Old School RPG Thoughts

When I was young I was heavily into RPGs but, except for a few dabbles, I haven't played for a very long time.  I do have friends who still play and periodically I read up on the latest developments, especially on the OSR 'scene'.

So this departure from my usual wargames posts is another nostalgic indulgence, and although it probably won't ever come to any kind of fruition, I wanted to collect together my thoughts on running an OSR style RPG game.  Probably only for my own later review.

OSR Gaming

The Old School Revival, or Renaissance, is a an attempt to recreate the style of play from early RPGs, particularly TSR era Dungeons and Dragons. 

It's a loosely bound movement that in many ways is searching for a lost past that never existed.  Vainglorious fool's errand or not, this 'renaissance' has sparked a massive amount of creativity, much of which I personally like and feel an affinity to.  The OSR now runs from early retro-clones like OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord to new divergent products like Into the Odd, Mörk Borg, Knave and Mothership.

The early attempts to explain the OSR philosophy came from Philotomy's Musings on OD&D or Matt Finch's Old School Primer.  Probably the most comprehensive statement to date is the Principia Apocrypha, David Perry's excellent assembling of OSR wisdom from Questing Beast Ben Milton and RollPlay: West Marches' Steven Lumpkin. Interestingly, the foremost champions of the OSR now are too young to have 'been there' in the 80s, and this probably accounts for the continued vitality of the movement.  

For an in depth discussion of the OSR's philosophy and history see Marcia B's The OSR Should Die.

Rules

To run my hypothetical a game I would probably use my original B/X D&D books, the retro-clone du jour Old School Essentials, or a mix of OSR concepts and modern mechanics like ShadowDark or 5 Torches Deep. 

West Marches

I would like to run a open world sandbox style of game with heavy emphasis on emergent play and exploration.  This concept was so brilliantly explained by Ben Robbins, in his seminal blog posts, that the West Marches name is now the archetypal shorthand for this way of running a campaign. 

West Marches (part 1), Introduction

West Marches (part 2), Sharing Info
West Marches (part 3), Recycling
West Marches (part 4), Death & Danger
West Marches: Running Your Own

West Marches: Secrets & Answers
West Marches: Layers of History
West Marches: A Survivor’s Story

The comments below the blog posts contain additional material from Ben. 

Matt Colville's video on the concept further revived the ideas by bringing them to a wider and less grognard audience. 

Steven Lumpkin's collection of West Marches resource links is here.

Point Crawls

Although the traditional style of play for such old school sandboxes was the venerable Hex Crawl, I prefer an approach using a linked matrix of locations joined by limited but intuitive paths.  I think it was Chris Kutalik, on his Hill Cantons blog, that coined the name Point Crawl to describe this type of structure but the concept had been around for ages and is very much how Text Adventure Games or the Fighting Fantasy books worked.

Links

Here are some blog posts explaining the concepts and providing other handy GM advice for running sandbox or old school games.

Ars Ludi

Besides his iconic West Marches posts, Ben Robbins dispenses lots of great game design and mastery wisdom.  Here are just a few useful links.

Situations not plots

Don't Roll, Think

Initiative: the Silent Killer

Bad Trap Syndrome

Bad Trap Syndrome (part 2), Curing the Bad Trap Blues

Treasure Tells A Story - This is a great concept that is especially useful for West Marches exposition and when combined with the Three Clue Rule can point the players to undiscovered areas.

The Alexandrian 

Justin Alexander's blog is a mine of great material, far too much to list it all, but here, in appropriately Jennell Jacquays style, are a few entrances.

Gamemastery 101

Game Structures

Jacquay(s)ing the Dungeon - A must read for sandbox adventure design.

The Three Clue Rule

Don't prep plots 

Justin also has a book out soon, So you want to be a game master, which I have on pre-order and promises to be a nice synthesis of much of his blog advice.  His Alexandrian YouTube channel is worth a look too.

Other Blogs & Links

Point Crawls Series @ Hill Cantons - The Point Crawl concept explained

Why I Use Point Crawls More Than Hex Crawls @ Silverarm
The Wilderness is a Dungeon: Jaquaysing Your RPG Sandbox
A Web of Hooks: Quest Connections in a Sandbox Megadungeon Region

The Formless Wilderness @ Beyond Fomalhaut

Hex Crawls, a Simple Guide

 

Sub Hex Crawling Mechanics Part 1 Point Crawling @ DIY & Dragons

Sub Hex Crawling Mechanics Part 2 Minicrawling

Pathcrawl @ Detect Magic - A combinatio of Hex/Point Crawl

Guiding Player Movement @ Twenty Sided

Wilderness Hexes @ D4 Caltrops - A wealth of point ideas and lots of D100 tables too

Hex Crawling part 1 @ Prismatic Wasteland - Hex Crawling but useful ideas

Hex Crawling part 2

Settings series @ The Welsh Piper

Hexcrawls, Hex Maps, & Sandboxes Hexed Press PlayList on YouTube 

Not sure if I should run my game as a Hexcrawl or a Pointcrawl, would appreciate some guidance and perspectives. - A Reddit Post

Hex Crawls are Path Crawls @ Permanent Critical Damage

Re-inventing the Wilderness: Part 1 - Introduction @ Sachagoat
Re-inventing the Wilderness: Part 2 - Paths

 

Wilderness walls and halls: Streamlining hexcrawls @ Playful Void

Lots of great Dungeon maps @ Dyson's Dodecahedron

Battle of Helm's Deep

These are some shots of a Helm's Deep game at the club earlier in the year.  They were taken and edited by my club mate Dean.

