Does Setting Matter?

    

oh ok, post over then.

Howdy, Farmhands!

    For those of you who are fortunate enough to have avoided my ramblings on social media, may God continue to bless you and yours with sweet ignorance. Today's blogpost will have to temporarily expose you to TTRPG Discourse of the Bluesky variety, I'm afraid. I know, I know, you presumably choose to read blogs to avoid using such distasteful websites. There's still time to click off and go read something else. This preamble is mostly dragging out time for you to make your escape.

    Not terribly long ago, an individual made a series of Skeets (yes, we call them Skeets) about their experience bouncing off of some OSR products. Assuming you're not reading this in some far off future where said service has completely gone dark (which could be as soon as June, the way online services work in the year of our Lord, 2025) here's a link to said thread. This isn't a sub-post in the slightest, by the way, ACoupleOfDrakes is completely within their right to 1. Dislike a product, trend, or genre and 2. Skeet About It As They Will. The sentiment simply became a hot topic for all of five minutes among people term searching the phrase "OSR," and as such, many of us felt the need to post our Opinions. Naturally, I chimed in so I could feel like a special little boy for an hour. 

    To DRASTICALLY paraphrase ACoupleOfDrakes' words to quickly establish What my opinions are in reaction to, here's the key statements that caught my attention.

    One of the things that keeps me from becoming an OSR guy is how few of the worlds presented seem like a place I'd like to spend time exploring. There are notable exceptions....(source)

...I think the thing that makes me most interested in an OSR setting is its ratio of wonder to believability....(source)

...There are a lot of gonzo for the sake of gonzo settings that lose me because I can't imagine what you're supposed to /do/ there.... (source)

...Trying to put into words what divides the things that I like versus the things that I don't in the OSR space and only coming up with a Calvin and Hobbes meme about "OSR that's Maps" and "OSR that's Questions." (source)

1. No.

    I don't personally believe OSR as a genre needs a ton of cohesive settings, nor that picking out a pre-made setting guide is a necessary step in having an OSR-y experience. There's just something about a self-aware DIY elfgame that's charming all on it's own, y'know? You get your combat rules and your equipment lists and that's kind of all the System needs to do. Half the point of an Old School Game is coming up with your own bespoke fantasy land cobbled together from whatever interests you and your table.  You probably have an idea of Where you want to adventure anyway, and you'll purposefully pick modules and beasties that fit that vague impression you have in your mind. The turn to emergent settings being made during play that you see frequently these days (Questions instead of Maps) makes a lot of sense. 

    Sure, theres people wanting their Greyhawks and their Spelljammers and whatnot, but a large swathe of OSR systems are either compatible with those older works out the gate or stupid easy to convert.  Any setting with a travel system worth a damn is basically already an unofficial osr setting, as far as I'm concerned. Get Neverland by Andrew Kolb. I don't care that it's statted for 5e. You can do basic math conversions probably. Make everything a Bear.

2. But Actually, Yes.

    And I'm going to immediately go back on what I Just Said. Remember those charming, self-aware DIY elfgames? A large chunk of "The Setting" is found in what exactly the author puts in the basic rules and equipment lists. If a system features Swords and Spears, the implication inherent in the text is that your game will take place in a world where such weapons are reasonable to have around. Imagine one includes Laser Pistols and Bags of Doritos in the list of gear to buy at character creation - Suddenly, your gaming experience is distinct from most others. This comparison is a little exaggerated for effect, but you get what I mean, right? A system with simple access to Magic Spells implies a different world to one with none at all. The choice to include or exclude options is as much a world-building exercise as it is an editorial one. In this manner, there isn't a single OSR game out there that is truly without it's own Setting, even if the Author never names it. You can blur your eyes and come up with some Proper Nouns for Places that would have that shit in it. You're a smart cookie.

3. -Well, Now That I Think Of It, Only Maybe?

    What I think individuals are ACTUALLY looking for when they go shopping for the perfect setting is a sense of verisimilitude, a through-line of tone from which their idealized fantasy can be extrapolated. In a previous post, I discussed a series of Pamphlets by Seba G.M., which use a Tri-fold to succinctly offer guidelines and mechanics for running Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft using the Knave system. These are purposefully mere snippets of the full setting guides one can find for these worlds, but in their brevity, I still find the flavor I'm looking for to run a game within them. The mechanics they add or change are adjusted so as to create a feeling at the table, instead of just giving you a list of locations and names to memorize. I could look at one of the many grimdark fantasy settings released over the decades, only to find what I desire is closer to the free zine-size booklet version of Mork Borg. I could decide the exact reverse too! I don't need to invest in becoming a Greyhawk Scholar, but if my personal ideal of a Grimdark setting requires that deep an understanding, it might be to my taste.

