The Advanced Labyrinth Lord book came today, and it is a nice collection of everything in one place. All the monsters in one list, consolidated treasure tables, and one spell list. I got this book and instantly...
...I wanted a higher quality stitched binding, heavier stock paper, a bookmark, and a real "deluxe" edition with more artwork and content. More OSR art. Art for all the monsters. That sense of quality and drama. Celebrate the hobby and genre by going all out. I swear some of the newer really high-quality roleplaying books are spoiling me. You take one look at Alien, OS Essentials, or Zweihander and you instantly want that. Something to pass down. Something permanent, you know?
If there was another version of AL&L I would love it to be this "going all out" ultimate version and I would kickstart support this at a premium level.
LL: The Linux of OSR
Old School Essentials feels more like the Unix version of B/X, while Labyrinth Lord feels more like a user-experienced Linux release. The support among 3rd party products for Labyrinth Lord is good, and this delivers a version of the game that is a mash-up between D&D and AD&D that I remember when I started playing in the late 70's. Back then, we had our campaign, and every new book that came out - D&D or AD&D was mashed into our world.
I do like Old School Essentials as the lower-level compatibility layer for B/X, and both can co-exist. Labyrinth Lord is that distribution of Linux with the MP3 and video player, solitaire, games, a media center, Libre Office, all the browsers, the dev tools, and a web server built in. There is a lot in Labyrinth Lord and it can do a lot of stories and fantasy genres easily, even if you do not use it all. Demons? Devils? Cthulhu? Dragons? Undead? Vampires? Evil cults and gods? Orcs and goblins? Barbarians? Your campaign bad guys are all in the book (or one easy to find).
Keeps Me Coming Back
Labyrinth Lord is the game that keeps me coming back to OSR. Of all of the games I own, even Basic Fantasy and Dungeon Crawl Classics, Labyrinth Lord is the game I have on my desk. These days, it is "D&D" for me, the way I think of fantasy adventuring, and the framework I use for thinking about this type of dungeon gaming.
With a lot of modern games, they are over 1,000 pages to read and learn just to get started, optimized builds and combat strategies, and designed to take all of your mental effort to be a part of and absorb. Pathfinder eventually got too big for our group to play, and it was more fun to read and look at the art.
To "think" in OSR plus have a lot of options, plus compatibility with older adventures, and feeling like how I started with the game while keeping that simplicity, Labyrinth Lord hits a sweet spot.
No comments:
Post a Comment