D&D 6E = 2E?

The latest rumors are that D&D is going back to AD&D 2E for D&D 6E.

They trained their audience to hate the game's creators, to laugh at THAC0 the clown, and to mock the old-school crowd.

D&D 5E is a death-free narrative game of "whack a mole" monster bashing, overpowered characters laughing at the feeble DM. There is no resource management or time management, and you can sleep off getting your face crushed flat by a warhammer.

The art and themes of the game are so far removed from the AD&D feeling that it has become another game entirely. The old settings are dead and abandoned, there is no fiction in these worlds worth reading, and the magic is gone.

If there is one "lost its way" franchise I can best equate D&D to, it is Disney Star Wars.

And they will never give up locking people into D&D Beyond with character sheets that are dozens of pages long and require tens of thousands of lines of JavaScript to function properly.

If they want to re-release AD&D 2E without messing it up? Great, thank you, please stop writing new editions and support the ones you have. Get out of the "new edition" business, please, and love and support the 50 years of games you have, rather than writing yet another Wizards edition of the game that will be replaced in 5-10 years.

We have had D&D 3E, 3.5E, 4E, 4E Essentials, 5E, and now 5.5E in just about 26 years. Three major and three minor versions of the game just for Wizards alone. That is re-buying the game every 4 years.

Stop making new editions and revisions. You can never get it right like they had back in the TSR days.

If they want to support, print, and preserve AD&D 2E? And open the AD&D 2E license and rules under a Creative Commons license? And begin to bring back the expansion AD&D 2E content under the same license? Maybe even reprint and support the AD&D 2E campaign settings?

Then, we are talking and making sense here.

Oh hell yes!

That would make me support Wizards of the Coast again and be a huge step in the right direction.

Nimble 5e Thoughts

Nimble is 5E, but it is small, dicey, and fast-playing. It is a quick, action-focused, and play-oriented system. The best way to describe it is Nimble is like 5E and Savage Worlds having a baby, and Nimble could be described as "the Savage Worlds of 5E."

The game started as a 5E mod, grew into a few books as a new way to play 5E, and is now becoming its own standalone game. The Monsters & More book is a watershed moment for the game, sort of where it went from being "alternate 5E playstyle" to "full 5E-based game." The monsters in this book have this amazing "D&D 4E" quality to them, where they are a mix of rules and special actions that impart a lot of flavor on each creature, and affect how they work in combat.

And this is still 5E, so you are meant to fight everything; the reaction roll does not exist, and drive interactions like it does in the OSR. That is one of the largest differences between 5E and the OSR. In 5E, it is generally assumed you will fight every encounter presented. In the OSR, 50% of all the encounters will be neutral or positive towards you (unless they are mindless oozes or undead). Roleplaying and negotiation are built into OSR gaming, and morale provides a way out of conflict. 5E does tend to assume every monster is there to fight, a combat-forward game, like this is a tabletop version of Diablo. Keeping this in mind will make you a better 5E referee, and adopting OSR reaction and morale rolls will improve your game and how you referee.

Since Nimble does away with D&D's atrocious, broken action economy and adopts a clean, industry-standard 3-action method, the speed of play increases dramatically. D&D wrote the game into a ditch by adopting all these special action types, and many of the rules now revolve around "what you can and can't do with different action types." The exploits are typically around abusing action types and descriptions to get away with cheese combos. If you keep the action economy simple and straightforward, you eliminate a few hundred pages of rules and infinite paragraphs of special "can and can't do" rules in every subclass ability and power.

D&D players are spending 10 minutes re-reading their character sheets every turn to check to see if the actions they chose this turn are allowed by the rules! Why is this in the game, again? Why are we forcing players to slow the game to a glacial pace just to see if a combo is viable? Why not just fix the rules, adopt an industry standard for actions, and get rid of all these problems and the flipping through pages of character sheets and rulebooks at every turn?

Nimble 5e fixes D&D's problems.

And it fixes them for good.

Even the resting system is fixed here, along with the constant revival and coming back from death that plagues 5E. The resurrection spell is a "secret spell" and insanely rare, and it makes death a motivating factor again. All of 5E's annoyances are addressed, and you are not getting a full rest in a dungeon closet anymore. You can't even fully rest while camping in the wilderness.

Finally, sanity comes back to D&D.

I don't mind the superheroic qualities of 5E as long as they are balanced with a realistic fear of death and balanced resting mechanics. Superheroes I can manage, superheroes with rules written in the game to prevent them from suffering any consequence, death, or needing to manage resources? I'm out; this superhero game sucks.

Even the death system is fixed, while keeping the zero hit points as a dying condition. There are no "death saves" in the game; if you gain a wound, you enter the dying condition, and someone must help you out, or you can drink a healing potion. You accumulate 6 wounds, and you are dead, and these only heal on a safe rest. Getting damaged, attacking, or casting a spell while in the dying state causes extra wounds. It is a clean, simple, elegant system that puts a real cost on zero hit points, and keeps resting and recovery important.

Healing potions are assumed to be standard equipment, so the default world is a little video game-like. Again, this contrasts with the OSR, where potions are in the realm of magic items rather than something you can buy at a shop. In a high-magic 5E world, I do not mind this as much as long as the death and wound mechanics are solid, which they are here. Go to zero hit points too many times, and the character is still dead, and there is no easy way back from that state.

This is one of the best death and recovery systems in 5E, and it beats my old favorite, Level Up A5E, in balancing costs and recovery. We have the heroic comebacks that 5E players love, balanced with the fear of permanent death. Resurrection is only possible in once-in-a-lifetime situations, and it is not something players can rely on - even at high levels.

Your level 17 thief can go out in a blaze of glory and die a hero. If they managed to save the day, then the legend is written in the annals of history; you accept the outcome and have a chance to start again as a fresh-faced character with a new story once again.

This is perfect.

This is what I wanted 5E to be. These are the "fixes" that I wanted in Tales of the Valiant, and only half-got in Level Up A5E. I wanted something fair but bold, allowing for heroic recovery while also carrying real and lasting consequences. The state of death remains a final truth for every character.

Now, how will you live your life?

Nimble 5e looks like "rules light 5E," but it's actually "fixed 5E." Who knew that fixing D&D involved removing 95% of the rules and adopting industry-standard frameworks and sensible rulings that fit the theme of the game? Oh, that's right, Shadowdark did that, too. While in Shadowdark, they set the theme to "dark and deadly," in Nimble, they set it to "heroic and legendary."

With the terrible parts of D&D fixed, what do we have left? Just the archetypal 5E adventure parts. The monster fights. The skill checks. The roleplaying. The epic hero feels. A rest-and-recovery system that does not create an invincible party. The flashy powers. Managing resources. Meaningful death. OSR-like play if you enforce it. A straightforward action economy. All the best parts of D&D, without any of the parts that make me want to pull my hair out.

While 5E started out well enough, by later books, it got so bad that I stopped playing.

Nimble 5e is a reset button for D&D. It is not "broken" anymore.

And Nimble 5e works very well.

Mail Room: Gaslands Refueled

Forgive me, Car Wars, but I have sinned.

