My favorite Retro Clone RPG! Old-School Essentials 

OSE is for sure the go to for getting people into the OSR! The clean and clear writing and layout truly excells at making this game worthwhile playing and running!

After watching all of Runehammer’s videos about this system, I’m already really interested! The only thing turning me off is that I already have Five Torches Deep and DCC, with no time to play either :P

I just like the phrase "Gnome-like abilities" So gardening, red hat wearing, observing. lol

OSE is a top tier OSR game. In regards to layout, physical construction of the books, pure aesthetics, and rules that just "make sense", they are unparalleled. One thing that I don't think comes up much is I love how _small_ they are. I'm so used to really honkin' big RPG books, but these little guys, especially the individual colored books that form the building blocks of the box set, are so svelte and easy to carry around and bring with you. After being surprised by how compact Savage Worlds' book is, I've been endlessly impressed by small, compact RPG books because of their easy portability. If I had to make any criticisms about it, it would be that my favorite part of the OSR movement is how many of the systems are free or dirt cheap, and OSE can be a _little_ pricey to get everything involved. I suppose if you just stick to the basic books it's not so bad, but I recall putting a lot of money into getting the box set when it came back in stock and then a significant price more to get the extra Advanced books. It was a little rough, but it's one of those things that I'm just glad to have in my back pocket. I think it was worth it but I'd hesitate to recommend OSE as "the entry point" just from a price concern. That said, if cost is a factor and you want to get involved in OSR, I think *Low Fantasy Gaming* is great if you love customizability because their official website has so many supplements, *For Gold and Glory* recreates 2e rather than 1e so it feels just a little bit closer to "modern" DnD in some ways (and I'm just a little biased to like 2e better) and has some really cool historical artwork, and *Maze Rats* is pretty much as rules-light as you can get and the rules are dirt cheap, less than five bucks, and it's made by a dude who loves random tables so you get a ton of that for your money which is super worth it. All of these are free except for Maze Rats which is about two or three bucks on Drive Thru. If you have access to OSE and all of these options as well you should be set for OSR gaming for years to come, and you won't even rely on anyone releasing new content.

With current state of the WoTC this was awesome to see in my feed

Loving OSE! After years of 5e, I'm playing in a Dolmenwood campaign---and having so much fun!

The two best D&D versions right now is Old-School Essentials and Castles & Crusades. Great video!

Also Dolmenwood is legit the most interesting Campaign Setting I have ever seen... Cannot wait for the full book releases for it!

OSE is an absolute blast. It's fantastic. It really puts the fun back into the game, that sense of wonder and danger. The Advanced Fantasy Tome is a great complement to the original Classic Fantasy Tome, which I much prefer. Everything is much more de-powered, and toned down, mechanics are nice and simple, game play is fast. It's great for older players (like me), but also is instantly accessible and refreshing for those who have only experienced more modern iterations of the game. I cannot recommend it enough.

OSE is fantastic, this is all you need to play D&D. The B/X variants are by far my favorite version of the game.

OSE has phenomenal presentation for an OSR game. I have to quibble with myself as to whether or not to buy it. There are a lot of Basic and 1st modules I'd like to run once in my life. I also advocate for the OSR for younger gamers as a resource to see a representation of the roots of the hobby.

Ooookay, I'll need that now too. *laughing* :D THANKS!

More OSE and other OSR focused content please :D

I’ve enjoyed some of the fixes Adventurer Conqueror King did for the thief, plus all the progression rules they have, but honestly, damn the layout of OSE is goated. For pure chaos DCC is not beat. For flavor: Hyperborea 3e. For progression beyond adventure: ACKS. But for layout, ease of use, and clarity: OSE. Hands down. (Or a whitebox clone)

My group and I love OSE. We will never play anything else. It’s compact size and perfectly executed layout make for ease of use at the table, and its simplicity makes everyone a lot more creative and imaginative since we’re not limited by a heavy rules system (we were playing Pathfinder 2E before). I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’m in the process of selling off most of my RPG collection (hundreds of books) because I’m THAT confident that I’ll never play another system again. Great video! I enjoyed hearing your thoughts about OSE!

Thanks for this! Really interesting and great to get your insight and experience as well. I'll be picking up these books for sure.

Love OSE. I never thought I’d be so devoted to a book’s design and layout. I’m excited for the future of Necrotic Gnome’s output which will hopefully include a Gama World-ish redux.

