Response to 'You Don't Understand The OSR' Video & Advice For Gamers

I just caught this video of the Questing Beast talking with a 5E streamer. I was happy to find it was an intelligent discussion with a lot to learn for gamers of any system, and so I will throw in my two Large Bronzes.

Excuse the rough sketch, Ben.
I'm bedridden by a sudden health emergency but still try to practice my art everyday for work.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT GAME FOR YOU, DON'T DISS OTHERS, FEEL FREE TO CHANGE

My first takeaway is that the 5E guy's title should be "The OSR is too deadly... for me." It is all a matter of taste. I've played in 4E where no one was ever in danger and the players all chewed the scenery for hours between endless combats. I was bored, not my taste. Give me the specter of death and players who are focused on doing great deeds without fear of consequences. This is why I run Stormbringer and prefer to play games like it.

Even 5E guy admits that he once enjoyed a video-gamey campaign, but that it wouldn't appeal to him now. And this is a totally normal reaction. Over our gamer lives we should be trying different modes and games, and even I get tired of Stormbringer from time to time.

Get out to your local FGS and get in a game. It'll do you loads of good.

REALITY CHECKS ARE FINE, BUT REMEMBER THIS IS FANTASY

The conversation sadly gets bogged down a bit in Reality Checks, and references the TPK of the Light Brigade, real war casualty figures, etc. Listen chaps, you are playing a FANTASY game. The creeping sway of reality in RPGs is a blight on the fantasy genre. Whenever I see a post about someone's amazing 'build' in D&D where they use some kinetic spell to speed up cannons and go beyond the speed of sound and blah blah blah I think SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Reality is player knowledge. Back in the day, we split up player knowledge and character knowledge. You may be a physicist in the real world, but your orc berserker probably has no clue about gravity or opposing forces, so give it a rest about modifying your axe for greater kinetic power.

Case in point, Mr 5E is afraid of sinking ships in a fantasy game. He needs to read more fantasy novels, get out of the gamey mindset. Strassha saved Elric, Fafhrd and the Mouser romanced the Sea God's daughters, there should always be an out that comes with a cost (I made a table Less Death More Story). The story is not exclusively a game thing, it is an imagination thing. And if you only have mechanics without imagination, you might as well play a boardgame or video game. RPGs and fiction are the kingdoms of imagination, and this is true for other genres, such as sci fi, cyberpunk, or horror.

USE WHAT IS IN THE RULES TO GET THE TONE RIGHT

On a similar note, Ben points out that in video games all monsters are hostile vs the OSR, where monster reactions can vary widely. This is why the 4E I played was an endless Gauntlet style series of combats with no punch. I was happy to watch the new Golden Axe animated series reflected this when a new character, played by the wonderful Danny Pudi, befriended the two hammer wielding brothers of the old arcade game.

Although the series is getting trashed by YouTubers for being 'woke' or 'ironic' for losing the 'gravitas' of fantasy, on the contrary, 1980s D&D sessions were filled with humour. Go read The White Box and older versions of D&D - still playable, still loved by many, and filled with laughs. Goodman games leans into this.

One thing missing from the video was mention of alignment. As Ben noted, yes, you can put all monsters to Sleep. But stabbing all of them is definitely Evil or Chaotic. Lawful or Good might bind them or take them back to meet justice. Neutrals just ignore and head on to the treasure. Just as Reaction tables added a whole dimension of interactions with NPCs besides combat combat combat, Alignment conversely added restrictions on behavior and who you likely interact with. I really enjoyed the webcomic Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, which codified alignment visually into characters instantly getting along, laughing at the same jokes, and being able to talk to monsters. That comic finally made Alignment language click for me - just like in high school, the goody two shoes (Lawfuls), wall flowers (Neutrals), and Bullies (Chaotics) all spoke their own language.

BRING BACK ALIGNMENT LANGUAGES!

This also spilled out onto the table back in the day (late 80s early 90s). You couldn't play at the same table as some others because they always chose an alignment and acted in a way your character couldn't accept. There was a wizard player who was Chaotic on the 3 system, and would always torture captured NPCs and use them as living trap detectors. I was playing a Paladin at that time, and refused to adventure with him. In the end, he was banned from local tables in peoples' basement and (SURPRISE) started his own game shop where he assembled like minded folk.