This is a remarkably solid car combat game. Where Car Wars these days is more of a sleek, high-tech vehicular battle game, Gaslands embraces the DIY, Mad Max-style scale combat mayhem. This is more of a hobby and modeling game: take a bunch of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, Dremel them apart, glue kit pieces to them, paint the plastic bodies like road-warrior vehicles, and assemble them into scale battlecar conversions.

This is very different than Car Wars.

The last time we had this in Car Wars was the Chassis and Crossbow rules out of the old Dueltrack game, but this leans into it hard and puts you in charge of a team of cars to accomplish races, missions, and other vehicular mayhem. Car Wars was always meant for one-player-per-vehicle battles, since the record sheets were complex, whereas Gaslands is simpler and aggregates a lot into easier-to-track values. You are meant to run a multi-vehicle team here, and record-keeping is not a burden.

It reminds me of a mashup of Car Wars and Warhammer 40K, meant for big-table battles and automotive mayhem. This would play extremely well in a hobby shop on a Saturday afternoon, and the team size and tracking requirements mean the game would run fast, and much faster than the all-day battles we had with classic Car Wars that took all day to simulate a 30-second combat. Head over for fast food and ice cream after, and you have yourself a good day.

Fast, fun, lightweight, and simple car-smashing and minigun-firing fun.

A huge DIY aesthetic, meaning you can hack up and create your own custom force of battlecars. Tear up cheap die-cast cars and break out the glue, plastic bits, and model paint. This hobby balances kitbash creation with automotive destruction.

That is Gaslands.

Nimble 5E Kickstarter Preview....

Umm...

I was not ready for how awesome the Nimble 5e preview material was.

Complete does not even begin to describe the monster book. It is expansive and amazing. It stands equal to the D&D Monster Manual.

In fact, this is one of my favorite 5E-style monster manuals of all time. This has to be one of the best since the D&D 4E Monster Manual, with all the customized versions of kobolds, goblins, orcs, and other themed humanoids designed for specific roles and abilities. The monsters fill roles specific to their culture, organization, and preferred fighting style. Everything has FLAVOR and STYLE. The monsters have quirks, special abilities, traps, and tactics built into each section.

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow.

The game has a certain D&D 4E-reimagining charm. Without the baggage and need to support legacy content. This captures the magic and love we had for D&D 4E before the game was ruined and abandoned. The new character options they shared are equally amazing.

This is making me rethink OSE as my primary system.

Do a late pledge NOW! Hop on board if you can.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nimblerpg/monsters-and-more-a-nimble-ttrpg-reprint-and-expansion/description

Off the Shelf: Nimble 5e

The best part about Nimble is that it is a tiny game. It is everything 5E should be in three thin OSE-sided books. The biggest criticism is a lack of utility spells, but since this is directly 5E-compatible, put those on scrolls and let players find (or buy) them, or rip them from the SRD or any 5E game you have on your shelf.

Other than that, this is a perfect, rules-light, fast-and-fun version of 5E. It scratches the 5E itch perfectly, and remains math-compatible with any 5E adventure. There are two questions here:

• If you like 5E, why not stick with that?
• Doesn't an old-school game do all this better?

A smaller version of 5E that doesn't take a thousand pages of reading and has all these interlocking and special action types? Sign me up, sanity has returned to modern gaming. We have a clean, three-action system here, and a combat engine that greatly reduces whiffs and worthless turns. It plays cleaner and faster than 5E, and that is a clear win for everybody.

And 5E has gotten too big. This is one tiny box of fun. There is a compelling argument for Nimble just in how bloated 5E has become as a game. You can design a smaller, more streamlined, and just as expressive game with a minimal set of rules. There is a point at which all the tropes of D&D hold 5E back, and Nimble managed to take the best of those tropes and craft a game around them.

Nimble tossed out all the D&D tropes, just like D&D 4E did, and ended up with a better game without all the baggage. If they had only gone this way with 4E, they would have had a winner. It makes me feel that the only true home for what we think of as "D&D" is the OSR.

That is the only place that can do it right.

But leave the new games free to innovate and create new, fun experiences like Nimble, Daggerheart, DC20, Pathfinder 2E, and Draw Steel. These are the "next generation" of gaming, here today.

D&D feels like it is trying to play catch-up with every new edition, stuck fixing legacy issues, and forced to support a boatload of spells, magic items, and options that are better left to the OSR. Otherwise, what? 6E will come along, trying to pander to nostalgia while being weighed down by a few thousand options they need to design around. It will not be a good game since they need to constantly pander and design backward, when they should be designing forward.

These new games are fantasy gaming reimagined.

And they are cool.

The second question is harder to answer, and depends on your tastes. Do you like the fantasy superhero-style play in 5E? Do you like the focus on battles and light narrative play, and not worrying about dungeon turns, burning torches, and wandering monsters? Do you just want to "get in the game and beat up monsters?" The larger-than-life heroes of 5E are replicated perfectly here, with iconic roles and amazing powers. The fights here are tactical and satisfying.

Or do you want less of an emphasis on superpowers and a more methodical and structured style of play where the over-the-top powers are turned down a few notches? Do you like the classic gameplay loop, the dungeon turns, the wandering monster checks, mapping, and the burning through of torches? This ain't it, and you will be happier with OSE.

This won't replace OSE for me. It can't. I like the old-school play too much. I grew up on it.

For me, Nimble replaces 5E. I feel good about playing this. I have fun. It is my "transition drug" away from VTTs and online character sheets. It shows that 5E can be a simple, fun, and focused game again. This is proof that 5E can be a better game for everybody. Nimble 5e gives me hope that 5E can be salvaged and built into a better game, one in a small box that does not need all these pages of rules and complicated action types. The 5E rules can be saved by great design and a lot of love and care.

And I am a huge fan of small games.

This year's crowdfunding will address the lack of native monsters and add more character options. I am looking forward to that release. As it is? A good game, solid and simple, very well put together, pulls in 5E monsters as much as you want, and it all works together nicely.

Nimble will compete with OSE, and that is an uphill battle. But I feel Nimble's design lets it compete and find a space in my game rotation. For adventure gaming that is 100% 5E math-compatible and has that rollicking band of epic heroes feeling, Nimble can find a compelling spot in my lineup. This is for those times when I don't want to follow the dungeon-turn structure too closely, and I just want to play the "battle adventure" style of game that 5E does so well.

Well, wants to do well, since 5E is bogged down in too many heavy rules and action types.

Nimble does it easier, faster, and without the messy character sheets that run a dozen pages long.

And this is a game so small that it seems to find a way to sneak onto my best-of-the-best shelves quite easily.

How GURPS Killed 5E for Me

I still enjoy 5E for what it tried to do, and I still have my Tales of the Valiant books. But if I am playing one game at that complexity level, and simplifying my gaming life to the games I enjoy the absolute most, there is only room in my gaming life for one massive game, and that game is GURPS.

I get more out of GURPS per minute spent with it than I do from 5E.

If the old solo-play adage "everything is playing" is true, then when I am designing a GURPS character, optimizing their points, fine-tuning their advantage and disadvantage list, picking their armor, carefully loading them out as to not over-encumber them, and finely crafting them to fit a role in my game - then GURPS gives me a constant stream of enjoyment at every minute I spend in a character designer.