    All of this is to say, I suppose, that one of my favorite elements of The OSR is the freedom to pick and choose what is necessary for Your Game. Not All games, not The game, just Your game.  

4. So, No. lol 

Until Next Time,

    - Farmer Gadda 

looking for a new OSR setting
ask exalted funeral if the setting is maps or questions
they laugh and say it's a good setting
buy the setting
it's maps

- Ty, Mindstorm Press (source)

Of Dice and Men - Opinions about Rolling in OSR Games

 

Well? They ain't gonna roll themselves. - (Source, no affiliation)

This post and others like it are made possible by members of my Patreon, where you can see Game WIPs and Previews of future blogposts a week early!
Thank you in particular to Backyard Critter for your continued support!

Howdy, Farmhands. 

    I am a newcomer to NSR/POSR game design. I spent the majority of the early 2020's being staunchly and loudly against anything even slightly resembling an elfgame! For all intents and purposes, I "don't go here." Being new to a community slash movement slash corpse that's been fractured into multiple sub-branches of design for about as long as it's exiswted means that I have a lot to catch up on. A barrier I keep bumping into is how much of the OSR's Wisdom is shared in maxims.

Disability in Elfgames - Some Guy's Opinion

 

"The Combat Wheelchair" for dnd 5e by Mark Thompson
The homebrew that launched a thousand piss-baby's tantrums

 

Howdy, Farmhands-

    Twitter is dead. Long live... well, preferably Not-Twitter. 

    The following is what was once a tweet-thread, collated here for better archival and perusal. It is sadly devoid of the interesting input received upon it's posting from other people in disabled spaces, but despite those conversations happening, I still think the content reflects where I am at personally with this topic. As always, my opinions are my own and reflect my life experiences and biases, so please do not take anything here as some sort of attempt at being authoritative on the matter. 

    Until Next Time,

        -Farmer Gadda

"Limitless Heroics" by Wyrmworks Publishing

    A mutual approached me with the request that I write an opinion piece on portraying permanent negative effects for pcs in elfgames. My kneejerk reaction was "This isn't my lane", forgetting my wife is permanently disabled, and I use corrective devices for my personal medical issues. So actually, maybe, hey, I AM in a place to have opinions on Some of this topic.

    The tl;dr is that Fifth Edition, especially with it's Conditions as written, is made with the internal assumption that all PCs are able-bodied, with any change to that status quo being a net loss to playability. Mathematically, you're worse than your peers at actions you're expected to be capable of. -if not completely barred from subsections of equipment. A blind individual, if going by 5e's definition of Blinded, is incapable of casting many spells from the outset. This is not a moral judgement or anything, just a statement that RAW, this is how the system is set up to work. I've read a bunch of "fixes" for this. Guidelines for DMs to band-aid over or ignore wording of specific rules, mechanical Feats and Magic Items to "Nuh-uh" those uncomfortable rules away for the one player who wants to play a disabled pc; but none of it addressed (or could address) the core issue.

    5e, and honestly, most elfgames that primarily function as a combat engine, are games about causing violence and physical harm to an opponent, while mitigating physical harm to the party. Any state that isn't able-bodied is mathematically meant to be avoided lest it lead directly to a fail state. From a Game Design perspective, being disabled or negatively affected by any physical or mental ailment is undesirable, with a decent chunk of the game mechanics explaining how to Un-Do or preemptively avoid certain kinds of ailments. Stripped down to it's core, that Is The Game.

    But saying "Play other games" is not actionable here. The individual WANTS to play an Elfgame, and WANTS to not be shitty about disabled rep in said Elfgames, so what does Gadda suggest trying to meld those two desires into an enjoyable game night with the boys?

    As a -baseline-, everyone at the table needs to be aware of the game's biases. They need to understand that the assumptions made while writing the thing were ableist and racist, and that those decisions are unfortunately inherent to the game they've chosen. There are no quick fixes to be had here. And frankly, anyone who claims you CAN fix those issues with the right amount of homebrew is either drinking the Kool-Aid or trying to sell you something. Sorry, not sorry. Being aware of the assumptions the Game makes will make it easier for both players and GM to be able to recognize when the rules are pushing the fiction into uncomfortable territory, and that awareness will then facilitate discussion in the moment of what the table is willing to do to mitigate that

    "Hey, GM, the mechanics say that my disabled character should not be able to do this, but that feels bad and like I'm not as useful as the rest of the party." or "Hey guys, this game clearly would reward us for taking this uncomfortable action, but this reeks of [insert social issue here]." No table will be able to solve the game for everyone, but no table should be worried about that. The focus should be on the comfort of the people At That Table, In That Moment.

