Trying to Spin Gold into Lead

Hey gang! Happy Nearly New Year to all!I want to thank everyone who commented (and those that didn't. My page hits are high recently. Don't be afraid to talk. I don't bite. What? Barkley's wants me to assure you that he most certainly does however) and showed an interest in Aliens and Astrobases. Rest assured it will be made. When and how remains to be seen.

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

An excellent question with a barely rational answer. For a pretty rational and logical fellow I do sometimes have patterns of thinking that show off the geek in me. And those aren't hives...its just a mild skin irritation.

Let me see if I can make clearer what I'm trying to do by way of this somewhat odd example:

Let's say, when you were little, your Aunt made these amazing Gingerbread Pumpkin Cookies.

Now people make Pumpkin Cookies and people make Gingerbread Cookies, yet nobody but nobody makes Gingerbread Pumpkin Cookies like Auntie did.

Well Auntie's passed on and she was never any good at writing down recipes. That stinks because this holiday season you are determined to remake her awesome cookies. You research and talk to family members, check out Cookie cookbooks and after a long time and a lot of work, you think you can make them. And you do. And everyone loves them.

They say they're lighter then Auntie's cookies. Yes, they melt in your mouth. They're more buttery! Not as sharp a ginger taste but sweeter. The whole family loves them!

But you don't. Why? Because they're better...but they're not your Aunt's Gingerbread Pumpkin Cookies. They just aren't the same.

See, I can make a good, no damn it, a GREAT Sci-Fi/Space Opera RPG. It would incorporate stuff from my favorite games and some nifty new ideas and focus on characters and story and relationships with the PCs, the NPCs and the vast galaxy they live in.

But that's not what I'm trying to do. I'm a modern aviation designer trying to restore a World War II airplane, not build the latest and greatest in aerospace technology.

I want to understand the old school and find a way to convey it in a Sci-Fi game that has classes, levels, an archaic experience point system, virtually no skills to speak of and the other things that people fond of those things are fond of.

Obviously you can see my handicap.

Kobold also said...

"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?"

No. At least not to me. As I've been researching this and reading my copies of Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardy and a few others, I'm struck with the notion that I have paid money for someone's campaign houserules for old editions of D&D.

Kudos! Seriously. As someone who views P.T. Barnum as an inspiration and personal hero I am all for getting the public to pay tickets to see the Bearded Lady, Lana the Hairy Woman and She-Wolf, Woman with a Beard and have them all be the same rather hirsute gal.One interesting thing I'd like to end with is that everything on my blog is my opinion. Its not yours. It might be but for the most part all I can guarantee is its mine. I also have a rather peculiar sense of humor. So if I have offended your sensitivities over my particular approach to describing the old school - get over it. Kick your shoes off while you're here. Relax. Laugh for a change. Seriously, I have 62 followers. No ones going to know if you can over, stayed a bit, looked at some old posts and actually enjoyed yourself. I'm not gonna tell anybody. Dude chill, its all good.

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