In 5E, it is just "making big choices" and having the designers and web programmers add another huge list of junk to my character sheet. I make a few big choices, and they keep throwing things I don't want into my shopping cart. I get to decide very little, and all the choices I make are these aggregated, huge ones that feel less like character design and more like picking items off an à la carte menu and ending up with too much food on the table.

And if I want more choices?

In GURPS? The game comes with them all. I have an infinite number of choices at my fingertips. Batteries are included here. With just the core books, I get it all.

In 5E? I need to buy the next book or crowdfunding project to have more choices. I need to pray that they support those choices in the VTT of my choice. I need to constantly spend money to have new choices.

I love ToV, but I am always buying the next crowdfunding book to "have more."

With GURPS, I have it all in two books. Yes, you need to learn the system to make it work well, but it is better than paying $100-200 every 3 months for another 5E book. I learn the system, and save the money.

And GURPS works exactly the way I want it to. Do I want clerics to be like "fantasy superheroes?" Fune, give them a healing power that costs fatigue points, and let them heal whenever they want. Do I want them to use magic and spells? Okay, healing works that way in that framework. I am not dealing with "spell slots" or a class description a dozen pages long with subpaths that I am forced to pick.

Is it more work than being "told what to do?" Yes.

Does it work exactly how I want it to? Yes.

But I get it, some people don't want to do all the work and have "things to choose from." I am like that too, but 5E has grown beyond my ability to support it, since it tries to take over my entire gaming life and library. For those times, I will just play a game like Old School Essentials and a BX system, where everything is chosen for me, and all I need to do is play my role. It is far easier and cheaper than supporting a 5E habit, and I do not need the weight and complexity of 5E to enjoy a game of focused, limited choices.

And guess what? In OSE, you get 90% of anything you would want to play, and a handful of zines fills in some of the missing parts. I can fit more choices and options on a quarter shelf of OSE books than on eight shelves of 5E books. My OSE collection is small, but very expressive and expansive. Sure, every choice isn't as "deep" as a 5E class, but they do 90% of the same thing anyway in play, and the game is more focused on the dungeon turn, exploration, and the classic gameplay loop.

And 5E wants to be a narrative game, not a dungeon crawler. For narrative games where character-focused choices and narrative tools are more important on "damage per turn", GURPS will absolutely be the best choice. GURPS has far more tools for a narrative game than 5E ever will, with self-control rolls, advantages, disadvantages, and a whole host of roleplaying choices I can buy with character points.

What am I losing? Fantasy superheroes. I am a bit tired of that genre, and I prefer the classic, old-school dungeon turn and gameplay loop to that style of play. Also, if I play fantasy superheroes and want a tactical battle game, Pathfinder is a better choice than 5E, and it is balanced all the way to level 20. Draw Steel is another great tactical game. Nimble 5e does the entire genre fast and rules-light.

If I want to "support" 5E, I have Nimble: one small box that contains the entire 5E experience. The fantasy superheroes genre does not have to be a game that eats shelves. Nimble 5E takes the sting out of dropping full 5E, and it lets me keep 5E support on my shelves without a massive library or a huge time investment. It is a small game, like OSE, and it does everything.

Nimble makes putting 5E into legacy support so easy. I am not losing a thing. The game is tiny. It does fantasy superheroes well. It can sit on my OSE shelf and happily support 5E adventures and gameplay without all the books. Nimble does enough fantasy superheroes well enough that I do not miss a thing about 5E. This is also getting an expansion soon, and we will have more to play with.

And unlike 5E, Nimble plays fast. You get to feel more like a hero and less like someone who scans a character sheet, trying to figure out what to do during a turn. Why am I reading my character sheet multiple times during a combat? It feels like trying to drive a car, with the user manual open on the dashboard and flipping to the page for the left turn signal as you roll up to the intersection. And before you make the left turn, you need to have the DMV book open on the seat next to you so you can review the rules for making a left turn.

Is that a free action or a bonus action? Am I allowed to make a left turn on a bonus action? Oops, sorry, left turns are full-round actions. Please watch for oncoming traffic and turn when it is safe to do so. Where is that left turn signal again? Please give me the other book. Why is this car manual 400 pages long? Why do the rules for left turns go on for 12 pages?

And with an easier 5E, I have the time to focus and balance the games I love, meaning I have more time and shelf space for GURPS and OSE. Nimble sits happily alongside my big two games, offering me 5E if I want it. Nimble avoids cluttering my game shelves by being tiny yet feature-packed. It commits no sins and happily lives alongside my best games.

GURPS?

Yes, it is my last, best "big game."

I get more out of GURPS per minute spent with it than I do from a few thousand pages of 5E rules. At most, it is three shelves of amazing books, with only two core books mattering. GURPS gives me narrative "oomph" and power, and outshines 5E in story-based, narrative games. GURPS does social roleplay far better than 5E does, because what I choose during character creation matters. It is not all "classes and powers" in GURPS; my character's "physical and mental profile" is fully designed, whereas in 5E it is just assumed and scribbled in (if at all) in the notes section of the character sheet.

5E cares more about a button on a VTT character sheet you can press to roll a d20 plus skill modifier. I still like 5E, but we have gotten so lost in the woods with this system and VTT support that it no longer feels like the game we were promised in 2014. It is all gimmicks, tools, and power gaming in a JavaScript interface. The game isn't even dungeon-crawling anymore, and it feels like we are just pretending it does.

OSE is defined by the dungeon exploration turn.

Nimble gives me the heart of 5E without the complexity.

And GURPS cares more about the character than the character sheet.

My life feels better with just my best games on my shelf, and the ones I can support.

Coming Home and Less is More

The thing I love about BX is that it will never get any more complicated, slow, in-depth, or heavy than it already is. There are implementations of "heavy classes" in BX, where they go into an almost 5E level of depth in a class design, but the base gameplay is not affected as much as you might expect.

There is no dozen-page character sheet hidden by thousands of pages of JavaScript code on a VTT, making the game playable. This "backend code support" that makes 5E work is also what will kill the game. 5E was never designed to be played by hand, and once you get to a certain character level, you will find out why. Like a mobile game that eventually forces you to buy something to play more, 5E, after a few levels, requires you to sign up for some online service somewhere to "make it all easier to manage."

BX never, ever, needs a VTT or a digital character sheet.

5E is an inferior game for designing software code support into the game's requirements.

"All you need are pencils, paper, dice, some friends, an imagination ...and a subscription website with a few million lines of JavaScript code maintained by Wall Street."

Yeah, it is that last part that makes it a hard no from me. The problem is, I liked the websites! Roll20 is cool! Shard is amazing! Foundry VTT is mind-blowing! They were cool ways to play the game, and massively convenient. The maps and tokens are cool. Roll20 with the multi-game support is amazing.

I don't have time for any of it, though.

And a game that requires that much time from me is going to be a net negative in my life, and I will eventually need to cut the game off to make myself happier. Sorry, subtraction theory as a life-improvement strategy is a valid way to deal with a life that asks too much of us.