They're very atmospheric, I can almost hear the rain pouring down.

100k views review!

Well, my page count has stormed past 100,000 views and I seem to have become a viral hit in Singapore, for some strange reason.  Fortunately, I haven't let this glory go to my head.  However, I did think it was a good time to take stock a bit.

My original intention of this blog was to encourage me to get on with some of my many project ideas and catalogue my 'genius'.  That failed quite quickly the first time but since the blog was resurrected as as a store of pictures, some details I'd otherwise forget, and as a means to define some project ideas, it's been more successful.

So, here are some pictures of stuff I have actually completed since the comeback started.  

Macedonians

 Numidians

Wars of the Roses Tudors

Soviet Naval Infantry

Congo Simbas & Mercs

 Wild West Gunfighters

Middle Earth Lothlorien Elves

Back of Beyond Reds

Back of Beyond Whites

Back of Beyond trains

 

 Back of Beyond Steamer

 

There are a few more bits and many others can put me to shame but I'm quite pleased with all that.  It makes me feel like I have accomplished some of what I set out to do.

Northern Barbarians

I have finished a few extra light infantry for my ADLG Alexandrian Macedonian army.

First up are a couple of bases of Alexander's elite Agrianian light infantry to lead the main attack.

To take this skirmisher role on the other flank I have painted up a couple of bases of Thracian javelin armed light infantry. 

I have gone for a mix between Hellenised clothing and a nod to their tribal heritage on the shields.

Alexander Returns

I have started re-basing my Macedonians for Art de la Guerre and adding a few extra figures to make a list legal 200 point army.

Alexander is based at the head of his companions, as an integrated commander in ADLG.  This isn't compulsory but it's where he should be.  The pink clad light cavalry are a base of Prodromoi lancer scouts.  These are all Foundry figures but I have another pack each of Prodromoi and Companions from Crusader to paint eventually.

The Phalangites are six to a base, which is a couple fewer than required under the standard basing but with the lowered pikes I can't fit more on a base.  The archers are going to be used as Cretan mercenaries.

To add more support I have some Thessalian cavalry, Greek Peltasts and some archers that can be Greeks or Macedonians.

Next up are some Agrianian and Thracian light javelinmen, then a separate command base of three figures. 

After that I just need to do some Hypaspists, and maybe one more command base, but I have some Greek Hoplites and Thracian allied swordsmen too.

More Numidians

I have finally completed enough of Juba's Numidians for a 200 point ADLG army.  Here are the latest additional bases. First are some Numidian Noble cavalry.  They are javelin armed medium cavalry in with the option to be elite.

Numidian Elephants are only mediocre units in the army list, being the smaller north African beasts.

I have two independent general bases now.  The third cavalry base is to represent some of Juba's Spanish and Gallic mercenary guardsmen. These are elite medium cavalry.

You can never have too many light cavalry to overwhelm the enemy with javelins.

Here are a few pictures of a possible 200 point army.  I have more than enough for this now, so can try some minor variations.

These last few are some older photos of the rest of the army.

The last figures I have to paint are a few light infantry bowmen using the excellent Crusader miniatures.  I've need a camp and maybe some specific  eventually too.

Photos of the Simbas

Here's a collection of photos of the Simbas, or more accurately soldiers of the Armée Populaire de Libération.  This is the best of what I have been able to find so far.

The army was in theory divided into regular units.  Like the ANC  these were unités d'operations and unités de garnison.  Additionally there were irregular militias called barriéres.

The Simbas were typically well motivated but lacked discipline and their command was often chaotic.

Some Simbas were termed 'Jeunesse', i.e. youths or young ones.

These next few are stills of Simba prisoners from the the movie Africa Addio.  There are some accusations of staging against the film but it looks pretty authentic.

I used the Gancia t-shirt from the screenshot above as inspiration for painting the Simba in the centre of the group below.

I added a Simba style monkey-hide hat similar to the one worn by this 5 Cdo mercenary to a TAG African Militia figure.

This last still is the only one I could get of an armed Simba in the movie.  The live Simbas are only seen moving rapidly at distance.  Very sensibly in my opinion, given the copious rifle and machine gun fire coming their way.  Interestingly he looks to be carrying an FN FAL or possibly a G3.  Most of the Simbas above look to be carrying older Mauser types or FN-49 rifles.

These are some of the Simba leaders.  To start is Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of an independent Congo.  He was deposed and murdered after just a few months in office.   The Simbas fought in his name.

From left to right. Jean-Sébastien Ramazani, Laurent Kabila, Gaston Soumialot and Adrien Kanambe.

Nicholas Olenga

Président Christophe Gbenye, left, and Général Olenga.

Pierre Mulele, who had trained in China and led a Maoist faction in Kwilu province.

The famous Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara arrived too late in the fighting to effect much actual change but has great what-if potential for us wargamers.

These last couple are from later after the fall of Stanleyville, when the Simbas were reduced to a hard core of guerrilla fighters in the jungles and mountains.  

Sadly, nobody makes any 28mm miniatures of these unique fighters except Grubby Tanks and they just take your money without ever sending you anything.  So, I have had to find substitutes or try some conversions.