Wednesday, December 29, 2010

OSR SF - Preliminary Scans




At this point its unlikely I'll be finished with my OSR, D&D inspired SF game by Saturday. Sad face.

There are a lot of reasons but the primary ones are quite simple:

Real life is a bit busier and more chaotic than I'd hoped this week.

I find myself distracted by projects I'm more interested in.

Deep down I'm just not an Old School guy and while I thought it might be fun to get this vision of an Old School Sci-Fi game that I've had in my head for 25+ years out of there, I realize that its been tucked away in a forgotten box in my mind for a reason. Its an old idea. Its an idea that I don't play with or use anymore. I keep wanting to add skill mechanics, relationship sub systems or special abilities for Aliens that really don't fit the Old School. I see why the games that have come out already (X-Plorers, Terminal Space, Stars Without Number) are built the way they are. A real D&D OSR SF game would suck. And be full of initials apparently.

So am I giving up? No! Never Give Up, Never Surrender! But I'm not going to finish it this week.

I want to get back to working on my person RPG project.

A friend has asked me to run Star Trek! Home sweet home!

I want to try out more Apocalyse World.

Games without limits! Games that evolve. The past is nice but I'm looking forward to the Future!

AD
Barking Alien










4 comments:

  1. That's alright. I'll wait patiently ;).

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  2. LOL - Thanks for that JB, you made my day.

    I'm still really interested in the project but its proved hard to do for reasons I didn't expect.

    For me, making an old school game really is like going backwards. I need to think like I did 20+ years ago. More and more I'm thinking that making the game the way I really want to will be making a game I don't like. Oh course I don't want to do that so the next step is to figure out a happy medium.

    I do think it has some nifty ideas though.

    Soon enough, soon enough...

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  3. FWIW, I certainly want to see Aliens & Astrobases get done.

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  4. So why wed yourself to OSR if it will give you hives and, as you say, your game has evolved in your head?

    I'm obviously a bit dense as I seriously don't get the whole OSR - good, everything else - bad. It would appear, from what I've seen and heard, that a number of these "retro-clones" are essentially various versions of D&D with all the rules the writer doesn't like thrown out and all his houserules stuck in. Am I missing something, here?

    If this is the case, then I don't have a problem with it (I still prefer Classic Traveller because it's simple, elegant, and I don't have to remember complicated formulae for task resolution). I do have a problem when some form of elitism is assumed for the particular game being touted, or when creative folks, such as yourself, start getting bent out of shape trying to fit into a mould that they have evolved beyond in their game playing or thinking.

    So I say, (for what it's worth) do the game you want to do - as long as it's fun for you and for your players. With your enthusiasm and "funnification", you create the coolness that you seem to be seeking.

    Does that make sense? Happy New Year and best wishes for 2011, anyway!

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