DON'T ASSUME WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OTHER GAMES, GO AND SIT AT THEIR TABLE

Ben makes great points about not believing the marketing hype around 5E and other games. Whether it is the image of OSR deathcrawls or 5E LARPing drama students, he is right to suggest you need to get out and play at a wide range of tables to understand what good gaming can be. I am mostly over the OSR, but intended to play a DCC game the weekend when my health took a twist. But I am open to lots of gaming experiences, and I think Ben's video ends with the same message.

(PS Don't worry about my health, at home mending, read half of Monster of the Week awaiting surgery)

What Matters Most in Gaming? Safety, especially for women.

I just watched another good video by the Questing Beast (HERE).

He asks the question "What matters most in DND? and gives his 5 answers.

His list is as follows:

5 Physical Environment

4 Rules

3 Players

2 The Content

1 The Game Master

It is hard to find anything here to disagree with, and as TQB notes, the order of these shift around a bit.

As for me, I'd add a few things, what I call the 'hidden curriculum' of having a good game that has very little to do with externalities like the room or rulebook.

Here we go:

3 Buy In

By this I mean the game concept and how this is followed through. This is why early D&D was so popular and held people long enough to have campaigns - you were a party of heroes clearing out a dungeon to level up, find a relic, and save the world. I played in a year long campaign, and it was epic.

As other games grew popular in the 90s, this longform campaign became difficult to sustain. If you were playing superheros, you were emulating an episodic genre where everything reverted back to normal after the big bad was defeated. Ditto horror, where the chances of surviving and mechanisms for leveling up were absent, and saving the world was often a joke.

But the worst transgression I saw time and again was the GM who pulled a 'switcheroo' on the players and killed the game. If a GM pitches a supers game, but then sics a power leech on players to take away all their powers and hunt them down, (s)he should not be surprised when they all walk. As I have mentioned before, old school scifi games were BAD for this - promise players access to an infinite galaxy, then have them stranded on some backwater planet fighting primitives to get resources to repair their spacecraft.

TLDR make sure everyone buys into the game pitch, and follow through with it to have a satisfying game.

2 Style of Interaction

Another make or break aspect is the style of interaction of players and the GM. In teaching, we call this the 'Guide on side or sage on stage' dilemma. Does the DM handhold the players, or does (s)he sit back and riff off their roleplaying?

If the players are newbies, then the GM has to be in the driver's seat, but as the players become more skilled at improvisation, the GM can sit back and let them hand him or her story hooks to drive the narrative and keep interest high. This demands more from the GM, and new GMs can equally be overwhelmed by veteran players chewing the scenery and hogging the limelight.

To be sure, this is asking a lot of both GMs and players, which is why we should all strive to play at as many tables and in as many different games as possible to bring back skills and the consideration that allow us to match the flow of interaction at the table where we sit.

1 Game Mode

This is somewhat related to number 1, but focused more on player responsibility. This is what I call the 'Heroes or zeros' conundrum, as in some games like modern D&D promote (super)heroic playmodes, while OSR and horror games lean into characters who start as practically useless, and often remain that way.

I have seen modern D&D players try to swing from a chandelier while casting a spell and reloading a gun in a Call of Cthulhu game, and Cthulhu players meekly announcing one action at a D&D table. This mismatch really lets the air out of a game, so if you are checking that everyone has bought into to the concept, don't forget to remind them of the mode in which that game is best played.

Now, the biggest consideration, especially in light of recent events...

0 Player Safety

As you've no doubt heard, this past week the truth of the Cornell 57 and their (in)actions regarding preying on a female student have come to light. This may have come as a shock to some.

It sadly was not to me or many others.

During my MA, a senior professor constantly made lewd remarks to my female colleagues, and all of us who went to the office to protest were blacklisted and punished by lower marks and pressure to remain silent.

So higher education has a problem in its treatment of women. But so do roleplaying games.

I have personally seen a Vampire Storyteller go into graphic detail of a a female player's character being raped.

I have had a female friend ask me to come to a game and sit with her because she was afraid of the GM.

I am sure many of you have similar experiences.

About a decade ago 'safe words' and lists were a hot topic in the RPG sphere, and sadly were scoffed at by some.

Let me be clear - if you laugh at player or GM safety, you are part of the problem.

When I run a game, I always preface two things:

1) There is no rape in my game. If you get captured, you may be interrogated before you escape or are rescued, but it will never be sexual.