Yes, "D&D makes me happy" is a valid statement for me.

"5E sucked every free moment from my life" is also a true statement.

To make myself happy, I make a dramatic choice, kick 5E to the curb. Stick with an easier game that does "most of the same thing." Eliminate the constant revenue drain of VTTs and crowdfunding projects. Box up, sell, or store all the 5E books. Stick with a few, small, easy, simple OSE books.

Subtraction theory is life simplification.

Less is more.

Pathfinder 1e was this way for me. I enjoyed the heck out of that game. My library got too big, and the game died. The game needed software to build characters. It is in storage now. OSE does most of what it did, and exists as two tiny books on my shelf. One thing I found with these "huge games" is that they often try to make up for weak stories, worlds, and adventures with hyper-detailed characters. With BX, I need compelling adventures, worlds, and stories to engage players. I can't "fall back on the rules" to maintain interest, which often happens with 5E and other big games.

If OSE and BX do 80% of what 5E and Pathfinder do, and take ten times less time, space, shelf, software support, and "head space" requirements - then OSE and BX are the winners for me.

And BX is such an easy game; I can store the entire thing "in my head," like a micro "operating system," and run it from memory. From here, I have science fiction with Stars Without Number or White Star. I have the cyberpunk genre with Cities Without Number. I have post-apoc with Ashes Without Number. I have a few different fantasy games: Old School Essentials, Worlds Without Number, and Swords & Wizardry.

Even without OSRIC and ADAD, I have enough here to keep me busy for a lifetime. GURPS is a guilty pleasure of mine, my last "big game" that isn't actually all that big. That is non-negotiable and sticks around. If I am playing a game with complicated, in-depth characters and relying on "rules interest to drive game interest," I am sticking with the best character-building game ever invented, GURPS. GURPS killed 5E for me. If I am playing one game that in-depth, GURPS will kill anything else that it is put up against.

Plus, I don't need game designers to tell me what my characters can do. I decide that. I am the game designer. I always do a better job. And GURPS can be played with just two books; it is never a huge game if you take it on the road. With 5E, I do not have a choice.

Swords & Wizardry sticks around as "AD&D Lite," honestly. It is math-compatible with OSE, gives me a huge monster list for both games, and is a different way to play. If I have a world that feels more "1E" then S&W will do nicely; otherwise, OSE covers it.

OSE, S&W, Without Number, and even the 2d6 sci-fi games like FTL Nomad exist happily with each other, and alongside GURPS. A collection of "tiny games" and one heavy one that does it all makes a nice library where I can sell everything else off, and be happy again.

Less is more.

Video: One Thing Caused Me To Immediately End Three 5e D&D Campaigns

A good video today, what makes 5E combats so long? Some NSFW language here, salty, not spicy, but honest and correct. Four hours for one combat is too long. And Wizards only writes games where combat takes hours. They have never written an easy, fast, and streamlined game. If you go back to 3.5E and 4E, they have never gotten combat right. Above a certain level, it will take hours.

This is my experience too: combat is too long, too bloated, and frankly, too important in the game.

We are a long way from BX, where combat is a losing strategy and thus unimportant.

No wonder people play to a level 7 character and quit.

To Tweak or Not to Tweak? Capturing the Era

Do you tweak your games? It depends on how important it is to you that you are playing "exactly what was played" in the 1980s, down to the last class ability and numeric value. You are not tweaking the OSE fighter to make it more them, just rolling with what you got. After all, the class was designed like this; it worked back then, and why change it?

I have a few good reasons to bump OSE fighters' attack bonus by 2 across the board at every level, but is that the original game? No, it wasn't. And yes, it was. We did tweak and make adjustments back in the 1980's, too; very few of us played rules-as-written unless we were playing AD&D in a hobby store or other organized setting.

D&D was the home of the houseruled game.

AD&D, we tended to obey Gary's wishes and keep it as it was when we played with new people. Those were the "organized play rules," but even then, houseruled home games of AD&D were a huge thing.

We tend to put older games on pedestals and preserve them exactly as they were, trying to recapture the moment by not changing a thing and sticking to every letter printed on the page. We have a false sense of the past in which sticking to only what was written on that day was "official," and we artificially elevate its value.

Objects in the mirror may appear more important than they were.

It is important to have perspective and not silence the work of creators of third-party zines and others who turn OSE and BX into a living, breathing game open to discussion and expansion. To them, the game is a modern platform, worthy of support and expansion, and new and fresh ideas are the way forward. They take the base game, written in today's era, and move it forward, as if we had the same open license and freedom we could have had back in the 1980s, had TSR not been so closed-shop and litigious.

If you see OSE as a modern platform, you will, of course, tweak and mod it.

If you see OSE as a 1980s rules-simulator, you will be less likely to mod it.

If you are more into the rules-simulation side of the hobby and do not want to mod the game, then games like Swords & Wizardry and its 1970s simulation of the game's state during that time will appeal to you more. Also, there are some who absolutely do not want to list a page of houserules to a new group, and that can scare people away faster than anything you ever understand.

I have had a group of new players never begin a 5E game since I had a page of houserules, and I wanted to use the 2014 game (since that meant a few players did not have to buy new books). The group never started. They all found other things to do. The game died before it even began.

Why do we need all these houserules?

Is the game broken?

I don't want to buy a new game that is broken and needs all these house rules I will never understand!

Houserules can scare off new players, since they see a list of things they don't understand, have to mesh with a new game, and figure out the "how and why" of how it all works before a die is even rolled. Most will just quit and go do something else that doesn't need houserules. There is great value in saying, "This is what we are playing." You can point to one book, and the discussion is over. The contract is set; learn that book. This is the game we all agreed to, and we can play.

I am not against house rules, but I know how hard they can make it for some new players. For a group comfortable with each other and the game, houserules are great.

And games like Swords & Wizardry, which replicate the 1970s state of the game, the rulings, the common assumptions of the meanings, and laying out exactly where the clear and vague parts were, while trying to present the commonly agreed-upon interpretations, are also invaluable, even from the perspective of historical simulation.

If Dungeon Crawl Classics is a reinterpretation of "1970s play" through a modern game design lens, rooted in 3.5E-era sensibilities, then Swords & Wizardry is the actual game we played in the late 1970s. The games offer two views of the same era: DCC is more focused on random tables, imagination, and fun, while S&W presents the game as it was at that moment in time.

The pain of Vietnam was dulling; the gas lines and inflation of the 1970s were still in the discussion; the hippies had all gotten jobs; condo-living was a thing; disco was dying; arena rock was resurgent; and the era of over-the-air TV was being replaced by cable. The Cold War still raged on. The Reagan era was just over the horizon.

And we did not have AD&D yet. We pieced together rules from the original books and did our best to figure everything out. When BX came along, it was a restatement and clarification, the game coming into focus.

And the AD&D books took a few years to release! In 1977, it was the Monster Manual, followed in 1978 by the PHB, and in 1979 by the DMG. Imagine taking two years to release a game today, book by book. There was a whole year with just the original books and the Monster Manual; none of us knew what to do, what rules to use, and what was coming. The Monster Manual dropped into the middle of this discussion, and many pulled it into their existing games as-is.

