Thursday, September 29, 2011

OSRIC Player's Guides: Do we need one?

After yesterday's little drama (and it is good to have these every so often to keeps things lively) I have a couple of random thoughts.

- First it looks like Vince made an honest mistake with the cover art.
This is obviously not a James Shipman deal.  But I'll counter with that if you are going to go through the effort of putting a product together, make sure that what you are doing is 100% legit.  Don't assume anything.  Unless you know 100%, don't use it.  Even then verify.  Even if you buy the art make sure the person you are buying it from actually has the rights to sell it.
Right now I think I am in about as deep as I can get with art for my witch books.  Depending on how these books are priced (I want them to be inexpensive) I might break even with the money I have spent on it so far.  That's not a complaint mind you, I like the art a lot and has a nice 70s-80s vibe to it.

- Secondly does the OSRIC community need a Players Guide?  
Given that this product got so much attention that even I noticed it (and I am far outside the OSRIC community) and there is another project of similar scope on the way.  I would guess so.  Personally I would think you could just print up the OSRIC book's first few chapters and be done with it.

I guess that is part of my confusion.  Is OSRIC a guide or compendium or is it a game in and of itself?
I am not involved enough with OSRIC to really know.  I like the idea of one.  I liked the idea of the one just recently out, but not as a guide or as a book itself but as something that extended the OSRIC concept and potentially raised the bar in terms of production; till it didn't.

Does anyone here play it?  Do you play it as straight OSRIC or are you playing 1st ED AD&D with OSRIC as guide book?




10 comments:

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

It was/is 1st edition.

OSRIC was made to give publishers a platform to legally write/sell modules that were 100% compatible with AD&D/1e without the thorny trademark/license issues.

The fact that people think of OSRIC as a separate game is a byproduct, but in all honesty, it was going to happen anyway.

I always tried to say OSRIC/1e in the same sentence, but eventually, I started just using the two interchangeably, because they are.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Mike, I am very glad you posted cause I really wanted you opinion of this too as my "local" OSRIC expert.

I remember the days on the old OGL listservs when Clark Petersen said he would not touch OSRIC with a 10' pool. Well history has proven his fears ungrounded, but I never gave OSRIC more than a look because of it. I have my AD&D 1st ed books anyway.

But I see what you are saying and that was what I wanted to get it. I know what OSRIC was created for, but has it morphed into a game of it's own? Seems like it has a little.

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

Well, I am a phone call or lunch invite away, my friend.

I think it has morphed into it's own only by dint of being "new" in terms of buying books. Buying the 1e/AD&D books on Ebay/used book sellers can be unsexy - compared to shiny new covers that the gamers seem to be attracted to. As it's own "game", I think that's more of a mindset than reality - most people at my table used both interchangeably.

At the end, I was moving more back towards the PHB/DMG of AD&D as they were laid out better - and using OSRIC to clarify when things were confusing.

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

And BTW, who the hell ordered another monsoon season?!? Bike has sat in the garage all week.

My project that @thePrincessWife and I didn't quite work out like we'd hoped, but we're still going to be pretty damn busy in the future and for 2012. So the hiatus will probably stand for a good while longer. Not sure if I'll have the time/energy to do a marathon again, but I might... that seems too much fun to let go. Maybe my only game in 2012.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

I totally need to hit you up for a 1st ed game one day at GP.

Though with my wife down now for surgery my gaming is going to be curtailed for a bit.

Falconer said...

I don’t NEED any new RPG product, ever. At this point, I buy books for the art. Which is why I have been such a proponent for Steve’s OSRIC Player’s Guide. The art he has posted looks really good. Delving Deeper falls in to the same category for me. I’m also a sucker for great maps.

Al said...

I don't know if we *need* them, but I think people certainly *like* them.

http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2011/06/something-osr-is-missing.html

Chris Kutalik said...

I was looking at my shelf earlier today and noticed that I had no less then 3 copies of the original.

What's funny is that I don't even remember buying the second and third copies--I would imagine that I bought them as a impulse buys at Half-Price Books which knowing my cheap-ass habits means they were listed under $10.

Looking over Ebay real quick I notice that they are selling for $5-10 on the average with many offerings. With those sweet old books so cheap and plentiful, why on earth would you need or want to buy a partitioned -off copy of OSRIC?

It really makes no sense to me--and I generally accept and support the case for retro-clones in general.)

Gaming Ronin said...

I'm not sure anything is needed. Would be nice to send the link to new players though. Smaller page count is less over whelming.

F. Douglas Wall said...

I downloaded the PDF of the Players Guide and was not impressed. It's just a copypasta of the player-relevant sections of the original OSRIC book. So little effort went into making this product that the publisher does not deserve my money. If the other Player's Guide gives me something I don't already have in my OSRIC big book, I might just buy it.