How to get started with OSR

One Anon's tips. Version 0.02, 14th May 2024

What the fuck's an OSR?

How do I start? What system should I use?

1. So start by reading B/X (Modvay's Basic and Mentzer's Expert) and learn by playing, keeping all of the
following guidelines in mind.

2. OSE-Classic is a handy and faithful reference manual for B/X, but the examples of play in B/X are very
much worth reading. So learn on B/X and use OSE-Classic as a reference manual.

3. Familiarise yourself with the defining procedures listed below.

4. Play!

Restrict your diet. You don't need to read any other retroclones. Stay away from all the noise that the
NuSR coffee table ultralite crap makes. Distrust many "OSR" YouTube influencers.

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What are the defining procedures of OSR?
Don't take oft-touted OSR primers too seriously, they are misleading. I recommend you focus on learning
the procedures instead, learning them early, and learning them right: The OSR style of play emerges
naturally from the procedures. There are fine DM'ing skills to learn, and they will come with time.

XP for gold and defeating monsters, but mostly for gold. No other sources of XP.

"YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT." (Gygax)

Time tracking in the dungeon and in the wilderness.

Encumbrance and exploration movement speed.

Resource expenditure. Track them fucking torches.

Check for Wandering monsters as needed, and remember to do it even when the party enters a
room if it's time to check for one. A double Room+Wandering monster encounter is often
amazeballs.

Learn to handle encounters with monsters and traps by the book:

Make surprise checks.

Determine encounter distance based on dungeon/wilderness terrain and surprise.

Make reaction checks.

Learn to run the pursuit procedure.

When combat starts, side initiative is your friend.

Make morale checks.

Dungeons are perilous places.

Some, many, most, or even all doors are stuck for the PCs --- but not for the monsters!

Players must map after the DM's verbal descriptions.

There is no "my character would remember". Sure he would but D&D tests the player, not the
character.

Learn how to run traps and secrets.

Learn the subtle art of telegraphing the presence of traps and secrets by being neither too subtle
nor too overt. This takes time to master.

Room traps are triggered 2-in-6 when stepped upon, check for each member of the party
individually.

Secret rolls are made secretly, but most of the other rolls are best made openly.

The Wilderness is not as dangerous as they say, and it can be a very interesting place to explore.

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 Make lost checks. Implement hunting and foraging by the book.

Know that wilderness evasion procedures are very lenient so, against common bad advice, even
low-level characters can adventure in small groups in the wilderness!
Rules for Hirelings, Henchmen, and Followers are not decorative. Enable and encourage players to
use help. Warn them that the game is designed under the hypothesis that the party will have Hirelings
and Henchmen in their service.

Don'ts and dos

No character backgrounds. All characters are defined by the desire to become rich and powerful. The
XP-for-gold rule is all the drive they need as motivation for joining an adventuring party.

Don't offer character customisation options. Focus on offering players real freedom when it comes to
sandbox play.

Don't offer quests. Embrace player initiative. Allow them to go wherever they want, whenever they
want. Even if it's outside the map you have drawn. Even if they are ignoring the dungeon you
designed, bought, or pirated.

Don't balance encounters. It's not the DM's job to make sure that the player have favourable odds to
win. Monsters are balanced (very roughly) by dungeon level and by terrain. It's the players' job to
figure out what they can kill, where, when, and how.

Don't waste your time trying to shitbrew a game you've never even tried. Gygax and Arneson created a
game that was made to be played. Most of what is there is there for a good reason, and you won't
be able to tell until you try.

Play like the big boys: Advanced ways to run Basic D&D
Here are some cool and interesting ideas from AD&D that you can include in your B/X game now or later to
make it feel even more different from all that WotC crap.

Consider allowing players to run multiple PCs, even from the first session.

Learn to run combat with many monsters quickly and efficiently. Consider a quick, dirty, and brutal
figure ratio approach to mass combat (PHB 39).

Modules are overrated. During the very earliest part of the Golden Age, the idea that DMs might want
to buy commercial modules was not even considered. Embrace low prep as well as procedural no-
prep play.

Consider implementing the % in lair checks from the MM.

As well as the checks for wandering monsters in the Wilderness actually being Patrols and
Fortresses (DMG 182).

Your primary sources for procedural play are Appendix A and Appendix B. Your secondary
sources are Wilderlands of High Fantasy and Wilderness Hexplore. (Yes, even if you run a B/X
game.)

Watch all of GFC'S DND videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@gfcsdnd205/videos

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 Consider running cities as if they were a dungeon or a wilderness, tracking time and checking for
city encounters (DMG 191)
Consider encouraging returning to the base camp at the end of each session as well as a form of 1:1
time between sessions (DMG 37--38). Using it, combined with players running multiple PCs, has some
deep and interesting effects on a campaign. If you do, consider including

the training rules (DMG 86),

the full week of forced bedrest after returning from 0 HP rule (DMG 82).

checks for diseases and parasites (DMG 13--14)

Last but not least, the DMG is required reading eventually because it's the best RPG manual ever
written, based on many years of extensive DM'ing, and most of the problems you will encounter are
addressed there.

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