By the time 1979 rolled around, it was all AD&D, and the 1970s and the original chaotic game we embraced were over. We had our official "organized play rules," and that was that. But those five years from 1974 to 1979? Those were the days of zero edition, and what DCC tries to replicate, along with the game Swords & Wizardry presents and reframes so well.

OSE is both a simulation and a modern platform, depending on your wants. It is best for new players of the game, and it will get better in the new edition with more examples of play and additional features to help new players. You can play this as a recreation, or use it as a platform to support gaming moving forward, just like a 5E.

The original BX games are exactly what they are, without the new presentation or reframing. They are locked in time, cannot be written for (outside of OSE), and will not change. They are more valuable as "the actual thing" and a historical record, and weaker as a platform. They were both released in 1980 and reflect the newer era. Remember, the red and blue books were released the year after the DMG came out, and reflected the "for kids" easier version of the game.

Many of us chose to stick with AD&D and ignored these books, though they had a certain charm.

I feel the same way about S&W as I do BX, in that S&W is the easier version of AD&D, streamlined and stripped down to the best parts, and all the slow, heavy, and excess rules out of the picture. If I want AD&D today, I have OSRIC 3.0. Communities and open licenses are more important than nostalgia. The platform for creativity comes first.

S&W recaptures the lighting-in-a-bottle of the 1974 to 1979 period, along with all the common assumptions, interpretations, and the original "hippies in a van and black felt neon paint posters" sort of feeling that era had. This could be seen as a "modern platform" too, and the expansion books treat it exactly that way. It is also an "easier" version of AD&D, before the huge rulebooks came out and clarified every little vague area of the rules and inconsistencies.

Why Old School Essentials?

There are a few that say, "Why do we need Old School Essentials when we have physical copies of both the original BX books?" Up until recently, you could only get one of the original PoD books in physical form, and now you can have both, which is nice.

Some exclusively play with these, choosing to ignore OSE and say, "I am playing D&D." It is a valid choice, and one that stays true to the game and era. You can't get more D&D any more than this game.

They are nostalgia pieces to me, memories, and nice to have perhaps to display, but these aren't what I play with or support these days. These are the original games, yes, but we have better ones these days. I still love my BX books, and these defined my childhood, but times have changed.

The "X" jump in BX is often ignored, but it is an important shift in focus. The Expert game goes beyond a single dungeon and introduces overland travel, retainers, hirelings, large expedition formations, and domain building. Past level three, you are leaving your mark on the world and choosing how that will be done, along with taking on kingdom-level threats.

If there is one valid criticism of OSE's format, it is that the shift in focus between the low levels (1-3) and the higher levels (4-14) is not defined or laid out as well as the deliberate shift between the red and blue books. You will get OSE players who want to "dungeon crawl all the way up," and that is not how the original game is played.

Once you have the original books and understand this tonal shift, you can play OSE much more like the original game, and divide the adventurer levels (1-3) from the conquorer levels (4-6), and the king levels (7+). And yes, I know what I did there, and ACKS is also an amazing game that puts these tone shifts into much clearer focus.

And you can get B2 in PoD form too, which gives you more of the "how to referee" advice on running dungeons and adventures, right in the module. For the complete experience, grab this, too. If you go for those two books, B1 and X1 are also iconic starting modules to try out, and those came with the original games. Where B2 is more focused on "how to run a dungeon," and the most important of the three, B1 is all about "dungeon building," and X1 is all about "wilderness adventures," and both should not be missed.

When we got these books, we did not have Mystara; we just started our worlds with these adventures and made up the rest of the world ourselves. These were the original "points of light" that we created as part of an entire campaign world of our creation. We did not need a preset world; we made one ourselves.

Old School Essentials is what I play and support because it is far easier to use and supports a community of players and creators who can share new content and participate in the marketplace. While the original BX games started it all, OSE offers the ease of use and organizational layout that define the modern era of BX.

These are also moving to an open license next year, finally free of the OGL. While the current books are still 100% compatible, it is nice to see the game finally stand on its own and away from the terrible OGL mess that has been a plague on the industry for years now. The original BX books and adventures are not even OGL, so there is no chance to create for them outside of starting with OSE or a similar open-license game.

Supporting OSE means we will always have a game that today's community can create, whether it's adventures, additional material, or even entirely new settings and games. And if you would like to play different types of campaigns and worlds, the Without Number games are also BX-based games, and cover every genre imaginable, and are also OSE compatible, so you can borrow magic, monsters, and adventures from them.

And the OSE content creator community is absolutely huge! If only we could have had so much cool stuff back in the day, from sci-fi games to modern games and everything in between. Megadungeons, adventures, campaign worlds, and loads of cool stuff, all for this game.

OSE Advanced Fantasy offers more options, and the Carcass Crawler zines bring this up to a modern standard of content, where you can have Tieflings and Dragonborn as classic, BX characters. The appeal of coming from 5E and playing BX with all your familiar favorites is a strong proposition, making the game far more accessible and easy to jump into.

I love those original books.

But today's games that stand on the shoulders of giants are also worthy and magnificent games with an entire world of creators behind them.

Beware the AI Overlords: The Half-Elf or Semidryas

I made the mistake of fact-checking my half-elf information against an AI the other day. And the AI brought up the gem that using the word "half" was "inherently racist." This was later used by clickbait sites to paint the comment as saying "half elves are inherently racist," and down the rabbit hole we go.

I hate the Internet.

I don't mind the word half-elf, which has been in D&D for 50 years, and it is a shorthand way of saying elf-human ancestry. Granted, somebody at some time should have come up with a "Drow" style name that describes them with a neutral word, as Tolkien calls them, Peredhel (plural Peredhil).

All of us would have been better served with a lore-friendly name that adds flavor, presence, and beauty to the background. Something like Semidryas, Latin for:

Semi: Half

Dryas: Elf or Sprite.

But the AI repeated the claim, and mixed it in with the "inherently racist" clickbait claims, and I realized there are times when AI is just garbage in, garbage out. It started pulling in arguments on RPG sites, and I deleted the conversation. It was like having a virtual agent repeat the most stupid pen-and-paper flamebait from the last 5 years to me, summarized.

AI, you suck. I know what I know. I think what I think. I am not having AI tell me otherwise.

Semidryas, plural Semidryades, I put you in the public domain and pray this ends.

Like dandelion seeds to the wind, spread and make the world a more beautiful place. And remember, it takes human intelligence to come up with this stuff, not an AI.

Remixing the Old School Essentials Fighter

I did this on my Gonzo blog, but we have gotten new options and a few changes coming, so it is time to revisit this article here on the main blog.

One of the reasons I originally felt so indifferent toward Old School Essentials was the fighter class, which doesn't really have much "to" it compared to other OSR games. On the surface, the class is just a d8 hit die, all weapons and armor, and the best to-hit table. Despite its simplicity, you can push the class to high performance within the rules and with a few optional rules.

Weapon Proficiency

First, use the optional weapon proficiency rule (OSE-AF-PT, 23) and specialize in a single weapon for +1 to hit and damage. If your STR is high, this will stack significantly and make a huge difference.

