Old-School Essentials - Classic Fantasy (OSE) - a review

[kuburanar]

Old-School Essentials (Classic Fantasy) is an absolutely killer clone of Moldvay/Cook/Marsh Basic/Expert, my "home" ruleset.

Pros:
+ Cleanest presentation of any D&D ruleset ever, even better than Moldvay.

+ Serial numbers are not filed off like every other OSR clone.

+ Use B/X rules without the clunky two book split.

+ Functional endpages.

+ Sound justifications given for minor rule changes/additions to B/X.

+ Super high quality hardcover print.

+ A lot of righteously old-school art (Matt Ray, Peter Mullen, Stefan Poag, et al).

Cons:
- A lot of unrighteously new-school art. When I think "Old-School", "Essential", and "Classic Fantasy" I think...
full color full/double page art, multiple times, in every section of the rules, not even old-school in style?
In a clone for a ruleset lauded for its economy and brevity? I wish Necrotic Gnome kept to line art in the interior,
and used larger pieces or single pages only where the layout allows it. Surely it would be a plus if the double-page
pieces were dropped, considering the smaller 6x9 format already pushes the page count way up over B/X. I know I'm
not alone when I say the art is a crucial (one might say essential) part of what defines old-school. It's like,
is this a Nintendo DS guidebook or an 80s TTRPG? (Get off my lawn, etc.)

- Font is roughly 0% old-school. I think the earlier iterations (B/X Essentials) used Souvenir or something close.
Makes sense to choose something neutral, but it would've been an easy way to score old-school points.

- Inclusion of ascending AC. Makes sense considering its popularity, but if you're not of a mind it just takes up space.
Target20 is the way (shout out to delta).

- Monster listings include save values rather than referencing class/level,
i.e. "SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1)" instead of high purple gygaxian "F1".


Overall, OSE is outstandingly great and a dream OSR ruleset.
But it's forced me to realize the importance of the art, the tone.
One can play War Pigs on a ukulele, except the part when the sound starts.
Maybe I'll just glue stick the double-page art together.

Anyone else check these rules out yet?

[hamurai]

I have backed all their projects so far and I'm very happy with the results. I 100% agree with your Pros.

If they put doodle art into it, the new generation would probably not have been as enthusiastic about this project. While I'm not a fan of all the art in the OSE books, I think it still fits the overall tone of old school.

Personally, I'm put off (by now) by hard-to-read pseudo-old school fonts and text walls without page breaks. OSE structures its info very well, I think. And the fact that you can have either a huge tome with everything or several small booklets with parts of the info is a nice idea. In my group, the DM uses the tome, the players share the booklets.

[thomden]

OSE is all around the best retro-clone on just about every level.

I happen to love the art and graphic design, but then I'm a bit biased.

The digest format is cool and all, but I'd love to have OSE in the Rules Cyclopedia size.

[kuburanar]

@ hamurai
I suspect you are totally correct about the enthusiasm for the project.  Not everyone is into the old art.
Moldvay was a foundational ruleset for many, so maybe a truly-old-school OSE would have been big, but surely not as well-received as its current form.
After reading OSE and going back to the TSR rulesets the text walls are notably jarring.
My love for the OSE structure alone dwarfs any and all of the cons I listed.
And it's really cool to have the option of booklets vs. single book. That should've been in the Pro list.

@ thomden
I thought about putting the 6x9 format in the Con list for that reason.
A slightly skinny hardcover RC-size OSE would've been great.
But 6x9 almost evokes the 3LBBs, and takes up less space on the table.

[thomden]

There are times I like the 6x9 size and times I like the Letter size. I think to just sit down and read I prefer the larger. To have at the table the smaller size is handy.

[ampleframework]

Black and white line art did appear often in classic D&D, yes... But the weird insistence that all osr products adhere to early 80's aesthetic baffles me. I enjoy that style of art but there's absolutely nothing wrong with glossy full page color paintings. I think of 2e AD&D and classic Runequest and to me those have a legit old school cred as well. It's also simply more marketable to a wider audience, and if one of the goals of a system like OSE is to sell b/x to a new audience, I'm all for putting more butts in the seat.

[geoffrey]

I have not seen the interior art of OSE, so I can have no opinion of it. What follows are my general observations regarding D&D art:

I'm OK with interior, full-color art of the right sort. I would love to see an old-school D&D clone with full-color Erol Otus art on every single page. But "pose for the camera, adventurer-chic" type art is a big turn-off to me.

[kuburanar]

@ ampleframework
100% re: butts in the seat. Also true about 2E - it was after my time, but still old-school. Like double-page Elmore? - hell yes.

@ geoffrey
If Erol Otus did all the art in OSE I'd be amped. Who could possibly be better suited for the task? To OSE's credit, the adventurer-chic stuff is confined to the double-page pieces, IIRC.

[thomden]

Oct 31, 2020 14:33:31 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

"pose for the camera, adventurer-chic" type art is a big turn-off to me.

This is the only "pose for the camera" piece of fantasy art that I like.