Old School Renaissance (OSR) (2000)

Overview

The Old School Renaissance, Old School Revival or OSR is a play style movement in tabletop role-playing games which draws inspiration from the earliest days of tabletop RPGs in the 1970s, especially Dungeons & Dragons. More popular systems developed under the OSR system subculture are
Shadowdark
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Mothership
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Perils & Princesses
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Basic Fantasy

Description

The OSR movement first developed in the early 2000s, primarily in discussion on internet forums. OSR games encourage a tonal fidelity to early editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Less emphasis on predefined endings, and a greater emphasis on player choice determining the fate of characters. OSR Games provide play where wrong decisions can easily become lethal for characters and do not guarantee satisfying endings to character arcs. Characters live and die by player choice as opposed to the story's needs

Key features

Rulings Over Rules

Rather than providing comprehensive mechanics for all potential scenarios, OSR systems rely on the Game Master to adjudicate outcomes based on the players' stated actions. This approach is intended to expedite gameplay and encourage lateral thinking over rule memorization.

High Lethality

Player characters possess low survivability, particularly at early levels. Game mechanics often dictate that a single error or unfavorable dice roll can result in immediate character death. This design element encourages players to avoid direct combat and approach the game world with caution.

Player Skill over Character Skill

Game resolution depends heavily on the player's descriptive input rather than the character's numerical statistics. For example, instead of rolling a die to detect a hidden object, a player must explicitly state that their character is searching a specific area or manipulating a particular mechanism.

Gold as Experience

Character advancement in many OSR games is directly tied to the acquisition of treasure rather than the defeat of enemies. Characters gain experience points primarily by extracting valuables from dangerous locations and returning them to a safe environment. This heavily incentivizes acquiring loot while avoiding unnecessary combat.

Resource Management

Game mechanics require the strict tracking of consumable items such as rations, light sources, ammunition, and carrying capacity (encumbrance). Depleting essential resources in a hazardous environment poses a significant mechanical penalty, making inventory management a central component of gameplay.

Reaction Rolls and Morale

Non-player characters and creatures do not default to immediate hostility. Game Masters utilize randomized reaction tables to determine the initial disposition of encountered entities, which can range from hostile to friendly. Additionally, adversaries are subject to Morale checks during combat, dictating whether they continue fighting or attempt to flee when at a disadvantage.

Active games and players

OSR
OSR
Wise
West Marches / Living World
Power Phantasy: Vice & Viscera
Players
12
OSR
en English

Power Phantasy: Vice & Viscera

West Marches / Living World
One world and a big pool of players, but no fixed party - whoever signs up that week is who plays.
"In a time beyond beginning, when savage warrior-kings conquered and enslaved all who dared oppose them, and cruel lords of shadow raised black monuments to conjure eldritch horrors from beyond the outer dark. Gods and demons walked among men. To let your guard down for a moment meant death. This is the era of vice & viscera."

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OSR
OSR
Keswick
West Marches / Living World
TTRPG group for various systems - Cumbria
Players
6
OSR
en English

TTRPG group for various systems - Cumbria

Roleplay focused
Conversation, character and story take up most of the table time.
Newbie friendly
New players are welcome, and nobody expects you to know the rules beforehand.
Looking for new players for shadowdark RPG games in Keswick,Cumbria.  I have an established gaming group and am looking to expand session frequency through additional players Group is new player friendly Shadowdark is a rules-lite d20 system with OSR vibes. Open to other game systems in the future. Current casual  campaign is a west marches style setup where each session an expedition party leaves a central base to explore the world through rumours and previous expedition logs , each session ends with surviving party members returning to base.  Looking for players wanting to play sessions between weekly and monthly cadence, If is enough players available on a day(3+) then I will run a session/expedition.

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OSR
OSR
Online
Campaign
Borderlands of Cormyr - OD&D / Chainmail game
Players
4/10
GM
1/1
OSR
en English

Borderlands of Cormyr - OD&D / Chainmail game

Combat focused
Fights, tactics and initiative take up most of the table time.
No paid games
On a player profile - you are looking for free games and are not interested in paid ones.
The Borderlands of Cormyr - an old game that we have been running for 5 years is starting back up again! A few of the players are more interested in domain play, so we have been doing a lot of skirmishes & wargaming using the chainmail rules. Most men survived the last few battles with a goblin horde of over 600 goblins - they have returned, and many are now taking their hand at becoming adventurers! The party will likely consist of lower level players, perhaps with one or two higher levels, so it is a good time to start. The town of Tilverton, north-east of the Cormyr area in the Forgotten Realms world, has been besieged by goblins as of late. The party has just heard rumors of a goblin kingdom in the nearby Thunder Peak mountains, which is likely the source of all these attacks. There is also the feared Harondalbar dragon that has been laying siege to the stonelands and Cormyr settlements to the west - the party has decided best to leave him be for now, but perhaps there is more to the story than just goblins... The idea for the game will be to use Chainmail for the overworld encounters (i.e. battles with over 200 or so men), and OD&D or perhaps OSE or B/X for the dungeon delving. Once your characters become heroes or heroes -1 (level 3 fighter) your character becomes quite powerful and harder to kill, but characters will feel pretty fragile at lower levels. Expect a lot of deaths, but hopefully that can be avoided with ingenuity and some luck.

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OSR
OSR
Barcelona
Campaign
Looking for a Old School D&D Player at Barcelona
Players
0/6
GM
1/1
OSR
en English

Looking for a Old School D&D Player at Barcelona

Hola! We are a small D&D group looking for one additional player to join our ongoing campaign. The essentials: System: Old-school D&D using BX rules Setting: Mystara Language: English Age group: 30+ Schedule: Every other Tuesday, 18:30–22:30 Location: El Born neighborhood of Barcelona Experience: Some D&D experience is preferred, regardless of edition The campaign has been running for the past few months in a classic D&D setting that combines high fantasy, exploration, and political intrigue. Our play style emphasizes exploration, dungeon crawling, resource management, and creative problem-solving. Characters are vulnerable, combat is dangerous, and encounters are not necessarily balanced. Success depends more on player ingenuity and teamwork than on optimized character builds. If this sounds like the kind of campaign you would enjoy, send me a private message with a little information about yourself and your experience with tabletop RPGs.

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en English
DND5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5E
DND3.5E
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5
...
Online
SCARYWIZARD
Interested in asynchronous text games only.  Dungeons & Dragons v3.5, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Old School Renaissance... Those kindsa games! PLAY-BY-POST ONLY; ANYONE OFFERING VOICE GAMES SHALL BE BLOCKED.
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en English sr Serbian
PATH2E
Pathfinder 2E
PATH1E
Pathfinder 1
...
Online
Gabbs
Hello, I've been playing TTRPGs on and off for about 10 years now. Played with different systems and on different platforms over the years. Don't have a favorite system, willing to learn and try new games (have a preference for fantasy settings). Timezone is CET and should be free on most days of the week in the evening. Thanks.
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