I had more fun playing classic D&D! | Why you should play Old School Essentials

[Music] so i've spent my weekend exploring the strangest most interesting dungeon i've ever encountered and being thrilled by combat in a way i haven't for a long while that is to say i've been playing old school essentials i will start out by saying that i love dungeons and dragons 5e i play multiple games a week and absolutely wouldn't change that so it was as much a surprise to me as anyone that i recently fell in love with what is basically described as zero e through old school essentials this follows the style of dungeons and dragons first edition way back from the 70s the very first version of the game basically the ose has all the necessary updates to make it more easily digestible for playing today you might be asking why would i go back and try this if they spent years developing 5e well do you love exploration do you love dungeons are you looking for an incredible creative experience if so grab a d20 and keep watching i'm maddie from dicebreaker and this is why you should play old school essentials [Applause] okay you don't actually need the d20 but they're always nice to have around so what is old school essentials or ose it's one of the growing number of ttrpgs in the old school revival movement or old-school renaissance depending on who you ask harping back to the classic dungeons and dragons play style of old however ose isn't a dnd game it just takes inspiration from rules and play of that era more of a love letter to the original game than one that tries to replicate it word for word it has less of a focus on stories and more on interacting with the world generally through wilderness exploration and dungeons it may not have the huge flexibility of something like 5e to take you from a wizard school in one session to a vampire's castle in the next but if you're hankering after a good old-fashioned expedition with the promise of live laugh loot osc does it best the first thing i'd recommend doing before playing especially if you've only tried more modern fantasy rpgs is to read something like the old school primer by matthew j finch or principia apocrypha by david perry these give a great overview of how different something like osd feels from modern games like 5e because more often than not you'll be unlearning habits you picked up over years of play rather than taking on tons of new rules when playing old school essentials the most obvious rule change and the thing that really got me interested in the first place are the combat rules you'll notice a character sheet is pretty basic there aren't any skills on there and very few class features or racial bonuses in old school essentials when you want to do something you tell the dm exactly what you want to do no feat's necessary on your first ever fight in a ttrpg did you try to stab a werewolf in the eye or cut the bandit's arm off that it used to wield a sword anything to turn the fight in your favor only to discover that you just do general damage to them and gradually need to wear down their hp to zero well old school essentials is all about those kinds of fun and cinematic ideas maybe you did successfully cut the bandits sword hand off outmaneuvered they flee the fight or perhaps they use their less dominant hands to attack thus becoming far less powerful or maybe they just switch to bare knuckle punches the dm can have fun with outcomes the same way players can you're all deciding in the moment what fun or cool thing might happen next and that's the same for anything you do to check for traps you'll be running hands over the stone floor searching for loose flagstones and jamming an iron pick underneath one to hopefully disarm it if you're lying to a guard about where exactly you got that a shiny new horse you won't roll deception you've got to think of a convincing lie or old faithful point in one direction and a ride off in the other yes i ended up in jail after that all of this immerses you in the fantastical world that you're inhabiting but it definitely takes a while to get used to putting your character sheet aside and delving into your imagination instead the osce general rule for dms and players is to go with whatever is fun so get creative use that slimy tree branch you picked up to knock out a cobalt scatter jelly beans on the floor to trip off an ogre construct a rope out of vines to get across a pit in a dungeon so while there are a lot less rules in some respects because of the focus on exploration there are other additional rules for that process of getting around the sometimes hostile environment similar to a round of combat in 5e everything you do from your movement to actions are within a limited amount of time you can only walk so far in 10 minutes after all maybe you creep over to a bookcase search its shelves for a trick book to trigger a secret door and watch as a panel in the wall slides open that might be your whole turn then the dm can roll to see if any wondering monsters heard the door noise and come toward the party or see how much of the player's torches burnt down perhaps leaving them in the darkness you are constantly tracking the passage of time when playing old school essentials it sounds like a lot to handle at first i know some of you might even be hovering over the skip button as i'm talking here but similar to turns in combat in 5e it doesn't take too long to get into the swing of it there are handy tables for keeping an eye on torches and rations or maybe just be a dwarf and rely on improvision to feel your way past enemies in the dark no lizard men are getting this stout little lady on the topic of rules you might also have heard of the dreaded thakko or will see it when opening up your ose rules tome for the first time for those unfamiliar it's basically a way of calculating if you can hit an enemy that's regarded as overly complex in many circles you're rolling to reach a zero point based on your hit dice but then you have to take away a monster's armor class from your role and then use an attack matrix to check it all against but when looking at this i just get even more confused luckily old school essentials has taken all of that into account for every monster stat block there are ascending armor class rules too where the higher the number is the harder it is to hit something if the bugbear has an ac of 14 you have to roll that or above it with your d20 to hit them simple so yeah don't worry you can disregard everything you just learned and stick to the easy rules all this is part of probably the most important point old school essentials and a lot of the retro remakes are not just out there to chase the nostalgia of people who played before the year 2000. far from it osr or the old school revival can seem intimidating but i went into it looking for fun exploration and incredible dungeons and that is exactly what i got as dungeons are the main draw for most adventuring parties there are creative masterpieces out there that perfect the cruel no boring traps no endless rooms of monsters instead you can discover algae-coated remains of a lizard cult deep underground overgrown gardens fallen into ruin or forgotten tombs that house restless fae deep within a magical forest if i can feel like the brothers grim puppeteering an evil tale while my players creep through a dungeon i'm sold osc is even compatible with older adventures for d d so you can check out some amazing classics or at least easily adapt many of those that just aren't as easy to experience in 5e of course you can also build your own there are tons of resources out there as well as in the ose rules home we're actually working on a video as we speak about how to build better dungeons so keep an eye out for that hopefully hitting the channel soon hopefully by now you think you're ready to go and play you've got a basic idea of the difference in rules and how that feels while enjoying a game so next up you need to get a group together old school essentials recommends groups anywhere from six to eight characters but you're encouraged to also hire retainers these are npcs who act as grants to back you up in combat or go first in trap infested dungeons just don't tell them that's the plant though so if you like me struggle to get a big group together you can still venture forth into old school essentials it's worth noting though that no matter how many people who join you in an adventure osc isn't set up to have perfectly balanced encounters you can always win monsters are dangerous and fighting them head-on is rarely the best option trickery stealth and cunning can be some of your best skills when facing a basilisk or albert so try not to treat combat encounters in the same way you would in modern d d plus loot is where you get the most xp to level up anyway so sneak past the ghouls and go for the gold so that's an overview of old school essentials and why my friends have heard nothing but enter the dungeon from me this past month if you're interested in more retro clones or the old-school revival in general let us know in the comments because i am more than happy to take a look through some of osc's contemporaries or if you have any great dungeon suggestions let me know i am always looking for more regardless of system for any of the dungeons i referenced in this video head to the description for all the links and if you want more ttrpg content or brilliant board game recommendations make sure you subscribe to dicebreaker you should also hit the notification bell so you don't miss out on any of our videos like being in a dungeon it pays to be prepared but finally and most importantly i hope you have a lovely day

Channel: Dicebreaker

Views: 64,988

Keywords: Tabletop Games, Dicebreaker, old school essentials, OSE, OSR, old school revival, old school renaissance, games like dungeons and dragons, ttrp, new ttrps to play, old school essentials review, old school essentials combat, old school essentials adventures, old school essentials vs 5e, old school essentials rpg review, old school essentials classic fantasy, classic fantasy games, fantasy rpgs, fantasy ttrpg, 0e, THAC0

Id: ScQtu1hE5U8

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 26 2022