Racial Abilities

The second thing you can do is use the character races with the modifiers, giving your fighter some extra abilities. Humans will get these, too, if you lift the race class and level restrictions (OSE-AF-PT, 78 & 86), and these abilities are beneficial for fighters. Even other races' abilities are helpful for fighters, with some having AC bonuses and making excellent defensive warriors.

Early Domains

You will also advance faster than many other classes, so save that money, use hirelings, and establish that domain early. You can do this at any level. Even a small wooden building is a domain structure and can be built in 3 days for 1,500 gp. This can attract a small camp of settlers and followers; through story events, these could be loyal warrior retainers.

Use these rules. If the hex you start in is your claim, which is unsettled and unclaimed land, build that stronghold and get those followers early. You may find that the fighter and his loyal band of warriors can even outshine the mage and other classes quickly.

Magic Items

Magic items are upgrades! There are many more than the usual "magic weapons and armor" here, and many items are must-haves for an epic hero. If you can find a particular pair of gauntlets, or a girdle of giant strength (far better in OSE than it is in 5E by miles), prepare to amaze even 5E players with how epic and cool your character becomes. Magic items are more critical for OSE character upgrades than in 5E.

This is what I love about the old-school games: the rules may not give you a lot of '5E freebie powers,' but you can more than make up for that with smart play, roleplaying, and steering your character's story right. This level of engagement is what makes these games so rewarding.

Carcass Crawler One

Well, let's keep looking for some more official inspirations and options published in the official 'zine publications, in this case, Carcass Crawler Issue One.

CC1 - Gargantuans

In this issue, we get the gargantuan player race (CC1, p21), and when used as a stand-alone character option, it can level to 10th level as a fighter. This race can also wield two-handed weapons with one hand, using the OSE "attacking with two weapons" rule (OSEAFP, p236), for a -2 on the primary weapon and a -4 on the secondary, and two attacks a turn total.

Combine that with the high strength to-hit modifiers of the gargantuan, the high damage of two-handed weapons, weapon proficiencies (OSEAFP, p23), and you will have a beast of a half-giant character who is a literal wrecking machine in combat, even at level one. This is one of the most potent melee builds in the game, and you do not need to mod the game to have it with official rules sources.

CC1 - Goblins

There are other races here that make for some excellent fighter options, such as the goblin getting a +2 AC versus large creatures (CC1, p22), making them an excellent choice as a defensive "nut" versus dragons and other large beasties, especially in plate mail with a shield. The goblin can get to 8th level as a fighter, which is good given the scope of most campaigns.

The infravision and detection options of goblins are also convenient, along with a high CON-based resistance save modifier. With a CON of 15-17, they get a +4 to all saving throws versus poison, spells, and magic wands, rods, and staves (CC1, p22)! That is a crazy good saving throw modifier, one of the best in the game. Do not sleep on a goblin fighter; they can be lethal and highly survivable.

CC1 - Black Powder Weapons

We have rules for black-power weapons in this issue, too, perfect for high-seas swashbuckling and pirate-themed games, as well as early colonial horror gaming settings, like Lamentations of the Flame Princess. OSE has you covered if you want to use this system with Renaissance and Colonial-Era gaming.

CC1 - Combat Talents

We have something for any type of fighter, too, even our brute or any other fighter in the game! We get Combat Talents (CC1, p. 28), which give our fighters new abilities at levels 1, 5, and 10! We can select cleave, which provides us with a Swords & Wizardry-style ability to strike a second opponent when one is defeated. There are leadership, defensive, two-weapon, and other options here that beef up our fighters and make them feel like other old-school games in the OSR genre.

Carcass Crawler Five

Of note here is the special materials article, which includes both adamantine and mithral as armor and weapon upgrades, for lower weight and extra AC and damage. Also, there is no rule saying adamantine magic weapons and armor cannot exist, but such an item would be amazingly rare and powerful.

Also note that the bone, bronze, and stone options in this article are perfect for OSE Dark Sun games.

Scout Magazine One

Don't sleep on the great third-party zines for OSE! There is an optional rule in this edition allowing fighters to replace their attack bonus with their level, giving them the best to-hits in the game. This is a potentially game-breaking change, as it means +14 at 14th level, versus the old value of +9, so that is a five-point swing for just fighters.

Even at level one, this is the only class that gets a +1 attack bonus. This makes a fighter a strong choice, even for new characters. By level two, you are starting to outpace the group in delivering hits in battle.

But considering this will allow pure fighters to outshine paladins, rangers, and the other "+9 at level 14" classes, changes my mind on this houserule, and elevates pure fighters into lethal dealers of death who can consistently land blows on anyone foolish enough to get close. This also sets them apart from those classes in terms of being able to hit, while those other fighter classes begin to get all sorts of special abilities.

Also, considering that most campaigns will never reach level 14, and level 10 is a better, more reasonable campaign end for many, that would only be a +3 difference, which feels about right. If the game ever gets to level 14, let them have it. The highest AC in OSE is the gold dragon at AC 21, so that is still a 7+ to-hit, or a 30% miss rate for the +14 maxxed out fighter. Figure another +5 for STR and magic item bonuses, and we are at 2+, which is still not game-breaking.

Those are sure-thing hits, but compare that to the power of other 14th-level characters, and I would say sure-thing hits at max-level are a great class feature for them, considering they get very little else.

An alternative way to do this is just bump the existing attack bonus table up by +2 and cap it at +11 at 14. That is a good mid-ground compromise, but another part of me feels "add the fighter level" is cleaner and more of a dramatic change the class needs. Fighters give up so much for so little benefit.

This is becoming one of my favorite OSE fighter houserules, and it eliminates the need to pull in the S&W fighter rules for OSE. And the Scout Magazine books are excellent; they are very close to feeling like official content, they are very well made and interesting.

OSE Fighters are Good

Fighters seem weak at first glance, but there are a lot of options here. The basic fighter is one of the reasons I look at games like Swords & Wizardry and OSRIC, just to give that class a few more abilities and interesting play mechanics. We are getting 1 HD multi-attacks as an optional rule in the new version of the game, so things will change.

But until the new edition drops, there is plenty we can do to make the fighter class attractive and back to being the damage dealers and frontline soldiers that we expect them to be. All of these options and houserules add a lot to the fighter and place it among the best class choices in OSE.

This is the old school; if something seems broken, we don't head out to crowdfunding sites to buy new games. We find fixes for the games we got, use them, patch, houserule, and tailor the game to our liking. We check community sites and third-party zines for fixes. We share information and let others know about the rules and zines we use.

And then, we play.

Removing Half Elves from Our Games

It makes me sad that half-elves and half-orcs were removed from modern games. Half-elves were the fifth-most-popular race option on D&D Beyond before D&D 2024 moved them to "legacy support."

They are mixed-race creations created out of love, not hate. They give bi-racial people an identity in the game and allow them to work through the struggles of belonging to two separate cultural identities and express those struggles within it. This is beautiful stuff, fraught with tragedy and a hard-fought victory in bringing both sides of the family together despite cultural differences. It allows us to mirror experiences from our own lives in the game and work out the divisions between our families and cultures.

