of more modern D&D versions (primarily from 3e onwards, but more specifically the current 5e D&D rules) provide a completely different type of game and place a lot more […]
As part of my ‘return’ to Dungeons & Dragons (see my Old School Dungeons and Dragons post), I’ve been looking at retro-clones of D&D. The two key ones that have got my attention are OSE (Old School Essentials) and OSRIC (Old School Reference and Index Compilation). Both of these are faithful reproductions of different editions […]