Is the OSR Fundamentalism?

D&D, and by extension much of the OSR, has a problem.  It must innovate, or be considered "old fashioned" and yet it must also adhere to a certain set of expectations of be considered too far away from the concept.  For many 4e was a step too far, for others 3e was.
Wizards of the Coast gets to chart out the next version of D&D once more and they will have to make some changes to game to keep it financially viable.

Boing Boing has an interesting point of view on this in a new article by Peter Bebergal.
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/06/old-school-dungeons-dragons.html

You can read that article and come to your own conclusions and thoughts.  I want to focus on one bit of it though; is the OSR D&D Fundamentalism?

Certainly a lot of us are here because we think "the old ways are best" or even out nostalgia.
I have been pretty much focused on B/X D&D over the last year or so myself.  Part of it is fun, part of it is nostalgia for sure.

Do we though as a group eschew innovation for an "old school" feel?  Or more to the point, a "proper old school" feel.  For example I like drama points in my games. It gives the characters a chance to do heroic things, it works great in other games AND I can find examples of their use in the various "Appendix N" games.  Honestly, read the John Carter books and tell me he wasn't burning drama points when fighting the Green Martians, Thakrs or First Born in various books.

Sometimes using ability checks are nice, but so are skills.  Multiclassing in 3e was far better than anything before (or after).  Swords & Wizardry has some nice ideas above and beyond OD&D.  I have seen add-ons that allow skills, feats and other such "improvements" to older games.

I suppose the question lies in what sort of experience you want to have.  If that is the case I have had some fantastic "D&D experiences" using WitchCraft and Ghosts of Albion, while having some games where I felt I was nothing more than a ref with some (unnamed) versions of the Grand Old Game.

I do know this.  Wizards will have to update D&D. It is going to be impossible to make it all things to all players.  Look at all the various retro-clone rules we have now.  We can't even as a group agree on what cloned version we like the best and we represent a tiny, mostly homogeneous, demographic.
True, all these games are really 95% or better compatible out of the box and 100% compatible with a little imagination.

What do you think?

Kickstarters for Monday

Here are some Kickstarters I am tracking this fine Monday morning.

The Victorian Academy of Magick Book
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/415194828/the-victorian-academy-of-magick-book

Cartoon Action Hour: Season 3
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800609645/cartoon-action-hour-season-3

Adventure Maximus!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/adventure-maximus

Tome of Horrors Complete - 28mm Heroic Scale Miniatures
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/centerstageminis/tome-of-horrors-complete-28mm-heroic-scale-miniatu

Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deep-bestiary


Re-Creating AD&D Module Cover Paintings Part 1, by Jeff Dee
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/1227941745?token=95c6d060

That's quite a bit.  Most are already funded and are now hitting some cool stretch goals.
Adventure Maximus! is a new game by Eden Studios' own George Vasilakos.  It is an introduce kids to RPGs RPG and I think it has a quite a lot of potential. It's a bit more ambitious than the others I think.  Not in terms of amount needed to be raised, but also the audience.  I'd like to see it do well to be honest.

What is Obscure? Obscure RPGs.

I'll admit. I consider myself well informed on all sorts of topics related to RPGs.  I get to go to a lot of auctions, talk to people online and spent quite a lot of time editing and researching RPG articles on Wikipedia.
But there is always some game that comes up that surprises me. More to the point it also seems to be a game that has a small, but dedicated following.

That is why I am looking forward to the Obscure RPG Appreciation Day hosted by Mesmerized by Sirens.

I was in my game room looking over books.  The deal is the obscure RPG has to be Fantasy. I have a lot of Obscure Horror.  Hmm.

I have an idea of what I want to do, and I think it might even be a good choice for me in particular.

But mostly I am looking forward to see what everyone else is going to do.   So I'd like to see a lot of participants in this for purely selfish reasons.  I want to know what little hidden gems are in your collection that I might not know about.

Zatannurday: Tumblr

I have been playing around with Tumblr of late.

No idea what to do with it that I can't do here.  But all the cool kids seem to have it. http://timsbrannan.tumblr.com/

The thing is it seems to be perfect for pictures.
So I went on and searched for a bunch of Zatanna images.

http://comicbookcosplay.tumblr.com/tagged/zatanna
This one is great, all sort of Zatanna cosplay on Tumblr.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/zatanna
This is just a search of posts tagged "zatanna".

Here are some of my recent faves.

Cartoon Action Hour Season 3

A while back I reviewed Cartoon Action Hour Season 2. A great, really fun game. Especially if you grew up in the 80s.

Well Spectrum is up with their new Kickstarter for Cartoon Action Hour Season 3.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800609645/cartoon-action-hour-season-3

Open for only about and hour and half so far (at the time of this posting) and it is doing well.

Lots of levels to pledge at including some early-bird ones to get some discounts.

Looking forward to this one.

Blogfests

Doing the A to Z was not enough for me so I am signing up for a few more blogfests.

I like these things.  They help me stretch my creative muscles and give me something special to work for.
Plus it exposes my blog and work to others that might not seek me out.

May Monster Madness
http://littlegothichorrors.blogspot.com/2013/04/second-annual-may-monster-madness-blog.html
http://www.anniewalls.com/2013/04/may-monster-madness-sign-up-linky-list.html
http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com.au/

I love monsters as you might be able to tell.  So I am going to try to post something each day of this.  My hope would be to post something to promote Eldritch Witchery some more.

The Best and Worst Remakes Blogfest
http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-to-z-challenge-memento-meant-to-live.html

From the King of Blogfests, Alex Cavanaugh.  I am not sure what I going to do here yet, but I am certain it will be horror related.

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/03/hop-against-homophobia-and-transphobia_15.html

I have never been shy about the fact that I support equal rights for everyone. In particular I have been a strong supporter of gay rights and freedom to marry rights.  So I am very pleased to be part of this one.  Since this hop is focused on authors I am going to talk about some characters.  Honestly no idea who yet.

Towel Day Blogfest
http://lgkeltner.blogspot.com/2013/04/announcing-towel-day-blogfest.html

This one is easy.  I am going to talk about what is the best RPG to play a "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" game.

May ends with:

The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day
http://mesmerizedbysirens.blogspot.com/2013/05/announcing-obscure-fantasy-rpgs.html
(no image yet, but here is one from the site)

This will be a bunch of blogs talking about their favorite pre 90s fantasy RPGs.  I think I know which one I want to do.


Heroes & Villains Blogfest 
http://danibertrand.blogspot.com/2013/04/u-unfair-ultraviolet-blogfest-unveiled.html

This one is very new to me.  I am sure I can come up with something in the next month!

There you have it!  Watch for these over the next month.

Help a Brother Out? Part 2

So last month I posted about wanting a Dragon Age figure.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/04/help-brother-out-aka-d-is-for-dragon-age.html

Well thanks to +The House of Fun I now have my figure!
http://www.thehouseoffun.com/news.php

Yeah I opened her, I am not a big time collector.  I like them out of the boxes.

Mixing my video games a bit.

Comparing her size to some of my other witches. She is taller than most.

Quite a gathering in the Halliwell's attic.  Wonder what is going on to need all this magical firepower?

House of fun could not have been easier to work with!  Thanks so much.