Over the last week the news that G+ is going to die has provoked a frenzy of creativity by the OSR. A large segment of the community has decided to try out the social media startup mewe.com (the current OSR group is here), a new DIY forum has sprung up, James Young launched a compiled list of blogs to help get the blogosphere restarted, and Ramanan and John Carlson created an .opml file to use with your feed reader, like Feedly or Inoreader (go to the little cog by subscriptions > manage subscriptions > import/export). Ramanan also wrote a tutorial for it. Finally, a couple of discord servers for the OSR have exploded in popularity, and the community is expanding on Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook. I think the G+ sunset might turn out to be useful for getting our books out there and seen.
The Random OSR Guide
1. One article or blog entry thing that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:
No two ways about it, it’s the Quick Primer for Old School Gaming. This short .pdf was like a jolt of “hell, yeah,” in the arm for me.
2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark:
Unbalanced is fine.
3. Best OSR module/supplement:
Look, I know it’s nearly cliché at this point, but I’ve got to say: Death Frost Doom. It captures the atmosphere I’m looking for to perfection. Is it perfect? Nope. But as a place to start, it’s hard to beat.
4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):
It’s the carousing rules by Jeff Rients, from his epic Party Like Its 999 post from 10 years ago. Finally, I had a way to make gp for xp work for me. They’re the best, and I use them every time I can.
5. How I found out about the OSR:
That’s a whole series of posts I’m currently writing, but this is the short form: in 2012 I won a prize for my One Page Dungeon, Alex Schroeder of Campaign Wiki contacted me, and I picked the Lamentations Grindhouse Edition as my prize.
6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:
Until recently it was Google+, but let’s give a good one – Jeff Russel’s fan index of Jason Sholtis’ epic Dungeon Dozen blog.
7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:
The blogs, the Twitter, and the Discords. In that order.
9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:
You only ever need eleven levels, because, man, once you turn it to eleven …
10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:
Dungeons & Dragons 5E, because I can hack it into gibbets so easily.
11. Why I like OSR stuff:
It sets the dungeon master and the players free to invent mad worlds of endless creation.
12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet:
The Last Gasp Grimoire hosts some of the weirder stuff, but for the count, I have to go with Elfmaids & Octopi. If you ever run out of ideas, borrow some of Chris Tamm’s. He’s got them by the hundredweight.
13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:
Of course, I already mentioned DNDWP, but we wan’t something new, too. Recently I’ve been enjoying the heck out of the Cavegirl Diaries.
14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:
I made the Ultraviolet Grasslands, a psychedelic metal steppe-crawl, which I think is pretty epic. If you like it, give it a rating – it helps. Hope it goes into final publication fast. If you want something shorter, Witchburner is hitting the stores sooner.
15. I’m currently running/playing:
For now, just my regular campaign, which is currently in the UVG. I need to find some Flailsnails game to go rubbing out enemies again with Amaro, or even Big Gnome.
16. I don’t care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:
The maths are the same, and I just want to roll high anyway.
17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:
The Misty Isles of the Eld. Metal AF.
If you enjoyed that, the best way to support my small contributions to the OSR and DIY worlds is to commission something or to become a member of my Stratometaship patreon where I’m preparing to launch the next big project, Red Sky Dead City.