this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023

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OSR/NSR Tabletop Roleplaying Games

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Whither Reddit? In the meantime, here’s a place to chat up old school revival (OSR) and new school revolution (NSR) style TTRPGs.

My name is Todd aka Hexed Press and I am the current caretaker (have I always been the caretaker?). Here are some other places to find me, if you are so inclined:

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List up your essential OSR Books (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Teratic Tome

Ford's Faeries

Rifts World Book 1 - Vampire Kingdom - Original Printing as it has the stuff for Circus and Traveling Shows

The Original Ultimate Toolbox for GM by Ibach, Ibach, and Pinto

Cites by Midkemia Press

Tome of Adventure Design Revised

The Arduin Trilogy

Hex Flower Cookbook

Kellri's City Block https://kellri.blogspot.com/

Kellri's CDD1-4 https://kellri.blogspot.com/

Justin's House Rules https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7842/roleplaying-games/justins-house-rules-for-odd

Gary Gygax's House Rules https://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/03/gary-gygaxs-whitebox-od-house-rules.html

Malevolent and Benign by Expedious Retreat Press

Petty Gods Revised

Jason Vey's Conan for OD&D 0 Free Game https://www.grey-elf.com/

Fantastic Medieval Campaigns by Marcia B

Varlets and Vermin

Zenopus's One Hit Monsters List https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/02/one-hit-point-monsters_23.html

The Alternate Wandering Monsters List https://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2012/08/alternate-bx-s-wandering-monster-tables.html

The Majestic Wilderlands by Robert S Conley

Supplement X Philotomy's Musings

The Black Sword Hack Ultimate Edition by The Merry Mushmen

Worlds Without Number - Sine Nomine Publishing

Lavender Hack by Ziapelta Games

For Gold & Glory by God Emperor Games

OSRIC by Stuart Marshall

Swords & Wizardry by Finch - see new revised edition

Supplement v Carcosa by Geoffrey Mckinney

The Perrin Convention - get the pdf of All the World's Monsters II it is inside

of course Chainmail 3rd Edition and it's first 5 supplements - Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, Greyhawk, and Blackmoor

Please Post Up Your List

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The Knock zines for sure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have a few of the originals and Knock Zine #1 https://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-finch/knockspell-magazine-1/ebook/product-1nvjkngw.html?q=&page=1&pageSize=4

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man that’s quite the list and more than a few of them are enigmas to me! I’m riding the train but I’ll try to think up my list later!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Downtime and Demesnes is a great book The Noctournal Table needs to be available POD

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The good news is that The Nocturnal Table isn't actually very long as far as page count, so it's pretty easy to just print the PDF as a booklet and just staple or sew the pages together. That's all the official print version is, really.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This list is awesome, and a number of the things on it are also things I keep in my collection. I'll just list the ones that I didn't see here that I use often. The comparison to "official" D&D books is just to state how I typically use them

PHB: Whitehack (4e just came out but it looks largely the same as 3e with a few changes to, I think, excise the OGL)
MM: Bestial Ecosystems Created By Monster Inhabitation
DMG: Maze Rats (it's a whole game, but it's also the best low profile Dungeon Master's Guide that exists.

Splat books would include:

Basically anything Lost Pages has put out (Magic supplements)
The Nocturnal Table (DMG but for city adventures)
Vermis I (Setting Guide/Mood Board)
On Downtime and Demesnes (Another DMG supplement)

I don't use them all for every game, but I love having them all on my shelf for anything I might need during prep.

Also, a shoutout to the OSE Classic Fantasy Rules Tome. It's so nice, and even if I'm not playing it, there's a great selection of magic items and other random stuff for the DM, and like...it's a really nice looking book.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've been eyeing some of the Lost Pages books for a while, looks like I need to add The Nocturnal Table to my wishlist - I struggle with city adventures

[–] WillOfTheWest 4 points 1 year ago

I tend to focus on products which go against certain "maxims" of play; having alternatives to some of the more strict rules inherited from Gygax offers insight into the philosophy behind certain rules and whether such rules are actually fun at the table.

The Black Hack is my go-to book for this purpose: distances are relative, consumables are abstracted to the usage die, experience is based on stories told and not treasure dragged back to town, and all of the dice rolling can be made by players if the GM so chooses. Such a free system allows for easier hacking; You don't need to compare relative power of classes when determining how much XP your homebrew needs in order to level up.

For supplements and splatbooks, I particularly like Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons as magic supplements. It's easy as hell to slap together a sorcerer class from these two books and staple it onto the Black Hack. My favourite setting books are Ultraviolet Grasslands and Hot Springs Island; both offer perfect sandbox adventures for the Black Hack. Both offer some manner of departure from the traditional tropes of TSR adventures. I have had to modify some aspects of the latter, such as the

spoiler

miscarriage statuette, which I revised as a fertility amulet.; if worn one way up you're guaranteed fertility, the other way you're guaranteed not to fall pregnant.

There are a stupid number of blogs and zines that I could namedrop, but the one I find myself agreeing with the most is The Alexandrian.