I’ve seen a growing number of questions on Reddit and other places about how to get started in Old School Renaissance games.

You might be a uncertain about what these games are, why anyone would want to play one, or how they are different from Fifth Edition.

There is a lot of material about OSR gaming online and some of it is contradictory. It has to be confusing for anyone that is new to the Old School Renaissance scene so I’ve written some posts I hope will help you understand.

Revision Note: November 21, 2024

I have revised and re-written this post since I published it. If some of the conversation in the comment section doesn’t make sense, that’s because I’ve cut or revised a section of the post.

5E and OSR games are not played the same way.

A lot of game masters picking up an OSR game believe that the rule set is the number one difference between WotC published versions of D&D and Old School Renaissance.

They have difficulty running an OSR game, get frustrated when it doesn’t work out and decide its the game that’s the problem.

The reason it doesn’t work out is because they don’t understand a key difference between newer versions of D&D and older versions is playstyle. Playstyle isn’t the only difference but it is the most important one.

The rules are important but MORE important is the way the rules are used and interpreted in the old school method of play.

Unless you have played an OSR game with a knowledgeable referee, watched some actual plays of actual OSR games, or studied the various primers, then you might make a lot of incorrect assumptions that will mess up the experience.

The basic parts of an RPG.

I’m going to start with a little game design because it will help you to get the big difference between “new school” and “old school” and why applying the “new” way to the “old rules” doesn’t work.

There are three pieces to a tabletop role-playing game.

All three of these pieces are required.

1. The setting of the game
2. The rules and mechanics
3. The playstyle

The Setting is made up of the fictional places, the non-player characters, objects, concepts and narratives that make up the contextual model of the game world.

In order for players to create a mental image about who the characters they are playing, there has to be a “world” for them to play in.

The Rules are the mechanisms of the system which determine the outcomes of player choices.

These include the limits to the actions the players can take and what sorts of rulings the game master can make.

In classic adventure games, combat and exploration are the bulk of the rules.

Most of the time, we use a set of rules and they don’t change much during a session unless a weird situation comes up. The rules cover expected situations depending on the game you are playing.

The Playstyle is the way players interact with the game world, how you interpret the rules and intentions of the rules.

The mechanics of the game can limit or event dictate the possible play styles of the game. Some games, like 4E D&D and Apocalypse World have a specific play style built into the game and you’d basically be “playing it wrong” if you try to do otherwise. Other games, are more fluid.

You can play AD&D in the “new school” style but it becomes a tedious slog through charts and tables.

What is the difference between the “old school” and “new school” play styles?

In OSR games, players think about the fictional situation their character is in and imagine how their character might get out of the trouble they face. Then they describe what their characters do mostly using natural language.

In some cases a game mechanic or rule is referenced but for the most part the player says, “I open the door,” or “I stab it with my sword,” or “I cast fireball.”

The DM decides what rules and mechanisms apply, roll dice, or call for a player to roll dice and then narrate the result.

In 3E, 4E, and 5E D&D the player decides what rule or game mechanism applies to the situation and usually selects the skill, ability, or feat which has the optimal probability of success. The player tells the DM what mechanic they want to use and rolls dice, the DM follows the rule or procedure and then narrates the result.

The way the player comes to their decisions about what their character’s choices is where the “new school” and “old school” versions of Dungeons & Dragons differ most.

In my experience, what hangs up most gamers who have only played 3E, 4E, or 5E is that they look on their character sheet and think that is the limit of what their character can do. That’s why they struggle.

They think the only thing they can do is attack with the sword or cast their one spell or this list of thief abilities is completely useless in this situation.

You can run away. You can pull a hunk of meat out of your pack, throw it to the monster and then run away. You can try to trick it into chasing you and falling in the pit trap. You could try talking to it.

The “old way” is to imagine you are an adventurer in a dangerous fantasy world, use your imagination to overcome challenges even if the class abilities or skills of your character are useless in the situation.

Your character is not just a collection of mechanisms and probabilities.

3E and 4E made it impossible to play the “old way”. Those games were intentionally designed to make the rules (the game mechanics) the primary way players interact with the game setting. This created a culture of play where mastery of the game mechanics (crunch) was deemed more important than mastery of the milieu (fluff).

The text of 5E encourages players to incorporate the “old school” playstyle to a degree but still emphasizes that players should “role-play” in a way to maximize the probability that the dice roll will result in a positive outcome rather than thinking of an alternative that has no rule or mechanic and is based entirely on the imagined situation.

In OSR games, it’s the DM’s responsibility to decide what rules apply, not the player’s.

We are not merely playing “let’s pretend.”

Players and referees combine setting knowledge, mastery of the game mechanics, their creativity, and real life knowledge to play through the adventure.

The OSR just emphasizes the combination of setting knowledge, general knowledge of our world, and creativity over skillful manipulation of game mechanics.

If you are DMing without being a player in an OSR game first

Learn the rules but be willing to make a ruling.

Ask the player questions about what they want to do. If there’s a rule that applies, then apply it.

If not, make a guess about what you think is the likelihood of success. If it’s impossible, tell the player it’s impossible. If they persist, narrate how they fail in spectacular fashion.

If you think their plan will succeed and there is no chance of failure, tell them it succeeds and move on. Routine activities in routine situations should always succeed. There is no reason to roll dice for tying up a bandit with stout rope or starting a fire with dry wood and no wind.

If you think there’s a chance of failure, assign a probability and have them roll for it.

You can use the percentile (d100) or you can do the math in your head. 1 on a D20 is a 5% chance. 1 on a D10 is a 10% chance and so on. You can even use advantage/disadvantage from 5E if you want. It doesn’t matter what die mechanism you use as long as the probability seems fair and the outcome reasonable to the players.

Decide what the result will mean before they roll and tell the player to go ahead.

If it succeeds, narrate the success. If it fails, narrate that.

It might seem like this should be more complicated but it is not.

Getting Started With The OSR: Part 2 : Play a Retro-Clone.

Getting Started With The OSR: Part 3: Put Story In Its Proper Place

Getting Started In The OSR: Part 4: Is the OSR Anti-5E?

What Makes an OSR Game an OSR game?