THE OSR IS OVER

I was instantly attracted to the OSR, it spoke to me. The things that reminded me of what attracted me to the hobby were to the fore. The art was more evocative, amateurish yes, but that unrefined quality helped some real gems to emerge. Myself, included.

I like calls to root intentions. The initial creative sparks & the things that surround them are exhilarating, they cannot be matched.

However, like any relationship, the honeymoon period can’t last forever. You must change your expectations, set goals & constantly communicate to keep these things working. Or else you'll end up as one of those commitmentphobic people with an increasingly shrinking pool of potential suitors & you’re never as young.

The perception of life gets increasingly complicated & it is difficult (if not impossible) to approach things with the direct passion (& ignorance) of the young mind, especially if you aren’t young anymore.

I had inadvertently been part of the birth of the OSR by doing art for Labyrinth Lord. Labyrinth Lord became known as a “retro clone”, but the term OSR was already being used… it might have been common in some circles, but I wasn’t paying attention.  

As someone who had been around for so much of early roleplaying history, but had grown apart from it as I tried to grow up myself, I wanted to tap into something that would give me that same feeling of possibility. What I didn’t realize was that what kids find exciting in their time is different for every generation, it could even be different for every individual. I would learn this lesson eventually as a teacher & then as a father, but I never reassessed my intentions toward gaming. 

I started to look at the world of gaming when we had kids & my central motivation was to create the things that I loved growing up that weren’t being championed at that point. Primarily, I was utterly bored by the art of the games being released, everything felt so sterile & controlled. 

Mild depression was my feeling about most of TSR’s output after 1983 with notable exception of Tony Diterlizzi’s & Brom’s work. I had moved on from these games, but I had really moved on in life. 

It took longer for Games Workshop to turn to oatmeal, but by the 2000s, they had succeeded. There is a Games Workshop store within easy walking distance from my house, I’ve been there three times.

My wife has read my writings about roleplaying & she said, “What you’re talking about just sounds like roleplaying.” I was struck by this & have been giving it real thought.

I understand the desire for the real, authentic, for the roots, the back to basics. These are all modalities I’ve championed throughout my life. But there is a difference between a methodology for creation & an ideology to follow. 

Things can never go back to that young way of thinking, we grow up & if we don’t, we get distorted & really lose sight of the point. That’s why Ideology is something I actively oppose & it is seeing people using the OSR as an ideology instead of a methodology that really bugs me.

I know that the first few records are usually the best from a band. I like proto Punk & the music up to about 1985 & the stuff afterwards that was influenced by those things, I know that Games Workshop was great until around 1992 & TSR was good until 1983. 

However, I also know that time keeps on progressing & if we act like new things don’t have that potential unless they follow some rules, we miss out on the true freedom that creativity needs to produce greatness.

You need that openness to create things that bring life & inspiration to the people, which is the intention, at least for me. The rigidity of rules following is not why I got into this. Those kinds of rigid, rules lawyering, punishing game masters & players were quickly dispelled from any group we had & I avoided their groups like the plague.

Back when we used to publish PORK magazine, I had to look at myself hard & decide to change my attitude about new music. I still loved the classics, but I had to open my heart to all the new stuff that was being made & as I did that, I was very pleased to see the amount of good music being produced while we published.

I’ve only recently done the same with gaming, having started to play Magic, the Gathering with my family (I’ve got Sauron & Black Waltz commander decks in case you’re wondering). This has only been for a few months, so this is a very new revelation to me. 

As I’ve become more emotionally straightened out (through therapy, mindfulness, meditation & sobriety) I have been much less reactive & more true to my core.

This staying true to my core isn’t adherence to a set of external rules, it comes from an understanding of myself that only emerges from a lot of introspection & not being afraid to dig deep & ask myself hard questions or try & answer the questions of others.

Because of this, I’m not the Warmachine that people got used to, but I am the man who died & came back & has to work with this new reality if I want to advance at all. 

I intensely felt like Rip Van Winkle when I got out of the hospital after having the stroke. I hated that feeling.

To dispel that feeling of being old & out of touch, I had to open my mind to the new reality. In this, while what I come from can easily be categorized as OSR, it’s more, it’s Roleplaying.