And now, Tieflings are the popular choice because the choice that spoke to people going through this internal battle was removed. Why shift the cultural struggle stories to humans and demons? It doesn't make sense.

And Gary Gygax got this right 50 years ago, back during the 1970s, when media and television openly explored biracial themes and struggles in our family dramas and sitcoms. He first expressed those themes in fantasy gaming and brought them into the mainstream through the games that kids played.

Games Without Number

Right there on the same shelf as my Old School Essentials games sits my collection of ...Without Number games. There are some of the most amazing games in my library, easily complementing OSE games with fantasy, science fiction, cyberpunk, and post-apocalyptic gameplay. Yes, there is another fantasy game in here, and it is worthy and BX compatible.

If a game ever fails me, these will do them all, and keep me in my beloved BX framework. The best thing about these games is that they are all BX-compatible, so I am not wasting library space keeping these or my OSE books out on the same shelf. I am gravitating towards games that work together and support each other, rather than the new "system of the week" pushed on crowdfunding sites, or the mess that 5E became.

Worlds Without Number is an interesting fantasy game. It reminds me a little of Numenera, a post-civilization fall into a feudal world where the old world is forgotten, and the advancements of that age are lost to the sands of time. This can be played more like straight traditional fantasy, too, with your typical elves, dwarves, halflings, and other fantasy races and monsters pulled directly from OSE. Either way you go, and even using this as your world-building book for OSE, you can't go wrong.

The magic system seems very strange at first, and almost like it doesn't do as much as a Vancian BX system, but it actually does more and operates on a higher power level. It is a very strange system, but once you wrap your head around it, you find it gives a magic-using character a lot of power and flexibility that a bog-standard BX wizard just does not have. Plus, you will gain world-breaking spells of power if you find them. The magic system here is very different, feels more materially satisfying, and offers greater tactical flexibility than BX, despite seeming far less in-depth.

The system itself is BX, but nothing like BX in feeling. It feels really good, strange enough to transport me to another time and place, yet familiar enough to run fast and stay out of the way. It is (and is not) your typical race-and-class system and feels fresh and amazing at the same time. If anything, the characters feel fully realized, like characters from a novel, and there are clear specializations at play here.

Shadowrun? Cyberpunk? Why do I need them? I got Cities Without Number right here, drop in some OSE races, and I have a Shadowrun-like world ready to go. Better yet, I get Tieflings, Dragonborn, Ratlings, Drow, and all my OSE favorites, along with OSE magic - and full OSE monster lists. It is honestly a better experience that plays on all my favorites, and allows for a true fantasy world inside a modern sheen of chrome and oppressive mega-corps.

The d20 System tried to do "D&D Shadowrun" with Urban Arcana. The pairing of OSE and Cities Without Number does it better since the races, monsters, magic items, and spells of BX all port directly in. This is a trivial conversion, and who cares if it does not make any sense? Some wizard somewhere blew a wish spell big time, and we ended up with a fantasy world put on top of Earth.

Or, you could say "this is not Earth" and randomly generate a modern world hex by hex, saying "this is a fantasy modern world waking up," and they uncover the "fog" and start discovering new cities, ruins, lands, and places in the world as the New Era awakens. There is a dragon over there, orcs over here, a ruined subhere there, a megacity over here, and whatever you want.

Now, I love GURPS Space.

But Star Frontiers, Space Opera, Traveler, Star Trek, Starfinder, and many other games can be done as well, and in the comfort-food framework of BX with Stars Without Number. Again, I can do a Starfinder or Dragonstar science-fantasy game easily with the OSE races and magic. It is easy, I get a full monster list to use as-is or reskin, and I can have a laser-basilisk if I want. A robo-dragon. A mutant ogre-kin. A metal-eating chrome-slime. The OSE monsters reskin so well, and even the spells can be converted to "space force" powers if you want. There are OSE psionic books, too, and you are free to do whatever you want here.

Why do I need Traveller 5E, again? This works, has no issues working alongside a BX game, and SWN does not need an online VTT character sheet to be playable. SWN does a great Traveller, and in fact, the star generation methods here are more tag and adventure-focused, and work out better for space exploration and discovering new adventures on worlds.

And I wrote a conversion article about 5 years ago where I renamed everything to fit different ideas, and it still works well...

SBRPG: Empires & Federations (Without Number)

You can play any variant of science fiction with SWN, and just swap the names of things, and you are good to go. A rock-solid BX engine, compatibility, and ease of play with any sci-fi genre? Drop in BX classes and monsters at-will? This is a solid, great game, and you are not getting fleeced every few years for a new crowdfunding sci-fi game.

And the ships and weapons of SWN are reskinned easily, too, and I could name the weapons one thing and have Star Wars, and another thing and have Star Trek. A procedural space hex-crawl BX "Star Federation" adventures style game? Where did I hear about that before? 

I had the Starfleet Voyages game in 1982 (my Sister bought it for her birthday, and we played it with her), and I miss it. I really miss those BX-Trek adventures; they were so silly and stupid, beaming down to a colony, hearing about trouble in the space mines, and exploring them with phasers and encountering Klingons like they were Orcs in a room, stealing space gems.

We were kids, dumb, and had the time of our lives with this one. We even ported in BX monsters to live on planets, like a planet with space giants attacking colonists. That is when you break out the big phaser rifles and photon grenades. BX-like systems, back then, could do anything. SFV was slightly different, but similar enough to feel like BX.

I can do BX-Trek directly with Stars Without Number, and the classes, powers, rules, ships, and universe generation are all right here. I just have to add Klingons as Orcs, Romulans as Dark Elves, and Vulcans as the Elf race, and we are nearly all set. It was such a rip-off of the obvious franchise, but we loved it; it was pure kitsch, with an innocence and wonder that few other games could capture.

SWN does this, Star Wars, Star Trek, Traveller, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Firefly, Star Frontiers, Alien, Space Opera, Starship Troopers, and everything else you can imagine perfectly well. I hope this gets a new edition someday with the updated rules found in Cities and Ashes.

Ashes Without Number is the new game, a massive post-apoc toolkit good for any post-apoc game, doing the game itself, or meshing with any BX rules. This game is the perfect companion to Gamma World, Rifts, The Walking Dead, Aftermath, Mutant Crawl Classics, Mutant Epoch, Car Wars, or any other post-apoc game you have in mind. The rules work well, too, again, mixable with BX if you want drow, goblins, and elves running around the wastelands. Play it on its own or with other games; this is a toolkit that will give you decades of fun.

Ashes can be used alongside Cities pretty closely, with Cities providing the system for urban environments, and Ashes filling in the wastelands between massive fortress cities. Most Car Wars games will work this way, with the places between fortified towns savage wastelands, while inside the walls is a more urban, almost Cyberpunk level of control and politics.

And again, I can reuse all my BX monsters directly in this game, reskin them as mutant beasts, give them laser eyes and radiation blasts, launchable quills, electified tentacles, or sonic attacks, and they are terrifying beasts of the wasteland. Why do I need to buy post-apoc bestiaries again? My imagination and a good source of BX monsters do far more, bonus points if I have a mutation table handy. Oh, wait, the game has that, too.

