Neoclassical Geek Revival 2e Basic Rules: OSR DnD Game Review 

I read it as Neoclassical Greek Revival for a second.

Games like this are what the OSR should be about: the _spirit_ of classic games, not just a rehashing of the old systems like so many retroclones.

Gamemastered a campaign with the previous edition. This game has a lot of interesting stuff in it. But I can understand them cleaning the rules up with a "basic" edition. There is a lot to absorb when trying the game for the first time. But after some early hiccups, it ran pretty good and was easy on me as GM.

Great to get your take on this! Many of the ideas sound awesome and applicable across homebrewed OSR type systems. I love the fool, the miracles, the calm-on edge-reckless mechanics!

This was a good review. Some interesting rules.

Excellent review. After listening to this I snapped up the combined PDF and Print on Demand for less than £8 and very happy with it. It's my RPG darling of the season. I concur it's full of really interesting rules to import to other games, much of it looks very modular and I'm very interested in running it as a whole system. I absolutely love Initiative and 2 action system, Calm-On Edge-Reckless, Piety and the whole Stealth conflict and how it ties to light and equipment. I had vaguely attempted to start to write my own slightly-crunchy OSR system and what I felt it needed, but this pretty much ticks all the boxes of what I wanted the system to do and literally has written up systems I was vaguely chewing over. I think it very much hits the same vibe with Knave, where the choice of going adventuring with light equipment vs heavy, clunky, clanky weapons and armour is arguably more character defining than the class itself. The preview advanced rules that are accessible on Zzarchov's Patreon expand on it in pretty awesome ways with more detailed combat manoeuvres, equipment rules, monster builder. Likewise the backlog of monthly zines for NGR has some great stuff in there. As criticism I do agree with 10:49 about the organisation and forward references of mechanics. To me the worst offender is your Luck Die and starting Luck which is tucked away at the end of character gen' on page 34. (- I *think* this D6 and 6 starting Luck Points for most starting 1st level characters. Modified by Unlikely Hero, Fop, Gambler Fool class powers or Mary Sue character trait) I *think* there isn't anything else I'm genuinely unsure how it works Likewise, it's very lean and trim at 120 pages given the amount of ground the rules cover. Possibly a bit too lean. Some of it feels a bit jammed in. Most noticeably it's entirely lacking in an example character or summaries to demonstrate character generation. Also lacking pre-generated characters and any NPC/Monster stat blocks or monster builder. There is a Monster Builder in the Rampaging Monster mini-supplement and the preview Advanced rules but I can see it being a bit disappointing for someone. Mostly though if you just have a mix of NPCs built vaguely like PCs who are 0th level and the exceptional ones having levels and classes and play around with the having spells, equipment and size modifiers then you’ll have plenty to work with. Overall I think it's a great book and well worth it. My current project is trying to work out how best to squeeze in the Maze Rats spell generation into NGR.

30:20 "If you want to buy a sword that's like buying an assault rifle." This has to be one of the most USA things I've ever heard.

Have played in a short campaign of the previous version of this. It's logical, reasonable, full of procedures and works like a beautifully-designed Swiss watch BUT you'd better be playing in a group that reads and remembers the whole thing. I've read many games and NGR always struck me as the best modern iteration of OSR rules, BUT it's not for the casual.

Definitely thinking about picking this up when I can justify spending on it; I'm not sure if I'd ever end up running a proper game of the system, but if nothing else it clearly has *great* ideas worth pilfering. lol

ggnore have a couple sessions on their channel/podcast so far. I got a good impression from those, seems like the gritty OSR I enjoy.

Good review. Lots of interesting rule ideas

I like all the references like "Luck be a Lady" and "Rodents of Unusual Size".

It sounds like there's an acre of interesting mechanics and ideas in this setting, but I fear the game itself might be too crunchy, for my tastes. Still, gems in that mine.

It looks very fiddly to me, with lots of concurrent pieces and mechanics that do similar things but work in different ways, and a stark preference for proliferation and complication over simplification. There are some bits that look interesting, though.

for Al! and cause this is my favorite ttrpg channel... And its the best hobby for story obsessed creative.

This is like a cool mashup of 5e, osr, and fate, with fiasco relationships thrown in. I'm intrigued. And it's only $5! Definitely worth picking up for me.

@Questing Beast A favor to ask.. by any chance could you sort your video folder with 145 videos into two sections? One for campaigns and additions and the other for the actual rule sets. I'm new to the rpg scene and have been looking to grow my collection of rpgs that interest me so that I may run them for my friends. I've picked up Maze Rats, Knave, and a few others that you've reviewed, but going through all of those videos to find one I'd like to learn about is quite exhausting. Love your work, Regards, Tyler

Ben says that things like social encounters are given more mechanics in this game than in other OSR games so that players have more control over the situations. But meanwhile, one of the superior points of the OSR is supposed to be minimal mechanics emphasizing rulings over rules so that players have more control over the situations. Which is it?

You should do a review on the Alarms and Journeys magazine

Hold that thought... I need to headbang!

I misunderstood this to be D&D 2nd edition rules. This sounds interesting but I put it into the same category as Dungeon Crawl Classics - more advanced OSR rules. I have nothing against this system but I prefer something rules light where I don’t need to keep referring to the rule book. I like DCC but the constant rolling on different tables with different dice gets a bit much at times.

CORRECTION: The NGR Basic Rulebook is available NOW in print or PDF: bit.ly/NGR2eBasic GGNORE has a playtest of NGR if you want to hear the mechanics in action. Part 1: bit.ly/GGNORENGR1 Part 2: bit.ly/GGNORENGR2 The Advanced Rulebook (which will collect the basic and advanced rules together in one volume) will be kickstarted later this year. I'll add a link to that here when it goes live.

27:00 okay but really though, how slow is combat with these rules? Anyone here try it? It sounds awesome but time consuming

There is a lot in the first edition that is not well explained and makes the game nearly impossible to run. I joined the Game Designer's Patreon, and he was not very willing to respond to questions, so I eventually quit trying to get help and clarification of the rules and put the game away. For some odd reason, I ordered this 2nd edition, and am hoping that it clears things up and explains things better, otherwise I will have wasted my money twice.

I'll never understand how some games have so much time, care and attention poured into 99% of it to then just be given a lame, un-thematic, throw-away name that detracts from the entire game. Or adds such counter-thematic terminology as Shroedinger's Character.

Good review, never heard of this. Its... unique. Too fiddly. Am not a fan of anything that encourages "the MVP gets more rewards" crap, tongue-in-cheek or not.

Perhaps they should use some other picture for the cover... not the one that ever single Russian knows since school... EDIT: Ok, they also use an illustration from Don Quixote? Man, it's like using an actual illustration done for Sherlock Holmes in a Call of Cthulhu book. Really not a fan of the art they chose. I assume that it's temporary and they won't keep Don Quixote forever

From an ethics standpoint, calling anything sponsored by the product's creator a "review" is a big problem. There's a huge conflict of interest. In the future maybe refrain from calling these types of sponsored videos a review and instead call it an overview or a product showcase.

Came here thinking this was "neoclassical Greek revival" and now I'm dissapointed... 😥