2) I gloss over intimate content. If you want your character to seduce an NPC, if it happens, it will be off camera.

(NB Other GMs may be fine with these things, but not me. And we all have to respect each other's boundaries.)

In my experience, games that include a diversity of genders and identities are always more interesting, and the first step in creating this kind of welcoming table is ensuring safety for everyone. But especially those who are most at risk.

Lessons In Art & Life

Not like I am one to give advice, as I have made my share of mistakes in life.

And my biggest success - sonny boy!

But I am REALLY happy with where I am now.

A businessman friend asked me how I maintain focus.

I replied that I don't think focus exists. It is like motivation, an excuse made up NOT to do the thing instead of just sitting down and doing it.

So in case anyone is wondering how I achieve anything (mastering French & Japanese, blackbelt in karate, professor in Japan, BRP design winner, now art resident) here is my unasked for advice.

Do the thing. Do it now.

I lived in Japan 22 years, but also traveled around the world. I remember meeting an old school chum who had read my travel articles about Hawaii, Japan, and Mongolia. He said he'd love to travel to all the places I've been to one day.

I felt sad, looking at him. I was mid 30's at the time, still fit from karate, looking 10 years younger. My friend was the same age but had white hair and a beer belly from his job, 2 kids, 2 cars, a nice house, and a not so nice mortgage. We lost touch after that, and I hope he got some traveling done. But I remembered how hard it was climbing the Great Wall, learning SCUBA in the Red Sea, falling off horses in Mongolia, fending off scammers alone in Rome when young, and I can say that he was not in shape for it physically or family wise. Although family is important, you have to do things for yourself when you can, because the time you can't comes for all of us.

習理破

The above three Chinese characters are often seen in ateliers or dojos in Japan. They mean LEARN (習 SHU) UNDERSTAND (理 RI) and BREAK (破 HA), and I have seen alternate formations of this message. What it means is, to master an art, you first study it until you understand it thoroughly. Once you have done this, you must break the rules and find your own style.

I have studied and played many games, and used that to make Stormbringer Redux. Now, I am breaking out with NUNA, which is very different from other trad RPG games, and prioritizes community and culture over violence and riches. Giri-Ninjou, my RPG of duty and humanity in Edo Japan, will be even more ground-breaking.

Finish it first, fix it later.

Whatever thing you want to learn or make, be ready to suck at it, but just get it done. When I worked in a (disastrous and scammy) start up, they called it the MVP - Minimum Viable Product. NUNA Quickstart was my MVP.

Basically, companies make a product that works (or seems to) at minimum functionality, then go sell it to investors. Too many people I know doing painting or making games are waiting until they have a PERFECT product.

One, this is an impossibly high standard to set for yourself, and usually leads to burnout and abandonment of a creation. Second, while you are waiting on perfect (or avoiding finishing), 12 other people have put out 'good enough' products and are satisfied with that.

Which brings us to my next point...

If you make it, you are a pro.

Imposter syndrome is a HUGE impediment to any artistic pursuit. This is bad in writing especially, where people write books, put them up on KDP or other sites, then call themselves failures and not real writers because no one bought them or they never got a book deal.

Which is total self-defeating BS. If you write or paint or make an RPG, you are a writer, a painter, or an RPG designer.

The only difference is knowing the business, which is the flip side of any creative endeavour. Shakespeare never made up his stories, but instead copied plotlines from classical and contemporary sources. But he was a great promoter, always getting a noble patron to foot the bill for a production, and keeping his folios in print. That is why so much of his work survived, while others around him have disappeared.

Work on yourself, art will follow.

Last, you need to have stamina and a way to relax to succeed at anything. When the Daruma Buddha started teaching in China, his pupils became sick from sitting around meditating or reading too much. Buddha started them on an intense regimen of daily exercise and making healthy temple meals. These practices became the seeds of Shaolin Kungfu.

Just like Daruma, you need balance in your life, to strengthen mind and body for the challenges you set yourself, and the events that you have no control over. I used to do karate, but have switched to calisthenics, aikido, and taichi fan as my body (especially knees) loses some capability. I also learned Japanese hospital cooking to take care of sick inlaws when I lived there, so making healthy and inexpensive meals keeps me in shape to work on my creations and raise my son.

And that's what it is all about isn't it?