If you are planning a BX library to be your be-all end-all games you will support, the ...Without Number games are must-haves that support every other game on your shelf.

The Case for OSRIC Over Swords & Wizardry

Swords & Wizardry still has a lot of high-end combos and exploits that turn the upper-level game into a thrash-fest, where you can use a buff-focused caster on a monk to deal death and insane amounts of damage. This unhinged high-level game is familiar to those of us who enjoy Dungeon Crawl Classics, and that is a feature of 1970s gaming - not a flaw or oversight. The game was designed to have insane power combos at high level, and that is what it is.

This is also a feature of 70s gaming: if you reached a high level, all bets were off. DCC does this so well and encapsulates the feeling of the time; you go from hero to insane god of power. S&W has that swingy, unhinged play at higher levels, and it is meant to be a houserule, ban exploits, and serve as a "house system" for a group that likes to hack and add to the rules.

At lower levels, this is like "enhanced, houseruled BX" and it plays identically. There are flavor differences here in some of the classes, with slightly more abilities and power than a standard BX character. Some of these abilities are coming to OSE (fighter multi-attacks per round vs. 1 HD or less creatures, assassin backstab) in the next version, so S&W does get a lot right and sets the BX standard in many areas. The fighter is the standout class for me, and it feels much more satisfying to play than the OSE version, without needing to houserule or wait for next year's revision.

And, S&W is cross-compatible with any OSE race. OSE tends to set higher racial level limits, so that is more of a bonus than a drawback. I will play S&W and use the OSE races as-is, and it is a great-feeling combo, and I can have my dragonborn, tieflings, and all the nu-fantasy classics right there in a comfortable game with the OG classes as they were in the 1970s.

AC, hp, HD, hit-modifiers? The same across OSE and S&W. There is one saving throw number in S&W, which I still feel is genius, and lets that number be used for any saving throw effect. I am not trying to decide if a save is a wand or a spell. It is a save. Some classes get bonuses to specific areas. If a new effect comes along, such as a save versus entanglement, mental attack, parasites, life leech, or confusion, it is just the save number. We are done here.

In OSRIC, the high-level game is far better balanced and sane, and the game holds together much better without dipping into exploits or unintended consequences. The high-end game holds together, and it is not as wild or swingy. It is intended to be played "as-is" and not hacked or homebrewed. This is the OG 1980s convention-play official rules, and you don't really deviate from the book.

By the time we get to the 1980s, balance is important, and those groups grew tired of the high-level swingyness. The game lost something, that slapstick, freewheeling, punch. The rules needed standardization for convention play. We needed "one way to play" so we could all play together.

OSRIC is the perfect game for capturing a moment in time when gaming was at its best. Sorry, Stranger Things, nobody played 5E in the 1980s, and Wizards of the Coast and its Magic: The Gathering would bankrupt TSR ten years later. I was there when the hobby stores reduced the D&D and RPG space for MTG tables, and a hobby shop owner told me, "Nobody plays D&D anymore here."

If you want to play high-level AD&D adventures without having to houserule cheese combos out of the game, OSRIC will do a fine job. If you play DCC and love the cheese combos, and love seeing a monk slap a dragon around like he was Bruce Lee, play S&W. At lower levels, though, S&W works exactly like BX and does not feel unbalanced.

OSRIC will hold together at higher levels much cleaner, at the cost of increased complexity, more record keeping, and slower play. OSRIC also has the higher base hit-die values than BX, which I see as a negative. I don't like fighters having a d10 hit die since it inflates hit points and slows combat. Sure, you are more survivable as a result, but the more constrained and tighter hit dice of BX make the game more deadly, and fast-playing, and higher-level characters do not have as many hit points.

1E started the "bag of hit points" slog that got worse in every edition past this, and even AD&D 2E started to give monsters hundreds of hit points as a result of the tougher characters in AD&D. Combat got very slow by the time 2E rolled around, and people left for GURPS.

By the time we got to 4E, monsters had 1,400 hit points, and Wizards had completely lost their minds.

BX has the best hit dice and keeps the classic d4 thief and magic user that we have all come to love and fear. S&W shares that philosophy. ORSIC starts the hit point slog, and complexity and slower play increase as a result. More hit points do not equal a better game. In fact, constraining hit points makes the game better, since each point matters.

Also, death is an issue. In OSE, it is death at 0 hp. In OSRIC, it is bleeding out and death at -10 hp (OSE will get this in the revision). In S&W, it can be either death at 0 hp or death at a "negative level hp" with bleeding out. S&W feels the best to me, and gives me either option. Death is heavily houseruled, though, but it is worth mentioning.

That said, who plays games past level 14? I think maybe 3-5% of the gaming population plays games at this level. For 95% of everyone else, just picking up Old School Essentials will be fine for games that last way past the time when most campaigns wrap up and end. Level 14 is an epic power level in BX.

If you are playing that long and appreciate the pedantic depth that 1E brings, start and stick with OSRIC. If you couldn't care less about table modifiers, weapon speeds, and other 1E minutiae, stick with OSE. If you want the 1E feeling without the 1E rules and want things to stick closer to houseruled BX, play S&W.

I doubt you will ever see some of the exploits and cheese in S&W since very few play that high. You could play OSRIC, OSE, and S&W and barely see a difference up to level 14. There is a lot made about nothing here, and houseruling and banning silly combos is expected in S&W. Most do what we did, let it happen once, laugh, and then ban it as a cheese move. There is a magic in being the first to find these, and then the gods catch up to your tomfoolery and ban the silly combo.

Zeus would be sitting up on Mount Olympus, shaking his head and telling the epic heroes to "cut it out."

This is sort of the relationship between the players and the referee in these games, too.

The game and the rules were a fluid dialogue and free-form train of thought. They were less of a set of rules and more of a discussion of fantasy fulfillment within a loose framework.

As a side note, S&W uses the magic resistance mechanic from 1E, and S&W's monsters are closer to 1E in compatibility. Any OSRIC or 1E bestiary is easily a S&W resource. Also, with S&W, you get classic demons and devils out of the box, whereas in OSE, they come in a book being delivered next year. From the previews, the demons and devils in OSE will be their own thing, interesting designs that seem fun to play and have unique threats and mechanics. If you want to stick with the classic infernal monsters, S&W and OSRIC will be your best bet.

I like S&W since the classes bring more to the table than OSE, and the expanded classes feel great and play well. If I want a bard, I can have a bard. There are two bards, too! The bard is a storyteller druid, while the troubador is a performer illusionist. We also have necromancers and warlocks. The expanded classes rock and are a lot of fun. In OSE, the bard is more of a druid-style and feels more basic and straightforward.

That said, there is nothing wrong with simplicity. Where S&W classes have that oomph, the OSE classes are iconic and feel perfectly balanced. They are a touch on the simple side, and being a former 5E player, S&W's diverse assortment of class abilities appeals more to me (C&C is the same way for me).

Coming from BX, the straightforward and iconic OSE appeals to me greatly. 

Coming from 5E and DCC, the allure of S&W with its custom class abilities is irresistible.

Having grown up in the 1980s, there is nothing wrong with OSRIC or sticking to the tried-and-true.