I played Basic D&D in the early 80's. My friends and I quickly switched to AD&D because of the options for other race/class combinations, but we used Basic and Expert material freely with our AD&D characters. I love Old School Essentials and I play it with my grandson. At the age of 8 years old, my grandson has been DMing for his friends and he does it all off-the-cuff improv and the kids, some as young as 6, love it!! I love the nostalgia for me, but also the simplicity and quickness of resolving combats and the ease of getting into advancing the story line.

OSE is brilliant. I learned to play RPG's with B/X back in the early 90's. The father of my best friend at the time had loads of those old D&D books about and he would run us through adventures. It's still fun to grab OSE of the shelf and run through a few dungeons from time to time. Even though my more regular RPG diet is World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness stuff. I use the OSE Classic adventures set instead of the advanced one.

I still prefer moderm rpg. But i got to addimit that OSE is the most well written rpg book in existence.

OSE is amazing! More videos on it please!

Wow! I had sold my 5e books and unsubscribed to most 5e content but then Jordphan pops up with this! If you’re start doing more OSE stuff, I’ll have to sign back up for the ride. Great video (and let’s play on the previous one)!

Thank you for your insights! I use this set of rules for solo playing, together with the OSE solo guide; a great way to revisit the old B and X modules :)

When they do the Companion and Masters set they will bring in dominions where you build an empire and what you need to do it. It expands on the rules from expert. Also they will have weapon mastery, that's when combat gets interesting as the combat will get more technical with the ability to parry and with some weapons disarm your opponent or defend against multiple opponents. And to become a grand master in a weapon type you have to defeat a grand master in that weapon and that is an adventure in itself. There were 5 level of mastery Basic, Skilled, Expert, Master and Grand Master.

I love that you gave the OSR stuff a chancd. A lot of people who start with more modern systems balk at them

It is one of my favorite systems right now, right on top with The Hero's Journey 2nd Edition. What do you think of reviewing Matt Finch's Quick Primer for Old School Gaming? It really gives a nice insight on how to approach those games as DM and player, and has informed all my games ever since (even 5e). There are things that I extrapolate from that, like not rolling ability checks, instead letting the fiction and the choices the characters make dictate the outcome, but even for less radical stances, I think this document (and the Principia Apocrifa) are very helpful

I love how concise those stat blocks are. So much easier to run as a DM. Having the same stats and skills for monsters and players makes no sense to me. As soon as you give an ogre a strength score it has a chance to fail to open a stuck door. Outside of their combat abilities and one or two iconic abilities GMs should just be free to play them as what they are.

Ose is gonna be released here in Brazil but they will combine the two books in one tome it will be The Rules Tome. The publishing company thats realesing the game here in Brazil put a link to this video in their web site, thats how i found your channel.

OSE is great, only version I play now. Always loved race as class and leveling at different experience

great editing

OSE is okay. Very flashy and nice graphics, nothing to complain about except the price. Obviously all the heavy lifting was done by TSR back in the day, all Gavin did was clean it up and make it pretty. I think it was designed to have boutique appeal and look good on a store shelf, which it does. I have the Advanced books and while I appreciate the binding, quality, etc it's not among my favorites to actually play. It's okay to play but I enjoy Basic Fantasy RPG a bit more. And to be honest, none of the imitators have every matched the real thing! I vastly prefer to play AD&D 1e or 2e and only did OSE until a real AD&D game opened up.⚔🏹☠

The more I learn about OSE, the more I like it I started with AD&D 2nd Edition in the 90's

Looking forward to getting these books. Also looking forward to the box sets reprint Kickstarter coming in a few days

With the intro and your voice when you say Jorphdan the ph is silent, it makes it sound that you were about to drop the base! Great review as well!

I will give this a look, I have just started getting into DCC, thanks to your reviews of that system :)

Having enjoyed OSR for awhile now , I have started playing and reading OSE and .. 😳 I love it, its truly the most fantastic system I have ever used.

I too have been taking a crack at crafting a RPG system. I’d love a video about your ideas on the topic.

I played , Moldvey, BECMI and AD&D1 starting in 82. While all OSRs have something to offer, OSE has been the closest to being easily read and capture what I felt when I played 40 years ago.

The Mentzer box sets are the best version of D&D. This is a nice alternative for those that don't have the Mentzer version. The layout and design of OSE is very good.

Great tutorial. Thanks

I've got the OSE box. And I crammed the advanced books into it also. The new Kickstarter will be reprinting the original box and a box for advanced. Arrgh I might have to double dip. Love the books and ease of use.

Thanks

A big drawing point for me is the bullet lists. As I get older (I'm a 55+ D&D guy), I find that reading block text very tedious.

