The OSR vs the Retro and Vintage Subcultures
Since 2016 I have followed a gaming subculture known as the Old School Rennisance/Revival. The OSR was a gaming movement born from a variety of self referencing blogs, forum posts, and YouTube video; in which gamers who played the popular game ‘Dungeons And Dragons’ in its hayday. Would lament about the direction in which it’s current corporate caretakers (Wizards Of The Coast) had taken the game’s development.
In an attempt to capture the audience of Massive Multiplayer Video Games like ‘World Of Warcraft’, ‘Destiny’, ‘Club Penguin’, and ‘Poptropica’. WOTC shifted their focus and efforts towards MMO’s. This pulled D&D away from its dungeon crawling roots, causing issues like power creep, character builds, improv theatrics, ‘balanced combat’, and Game Master fatigue; to arise within modern WOTC produced iterations of the game. These issues would only compound with time, as newer and newer editions of the game were published, and more and more MMO enthusiasts were introduced to the hobby.
The Proto-OSR looked at the mess that D&D was becoming and decided to do something about it. Creatives like Daniel Proctor, Matt Finch, Steward Marshal, and many others would use the liberties granted to 3rd party adventure path (the stories that D&D players explore) designers in the Open Gaming Liscence and System Refernce Document. To reconstruct and publish they’re own versions of the earlier editions of D&D.
Game like Labrynth Lord, OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Castles & Crusaders, Old School Essentials, The Black Hack, Into The Odd, Knave, Shadow Dark, and the many settings and adventure paths created for them. Would collectively come to be known as the OSR. They resurcested a table top gaming playstyle which focused on emergent story telling, player skill, and player ingenuity. Rather that the shallow narative driven play style popular among 5th edition and Pathfinder games.
Ultimately, the OSR came into being because veteran’s who played D&D when it first came out, wanted to make the game more accessible. While also wanting to improve upon the original game, implementing their own tweaks here and there. Given that the goals of making early iterations of D&D widely accessible, and improving upon the earlier iterations of the game; have long since been completed. The OSR now sits in a state of purposeless stagnation. Many have been swept up in the culture war, leaving those of us who just want to “grill and game” (The Basic Expert) left asking ourselves, “has the OSR out lived it’s usefulness”?
In my first blog post, I stated “with this blog I plan on highlighting the [Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures”. Unfortunately, its not entirely clear if the Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures are actually a thing. Nevertheless, I believe the Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures can be, and are the natural evolution of the OSR.
You see, if the OSR was about making older games more accessible to all. Then I think the Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures should be exploring the games of our forefathers, and about bringing forth the forgotten playstyles, procedures, and philisopies which made them so great; into modern game systems. Infact, I’d go so far as to say that this subculture shouldn’t be limited to the table top side of the gaming, but should be extended to the board gaming and video game sides of gaming. No matter one’s chosen gaming medium, I think there is knowledge than can be gained from the past, and I dont think I’m alone in this assessment.
Among the OSR and its many subcultures on twitter, like the BROsr. You see gamers insisting folks adopt the oldest editions of D&D (Like AD&D, B/X, and OD&D) at their own tables. You see these same individuals encouraging people to read their maunels completely (a very unpopular opinion among modern gamers). You also see individuals like @KraftyMatt, @CrossFace, and @TheBasicExpert. Taking the philiophies of RAW (Rules As Written) and RTFM (Read The Freaking Manual), and applying them to modern games like 5th edition. Showing the audiences of those games that their is a better and more profound way to play, while showing their own audiences that the modern gamer doesnt have to be discarded and considered hopelessly lost to the sands of time.
In an attempt to capture the audience of Massive Multiplayer Video Games like ‘World Of Warcraft’, ‘Destiny’, ‘Club Penguin’, and ‘Poptropica’. WOTC shifted their focus and efforts towards MMO’s. This pulled D&D away from its dungeon crawling roots, causing issues like power creep, character builds, improv theatrics, ‘balanced combat’, and Game Master fatigue; to arise within modern WOTC produced iterations of the game. These issues would only compound with time, as newer and newer editions of the game were published, and more and more MMO enthusiasts were introduced to the hobby.
The Proto-OSR looked at the mess that D&D was becoming and decided to do something about it. Creatives like Daniel Proctor, Matt Finch, Steward Marshal, and many others would use the liberties granted to 3rd party adventure path (the stories that D&D players explore) designers in the Open Gaming Liscence and System Refernce Document. To reconstruct and publish they’re own versions of the earlier editions of D&D.
Game like Labrynth Lord, OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Castles & Crusaders, Old School Essentials, The Black Hack, Into The Odd, Knave, Shadow Dark, and the many settings and adventure paths created for them. Would collectively come to be known as the OSR. They resurcested a table top gaming playstyle which focused on emergent story telling, player skill, and player ingenuity. Rather that the shallow narative driven play style popular among 5th edition and Pathfinder games.
Ultimately, the OSR came into being because veteran’s who played D&D when it first came out, wanted to make the game more accessible. While also wanting to improve upon the original game, implementing their own tweaks here and there. Given that the goals of making early iterations of D&D widely accessible, and improving upon the earlier iterations of the game; have long since been completed. The OSR now sits in a state of purposeless stagnation. Many have been swept up in the culture war, leaving those of us who just want to “grill and game” (The Basic Expert) left asking ourselves, “has the OSR out lived it’s usefulness”?
In my first blog post, I stated “with this blog I plan on highlighting the [Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures”. Unfortunately, its not entirely clear if the Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures are actually a thing. Nevertheless, I believe the Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures can be, and are the natural evolution of the OSR.
You see, if the OSR was about making older games more accessible to all. Then I think the Retro and Vintage Gaming subcultures should be exploring the games of our forefathers, and about bringing forth the forgotten playstyles, procedures, and philisopies which made them so great; into modern game systems. Infact, I’d go so far as to say that this subculture shouldn’t be limited to the table top side of the gaming, but should be extended to the board gaming and video game sides of gaming. No matter one’s chosen gaming medium, I think there is knowledge than can be gained from the past, and I dont think I’m alone in this assessment.
Among the OSR and its many subcultures on twitter, like the BROsr. You see gamers insisting folks adopt the oldest editions of D&D (Like AD&D, B/X, and OD&D) at their own tables. You see these same individuals encouraging people to read their maunels completely (a very unpopular opinion among modern gamers). You also see individuals like @KraftyMatt, @CrossFace, and @TheBasicExpert. Taking the philiophies of RAW (Rules As Written) and RTFM (Read The Freaking Manual), and applying them to modern games like 5th edition. Showing the audiences of those games that their is a better and more profound way to play, while showing their own audiences that the modern gamer doesnt have to be discarded and considered hopelessly lost to the sands of time.
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