    How would -I- go about it, as a GM? I would assume that, mathematically, a disabled character's "Normal" is on par with an able-bodied character. Conditions that connect to a disability on a flavor level would not be substituted for that disability. If a player wishes to ROLE-PLAY that their disability would negatively affect the NARRATIVE in a scene, I wouldn't hold them back from doing so, but at no point would I attribute a negative roll modifier or bar them from a mechanic for doing so. For Players who intend to role-play the story of an individual OVERCOMING a physical or mental disability, I might offer a small de-buff, but ONLY for that Player, and ONLY if everyone else at the table is comfortable with it. Then I'd dangle an obvious quest with a Feat at the end that "Nuh-uh"s it.

    But also, I just wouldn't use 5e or an associated Elfgame to tell those kinds of stories in the first place, but what can ya do.

The Realms I Never Knew

 

"Elminster's Tale"- Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Howdy, Farmhands- 

    I almost didn't blog this at first, wanting the opinions and input of people more learned than me. After typing out the third paragraph into the group discord, though, I knew this would just save everyone's time. 

    In the same 24 hour period, I encountered two separate author's works of writing that aligned together in a way I can only describe as serendipitous. I want to walk you through my thoughts about them, as something deep and burning within me insists there is something of value to be learned or discussed, if only for my own personal growth as someone with TTRPG opinions.

    Firstly, a rabbit hole of blog links lead me to Dwiz' 2019 4-part series "The Differences in Mystara, Greyhawk, and Forgotten Realms". Though my personal history with Dungeons and Dragons didn't BEGIN until late in the same year this series was posted, I still feel a sense of regret that I missed out on it as it was being released. What's important for my current Thought is this: I've never really needed to engage with Mystara or Greyhawk as settings, outside of passing curiosity with D&D's wacky lore. Dwiz' summarization of them; where they shined and what elements needed to be emphasized to fulfill their fantastical conceits, finally gave me a moment to appreciate how "D&D" evolved as a set of fantasy worlds alongside it's mechanical changes. This post was ALSO where I finally understood what the Forgotten Realms as a setting was before it became the de-facto sandbox for every cool dnd concept ever, as Fifth edition expanded and stuffed more and more ideas into it's confines. Having begun my experience with the game in the latter half of 5E's life cycle meant I had only ever seen it as a generic fantasy-land, where all the greatest hits were played.

    The second work I found, "Knaves of the Realms" by Seba G. M., took the kindling provided by Dwiz and ignited it into a flame. This series of Tri-fold pamplets, a GM and Player facing duo for running Ben Milton's Knave in the Forgotten Realms setting, and "Knaves in the Mist", a similar supplement for GMs running Knave in Ravenloft, does something incredibly similar to Dwiz's blogposts, in a smaller, more gameable way. They begin with something of a mission statement, declaring which Four or Five key concepts the setting should enforce, and follow with tables and procedures to facilitate a game that makes use of those concepts; even if the system being used wasn't written with those settings in mind.

    And this just

    Fascinates me.

    But it also somewhat concerns me, on a personal level. I am on the record as having significantly negative opinions about Fifth edition D&D, D&D as a brand, and Wizards of the Coast as a company- but a good amount of my vitriol is aimed specifically at the "Just Homebrew It" mentality that has seen countless players become laser focused on only ever playing a game system that isn't designed to support the genres they would like it to. Sure, Knave is a considerably smaller and less mechanically complex system compared to 5e, but Knaves of the Realms rebalances the existing magic system wholly. Is there not an obvious contradiction between my loud and public distaste of a practice and my sudden appreciation of it here? If I were cheeky, I'd say No; but I genuinely don't know.

    The distillation of the themes and tone of a fantasy setting down to their basic elements, limiting choices or emulating and promoting the choices of entire other games intrigues me and by highlighting them in their respective works, both Dwiz and Seba manage to endear me to these settings where their official releases have failed to. And my mind races with the possibilities of similar works being made that distill other settings down for use with... Who knows? I've seen conversions of stats and items to allow Vaults of Vaarn to be played with Cairn; but nothing that explains to me why that should excite me. Starfinder is continually marketed to me as THE sci-fi ttrpg, but I don't understand it's lore anymore than I understand actual rocket science. Is there something in this concept that could go beyond specifically adapting these two official D&D settings into this specific OSR game system, something that promotes why these fantasy worlds became remembered so fondly outside the game they were created to sell?

    I have no fucking idea.

    Until next time,

        -Farmer Gadda