Old School Essentials, Advanced Fantasy Print Review 

They are fantastic. I love them.

Yah, that was my initial purchase plan for OSE. But then the books went out of print for a bit while they did this kickstarter and I figured I’d just pick them up when they went on general sale so I didn’t have to buy so many. I REALLY enjoy the rules and, when my current Basic Fantasy RPG campaign comes to a conclusion I’ll probably give running it a try.

On the cover? I don’t think it’s a special edition.

I..THINK that’s the map I ran my 5e campaign in

@@DMTalesTTRPG Is this map uploaded any where? I'd love to see it.

IF that’s the map then check out some of my earliest videos on how I built my world…This is the first in that series… ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n0e6DdVUYtg.html

I don’t know, but it would be a really good thing to make the publishers understand there’s a market for them!

@@DMTalesTTRPG Thank you for your reply.

They are beautiful. And they are making me rethink waiting for general releases!

@@DMTalesTTRPG keep an eye out,I expect them to do another ks... fingers crossed. The adventure modules are awesome too

OSE has the best layout and design that I’ve seen. And the melding of B/X with Advanced D&D, without breaking the B/X mechanics, is a feat. But I LOVE Basic Fantasy RPG and the community that shepherds it.

Yes. if you get the two volume set I present in this video you have everything from classic fantasy.

Yes, they are discovering that they need to adjust their sales expectations. It’s hard for small shops like this to do large print runs of the quality they go for. If they ever get stuck with a ton of unsold stock they could go under just from printing debt. But a second printing of the advanced books is out, and they are kickstarting a box set of the advanced.

We will see. I’m hoping we can keep some general compatibility between old school, games.

Luckily the OGL controversy is put to rest 😉

Thanks! I run Basic Fantasy RPG and 5e at the moment, but OSE is certainly going to be a future table! I did a full review of OSE Advanced Fantasy over the Summer. Check it out!

@@DMTalesTTRPG awesome! Thank you! I’ll check it out!

I have not. I WANT to, but BFRPG is scratching that itch for now.

Preference is a strange thing, isn’t it? After using the digest size books I find the “full size” books cumbersome. But, that’s just it, it’s nothing more than what I like. I’ll probably play OSE Advanced at some point, but BFRPG and 5e is all I’m running at present.

@@DMTalesTTRPG What someone needs to do to make money off old guys like me is to put out books with 12 point print! I had to break down and start taking my bifocals to game night.

Oh I've been wearing my readers for years. Just kinda resigned to it now. 12pt fount wouldn't be nearly enough w/o them.

Me too!!! Would be nice if there were choices in the format. I like big readable book formats. The digest is fine, but not really for me. I ended up printing the PDF and scaled it to 8.5x11 and looks nice. Just wish it had hard cover. Might have to learn how to make my own book binding lol

I had a friend who learned to do that. He had a blast. I don’t think it’s feasible for them to offer different sizes just from a business standpoint. They won’t just blow the pages up, so it would take another layout, and then it’s another inventory item they need to track. I’m glad you found a solution that works for you, though!

If you have the two “advanced” books you have everything you need to play both flavors of the game. It’s set up very well. And thanks for stopping by!

@@DMTalesTTRPG Thank you for the information!

Enjoy the game!

How come?

@@DMTalesTTRPG I just prefer the normal full book size. I have the PDFs for these and went ahead and printed them on 8.5 x 11 size and scaled it so it would fill the pages and I love it. I emailed the company and they said they had no plans to print in larger format. Kind of a bummer, but I certainly understand, because I'm sure to mass print books is expensive.

Oh yah, particularly how they go about doing it. I didn't think I'd love the digest size as much as I do. The PDF's are so readable on my iPad, too. But preference is a funny thing. We like what we like, often with no other explanation than, "I like it."

I’m impressed with the two Advanced Tomes, that’s for sure.

@@DMTalesTTRPG Yeah! The material and presentation is great. I've mostly used it as a basis for my homebrew but it's really perfect for that.

I can see why you would want that. I kinda think it doesn’t fit OSE’s design philosophy, though, because it would end up repeating so much information. Also, the split race/class is an optional rule so to keep with the overall approach they needed to be separate. Thanks for commenting, and for the compliment! I love it when I get to chat with folks!

I will probably try this out when my Basic Fantasy RPG campaign is over.

Yah, the way the books have been released has been… interesting. There’s a logic to it, I just listened to an interview with the creator, but if you’re jumping in later it’s just… “Wait, what?” Necrotic Gnome did recognize the hiccup, though, and put out a chart. But I have to ask, as annoying as it it to lose the books, how are they in the hand?

@@DMTalesTTRPG They feel really good quality wise, they are perfect when you are running adventures or other OSR games, the other problem is that, aside from losing the smaller books all the time (but thats on me), is also 5 more books I have to sling around when I go playing or GMing to other friends houses, with the rules tome I just had to bring a book, a mat, some cheap miniatures and two dice sets, all things that I could carry in a sling bag, now I have to stuff 5 more books (don't let the small dimensions fools you, they are hefty books) in. I personally wouldn't be against a single, hefty tome that kept everything from basic, advanced and referee, hell I don't understand why they didn't do it in the first place, it would be five hundreds or so pages of digest sure but you would have everything in one book, with no risk of getting to a session to find out that you forgot the advanced spell book (speaking from experience).

In the interview I saw they just felt the all in one tome was too big and was unwieldy. I kinda like the two books. The point of the 5 book set was that you could share the books at the table, and you’d only have the bits you needed for a task. It’s interesting, but I don’t enjoy shuffling materials-I get overwhelmed.

@@DMTalesTTRPG I don't think it would have been that big to be honest, the 3 main books contain a lot of redundant information, by putting them together, it wouldn't have been bigger than 550 pages or so, definitely better than carrying 9 books in a cardboard box. Regarding sharing the books at the table, I think thats just stupid, the only thing players need during the game are cheat sheats, shall the need to check something ever arise, one book is more than enough.

They thought putting the advanced fantasy players and referees tomes together would have been to big for the format. As for sharing books being “stupid.” I mean, the things sold like hot cakes and they’re about to run another kickstarter for new box sets. So, not the way you’d do it, or the way I’d do it, but not “stupid.”

Isn’t Necrotic Gnome based in the UK? I thought Exalted Funeral was their US partner.

oh…they only sell through EF now… that’s rough.

Quite a bit, including the monsters and treasures! There is no overlap in the actual content.

@@DMTalesTTRPG Alright, thank you for your help.

My pleasure.

I was very happy to have gotten the print books before they went on sale! It’s a terrific system.

Baltron Beacon is a great module :)

They are put together really well. I just purchased their first zine as well, and will be reviewing that after it comes in.

The 1e Players Handbook and DMG contained a good amount of cartoon art. The one with the rust monster and the one with the cleric insisting the party talk to the giant lynx are some of my favorite are pieces ever. It’s fine you’re out, it’s a game, but there’s nothing new about cartoony art in a D&D style game. In fact, all ultra gritty art in games is less old school than old school.

The art in the book actually varies quite a lot. I'll admit I was turned off by the goofy and cartoony art pieces at first too. I they are trying to articulate that it's a 'general' system that can vary in tones. It has art for kids, art for adults, grim dark, and light hearted pieces, all iterations of different people's games and worlds. I think the OSE Rules Tome is my favorite OSR book and this is coming from someone who collects Lamentations of the Flame Princess books religiously ;)