Ohhh this is so exciting, I adore when you go into other systems. Also THAC0 was a bane for my adolescent mind, so having both styles is brilliant xD I do miss the more draining and dangerous rules that old systems used. Where magic was extremely helpful but required investigation, knowledge and preparation to overcome.

Will you doing a video about their campaign setting; Dolmenwood when they release the books, Jorphdan?

It really is fantastic.

The game seems like a really good time. They just started another Kickstarter for some more stuff too

Love ad&d and rifts. The 80s were the best.

I have been getting alot of mileage out of this system. Gave it a couple of tweaks (Thief skills redone to d20, tweaked the AC/ Defense a bit, pretty minimal,) but little needs to be done with it. OSE has an terrific old-fashioned feel to it, and a simplified approach that is both inviting to new players and open enough for experienced I-want-options players. I think k it is telling that what I liked about 5e was its simplified approach ... and that I like this system better. Also ... I have always thought that Thac0 is a great dwarvish name.

OSE advanced is combining AD&D rules FYI.

You used a spear in the example for the bugbear using a weapon, which does 1d6 (1-6) damage, but you said if it uses a spear it does d10+1. Did you mean d6+1?

The percentile roll are like in Call of Cthulhu roll under.

i enjoy ose approach to dnd style games, but i also use asspects of adnd, and dnd5e, us ewhat i think may be useful and ignore what i dont think will be :)

How does OSE compare to DCC? I’m looking for gritty modern take on old school mechanics for a sword and sorcery campaign set in the World of Greyhawk. .

Reformatting, the content is exactly the same as old b/x dnd the red and blue book just reformatted for ease of use as the main issue for the old books was a lot of flipping between books.

Just here to see if I should get the OSE bundle from BundleOfHolding.

People don't like to do simple math these days. It never was an issue but you know how things changed...sometimes for worse lol

Is this like the old dnd basics red box or the version before that? Trying to sell some people on playing this.

Make sense that large dominant animals and reptiles in this case dragons would be sleeping often. Example the lion they are the top predator in the area, they can relax more often conserving energy till the next hunt. Instinctively these large predators do not rampage the entire realm (food supply) in a month, unless provoked by pesky adventurers, they know they are powerful and have earned to be greedy, revelingly lazy and only need to graze their hunting grounds not gorging itself destroying it's hunting ground but will defend its territory till death!

i could never understand why people thought the THACO rules were 'complex' lol

where's the link to the recorded actual play you mentioned?

OSE VS DCC , which do you like better if you had to choose?

I don’t know if you still read these, but I’m looking for a system to play Planescape. Would OSE be a decent option, in your opinion?

Which do you like better DCC or this?

Any chance you'll be taking a look at Mork Borg?

Made the switch to OSE and DCC and will never DM 5e again.

The PH is silent, but the intro music is loud as F

I have been rather tempted to pick up OSE, particularly with their boxed sets currently on Kickstarter. Like many (most?) people, I started my RPG journey with D&D. It was great at the time, but there were certain things that I never liked (I'm looking at you, Vancian Magic) and when I encountered new systems, I jumped ship. But every now and then (more frequently of late), I get a nostalgia-driven urge to play D&D. I dug out my old Rules Cyclopedia (one of the best books they ever made, in my opinion) but couldn't get back into it. Then I came across some modern, light versions, such as Microlite20, Microlite81, and just yesterday, "Here's Some F***in' D&D" which I really like, but they all seem to be missing something. I am torn now between taking some stuff from the Microlite games and adding it to my RC, or just getting OSE. I'm not sure which way I will go.

Of course gnomes weren't PCs in B/X. That's one of the innovations of OSE, along with Half-orcs, Drow, etc. That's my favorite part of OSE Advanced: the B/Xification of the AD&D classes. We've tweaked it a bit further by adding elements from Dungeon Crawl Classics, like criticals and spell mishap.

OSE vs DCC?

Aaaaand already sold out.

I like Dark Dungeons X a bit more but i like OSE as well, specially the modules. OSE modules are good.

B/X is "complicated"? They're a breeze compared to modern games 🤣 And descending AC is much faster and easier than watching your friends adding modifiers on their fingers

looks pretty rough!

I think OSE is great....HOWEVER Lamentations of the Flame Princess is imo a superior game. It's not as popular in the OSR nowadays because of politics, however as a game system it is just brilliant. It is very easy to use, has some incredible design innovations, and the modules are fantastic. Defiantely worth a look!

Two thumbs down for the small form factor books. I want heft and weight in my books.

OSE or DCC

I prefer BFRPG myself

These books look smaller, wrt H*L?