The Ravens Nest

The Reason I Explore Other Tabletop Role-Playing Games

I’ve written an article on why I’m done and moving on from D&D altogether. I’ve seen people point out that the extremes that have popped up (The Rules As Written vs. The Scott Garibays of the world) are but a small sect of actual players. Okay, that, I’ll grant you but the Libra in me needs some fuckin’ balance here, like a Van Halen album and honestly, it’s not that I’m done with Fantasy games, oh not at all, it’s that I’m done, specifically, with D&D.

I’ve seen this shit starting to tear apart my friend groups here and make them unrecognizeable and everyone is blaming each other for it and, let’s face it, I initially only bought this one to be a dick to everyone but found I rather liked Kelvin Green’s writing.

It’s a banger and it’s on sale, go grab a copy and then, while you’re at it, grab another book of equal or lesser value for free. All happening on the US LoTFP site.

Anyway, let’s talk about this. I’m absolutely done with this attitude that the OSR has accomplished it’s mission and now it’s dismissed.

No. No, it’s mission is far from over. That is a very myopic view to take.

Let’s break this down.

The initial mission of the OSR was to put those rule sets into the hands of people who wanted to play older rule sets. Not one of them was ever one to one translations. There’s a reason for that. Because the authors were legally required to differentiate them with artistic expression. Old-School Essentials is the only one that got super close to the line without being taken to court over it. Let’s get that out the way.

Why would people buy retro clones instead of the originals now that the originals are here, I hear you ask? Simple. Many people are tired of giving Wizards of The Coast and Hasbro money when they clearly do not deserve it and they hate customers like us…I mean head on over to Drive-Thru RPG and check out this gem every time you wanna buy the older stuff…

We’ve all seen what they meant by that, I’m sure.

“Oh but Raven, you can just hit up eBay for that older material! WoTC and Hasbro, out of the picture, problem solved!” I hear you saying…

Yeah, this was one of the best condition pre-owned books that I found and no, it’s nowhere near near-mint, let’s get that out the way. It’s been through it. It’s seen some shit in it’s day and we don’t get a peek of the inside on that listing.

Are there others? Sure and yeah they’re a little less expensive but then you see one and your heart leaps and it’s the same price and FUCK…it’s a reprint that you could get for less on Drive-Thru RPG which I also don’t recommend giving that company money either. Now you’re getting scalped if you don’t wanna give Drive-Thru RPG money.

Okay but yanno, let’s say I had $200 to burn…who has that these days? Seriously.

If Troll Lord Games is still having that Castles & Crusades Player’s Handbook bundle sale of 5 for $125, I could buy those for five more dedicated players and then have snack and pizza money for at least two or three sessions. Seriously, eBay lister are you fucked?

WoTC’s recent behavior since the OGL Scandal hasn’t gotten any better, it’s gotten progressively worse. Naturally, their behavior has created yet another diaspora which people are seeking out older rule sets. That demand has driven prices way up

But D&D fans are ignoring that and they’re needlessly making enemies of each other.

I don’t see this behavior with Castles & Crusades peeps…the printings I have that still have OGL shit in ‘em are gonna work with the person who has the very first editions of the same books. All books are compatible. There are no editions. Gygax’s final works were with Troll Lord Games.

Considering economics, OSR games like Basic Fantasy, OSRIC and even Castles & Crusades have free PDFs and have the lowest barriers to entry. Guess which ones I’m gonna recommend to people who wanna play at my tables online or in public. Hell, Lamentations of The Flame Princess even has a no-art version of the core rules for free and you can even play Old-School Essentials for free. No bullshit.

Lower barriers to entry, not giving companies that hate you money or getting scalped on older rule sets? Win-Win. There’s piracy but, on the record. I would never recommend you do something illegal. Okay? You wouldn’t steal a movie. You wouldn’t steal a CD…blah blah blah blah. You’re responsible for your own actions. Cool? Cool.

See it’s not that I don’t enjoy fantasy games I have a fuckload of them but if you’re trying to sell me one, it needs to have something super special. I mean that thing has to be unique. It has to have something no other game has that I want. I don’t want or need ACKS II. Does that mean I don’t recommend it? No. I do recommend it if you like a lotta crunch (Complexity) in your game. Go ahead, it’s fine. It’s just not for me.

Fact is, just taking into consideration the genre of Fantasy alone, there’s a literal seat for every ass out there. If “it’s just elf game, bro” then what the Fresh Green Turkey Shit are you all fighting over? Go play your game!

Personally, I’ve been branching out. Why?

Okay, let’s put the Conan The Cimmerian, Masters of The Universe and Lord of The Rings away for a bit. I know! I know…but just follow me I’m gonna show you something.

Have a look at my first two shelves here. My Prime Shelves, I’ll call them for now.

That’s almost all Castles & Crusades. Victorious is the Victorian setting where literary figures like those found in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are actually real in that world. You can interact with them and go with them on adventures. What system does that use? Same one as Castles & Crusades.

Then there’s this shelf…the one right below it. Notice something?

You’ll notice that there’s Amazing Adventures in there. Amazing Adventures is a sort of universal system aimed at creating pulp adventures like Indiana Jones, Rocketman (The Rocketeer, if you will), The Shadow, so on and so forth and they all use the same system. Wanna break away from Fantasy for awhile? No problem! No one can say “Man I love The SIEGE Engine! I don’t want to learn an entirely new system!” You don’t have to…same system. Boom. Done deal.

Hostile lets you do everything from Alien to Pitch Black to William Gibson cyberpunk. That’s a universe you get to play in, not just one thing. Cha’alt’s rule set is Crimson Dragon Slayer d20. That’s only 17 pages of rules. Don’t let the books fool you it’s full of lore and setting mostly. Call of Cthulhu is pretty awesome but I’m sticking to the books I have. I won’t be buying any more. Alien RPG is amazing and I’d recommend you get the starter box too…saves you money on the dice and you get to dip your toes in the water before you commit to buying that big bad book there. Tales From The Loop is cool but also kinda creepy in parts and Vaesen plays with folklore and I am all about folklore.

If Skate Wizards doesn’t look like a barrel of fun, I don’t know what to tell you because this game…reading it was a damn pleasure. You should check it out.

Dystopian Dawn: 2526 is another one I’ll show off because this one lets you do basically Thundarr The Barbarian at the table or any other post-apocalypse scenario you want.

My point in showing you all of these as a small sample of the games I own is this. Start considering what you and your group watch and wish you could play around in. Guess what? It’s out there.

During the OGL Scandal plenty of people were saying we didn’t need WoTC or D&D and now they’re the same people fighting over play styles and needlessly making enemies of each other. This also builds expectations at my table that I want no part of.

What’s the point of even playing these games if you’re primary goal is to not have fun and terminally argue constantly over editions?

Meeting people or trying to introduce them to gaming such as this, I’m more apt to ask them what their favorite movies are. With a few rare exceptions, I try to shy away from games that are licensed from major IPs because at least then, my players won’t feel relegated to being background characters in a title they like. There’s stuff like White Star which does Star Wars based on OD&D rules, as an example but I do have Alien RPG, Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, respectively. Why do we automatically assume that it’s all D&D or bust? I know it’s the most popular game out there, I get that but why do we assume at times that it’s the only game out there on the market? It’s not.

There’s nothing wrong with just playing something else when the groups start factioning and creating expectations at your table that you’re not willing to deal with is what I’m trying to get at here.

In the words of Jake Chambers from Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Series, “There Are Other Worlds Than These.”

…so get to fuckin’ exploring them.