WHY OSR? DUNGEON DEGENERATES - DARK FANTASY ROLEPLAY - LOW DRAMA

WHY OSR?

OSR stands for Old School Renaissance, or is it Old School Revival? I like Renaissance more, but this might be a Revival, so let’s table that for a minute. The OSR is like back to basics Punk Rock, so maybe Renaissance is wrong & this is a Revival. After juggling lots of ideas & thinkingthat I had to reinvent the wheel to deliver the idealized vehicle for roleplaying, I went with OSR because ultimately, the game system is supposed to be straightforward & intuitive. It is a vehicle for exploration. I’m old school. What I do falls into that category whether I say it does or not. I was into the idea of old school when I was a teenager. I played D&D before I could read. I wanted to be a Tolkien Scholar when I was a tween. I like cultural renaissances & revivals in general & I feel that good structure for the future comes with a solid foundation built from elements of the past. 

People were going to say that Low Drama is OSR whether I wanted them to or not. So I’m leaning into it. Specifically I’m looking to give players that same feeling of possibility, magic & the worlds of fantasy that got me hooked as a kid. 

The possibilities of roleplaying unlocked something in me, gave me permission to explore the corners of my brain. An exploration that has been a key part of my entire life. As it is said, “Escape the dungeons of your mind.” The world outside my mind was full of limitations, especially when I was a kid. The world inside my mind presented me with unlimited vistas of potential.

I came to understand the OSR the way the Volkswagen was intended. A “people’s roleplaying game” that everyone can understand, take apart & fix themselves. This is probably needed for all levels of society, I have been saying as much for decades. Use the basics as a platform from which to launch the new. This isn’t to imply an unchanging, conservative worship of the past. It’s to use what works, discard what doesn’t & move on. 

I found a brilliant observation of the OSR mindset in a YouTube comment by @themcchuck8400, “OSR isn't a rule set, it's an attitude. It's the belief that the story comes from the actions of the players & the rolls of the dice. This is why reaction, morale & random encounter tables are so critical - they let the DM be surprised by what happens, while telling the players more about the world/environment they are exploring. To mangle a metaphor, the DM establishes the nouns, the players enact the verbs & the dice highlight the adjectives.” 

All that said, I recognize that there has been a lot of growth within the field & a similar change in the expectations of players, so I am going into this with that as well. I am not going forward as if nothing has changed, but I also know that I fell in love with this stuff when I was four, in 1980.