An Alternative OSR Style

calendar Jul 23, 2022 · 3 min read · RPG OSR Design

I feel like the Old School Renaissance ('OSR') games could achieve their goals easier.

The exact goals vary, but it's something along the lines of:

  • like old D&D
  • don't fill the character sheet with 1,000 special skills
  • simple rules
  • lethal game-play, forcing players to be clever

Rather than ditching feats and clinging to classes, I think we can achieve these goals easier by using Feats to do what classes once did.

Imagine a level 1 person. They are nothing but a race.

Now let's make a quick list of Feats, derived from class abilities.

  • Sneak
  • +2 attack with favoured weapon
  • +2 sneak attack
  • Magic sphere
  • Pick-pockets
  • Magical items
  • Rousing Song
  • Second attack
  • Tracking
  • Turn undead

Finally, everyone gains 1 Feat per level.

A 3rd level fighter might look like this:

  1. +1 Strength
  2. +2 attack with axe
  3. +4 HP

Now a paladin:

  1. +2 attack with sword
  2. Magic sphere (healing)
  3. +2 Constitution
  4. Turn undead

And a thief:

  1. +2 sneak attack
  2. Pick-pockets
  3. +2 attack with sword
  4. +2 Dexterity

But of course if that thief wants to 'become a bard', we could add:

  1. Rousing Song
  2. Use magical items

Now the thief can sing inspirational songs, and use magical items.

The Rest of the System

Of course, this system requires a lot more before anyone can use it, and we could flesh it out in any number of ways:

  • Magical spheres need added
  • Purchasing Feats more than once may allow someone to do more, like higher-level magic.
  • We could add Attribute-gain to the system, allowing fighters to gain Strength, and wizards to gain Intelligence.
  • We could add some meta-currency to the system which stops characters receiving damage; perhaps 3 per level.
  • Instead of gaining +1 to attack, we could add a great variety of situations which give +2 to attack, such as fighting in open territory, or fighting a giant creature. Fighters would manage to gain a +6 to attack by using all their feats at once.
  • Maybe some racial abilities, such as a first Feat?
  • Obviously, some encounter tables

Derived Stats

We'll also need standard ways of computing Initiative, Armour Class, and the rest, based off Attributes and items.

In total, a character sheet would consist of:

  • Race
  • 6 Attributes
  • Gold pieces
  • Equipment (armour, weapons, et c.)
  • Feats

More Simplification

Old School rules could have given us results in far less time than they did. We have a lot to remove:

  • Damage could be a margin on the to-hit roll, rather than a new die.
  • Instead of giving weapons damage scores, we could just give them feats. This lets them give a plus to attack, but only in the right circumstances.
  • Instead of 'downtime', we can assume each break from a dungeon represents a time to level-up, buy items, and heal, centring each game within a given dungeon.

Back to Objectives

With the old classes fairly represented by some Feats, and no more special skills than A,D&D proposed, we have a simple system to perform some old-school dungeon crawling.

If people want a 'rock up and play' game with OSR values, they could achieve all those values far better with modern rules.