Polling Interest in Simple 3.5 - (DISCARDED)

[Vargr1105]

The funny thing is that US is not a forum that was designed specifically to cater to classic RPGs, or advertized as such. Apart from the chargen rolls and character sheet in the US Dice Roller there is nothing "OSR" about it, it just seems to have spontaneously/organically worked as a cluster of folks interested in older systems and their simulacra.

It is a unique forum in that sense AFAIK. All the other PbP forums I have seen are either completely universal, with a boatload of campaigns being run, or they dedicate themselves purpousefully to one system or family of systems; often being associated with a normal gaming forum dedicated to such systems (another factor absent from UA).


My current opinion (and note I do not have enough empirical data at this time to make it permanent) is that "OSR" games lend themselves better to PbP gaming. But not by design, they were after all created decades before both the computer revolution and the privatization of computer networks.

I do not think it is because they are "easier" (and that term means different things to different people), but they do have a lot less specific rules and less granularity than the average modern game. A lot of stuff is hand-waived or eye-balled and there is a lot more space for in situ interpretation and analysis rather than having to cram up rules in your head or having to stop to read the book.

The effect of this in PbP is tremendous when compared to tabletop gaming. For example: running combat in D20/3.X involves a huge number of factors wholly absent rom older versions of D&D. While these factors may be what attracts someone to the tabletop game, and something that adds only a few seconds of extra time during combat in FtF gamign interactions between the player and GM, in PbP it may translate into extra days of posting back and forth.


Another factor whose effect cannot go unmentioned is the absence of cost. We have had a ton of people arriving here with no real prior experience in older D&D versions or some of the games being played here, and being told "it's free, just go here and download the rules" sure beats having to spend dozens of dollars on a book, ordering and waiting for it to be delivered. It is also much easier to search an OSRIC or LL Pdf for a rule or word than flipping through a physical 300+ or 400+ page rulebook which may or may not have a good index.


Even before you start playing this discrepancy is already felt. You simply cannot compare a game like BD&D or DCC or even Star Wars D6 where rolling up is done in 5 minutes or less, with the bewildering amount of options and decisions that have to be made when creating a Pathfinder PC, for instance. In PbP this means the time between when recruiting starts and play commences in classical and modern systems (and yes, I am blanket-stating here) differs by as much as a week. This also means less investment and makes the demise of a character less of a tragedy.


All these factors I have mentioned, and probably more that I missed, add up to make the classic games in question desirable as a choice for PbP.

Oh, and let us not forget, there are a ton of decades-old modules for these old games out there which have survived the test of time and are still talked about today and show up regularly on "Top X" articles around the net and in zines. It is much more enticing to be invited to play such cult-status adventures as "Ghost Tower of Inverness" or "Giants" than a brand-new Pathfinder module no one really knows anything about.

[AQuebman]

Hi, Oddfellow. Thank you for posting interest, and welcome to the Unseen Servant!

I have moved on to running a Labyrinth Lord game (it is a retro-clone). If you are interested in 3.x style games, try and get in on AQuebman's DCC Campaign. It offers significantly more options than what I was proposing with with the 3.5/Unearthed Arcana generic-class game. Also look into Giant in the Playground (another forum), as it has several 3.X games recruiting nearly daily.

Thanks for the plug Fearghus. Its too bad this never got going I would love to see one up and running and if I wasn't already slammed i'd hop in on it and power game like a maniac 3.5 Rebel!